Rushing through the learning process is not going to save you time in the long run; you need to master the fundamentals before mastering the next abstraction. I was trying to rush through the learning process. This week’s post is more focused on the mental approach trying to learn while having a full-time job. It’s tough. Debating returning to school for a CS degree while self teaching, already graduated from college with an unrelated degree. Going back and forth on the pros and cons of returning to school for a CS degree.
Something that I was originally doing for a long time was watching a tutorial without typing the code. Seems self explanatory but at least for me, refrain from even copy and pasting. Type it all out.
Also, console.log every single function (on freeCodeCamp). Mess around with the code and build on every example. Not only will it help you debug your code, but I found it was helpful thinking about the result and what you are passing into the function. There’s 111 on the first JavaScript section, don’t fly through it.
Another post I’ve found helpful about returning to difficult questions and memorizing how to complete them: learning how to learn, the power of recalling and spaced repetition. Eat up the hard questions.
I’ve been learning by starting with FCC – moving to Edabit for JavaScript practice and then W3 schools for HTML / CSS practice. Like I said earlier I felt I was moving too quickly through HTML / CSS. Going to continue to do these practice examples as I move to different certs to make sure I am not forgetting.
Workflow so far has been:
- FCC course with videos explaining complex sections. Even if I understand it I'll watch the videos. This helps me memorize topics; you can hear the way he verbalizes how he approaches the solution, writing the code and logging to the console.
- W3 school to practice HTML / CSS
- Edabit to practice JavaScript
- During the day when slow at work, watching the CS50 course via EDX. Instructor is phenomenal
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