Hi everyone,
Thanks in advance for those who take the time to answer.
I’ m totally new to coding, my background is health and social sciences, so this is completely out of my comfort zone. I’ve wanted to try coding for some time–needed a change of pace/ “scenery” and a challenge that can be/will be beneficial to my future (economical, different career path). So finally starting down that path but having issues “starting”
It maybe simple to some but how do you ground yourself/ structure yourself for success in coding? I feel like i’m all over the place. I see learn html, python, web development… This email tells me to learn this and that, another tells me, it’s this way. It’s all pretty confusing and causing a bit of anxiety.
where do you begin? i see the curriculum but does anyone have like a schedule they made/followed that they would like to share? anyone made a syllabus or something? i know this self taught, go at our own pace but i’m so used to having a concrete plan (like week 1: these 5 topics, week 2…)
for newbies and experienced persons:
how many hours a day, days/week do you set aside for coding that led to you successfully teaching yourself?
schedule examples, plans, “syllabus”, concrete advice welcomed
This forum is part of the freeCodeCamp community, so we’re overwhelmingly going to recommend using freeCodeCamp.org and just following their curriculum in order.
Hi @qbt2020! First of all, welcome to FCC!
I can relate very well since I experienced pretty much the same thing. You asked quite some questions, but the main thing seems to be a lack of structure and a lot of material (e.g. suggestions, resources, etc.).
In my opinion, you should first decide what you aim for. If you don’t quite know what you want to do, read/watch something about the different paths, then decide and commit.
If you want to become a web developer then start with the Responsive Web Design curriculum. If you want to become a data scientist then choose Scientific Computing with Python and then Data Analysis. Data Science requires some math and notions of statistics. These are not so relevant or not present at all in the Web Development curriculum.
(This is a simplification that is good enough in the beginning, IMO).
Languages:
- Web Development: HTML, CSS & Javascript help you build what you see on a website (Front-End), while other languages (Java, Python) help you build the “engine” that you don’t see (Back-End).
- Data Science: Python or R. The first one being the most popular and easy to understand.
(Again, this is a simplification)
Structure:
Commit to a specific path and push yourself to get at least 5 exercises done in a day (I am assuming you work full-time). Five is not many, but if you feel good you can do more and if you feel bad you commit to five anyway, every day at least 5 days a week.
You will see some improvement soon.
Resources
As @ArielLeslie said, FCC is a great resource (and if you can contribute, they will be very grateful) but of course, there are many resources available online. My advice is to stick to a path on FCC while integrating or taking some small detour elsewhere (e.g. YouTube, other learning platforms, developers’ websites, books, etc.)
I hope it helps!
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Thanks, I’m going to try this site out and see how it goes
Thanks for the welcome and detailed reply (info)… really helpful.
Data analytics sparks my interest so I’ll mainly focus on that while still being open to the curriculum structure. Keeping the data science track you suggested, I’ll supplement with math videos that fcc sent (precalculus) and stats videos as needed and other sites/resources.
Again thanks for all of this, really helpful!