Starting uni next month ... any books ppl recommend?

[joki]

Hi, Im starting at university next month and will be doing a Bsc in networking with security at UCE in Birmingham. I'm just starting to get a little nervous as I am a mature student and have been out of education for many years (apart from an access course i completed last year which I dont consider to be education!)

Are there any good web sites that people could direct me to for some pre course reading as I feel that I could struggle a little in the first year.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Sone]

why not try and get in contact with the uni and buy some of the recommened books for the modules?

 

[bad_ass_neil]

yea speak to the module leaders they will recommend some books, they wont be cheap though you will be looking at £30-£40 each and they can be 1-3 for each module and sometimes more!

you wont need all of them normally just 1 each and there will be some in the library as well.

good luck

 

[Truszy]

I'm studying BSc Computer Science and there are about 3 books recommended for every module. With 5 or 6 modules per semester you will see it's not practical or indeed necessary to buy them all.

It will help you to get some of them from the library from time to time but you will find one or two books might be very useful throughout your course. I found this especially with Big Java and Head First Design Patterns as Java programming modules run throughout the 3 years.

Like the other guys said, get the recommended text lists from your lecturers and ask which ones they would really recommend buying.

Best way to find out what you can read up online is to read the module descriptions for your course as that will contain a list of topics which you can look up without too much trouble. Just keep in mind that you might be taught things differently in uni too what information you find on the internets.

 

[Bakedgoods]

Get some good security websites in your favourites, you can never be too up to date with the latest security news (try securityfocus).

Possibly think about some security forums, although you will see many, many posts from script kiddies asking retarded questions there's usually some knowledgeable guys about and there's some good topics/debates to be read or taken part in.

I'm hoping to eventually end up in a network security role