i want to stop being a beginner

Yeah so I've taken a few c++ classes at college, up to data structures. But just because I know how to write a bs-tree doesn't mean im an EXPERT PROGRAMMER just yet. The most complicated program I've written so far is one that solves the Towers of Hanoi by brute force. I still consider myself a beginner-level programmer.

Does anyone have any tips on how to improve my skill? Like a large one-man project that will teach me how to write & manage larger programs? Whenever I got the book store and look at the programming sections everything is either TEACH YOURSELF JAVA IN 24 HOURS or like START C++ FOR THE MENTALLY RETARDED. Everything is aimed at beginners but I want to move on.

protips?

>>2
We wrote it recursively first, then did it the hard way to learn about and test stacks/queues/lists.

>>10
It is indeed my goal to one day be a professional programmer. Yes I have been reading up on my book and a few things on the net, but what I have a problem with is implementing my knowledge. In class the teacher gives us a problem that is designed to demonstrate something we learned but i've taken all the programming classes and still don't feel like I could write a real application because so far all i've written is tiny driver programs to show that i correctly wrote a tree and things like that.

really what im looking for is an intermediate-level project that will allow me to use what i know in a meaningful way. I feel that the vast majority of resources out there are for people who are new to programming and I feel like they no longer apply to me.

I used C++ as an example in my post because I have used that most recently but I have also been tought perl and PHP with MySQL.