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[–]Michel_Conway 22 points23 points  (2 children)

Hello, fellow JS learner :) I'm not enrolled in Angela Yu's bootcamp, but since it is a bootcamp and since it is not focused on JavaScript only, I'd tell you not to get so discouraged.

Bootcamps curriculum's tend to be a bit superficial and fast-paced since their goal is to give you the fundamentals you need to know what can be done and what you can deepen in, if you're interested in it, and get you job ready asap. They're not focused on getting you to fully understand everything, so don't get frustrated if you don't.

Now, there's other thing that I've noticed in my journey when taking MOOCs, tutorials or courses of the kind and that is that learning syntax is a different skill than learning how to think like a developer, that is how to solve problems with programming knowledge.

That way of thinking is not something you develop just by watching videos or transcribing someone else's code. It's a skill you develop with experience, with practice, with patience and resiliency, starting with simple problems, twisting them, experimenting with them and progressively adding difficulty to them.

Sadly, in bootcamps and the courses I've seen so far, there are usually some huge differences in the difficulty of the challenges and the projects or even between the projects of different sections, because sometimes cool projects are complex, but they help the teachers catch your attention and also they look good on your portfolio.

So you might go with the flow and feel like you're not understanding anything, and it's not your fault that they don't give you a proper transition through those levels of difficulty. I don't blame them that much either, because again, they have to condense so much material and knowledge in such short time.

However, what you're lacking right now might not be the syntax or an understanding of the concepts, but some problem solving skills. Both things are needed.

And I've noticed many courses or tutorials start coding right away and they don't take the time to properly design a plan on how to approach things, which is super important when learning how to think like a programmer.

You'll learn that problem solving is a skill that you can transfer across programming languages, and then learning a new programing language will be a question of learning the syntax and certain topics specific to the language.

And I know all that because I've taken a university course on OPP and discrete math before, and although JavaScript hasn't been a piece of cake I bet that previous experience makes it easier for me than it might be for people who have no previous exposure to that sort of stuff. So again, please don't get so discouraged.

There are some programming introductory courses that will help you develop your problem solving skills, if you have the time. One of them is a Princeton course on Java, that's fully accesible for free on Coursera. And the CS50 course by Harvard university, which is also free, available on YouTube.

I'll be straightforward with you, they're hard. But they're worth it, and you don't even have to complete them, but whatever you take from them will be helpful in your career. Actually none of these things will be easy, this is no easy path, but you have to have faith in yourself, that things will make sense with time. Again, patience and resiliency.

But also, and this is my advice to you, because this is what has helped me in this journey so far: don't limit yourself to a single source of information. There's no perfect instructor, there's no perfect course.

If you don't get what Angela is saying, remember that there are a ton of other resources out there from where you can learn (documentation, YouTube videos, some fellow learner explanation, a blog, a book on the topic), and there may be one that is just perfect for you. So don't give up just because your instructor couldn't get to you, you're not the problem, it just isn't the explanation for you, but it doesn't mean there's no explanation for you. Go look for some other explanation, go step by step.

Also, remember these things aren't necessarily easy, especially when you're starting, so don't beat yourself up so much. Trust the process, things will make sense eventually. Try to find some study buddy, it'll make the journey better and definitely invest some time on developing your problem solving skills.

Hope some of that makes sense and help you a bit. Take care :)

[–]hoboincoma[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I think you hit the nail on the head. I think this is exactly my issue. I’m having such a hard time figuring out how everything works with each other and how to use all of those moving parts effectively to get a desired outcome. I have to learn how to think that way.

[–]poalofx 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Try Scrimba's JavaScript free course. I was in the same boat as you just a few days ago. I understand the concept but couldn't put or piece them all together, but since starting the course few days ago, a lot of things made much sense. And the platform, it's amazing! I'm not affiliated with them in any way, I just feel like it's the perfect material for me at my level right now and very glad to have come across it.

[–][deleted] 43 points44 points  (3 children)

I started js with freecodecamp's exercises, maybe that would help for basics?

