Do First Year CS Students know Programming?

Methodology

It is important to understand that just because a survey of 52 people suggests that 60% of first year
students

Using Google Forms I designed a 5 question survey aimed at answering a simple question ‘Do first year
students know Programming’, and adding some context to whatever conclusion may arise. I shared the
Google form to my friends asking them to share them on What Sapp. Thus, it should be clear that my
sample is of those who frequently check their phones, are on whatsapp, and are interested in filling
surveys. It may be that a specific group(by gender, A level, Inter) is inclined towards not filling the
survey. I have no evidence to suggest that a certain group of people have not filled this form. Thus I
make an assumption
PLAN

Do First Year Computer Science Students know Programming?

Methods

Purpose

At a Glance

Each Variable in depth

Conclusion for this

Conclusion holistically for social research using surveys

Do First Year CS Students know Programming?
I am a student at the NUCES, Karachi and am pursuing a bachelor’s degree in computer science. I am interested in being able to
gather information, to better our understanding and propose data driven solutions. This article is not necessarily proposing a
solution to some social problem, but rather showcasing what a simple 4 questions and 52 people can contribute to.

Coming from a background of A levels, already knowing basic programming, I was very curious to find
out whether or not my peers were in a similar position, and presumably at an advantage (fair or unfair is a
different question altogether).

To satisfy my curiosity and to step foot into the territory of social research, I formulated a set of 4
questions producing a Google form. After sharing it through WhatsApp to students in my own class (at
FAST) and to LUMS (through a good friend), I managed to get 52 responses in a matter of a week or two.
In using WhatsApp to distribute my survey, it becomes evident that my sample now consists of students
with an access to WhatsApp which I have assumed is all my peers (the targeted audience).

After the responses I used SQL to query through the data. The following is my analysis.

If I were to pick peer at random, what is the likelihood they’d know programming?

56% of respondents (23 peers) knew programming, while 44% (23 peers) did not. It seems that most of
the people entering computer science already know programming which could be a factor as to why they
chose it. However, could there be a factor as to why some students do not know programming prior to
pursuing a degree in computer science? I found one factor, and a rather unexpected disparity which I
found interesting enough to share.

If I were to pick a person at random, does their Sex give an indication for whether or not they
know programming?

There were 30% (16/52) females and 70% (36/52) males in the sample of respondents. Interestingly, and I
would certainly say unexpectedly 63% (11/16) females knew programming while only 52% (19/36) males
claimed they did. The reason this was quite interesting at first is that there really shouldn’t be a disparity
here. The only I could think of is that women are more interested in programming than men as they
already know programming. However, as I looked into the background of students, it became very clear
why women were more likely to know programming in the first year than men.

If I were to pick a person at random, does their School Education Background have an effect on
their likelihood of knowing programming?

67% (22/33) A level students know programming while only 33% (6/18) inter students know
programming. A levels students will be more likely to already know what they are learning in class as
opposed to their Inter peers. I have to admit though that my next question was faulted and I wasn’t able to
get the number of A level students who studied CS, or the number of Inter studied CS. I was only able to
know that the overall number of students who studied CS before. I also learnt that 5% of respondents
learned programming on their own which is definitely a commendable achievement. This is evident by
the fact that 50% of respondents never studied CS and 55% of correspondents knew programming.
Understanding that doing A levels increases chances of knowing programming as many more A levels
schools offer CS than Inter schools. Admittedly though I do not have actual data to back this claim, but, it
is common knowledge, and I like to point out that this is an important assumption that I have made. It
should also be noted that the nature of social research or for that matter scientific research is really
dependant on the assumption. If any assumption is proved otherwise or rejected, the rest of the argument
follows.

Coming back to our findings that more females (63% of women) know programming than males (52% of
men), I found that 71% of females (11/16) were from A levels whereas only 61% of males (22/36) could
say the same. Miraculously, there is a 10% difference between percentage of A levels respondents by
gender and also a 10% difference between the 53% of males and 63% of females that knew programming.
I have thus concluded that the disparity between first year male and female CS students knowing
programming is due to the fact that more females were from an A levels background.

So What?

There are many important and thought provoking questions that have arose and would need further
investigation. Why do A levels students know programming than Inter students? Why are more females
in CS from A levels and not Inter? Could the fact that A levels students are likely to know programming
beforehand be a factor in grades and affect later years? All very good questions, all good mysteries that I
hope will be solved one day.

On the other hand, I’d also hope that you have questions about this entire survey business. Why is this
guy conducting research? Why has he asked these specific questions? Why did he group students by their
gender? Again, all rather great questions that hopefully, you can answer one day.

I hope (again), that you enjoyed this survey and learned something from this survey. I am simply
interested in social research. Just an another way of saying I am interested in ‘people’ and solving
‘mysteries’. I would like to point out, that this survey (collecting and analysing data in a specific way)
was perhaps not to just solve a problem, but, showcasing what mysteries asking interesting questions can
create and allowing you be a part of this journey. It is too often that we engage in social research, for
marketers, educators, and the government in our everyday life, but, I for one certainly do not always see
what they may be learning from me. I want to understand how we can use social data to come to logical
conclusion, both to simply understand society and to solve problems.

