In Chapter 1, you should focus on understanding what can be stored in memory, how a compiler works, and the steps in software engineering, and most importantly, your first C program. The rest of the chapters cover programming in C. Each lesson in these chapters begins with a short introduction to the lesson’s source code. Use the introduction to guide you through the important points of the code. Then read the code and the annotations in the boxes. You can even try executing the code and observe how the program behaves. After doing this, make sure that you begin to understand the major topics being covered in the lesson. Then read the Explanation and do the True-False and short answer exercises. If you do not do well on the exercises, re-visit the lesson to clear any queries.

When you feel comfortable with the lessons in a chapter, begin the Application Programs. The purpose of these is to illustrate the thought processes that you would typically go through when you write your programs and to show practical uses of C. You will find as you write your own programs that you will be addressing many of the same issues raised in the Application Programs. In these, focus on learning the methodology and understanding the logic of each program. Remember, the logical flow is very important in programming. A statement can be correct in terms of syntax but totally wrong logically. Grasping the why and how of each Application Program, gives you the confidence to write your own program. Do not just read, but try out the programs, make changes to experiment variations, these help to crystallize what you have gained from the lessons. You will be able to explain the various behaviours of a program. Use this knowledge in writing the programs assigned by your instructor.