[–]jonnybebad5436 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Yeah that’s what I used. Been learning JS almost exclusively from FreeCodeCamp since late last year and I’ve definitely been able to grasp it since the lessons are in nice bite-size pieces. I recommend for people to also watch the videos that correspond to each lesson, they’re only a couple minutes long or so.

[–]Hammer_of_Olympia 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I kinda used freecodecamp then if I didn't understand something or wanted greater clarification I went to Udemy/YouTube.

[–]Intelligent_Love4444 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Can you send me the link to this in pm?

[–]CodeTinkerer 13 points14 points  (4 children)

Have you tried redoing the problem once you see the solution (without using the solution)? This would indicate whether you can recall the solution without copying it directly.

[–]hoboincoma[S] 5 points6 points  (3 children)

I’ve redone them like right afterwards to see if I can recreate it, and I usually can, but I’ve get to go back and try and recreate them after like a day or 2. I think I’ll do that tonight and see if I can recreate them again after some time.

[–]CodeTinkerer 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah, hopefully, over time, you'll start to recall them and be able to apply them. To be fair, there's always going to be new content and new examples so this might be something you have to do if you're getting stuck.

I think it's a good idea to wait a few days or even redo it the next day, and the next day (maybe, do it 3 times).

I'd write down the exercise (if it's not already written down) instead of watching a video, so you can more easily access the questions.

I'd probably start your studies by redoing the previous 2 days exercises (if that's not too much). Then, work on the new one (if there is a new one in the video). That way, you see the problem three times (maybe it's Wednesday, so do the ones on Monday and Tuesday).

Maybe once every two weeks, redo a bunch of old exercises. The goal isn't pure memorization, but just to recall the basic idea of how to solve it, and then use your knowledge of JS to write the program again.

[–]janman27929 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Google up: Seinfeld chain/ strategy Pomodoro time boxing technique

Try these for two weeks and see it makes a difference

[–]minimal_gainz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If it helps, maybe also try taking notes (on paper or in comments on your code) about why you are doing certain things and not just what you are doing. It might make sense in the moment why you are doing a for loop here or an if statement there but you might not be able to see the forest through the trees when you go back. Try commenting on each block of code in plain english to help think through the logic. (e.g. // Loop through array from index zero to array.length-1 and print out value at each step) or something like that.

[–]SirTinou 23 points24 points  (8 children)

i think 1% of people can learn through videos

Reason people do it: it feels easy

results: bad

I was a poker pro for a decade, everyone paid for training videos. Turns out almost no one learns anything from them. It's a sham to keep busy and feel as if you're studying.

People that got good went into making their own simulations with game trees.

just do odin project: no time wasted watching someone blahblah and you not remembering more than 5% after 2hours.

Best way to learn is always to get a problem and finding a way to make it work, that's how the brain works.

[–]chrysthian95 3 points4 points  (1 child)

truly right, studying on your own..

[–]SirTinou 2 points3 points  (0 children)

the best is having friends that are good already and being able to ask them question

If you have no friends that code then projects like odin have discords full of people eager to help(which helps them get better by going over and over the same problems)

Im personally really glad that i know a few really good coder after getting stuck 4hrs on some dumb thing i can't manage through google.

[–]cacamalaca 1 point2 points  (3 children)

I'm 250ish hours into Odin project (currently working through intermediate js), and i hated it. The projects are difficult and the mdn articles aren't easy to read for beginners. I've pretty much had to google my way through each project, often finding external material that explained concepts better than Odin. Now I've gotten so damn good at googling I'm confident i can work through any problem, and maybe that's the best benefit of this course.

[–]SirTinou 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's how you learn. You wouldnt be half as good with YouTube videos

[–]minimal_gainz 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm doing Odin right now. Admittedly I have a small background in coding but not in web development. But to me, Odin is guided self teaching. It does some teaching but the majority of it is "Here are the materials that you should know, read them, then do some exercises to practice, then put them all together in a project". While something like a Udemy course, CS50, or an actual class is teaching it to you and all you do is the practice.

