My son wants to switch into engineering and needs to take CSCE 111, 112 or 206. Which course is easier? Is it better to take this at a CC? Blinn only offers 206 equivalent. I would appreciate any input out there.

Well, CSCE 112 doesn't exist anymore. A few years ago, that course number is what is today CSCE 121. I've never known anyone who has taken 111, but it looks like that would be the easiest of the three.

I graduated with a CS degree and only had to take 121. Based on my experiences and what I've heard from other students who took 206 and assuming 112 is referring to 121:
(Easiest -> Hardest) 111, 206, 112(121?).

Again, that's my $0.02. Many non-CS majors take 206 to fulfill their degree plan requirements, so he would at least be in good company.

Sorry. I gave the wrong course numbers. It is 110, 111 and 206.

Ah, then choose between 110 (Pascal) and 111 (Java). 206 is really on another level. I think both courses would be pretty basic. Java is more widely used, so it may be the better choice just to be able to say you have experience programming in that language, if nothing else.

My $0.02.

Here are a couple of links to course websites for past semesters. You can at least get an idea of what topics they covered and what the lab assignments were.

CSCE 110: http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/~michael/pascal/resources/
CSCE 111: http://courses.cs.tamu.edu/hurley/cpsc111/index.html

hth

I took 206 last semester. It starts off easy enough with the pretty easy as heck basic programs, then it just takes off. Usually lab assignments were ahead of what was being taught in lecture so there was a lot of learning on your own. Exam averages were pretty low, so there was a curve. I ended up with a B by getting the 'average' on exams but bombing the final. I had professor Leyk, don't know how much the experience differs with other profs.

The 206 equivalent at Blinn is offered during the summer. However, the one professor that teaches the class has a very bad overall review on myedu.com. Only 3% of his students make an A but what was most alarming was that 49% of the students withdraw from the class. Is that a pretty good indication to stay away from that course at Blinn?

Yeah, that doesn't sound too promising IMO.

Pascal is a language that is mostly used to teach first-time programmers the basics of programming logic, like how to write for loops, if-else types of things. Java on the other hand is a widely used language, which incorporates far more than Pascal, and is thus a little more complex. But it is a great language to know. So I would say the choice is determined by how comfortable your son is with programming and logic. My engineering friends (all grad students) do their work in FORTRAN, C or C++, not Java or Pascal, but I think a solid foundation in either will help him should he need to learn another language in the future.

Fortran

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Fortran

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all i use for my research.