A Gift Before You Go!

I added a bonus question “Why do you find programming interesting?” that was not compulsory and had
22 responses (42% of respondents). I would assume they are all passionate about the field of computers
and technology; and many of their responses resonated with my own motivation for coming into this
field. Hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did. (P.S. only 31% of girls responded to the extended
question while 47% of the boys did…Hmm, I will leave this one to you guys)

"It’s always been something I’ve been passionate about as it allows me to reflect changes on the screen
realtime”
"An exciting number of things can be done with just a lil coding and logic. Now that's a lot of power
lol !!!"

"Yes it's quite interesting."

"I just love what you can do with logic and understanding and problems but more importantly I love that
exhilarating feeling when you finally solve a problem and the correct output generates. I love that the
screen in front of me can be devolved into switches that are either on or off. I love the complexity of the
hardware it all runs on. I love computers."

"I like to think of possible ways to solve a problem. Basically logical problem solving is my interest."

"Coding is interesting as I enjoys the logic building process."

"It's very practical to use"

"It's a useful skill to know in today's technology oriented world."

"programming is an essential skill in today's world that runs by technology. it's interesting to see how
humans are able to advance in this field to make the work easier."

"Because Programming builds a mental framework for solving problems."

"Its fun to do and gives you a way to create anything you like."

"Who doesn't like technical aspects pf their chosen fields?"

"The possibilities of computer programs and what they can do are endless. It's based around problem
solving which ia an important skill to have."

"Have been doing it for 5 years now. Was really free tbh and it was a good distraction ...don't know when
it became my interest instead."

"Opens mind, literally."

"Its totally practical work we don't have to read books to learn programming it's creative i feel happy
when i make a program and it's working infront of me"

"Because of it’s higher scope and multiple varities."

"Helps to build logical problem solving"

"I like problem solving and the freedom that comes with coding and how there's multiple answers to a
given question

"Apart from programming being an essential skill that is becoming a prerequisite to any field, it is also
fun. It gives you the power to control a system and the ofcourse the satisfaction that comes with it."

"Because i love building things and programming is sort of building or construction ."

"Magic results"
A Deeper Look into the Data

Here’s the data I collected. You can also contact me for further information on my email
shayaandanishansari003@gmail.com. I would be glad to share an excel sheet with individual responses
and perhaps some help in downloading and using SQL for querying the data. I also have a YouTube
Channel which will hopefully be a log of my journey in social research. Thanks a lot for reading and have
a nice day or good night!

Do First Year CS Students know Programming?

I am a student at the NUCES, Karachi and am pursuing a bachelor’s degree in computer

science. I am interested in being able to gather information, to better our understanding and
propose data-driven solutions. This article is not necessarily proposing a solution to some social
problem, but rather showcasing what a simple 4 questions and 52 people can contribute to.
Coming from a background of A levels, and already knowing basic programming, I was very
curious to find out whether or not my peers were in a similar position, and presumably at an
advantage (fair or unfair is a different question altogether).

To satisfy my curiosity and to step foot into the territory of social research, I formulated a set of
4 questions producing a Google form. After sharing it through WhatsApp with students in my
own class (at FAST) and to LUMS (through a good friend), I managed to get 52 responses in a
matter of a week or two. In using WhatsApp to distribute my survey, it becomes evident that my
sample now consists of students with access to WhatsApp which I have assumed is all my peers
(the targeted audience).

After the responses, I used SQL to query the data. The following is my analysis.

If I were to pick a peer at random, what is the likelihood they’d know programming?

56% of respondents (23 peers) knew programming, while 44% (23 peers) did not. It seems that
most of the people entering computer science already know programming which could be a
factor as to why they chose it. However, could there be a factor as to why some students do not
know programming prior to pursuing a degree in computer science? I found one actual factor and
also a rather unexpected disparity that was interesting enough to share.

If I were to pick a person randomly, does their Sex indicate whether or not they know
programming?

There were 30% (16/52) females and 70% (36/52) males in the sample of respondents.
Interestingly, and I would certainly say unexpectedly 63% of females (11/16) knew
programming while only 52% of males (19/36) claimed they did. The reason this was quite
interesting at first is that there really shouldn’t be a disparity here. All students chose to pursue a
bachelor's degree in computer science (at least that is my assumption) and there certainly aren’t
programming courses catered towards one gender that I know of. The only reason I could think
of is that women are more interested in programming compared to their male counterparts as
more female students know programming than men and thus must have made an effort to learn.
However, as I looked into the background of students, it became very clear why women were
more likely to know programming in the first year than men.

If I were to pick a person at random, does their School Education Background have an
effect on their likelihood of knowing programming?