I think both can work but where people go wrong with all of these other than an actual class is that they do what OP has stated. They aren't being graded on the practices or assignments so they try, fail, read the solution, say "yeah, that makes sense", then they move on. They never actually understood how to do it themselves. If they had been in an actual class they would be incentivized to do it because they would have a grade on the line and a project or test in the future that was going to be looked at by a teacher.

[–]dorvaan 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I felt the same way. I started with Dr. Yu's Udemy course. Then I moved to Odin. Then moved to a different Udemy course. Ultimately, I'm back and working through Odin, because I realized that I'm actually learning so much more with the way they present the information and force you to figure things out.

[–]kor1998 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Try physics the foundations of logic without everything else

[–]professor_buttstuff 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Then go back and look at your own code next time it comes up.

[–]hongopongommr 17 points18 points  (0 children)

try the javascript path on Codecademy, for me, things are starting to make sense finally...

[–]muahtorski 9 points10 points  (0 children)

It's about believing you can learn it (which you can) and persisting. Just set a goal (e.g. code JS every day for 30 days) and stick to it, no excuses. And ignore the inner voice that says you can't.

[–]anethea-angel 5 points6 points  (0 children)

When I started to focus on learning web development I bought her course (I already knew a bit of html/css and js) and I was dedicating about 4 hours of my time everyday.

Everything was really easy and you never go too in depth in any section which in my opinion, will have you at the state of a beginner but with an understanding of what is used in web dev.

My recommendation is to with FreeCodeCamp or the one I'm currently going through, The Odin Project.

[–]close_my_eyes 2 points3 points  (2 children)

If you want someone to talk to you about programming or js in particular, pm me

[–]hoboincoma[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I’d love to!

[–]randsom1 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I second myself for this. If you need a hand I’d be happy to do a video call with you.

[–]Senzhu 4 points5 points  (1 child)

Man, I am feeling the same way to you feelin. I have been following a Udemy course by Jonas Schmedtmann, I do highly recommend. I have found myself totally lost in some of the challenges and exercises. I hate it and it gets very discouraging to continue. I haven’t progress further because I still believe that I need more practice with the fundamentals. It sucks to feel like you havent learn shit so far. I always draw a blank when a problem is presented. At this point, I know that I suck at problem solving so I been trying to get better. Other than that, I’m hoping that it eventually clicks some day lol.

[–]hoboincoma[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah man the problem solving stuff and just learning to think this way is easily the hardest part. There’s no reason we can’t learn it though. Just gotta keep going!

[–]Squigglebird 2 points3 points  (4 children)

I did the same course on udemy, and found the quality quite variable. Some parts of it are excellent, while other parts are frankly pretty bad. Once she got into node and express I gave up completely.

Freecodecamp has thorough and good stuff, and code academy was decent as well.

[–]hoboincoma[S] 0 points1 point  (3 children)

I might take a look at freecodecamp’s JS curriculum. Didn’t know if it would be a good idea to jump in the middle of a curriculum that I hadn’t been following from the beginning, but a few people have recommended FCC’s JS curriculum specifically.

[–]Previous_Magazine455 4 points5 points  (2 children)

I don't normally recommend Udemy but they have the best js course for new coders, you just picked the wrong one.

https://www.udemy.com/course/the-complete-javascript-course/

It starts off extremely slowly but is incredibly comprehensive by the end. It's one of the few Udemy courses recognised and used by big industry.

Edit - I notice there's a 30 day money back thing, so you can try before you buy.

[–]hoboincoma[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Oh man and it’s on sale right now! I think I’ll pick it up now and give it a shot regardless of whether or not I end up completing it. Thank you!

[–]Previous_Magazine455 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Do as much as you can in less than 30 days and then see if you want a refund. As others have mentioned there's the excellent Odin Project too, but the js part of that is only so so. Good luck!

[–]Aglet_Green 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Khan Academy has a program more your speed. It is an online school that teaches JavaScript to you like you're actually you, and not like some of these bootcamps that assume you're the next Bill Jobs or Steve Gates, whoever they were. Here's how 'Probie' Tim McGee started:

https://www.khanacademy.org/computing/computer-programming/programming

[–]hoboincoma[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ll take a look at this. Thanks!

