As with most programming classes, you really should learn "logic" before you bother with languages. You can know a language inside and out but if you dont know how to come up with the proper logic to make it do what you want, then you wont be getting anything done. As much as i hate to admit it, i was always forced to turn in a paper version along with the code showing that we actually thought out the logic rather than just sitting down and trying to code straight away.