Hi there,
This is also my first time posting here as well. I originally started working with this stuff about 3 years ago.
“Hello Everyone!”, LOL
Remember that all new things are better retained through repetition, review, and good practice exercises.
I’ve gone through some HTTP and CSS stuff first and decided to make a multi-tier web page for practice as I went along. It was alot of fun.
At the time, I figured that I’d need to have a way to test my page as I was building it, so I learned about web servers and downloaded and setup the Xammp web server app for my laptop. With that, I could build my web pages and test the results live. That was fun.
Well, I got to a point where I needed to collect info from the pages and do something with them. So I decided to learn about MYSql, as a database which I could use to store any data I got from my pages.
I also learned how to work the interface between front-end and the database by using PHP and PDO. That was interesting.
Well, all my pages were working great and I was able to pass data from forms on my pages over to the SQL database and see the data in the database.
It was at this point that I realized, what should I be doing next. I needed to be able to pass stuff back and forth between pages and have them auto-update and all that.
This is where I figured that JavaScript was the next step for me to get into.
So, I started working with the JavaScript curriculum’s on freeCodeCamp and some others.
After some time working through Basic JavaScript, ES6, RE’s, Debug, Basic Data Structures, I’m now finishing up with Basic Algorithm’s. (Yes, I’m still excited to see how I continue to catch on!)
There were times when I would get stuck on concepts or an exercise and just could not figure it out.
Finally, after realizing that the issue was either error with the lesson plan or just not enough info to tie the exercise together (even after spending time searching elsewhere).
I finally realized not to let myself get too bogged down spending days trying to figure out any one particular problem, if I could not find assistance through searching. It is OK to use the ‘get hints’ areas and if all else fails just go for the answer. Then I’d go back and do the same exercise several times again to help things sink in for me.
The bottom line, is that it is OK to not be able to figure it out, even after searching and looking through other sites. Don’t waste days hung-up on any particular thing. Ask for help through a forum somewhere.
One thing I’d like to see a lot more of would be expanded areas for lots of exercises to work through for each of the lessons. Instead of just one exercise for each lesson, there should be lots of practice exercises using diff things for each lesson you are working on.
I’ve tried searching for practice exercises to beginners to JavaScript, which would focus on just the basic building blocks (instead of using the same exercise over and over), but mostly what I found were more project oriented stuff. Which doesn’t really help the novice just starting.
Anyway, too much chat. This is what I’ve done so far and where I’m at.
I had not officially joined a paid curriculum, one because of the cost, but also because I wasn’t sure how I’d catch on to things.
But so far I’m doing ok. I’m not going full time on the learning, just putting in a few hours here and there as I can get them.
I’m still interested in learning more still!!