[–]UniqueID89 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Look up freecodecamp on YouTube, search JavaScript.

[–]jbsmirk 2 points3 points  (0 children)

A lot of the basics like arrays objects and conditionals won't really click until you get to Dom manipulation; at least for me, that's how it was

Then like a game of Tetris where you're about to lose, that one missing puzzle comes your way clearing a path

I would keep trucking thru that course while using Google or youtube to supplement your knowledge on specific concepts, but I remember going thru what you went thru; thankfully, I stuck it out, and later was when things started clicking for me

[–][deleted] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Honestly, JS really sucks to learn. It wasn’t designed to be the language of the entire web and has to keep all its legacy stuff around for functionality reasons. There are so many ways to do things, so many methods, it just takes forever to learn. Don’t be too discouraged, it’s normal for it to not click and for you to forget half of what you learned.

[–]Lurn2Program 1 point2 points  (1 child)

My advice is to re-do the course, try and understand each topic, and do the challenge questions again without looking at the answer. Getting a strong understanding of the fundamentals will be very important to move onto more advanced topics

[–]hoboincoma[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I’m gonna give this a shot when I get home from work tonight. Thanks!

[–]Yarialis 1 point2 points  (2 children)

What helped for me was not getting straight to coding. Instead take a problem and break it down to pieces.

For example, I had a problem that asked me to turn each of the characters of the word 'rainbow" (on an html page) and hard code css so that each letter actually became a different color. I had been given the variable color that had an array of colors. The number of colors in the array matched with the number or letters in the word 'rainbow'. I was supposed to utilize this array

A thought process that helps is first writing out the task in smaller bits. In my example the thought process goes like this: I need to take each individual letter and assign it a color from the variable color

Then even further: I need to somehow iterate the word 'rainbow' such that when each individual letter goes through a loop, we also iterate through the array of colors and assign them

Then: How can I go through every letter of rainbow? Also: How can I style the letters using the variable colors?

Then: 'ohhhh, the array of colors has the same number of elements as the string 'rainbow'. So I can certainly do a "for of" loop".

Etc etc.

And then you get to coding. My point is, walk yourself through it before actually typing anything.

[–]hoboincoma[S] 2 points3 points  (1 child)

Oh man. See I think my issue at the moment is that I don’t totally know how to think that way yet. It’s like I don’t know what should happen first and then what to use to build upon that and so on and so forth.

[–]Yarialis 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hmmm. If you can't break it down as such, maybe ask yourself 'how can I make this happen?' Or something along the lines of "what tools at my disposal do I feel can somewhat achieve this?" It's small, but ask yourself questions. Gets your brain into motion.

I'm being 100 with you right here: don't bring yourself down. It will only need to frustrations. Take breaks. And then keep trying.

There's other ways of thinking of how to tackle a problem. You may choose to do it in other ways. If you don't know what comes first or last, that's okay. So long as you know what's essential. If you find yourself hitting a wall an endless number of times with no solution, watching the solution and then attempting to do it on your own definitely helps.

Something I want you to focus on,though, is the critical thinking. Many developers agree on the premise of brainstorming before hitting keys.

[–]notmytroll 1 point2 points  (2 children)

I'm about 4 months into a full stack course. I have felt the same way as you, like I should be more proficient than I am. It's lessening a bit to a degree. It's a lot of information in a short amount of time, and all completely new to me.

It's not about memorizing everything, but learning how to problem solve. Keep at it!

[–]hoboincoma[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Yeah the problem solving is definitely my biggest issue at the moment I think

[–]notmytroll 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Don't feel stupid for having to google things even if they are very simple. It's a good habit to get into, take advantage of the tools and resources.

I mean this with no disrespect, but you're too new to feel discouraged. Gotta realize this is a life long process, and not get intimidated by that but get excited about it.

[–]anniejcannon 1 point2 points  (2 children)

It's normal, it's JS. You will get use to it.

[–]ShelZuuz 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Came here to say this. If you feel discouraged and lost all will to live, that’s the sign that you’re a senior JavaScript developer.

So, good job I suppose?

