Well this point is very relevant too: > When I actually had a programming problem I was interested in solving, I did great. If you're interested in actually d

Well this point is very relevant too: > When I actually had a programming problem I was interested in solving, I did great. If you're interested in actually doing something with the knowledge you're trying to attain, you'll likely work far harder to attain it. I suspect a large percentage of developers probably got into the field as kids because they wanted to do things like create a website about a topic they were interested in or create mods for the game they were playing at the moment. That end goal probably drove them far more than any course or professor ever could. And I suspect that's one reason there's a divide between those that seem to 'get' it in school and uni and those that don't; the former are okay just learning/working for the sake of it, whereas the latter are like "why are we doing this? How is this going to help me?"