Out of curiosity, for beginners who don’t have any experience in coding, how many exercises did you solve yourself successfully?
I just finished the JavaScript Part 1 course. I’m only able to solve maybe 1 or 2 exercises successfully by myself. Even those exercises that Mosh said it’s easy, very simple, I’m not able to solve.
I’m wondering if it is because I can’t think like a developer or if this is quite common for beginners?
Questions for veterans, any advice for improving? Or if it is better to quit now and try another programming language? Or develop other skill sets?
If the problem is need more practices, any recommended website or learning materials?
I did not take that JS course but I can confirm you that with even a bit of coding experience there are “simple” exercises I could not solve.
Many skilful people forgot how it was in the beginning.
They did that million of times and it became second nature to them. You as a learner saw these things for the 1st time. Moreover I understand you don’t have prior programming knowledge. This means you have more to learn than anyone already introduced to another language.
It is part of the learning process. Just do them again and again until you can do them from memory but you also need to understand what you’re coding.
Actually understanding what you code help to memorise.
As a learner from video courses one thing I can’t recommend enough is taking notes.
It is WAY easier to scan your notes than try to find a piece of information in videos. Really.
The best bet is markdown because it has all you need to simply add code snippets. These forums kinda use markdown BTW.
Do apply your newly acquired knowledge on actual projects should they be small that doesn’t matter much.
You may also learn about data structures and algorithmic.
I have no particular resource in mind but I just found a blog post on the topic.
All this is a lengthy process. Don’t rush it. Go your pace.
Victory in education is not achieved by being perfect. It is achieved by those willing to struggle through the material without quitting.
If you find an exercise too difficult, start trying to probe that difficulty to find out what more you need to learn. In the learning process, the journey itself is the reward.
Maybe your issue is less about the material itself and more about learning how to use the debugging tools at your disposal. Reading error messages and understanding them is a skill all of its own. So is code tracing (ie. stepping through your code). Learning how to write tests is also a useful strategy because you can test your assumptions about the code.
Lastly, you are not alone. After working hard to figure out what is blocking your progress, you can ask for others to help you. This is another way to learn.
Whatever you do, please do not give up. Better to find more resources than to give up.
This makes me feel a lot better myself seeing someone else struggling too, i felt the same regarding the exercises. I feel a lot of what Mosh has explained so far has been simple to understand, but when it comes to him asking me to complete his exercises i get stuck, although i understand his solutions entirely.
As you’re constantly learning you’ll likely get into that struggling situation as you constantly need to solve problems.
Of course the more experience chances are the less you’ll struggle. But that’s a matter of years.
Coding is not easy. I’m using Mosh’s teachings to supplement my online Bootcamp. I have not tried the exercises here yet. However, I can tell you that I am not at the stage where I can solve exercises on my own. I’ve been learning Javascript for about 6 months now. Javascript is not easy. I do Codewars.com every day. After 20 minutes of working on a solution I look at the answer and then learn what I should have done and study the parts I didn’t know. It takes a lot of time and a lot of practice to get good at coding. Give yourself more time and more practice before getting discouraged or giving up.
I also do CodeWars but less regularly. That said I spend hours in a problem if not days. How long is not that important as soon as I know I did try hard enough. This is problem dependant.
I used to spend hours also. Here is what my instructor told me after I told him I was spending days on 1 problem: STOP! Spend 20 minutes on the problem. After that look at the solution. Then study the javascript methods in the solution. Move on. In a week come back and do the codewar again. Start at 8 kyu on one area (ex arrays) and do all of them using the above methods until you master the javascript behind each exercise. Then move on. I could not solve 1 problem on my own two months ago. I can solve 7 kyu now without looking at the solution on many. It is a process and it takes time and consistency. You’ll never be able to solve all problems without help. Even pros have to look stuff up all the time.
That’s just the way I am. But it makes sense to go on after a while.
I don’t do them too often but I got to 6 kyu.
Currently it proposes me 5 or 4 kyuu assignements.
True this starts to feel a bit hard.
Though I love one liners, I hardly ever succeed at getting an answer that comply to it. Then when I look the answers I see how much some people are savage with their techs.
Honestly, your answer is better because it is more readable. Using fancier math is not helpful if it is not trivial to understand. You could still get a one-liner by extracting methods for getting hours, minutes, and second, but who cares. Yours looks fine to me.
I just started and I restarted serveral times. I erased everything to start over. I am new…I’m the rookie at the wheel. Time is everything. That’s why I’m not in a rush. I was looking imto ASU until I had a computer problem. I spent 2 weekends trying to fix a Simple problem. So I thought.
In the process of reading so many documents because I refuse to quit. I stumbled on a video from the beginning and basics. I immediately couldn’t stop watching. I was trying to install windows 10 from windows 8.1.
I erased my computer 3 times and Google thought I was a hacker. Lol. But a passage and my direction changed. I focused on Mr Mosh and I got my Lenovo laptop back. Thx Best Buy Geek squad. No cost. Silly me.
But just don’t give up. If I went to college. It’s pass or fail. I signed up for a year and I know this will be for life. I bought a Odyssey G9 49" screen and life just because so much easier.
So rookie for life. Just one day at a time with you all.