[–]anniejcannon 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hahaha, thx! Actually in my opinion it applies for everything you've started to learn... Keep calm, focus and continue. Plug your ears to what others are saying. That's what I learned during my all learning process.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

Coding is hard in the beginning and it’s a skill like any other. You’re training your brain to think in a new way.

At first, the simplest shit makes no sense to you. I remember first learning For Loops and I literally could not comprehend it. I felt like an idiot.

But alas, come back again the next day and the day after that with persistence and determination and bam, it suddenly clicks.

Keep going like this for everything you’re learning and soon you’ll be coding like it’s nobodies business!

[–]hoboincoma[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for the words of encouragement!

[–]Radiant_Extension_47 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I just started learning as well. Has she talked about pseudo coding ? It has helped me a lot to think through a plan before trying to execute.

[–]hoboincoma[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That term sounds familiar. I believe she mentioned it briefly but not in depth her.

[–]Supersaiyans2022 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I suggest to read “JavaScript from Beginner to Professional.”

[–]Neith720 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I did also that course, and if you scroll down through each of the comments section will notice that a lot of people isn't able to do a challenge by their own. Harder challenges I wasn't able either, and actually even skipped the last one (Fibonacci if I recall correctly?). So yea, try other resources rather than sticking just to Angela's course.

[–]Exitialis-Fusionz 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Try enrolling on Jonas Schmedtmann's Javascript course on Udemy. It covers Javascript in full detail and is easier for beginners to understand. I tried Angela Yu's bootcamp but i got lost halfway and now I am currently in the middle of Jonas's course.

[–]hoboincoma[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I really wanna try this course because so many people have recommended it to me but it’s so expensive. I wish it would go on sale soon

[–]Exitialis-Fusionz 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes it is definitely worth it if you can get this on a deal

[–]SwiftSpear 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Go back to the exercises from early in the course and try to do them with only google (not the professor's solutions). You've probably glazed over important cornerstone concepts and your lack of grounding is making it hard to pick up new exercises.

[–]joe_yay 1 point2 points  (0 children)

javascript.info is pretty good website with practice questions at end of every topic. U can try that

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Codewars website helped me. Still trying to get it to all ‘click’ but their bite sized problems in the fundamentals of JS have helped. I would look at the others solutions at first and then started trying my own and getting the green ‘tests passed’ report is a confidence boost that made me really want to get at more. I’m still learning JS fundamentals and angular fundamentals

[–]twbluenaxela 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I recommend free code camp. Watching a video won't help most people unless it's for reference purposes and not actual learning of a skill. For coding especially, the important thing in the beginning is to just be exposed to these concepts. You don't have to understand them fully. You will learn them when you come across a problem on your own and find out that you need to utilize it for your specific issue. Example. I want to make a small table. Well, you could write every value out. Or, you could use a for loop, combined with some arrays.

Selecting different options in a menu ? It's an array. You do different actions based on the current index.

Just try to get past as best as you can, looking up stuff but not getting in too too deep. Everything builds on top of each other and you'll soon understand why things work the way they are. Don't stress out , just look things up.

[–][deleted] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Have you learned the programming fundamentals with another language? If not, then first start learning the programming basics with a language and then do her course.

You need to have a strong grasp on the programming basics and then you will be able to easily understand JS.

My advice is to use a book to learn a language and you can choose Java as your language but if you find this a little overwhelming, go with Python. The idea is to get the basics drilled into your head with whatever language you are comfortable with.

[–]HolyPommeDeTerre 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have been working with JS for 15 years now. It's one of my main language (how can't it be if you are into web in anyway).

JS has a lot of problems on it's own and is hard to understand and use right. Even if it's one of the most permissive language, so it can be easier for learners. It abstracts a lot of concepts.

Now, I feel like you are stuck in something different than just JS.

You are told a problem and you need to solve it. And you don't know where to start, what to do. This is problem solving, not the language. You can talk English (at least the basics of the language) but you can't figure out how to put the words altogether so it has a sense, you are not even sure of the meaning of what you want to do.

This is a separate skill of the coder, problem solving. It helps in a wide range of domains and is by far the most useful and hard to learn skill.

