How to implement what you’ve learnt from fcc?

Career Advice
#1

Hello guys!
I’m new, but also not so “new” here. I’ve used ffc 2 years ago, got demotivated from people saying that If i want to become a “pro programmer” I need to first start off with the cs50 or edx micro masters courses…
( to be honest, both those courses do my head in, the wrong kinda way- that I’d rather punch my face…sorry but it’s super boring…hope I’m not the only one…it’s just too slow…)

So, I’ve dabbled my butt back into Freecodecamp. Since this is a site that really gives you a basic idea of how the code works by making you write it out, however my problem is i feel like it’s all good and dainty i’m writing all this code, but i don’t think I’m going to be able to implement the thousands upon thousands of html/css tags and stuff… how am I going to implement this and get it in all crammed in my thick skull? at the end of html and css, there is 5 projects you can do, but what else can I do as a project? how have you guys learned web dev? You only learn from actually building, but then how do I know what I want to build? do i look at other people’s sites and be like, “Imma make what you’ve made without looking at your source code” or?

The mystery is:
WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO LEARN AND IMPLEMENT THE EXERCISES YOU DO ON FCC… I really want to remember everything… Right now, learning web dev is the most important thing for me… my dream isn’t to just learn web dev, it’s to be great and love web dev… but I feel dumb as a rock…

all these people talk about their humble beginnings, but never the method of how they retained their info, their way of how they learned, what they did to remember, practice, what was usefull with their journey as a total begginer…
everyone talks about how from 0 they became 100, but not what they did in the start…
am I confused?

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#3

I made 20+ projects in <6 months. As soon as I felt comfortable, I learned something new. You only have to start coming up with your own projects around project 15+. FCC has so many already. And I got a job. All you have to do is build. If you can build something…that’s the only real test of your ability there is, isn’t it?

4 Likes
#4

i feel like you i got love for this just feel so stupid i found this site and started at the top and i make notes out the butt i use my note pad copy past but having to reread it and type in alil notes for me too seems to be working for me at least and watching the videos so i pray im doing this all right start at the top lol

#5

so you started at the top too

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#6

I took notes too. I’m a visual-linguistic learner, so I think taking notes helps me a lot. The only thing I did before FCC was codecademy’s JS (free)

#7

Build projects. Here are some ideas: https://github.com/florinpop17/app-ideas

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#8

Memorise? There is the need to memorise? Should’ve been told that sooner!!! - Joke

What I mean by that “joke” (when you have to explain a joke :sweat_smile:) is that you shouldn’t worry about memorising, I always have me and my colleagues, even after years in the sector, “googling” all kind of “silly” stuff we forget like “what’s the freaking event to check if the DOM loaded already” (yes this gives you the answer immediately) or “find the first child of an element in css” (more rational search, also gives the answer).

Worry about problem solving and understanding the tools you’re using to solve those problems, if you have to google 50 times how to do a for so be it, you will memorise the syntax of your most used tools naturally.

It’s a process that seems slow and is not rewarding if you have nothing to show to anyone, especially yourself (as most things in life) so think about a tiny project and run with it in parallel with videos and FCC (which also has projects for you to build if you lack ideas), completing a tiny project will give you a sense of both “I have way more to learn and I think I did very bad code” and “I managed! Good or bad I managed!”, it also gives you something to show in interviews.

Take notes, ask questions, continue to research and build something, the more you have to show the more proof an interviewer has of your skills and the more confident you are in your knowledge.

Remember that a course in FCC is 300 hours of deliberate practice not 300 seconds and to reach mastery levels is about 10000 hours so give it time and practice :smile:.

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#9

I went through the entire Responsive Web Design course and when I started to build my tribute page I realized I did not remember anything. I took a break, started from the beginning, and am writing everything on paper to review as needed,

#10

you can also google it! once you leave the basics don’t try to write your own documentation, use what is already available! it will be much easier for you

#11

Yes, I could google it all but If I write the lessons down as I go I will have a place to refer to when structure and order is important. So, the lessons teach me how to layout a website step by step. What do you think about that?

#12

if you have tons of notes, google is faster:

https://www.w3schools.com/css/css_website_layout.asp

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#13

When I started learning programming I was super excited because of the though that I could create something awesome. Whether it be a game, or some text that says random things.

I get excited over every little tiny projects that I just end up coding a lot. I can’t say that my method with work for you, but this is what I did.

Whenever I learned something new, for instance, if and else statement. I would practice using it by creating tiny program. Doesn’t have to be perfect, it just needs to work. Enough for you see how it works and why it works.

Every project that I start, I ALWAYS start from scratch. This means no template help, no libraries. Only notes that I scrambled up everywhere. I would spent a week doing this.

Second, if I can accomplish understanding it. I would then challenge myself with a project that is much harder and use everything I know to accomplish it.

If I complete the second step. I would go into step three, which is to over do it. Make this project pop like no other. This means adding your own features, do fancy stuff to it that you think would be neat to have.

By the time I am done with this process. I would have 3 projects just on if else statement.

Hope this help disperse some learning fallacies that you may have.

#14

I assume after using references for a while a person will remember what they are doing without having to look for the information.

#15