Any tips on learning Java? (High school level?)

I am going to be taking an AP Computer Science course, since I am quite interesting in computers but I am wondering whether the course will be too much for me to handle.
I decided I would like to learn a bit of Java before I started the course so any tips?

Thanks :-).

Question

Any tips on learning Java? (High school level?)

I am going to be taking an AP Computer Science course, since I am quite interesting in computers but I am wondering whether the course will be too much for me to handle. 
I decided I would like to learn a bit of Java before I started the course so any tips?

Thanks :-).

anonymous · Answer

Different schools teach different languages. When I was in my junior High school we were taught Java and BlueJ environment, but I switched my school for some reason & in the new school they were teaching c++ so you better find out which language your AP CS course is focused on. In any case if the course focuses on OOP structures, then either Java or C++ would give you a good grasp about how things work.

anonymous · Answer

I confirmed which language I will be learning today with my counselor, she said it is Java. :3
I don't really know much about OOP language, I normally mess around in markup languages, like HTML, and CSS.
When you say to focuses on OOP structures what do you mean? Also can you provide me with resources on the internet that go into detail about this stuff?

Thanks.

anonymous · Answer

Java, C++ Python etc all these are OOPS based languages. OOP stands for Object Oriented Programing Structure. 
Since you confirmed its Java, then the best way for you to start practicing it is with the BlueJ environment which is well suited for beginners.

anonymous · Answer

I assume you are referring to: http://www.bluej.org/ Well I'll check it out soon, thanks for your advice :-).

rsmith6559 · Answer

Markup languages are concerned with making things look pretty.  As such, they're relatively simple.  Programming is using data structures and algorithms to solve problems.  Since the task is more complex, the languages are more complex.

There's basically two methodologies for programming.  The oldest  basically regards the data structures belonging to the algorithms.  In the past 20 years Object Orientated Programming has become both popular, and in some cases mandatory.  OOP regards the algorithms as belonging to the data structures.  C++ became popular in the latter 1980s because it extended C to include OOP.  The Java language is really kind of a second version of C++.  When Java came out around 1995, it was radically OOP.  In Java, everything is an object.

Hopefully, this will whet your appetite for your Java course.