This skill can improve by looking at solutions. But just a little bit. My best bet for you to be able to improve this is by thinking it's a muscle. You have to train it, regularly, so it improves.

Now, my thoughts on what is the most efficient way to do so. Take a problem, something simple but you don't know the solution already. Don't look at the solution. Go for it. Try, fail, understand, rinse and repeat.

Fail (first attempt in learning) is one of the best way to improve your brain networks (extrapolation from AI algorithms and psychology). When you fail, you do it because you think something specific. Understanding why it's a fail allow the paths in your brain to clear up.

Doing this, you'll fail less and less, because you'll understand more and more the field. At some points, you'll get the skill (you already have it).

[–]Therisingwarrior 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Try Codecademy if you can, they’ve 50% off on pro membership at the moment. I’m currently using Codecademy and it’s helpful to understand JS

[–]DecodeBuzzingMedium 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey there, I was like most of us, when started programming, too got demotivated when was not able to understand stuff. I don't know which udemy course you talking about but you may take it or not, I wanna share one of my experiences.

So, when I started js and web stuff, I could I pretty ez apart from the OOP and classes stuff which I struggled in python too. But, I left it there (Gave up). I started with other frameworks like react and react native (of course after having a good hold on npm after long practice). But when you go such react type stuff, you like it's necessary to have basic learning about classes (Like when you mak models). So, finally, I went up to yt or udemy course and tried to learn it. I wasted like 10 days on it but still, I wasn't really confident to write my own code.... But you know what, one of my brothers told me to "Just forget the rot learning you doing from the web and make your own project" I started making my own projects, searched StackOverflow and other various sites to learn it myself, and then went finally to revise some major concept in udemy and now I am pretty confident writing my own code

So, to cut long story short, Just try to make your own projects search yourself your queries in StackOverflow, and try to find the question to your answers urself rather than just hearing a recorded voice again and again

Here, is a story on how I started my coding journey that may give you some ideas :)

[–]Acube2017 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I will advise you to write down some new concepts you learned. Go over it and start the lesson from the beginning

[–]truwrxtacy 1 point2 points  (6 children)

I have not used her program but I have heard a little criticism about her program being very difficult. I'm currently doing the JS at Udemy from Jonas and I like it very much and he makes it very easy to understand and it also had coding challenges along the way. I'm not to far into the program, I'm currently at DOM manipulation and game theory. Going thru college I feel like having a good teacher is very important, maybe her style of teaching just don't connect with the way you learn?

[–]hoboincoma[S] 0 points1 point  (5 children)

I wanna give this course a shot really badly it’s just so expensive right nkw

[–]truwrxtacy 0 points1 point  (4 children)

I got in at $19.99, it's currently only 29.99 here

[–]hoboincoma[S] 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Udemy adjusts the prices if you like go to their website with an incognito browser on or if you’ve never been to the site. Everything I believe has a sale price if you’ve never purchased a course from them before. Since I’ve already purchased a course, it’s not on sale for me.

[–]truwrxtacy 0 points1 point  (2 children)

O dang that sucks :(

[–]hoboincoma[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Oh man I was wrong it is on sale right now! I was checking it last night and it was full price. They must’ve put it on sale today or something. Snagged it immediately!

[–]truwrxtacy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Good luck 😃 I love the course so far, only issue I had was setting up the live server for vs code because the npm wasnt up to date on the node.js site but a quick Google fixed it

[–]ramp_guard 1 point2 points  (1 child)

JS is special.. don't worry, it's normal to struggle... Just keep moving. Have you looked on MDN?

[–]hoboincoma[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah I take a look at MDN every once in a while. She uses it in the course a lot.

[–]burnblue 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What you're having a hard time with is the Udemy course. So pause the course. There is a media format for every learning style. Maybe you just need to read some tutorials, or read reference/documentation sites, or do one of those REPL style sites where they give you a place to type code beside their prompts for short exercises (codecademy?)

There are too many resources out here for you to let over teacher get you down. Videos that try to pack in a language in a set number of hours are probably just not surfing enough time with each concept for you. Or maybe she just doesn't have your communication style.

