How do you study coding (Python in this case)

Python
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I´m fairly new to learning to code so I was wondering how everyone learns?

Do you consistently take notes? Read other books? Watch multiple lecturers (others than Mosh)?
Just copy the code Mosh is writing while he explains?

In my case I write the code Mosh is writing most of the time, but I´ve learned that he will change it to improve it so I usually wait for the video to end. Also I´m learning from the Python for Everyone course to get a better grasp on the theory.
I feel like I should take some notes but I´m not sure.

What is your method? And what do you recommend and what do you NOT recommend?

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With programming it really is one of those things that you learn by doing. So be active in your learning, if you are just sitting watching lectures you wont learn anything imo.

So take good notes, create a .py file for each lecture and code along. Do the exercises and remember programming is a marathon not a sprint. Rushing through material is going to come back and bite you so going slower is ok as you dont have to go back and relearn things so it will save you time in the long run

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Hey @Mardor9429 ,

I like @lucidlear 's suggestion. You must learn by doing. You must build something as you learn. Here’s how I’ve been doing it.

I first enrolled in Mosh’s Python course in February 2023 (About 4 months ago). I first would watch a lesson without coding along, just to understand the concept he was describing, then I would play it again from the start, this time coding along, sometimes even coding ahead of him because I had already grasped the concept from the first watch.

Then I got to the Django section of the course and did the same thing - watching a lesson to understand, then watching it again while coding along.

Now, the thing about me is that from the moment I decided I want to learn programming, I had two specific app ideas that I wanted to build. I already knew exactly what I want them to do and exactly how I want them to look.

Of course, in order to build my apps, I naturally decided to learn Django because it takes much of the manual Pyhton tasks away from you. It abstracts most of the repetitive code that you will find in almost every app.

So, after finishing the course, and now being equipped with basic Python knowledge, I became more specific about the tasks I was working on in Python. For example:

  • I decided I want to know how to set up a basic Django app from scratch
  • After that, the app needed to have a login, logout, and sign-up feature. So I went digging for that info and learned how to build a Django authentication system.
  • Then, I needed to allow users to upload files and save them to the database, so I had to learn that as well.
  • I needed to learn how to make my web pages responsive, so I had to learn about how to integrate Tailwind CSS in my Django app
  • etc

These are just examples of more specific tasks that I gave myself. As opposed to learning to code by coding along and building someone else’s app, I was learning by building my own app’s features.

AI tools like ChatGPT and Phind AI have been instrumental in helping me really understand how to create Django apps step-by-step.

I hope you now see how you can learn Python programming much faster by working on your own web app’s features, after learning and understanding the core Python concepts by first watching a lesson and then rewatching it while coding along.

All the best in your Python journey, @Mardor9429.

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Also try to start reading and understanding documentation like the django, python docs. You will need to do this in your career and build small projects along the way to take what you learned out for a spin

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Everyone here is correct and it’s their way of learning. I like to make this short and sweet.

I use onenote to add screenshots and text to the different topics. pause the video and write the code, If you don’t understand part of the code, I’d be looking it up on Google or stackoverflow would be a big help for programmers.