Many Computer Science and Engineering curricula contain core modules on computer programming and programming languages. An increasing number of institutions choose to introduce undergraduates to programming through object oriented languages. As part of a longitudinal phenomenographic study we have set out to investigate the understanding of programming concepts that first year undergraduate students have when learning to program and think in the object oriented paradigm.The conceptions that students have developed on what learning to program really means and their perception of program correctness are explored; providing an insight into the levels of abstraction and complexity of the learners' understanding. Our findings suggest that the way students experience learning to program is related to their perception of what constitutes program correctness.