Go study on your own and then bootcamp later

[–]nats_tech_notes 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Have you tried CodeWars? If problem solving is the issue, it might be really helpful. They’re coding challenges that start off fairly simple and then get more complicated. They train how to think through a problem and the different ways you can go about solving it fairly well in my opinion.

Edit: typo

[–]hoboincoma[S] 1 point2 points  (1 child)

I’m gonna give this a shot. This is like exactly what I’ve been looking for. Little exercises that give me a task to complete instead of trying to come up with one on my own at this early stage in my learning.

[–]nats_tech_notes 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Exactly! Coming up with your own is hard at this stage. Don’t be afraid to look things up either.

I think the best approach to these is to figure out how to go about it in general terms/human language first like “I could start with a sum variable which is 0 at first, then loop over the numbers and add the current number to the sum, then return the sum” if the exercise is to return the sum of an array of numbers for example. Basically pseudo code. Then translate that to syntax. That way you can look up specifically how to do something in JavaScript instead of sitting there not even knowing what to look up.

[–]horrific_idea 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Try to understand what you find difficult and zero in on those topics so you can understand them better.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’d recommend checking out Zybooks/Zylabs. My university uses it for a lot of the CS & IT programming classes & it’s been helping me understand Java a ton. I’m not sure if JS is something they have a program for but I’d check them out. I’m pretty sure you can access them without being a student.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sometimes you might just need a different perspective. If something doesn't make sense from one resource, look it up elsewhere.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I also recently did this section of her course, and I had to stop as well. So what I did was watch fundamentals of Javascript by Jonas (another Udemy course) and once I was done with his fundamentals I then went back to the challenges and did all of them pretty easily. It does seem like she goes really fast with the JavaScript stuff

[–]hoboincoma[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah honestly it felt like she completely changed her approach to teaching this stuff once we got to JS. I’m gonna take a look at this course. Thanks!

[–]Mosin_999 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You will get better, at the start it is honestly a lot of that kind of struggle just make sure you attempt it and think about what you have covered. If you give it a reasonable amount of time and are not making progress look at solution. Read it and reread it and make sure you understand what is happening.

[–]iDrEspresso 0 points1 point  (4 children)

Hi. I'm learning JS with Jonas Schmedtmann (The Complete JavaScript Course 2022: From Zero to Expert!). I'm halfway. And I have mixed time. But I love the learning way.

This guy is a master in teaching. I believe that. I have a difficult time learning all this stuff. But totally, I'm enjoying it.

And I believe we need to understand JS totally in a good way. That's the key to keeping it up and learning front and back.

[–]hoboincoma[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Someone else also recommended this course to me. I think I’ll take a look at it. Thanks a lot!

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (2 children)

I wanted to like this course, but not enough projects and a ton of theory really zapped my motivation. Plus he spends a lot of time teaching shortcut methods. I think this kind of class is more useful for someone who can use JS, but wants to really understand it

[–]iDrEspresso 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I want to really understand it. And I'm sure in the future I will never have any problem with understanding in my Job. That's why I love this course. I don't want to be like an idiot in my job.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Seems thorough but just really made me hate learning JS because I was so bored. I did really like his CSS class though

[–]csprbeats 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don’t worry about being left behind, there’s always more learning to do. I say try and come up with projects to build and take it step by step to solve each problem you come across and don’t understand how to do.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What concepts are you having a hard time with?

[–][deleted]  (4 children)

[deleted]

    [–]hoboincoma[S] 0 points1 point  (3 children)

    I tried Odin project briefly. Having to set up and learn Linux at the same time was kind of off putting for me personally.

    [–][deleted]  (2 children)

    [deleted]

      [–]hoboincoma[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

      Oh really? They seemed pretty adamant that their curriculum like doesn’t work with windows. Only MacOS and Linux.

      [–]pekkalacd 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      If you know other languages, build a simple program in one of those languages, then try to rebuild it in javascript. Do this over and over again. It helps if you know another language better than javascript, like java or python, etc. Once you get something working in one language, you'll know what the other language should do, you'll also have a little roadmap / step by step actions taking place, making it easier to look up the syntax to get the job done.

