I am trying to solve “Implement map on a Prototype” of “Functional programming” course in JS with no progress whatsoever. And it again raised frequently appearing questions in my mind.
Often times I find myself somewhere in a course completely lost. It is almost as if I did not learn anything prior to the task I am looking at. No clue at all what to do.
I seem to understand tasks and solve them one by one, sometimes using hints. But then comes a challenge which throws me off. Some take many days, make me do a course from scratch, spend hours on youtube and google and then look at the solution.
It made me think that I actually do not understand what I am doing and am not learning anything. And I only progress in a course because most tasks actually are not challenges but rather a type of notes.
My questions are:
Do courses intentionally provide limited information in order to stimulate a student to study outside of a course?
If not, is my situation usual for a beginner?
Is it better to research one task for days or to look up the solution after few hours and keep going forward?
I study for 8 months now. It this issues sets me back way too often.
Are we trying to make you fail by not telling you enough information to write the answer? No.
It’s impossible to write an explanation that works for everyone, and historically the more we write, the less people read. Therefore, we try to write an explanation that will work for most people without being too wordy.
But we know that it’s impossible to write in a way that everyone will instantly understand, so we created this cool forum so people could ask questions when the get stuck.
Getting stuck is totally normal. Paid programmers get stuck all the time. We get un-stuck by researching and talking to people.
It’s best to ask for help when stuck. Reading code is an important skill, but it doesn’t really help you learn how to write code.
8 months is still a pretty short time. Keep in mind, some people go to school full time for 4 years to get programming jobs.
Just to make things clear. I asked about intentional limitation of information not because I suspect people of throwing a monkey-wrench in the machinery.
I find it valid to limit the given information to make people learn researching other sources. And I know sometimes such arrangements takes place. That is the whole reason.
If it would have been so, I would worry less. That’s all
I definitely don’t think there is some nefarious conspiracy to gatekeep and set students up for failure by intentionally withholding important information. No curriculum is perfect, and sometimes you need to consult other resources to find an explanation that is appropriate for your learning style.
It’s normal to get stuck on certain topics. Recursion, Currying, and Promisification all took me several days of researching and beating my head against the wall. I would say that because so much of Javascript builds upon itself, it is better to spend a little time fully understanding a concept before moving on. Even if it takes a few days. It is part of the process, and gets easier over time.
Just my two cents. Whatever doesn’t kill you only makes you smarter.