67% (22/33) A level students know programming while only 33% (6/18) inter students know
programming. A levels students will be more likely to know already what they are learning in
class as opposed to their Inter peers. I have to admit though that my next question was faulted
and I wasn’t able to get the number of A level students who studied CS, or the number of Inter
studied CS. I was only able to know the overall number of students who studied CS before. I also
learnt that 5% of respondents learned programming on their own which is definitely a
commendable achievement. This is evident by the fact that 50% of respondents never studied CS
and 55% of correspondents knew programming.
Understanding that doing A levels increases chances of knowing programming as many more A
levels schools offer CS than Inter schools. Admittedly though I do not have actual data to back
this claim, but, it is common knowledge, and I like to point out that this is an important
assumption that I have made. It should also be noted that the nature of social research or for that
matter scientific research is really dependent on the assumption. If any assumption is proved
otherwise or rejected, the rest of the argument follows.

Coming back to our findings that more females (63% of women) know programming than males
(52% of men), I found that 71% of females (11/16) were from A levels whereas only 61% of
males (22/36) could say the same. Miraculously, there is a 10% difference between the
percentage of A levels respondents by gender and also a 10% difference between the 53% of
males and 63% of females that knew programming. I have thus concluded that the disparity
between first year male and female CS students knowing programming is due to the fact that
more females were from an A levels background.

So What?

There are many important and thought-provoking questions that have arisen and would need
further investigation. Why do A levels students know programming than Inter students? Why are
more females in CS from A levels and not Inter? Could the fact that A levels students are likely
to know programming beforehand be a factor in grades and affect later years? All very good
questions, all good mysteries that I hope will be solved one day.

On the other hand, I’d also hope that you have questions about this entire survey business. Why
is this guy conducting research? Why has he asked these specific questions? Why did he group
students by their gender? Again, all rather great questions that hopefully, you can answer one
day.

I hope (again), that you enjoyed this survey and learned something from this survey. I am simply
interested in social research. Just another way of saying I am interested in ‘people’ and solving
‘mysteries’. I would like to point out, that this survey (collecting and analysing data in a specific
way) was perhaps not to just solve a problem, but, to showcase what mysteries asking interesting
questions can create and allow you to be a part of this journey. It is too often that we engage in
social research, for marketers, educators, and the government in our everyday life, but, I for one
certainly do not always see what they may be learning from me. I want to understand how we
can use social data to come to a logical conclusion, both to simply understand society and to
solve problems.

A Gift Before You Go!

I added a bonus question “Why do you find programming interesting?” that was not compulsory
and had 22 responses (42% of respondents). I would assume they are all passionate about the
field of computers and technology; many of their responses resonated with my own motivation
for coming into this field. Hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did. (P.S. only 31% of girls
responded to the extended question while 47% of the boys did…Hmm, I will leave this one to
you guys)
“It’s always been something I’ve been passionate about as it allows me to reflect changes on the
screen realtime”

“An exciting number of things can be done with just a lil coding and logic. Now that’s a lot of
power lol !!!”

“Yes it’s quite interesting.”

“I just love what you can do with logic and understanding and problems but more importantly I
love that exhilarating feeling when you finally solve a problem and the correct output generates.
I love that the screen in front of me can be devolved into switches that are either on or off. I love
the complexity of the hardware it all runs on. I love computers.”

“I like to think of possible ways to solve a problem. Basically logical problem solving is my
interest.”

“Coding is interesting as I enjoys the logic building process.”

“It’s very practical to use”

“It’s a useful skill to know in today’s technology oriented world.”

“programming is an essential skill in today’s world that runs by technology. it’s interesting to see
how humans are able to advance in this field to make the work easier.”

“Because Programming builds a mental framework for solving problems.”

“Its fun to do and gives you a way to create anything you like.”

“Who doesn’t like technical aspects pf their chosen fields?”

“The possibilities of computer programs and what they can do are endless. It’s based around
problem solving which ia an important skill to have.”

“Have been doing it for 5 years now. Was really free tbh and it was a good distraction …don’t
know when it became my interest instead.”

“Opens mind, literally.”

“Its totally practical work we don’t have to read books to learn programming it’s creative i feel
happy when i make a program and it’s working infront of me”

“Because of it’s higher scope and multiple varities.”

“Helps to build logical problem solving”

“I like problem solving and the freedom that comes with coding and how there’s multiple
answers to a given question

“Apart from programming being an essential skill that is becoming a prerequisite to any field, it
is also fun. It gives you the power to control a system and the ofcourse the satisfaction that
comes with it.”

“Because i love building things and programming is sort of building or construction .”

“Magic results”

A Deeper Look into the Data

Here’s the data I collected. You can also contact me for further information on my email
shayaandanishansari003@gmail.com. I would be glad to share an excel sheet with individual
responses and perhaps some help in downloading and using SQL for querying the data. I also
have a YouTube Channel which will hopefully be a log of my journey in social research. Thanks
a lot for reading and have a nice day or good night!