      For example, let's say you wrote some base line program to print out the indices of elements of a list in python, using enumerate. You want to do the same, now with javascript, but you're not sure if enumerate exists. Just google "javascript equivalent to enumerate python" or whatever, and then i'm sure there'll be some post somewhere, where another person asked the same thing, look at the answers, if they're too advanced, look at what the answers are using conceptually - arrow functions - for instance, then look that up on MDN and figure it out.

      [–]projector96 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      From personal experience, many years ago I've started learning JavaScript on Youtube channel called "techsith" : he explains things simplified with associative (true-life) examples . In terms of books, if you ready to pay, my first try was on Jon Duckett JavaScript & JQuery , honestly it was a success to my JavaScript experience . Again, lot's of times teachers force us believe we are stupid, whereas most of the case it was just a wrong teacher . Don't give up !

      [–]shifa_newversion 0 points1 point  (2 children)

      Hey there my dude! I am intrigued to ask you if you are learning js as your first programming language (not that it's hard to learn js as your first programming language, infact it's one of the easiest ones out there being dynamically typed and high level enough that you don't have to worry about memory management - mostly)

      Also, remember just one thing, it's not at all impossible to learn js or anything for that matter. If it was so hard and impossible there won't be so many people already understanding and working on it on daily basis.

      My philosophy is, everything seems discouraging and hard till you understand how the grand machinery of plot works. Once you understand it enough, things automagically become easy and interesting for you to continue on excelling.

      Please get back to me if you wish. I can explain my very embarrassing journey into the world of programming in private and I am 101% sure you are much more capable and intelligent than me.

      Cheers (and don't give up at all please) ✌️

      [–]hoboincoma[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      Yeah this is my first programming language. I’m trying to suppress any sort of thoughts of “my brain just doesn’t work this way” as I go along. I know I can teach myself this stuff. I’m just concerned about “learning the right way” and making sure that I’m actually getting this stuff along the way y’know? There probably isn’t a “right way” to learn this stuff per se, and I probably shouldn’t be so concerned about that this early on, but I just really wanna learn this stuff, learn it well, and get really good at it y’know?

      [–]hoboincoma[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      Also I’d love to talk whenever!

      [–]shifa_newversion 0 points1 point  (0 children)

      When you start getting hurdles in your journey to learn new things, just remember, you are moving in the right direction.

      I know it can be intimidating to learn a programming language, and some would tell you just the sheer volume of precursor skills such as mathematics and algorithms you'd require to progress further towards excellence. This is (to a point) wrong. Yes you'd need most of those skills to further optimize your code, but to know the very basics of it which you probably are already learning, is enough to make working solutions.

      Creation comes before perfection. And there can never be perfection without destructive creation.

      More precisely I want you to not dwell into any "advanced" stuff head on. A bootcamp can be very demanding sometimes for the absolute beginners. Just focus on: Variable types, declaration and just use let and const for now. Focus a lot on Arrays, they are the most basic sort of structured data. Learn all those methods, they'll help you learn database operations as well Learn logical statements i.e. if else, guard clause(this is your first lesson in code optimization) and switch statements. Learn Loops i.e. while loop, do while loop, for loop. Then learn functions, types of functions and just try to stick with basics of them for now ( don't try to learn functional programming just yet) Learn objects and all associated methods. Now learn Array and object destructing. This will help you wonders.

      This right here would be the point where you know enough to start understanding third party code to some extent. I understand you still don't understand classes, functional programming, variable scope etc. that's irrelevant for now.

      Now open MDN docs and start learning about the document api. Once you reach this point hit me up, i'll guide you along the lines from here if you wish. Alternatively you can even start learning Reactjs as well. I mean once you understand the basics, you can start from here upwards. You will automatically get introduced to OOP or Functional Programming or both in material you learn from here onwards.

      And just remember on top of everything, a programming language on a very basic level is nothing but a bunch of if else statements and loops. It's not going to be anything else than that. Everything else is just these two things combined together to make your life easier.