Going from HTML/CSS courses to JavaScript feels like going from kindergarten to doctorate? Projects after RPG feels … convoluted, i can barely get a sense of parts of the code, not to mention how the whole thing works.
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Yes its a major step up. HTML/css is not really programming it’s just text processing. Javascript is progamming and fairly high level. You should look at a more basic programming language first if you find this too difficult.
You could skip the data structures and algorithms and move into the responsive web design also. It will give you plenty of hands on experience with JavaScript.
First, let me say that I am extremely appreciative of this community and the people who put these courses together. 
I am looking forward to contributing as I can and helping to improve these resources in the future.
But I agree. I don’t really understand freecodecamp’s thought that mixing HTML and javascript is appropriate for beginner coders. I mean, I sort of get it — the thought is that “you’ll see this stuff out in the “wild” and therefore you should see it now.” But that’s a false assumption and leads to more confusion than necessary. There needs to be an additional module prefixed to this course that is just javascript and javascript structures without ANY HTML. I really recommend the prep course over at Galvanize for just this reason (it’s the prep course for their intermediate code camp program and it’s also free). Also, the way the instructions are detailed here are weirdly stated. They should say: “Our goal is this. To do that, you need a [constant/function/whatever] equal to …” Most of the instructions are backward to me. Is there a pedagogical reason for this choice? It might be okayish for native English speakers, but we also need remember that this course appeals to many non-native English speakers precisely because it is openly available.
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This is available at the bottom of the course list under the title ‘legacy’
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100% agreed! The roleplaying game was very well explained, but the calorie counter just kinda tells you what you need to write in your script, without really teaching you why you need to do it that way.
I picked up a book called “JavaScript: The Definitive Guide” by David Flanagan. I try to read this whenever I don’t have access to a computer. This book has helped me tremendously, as the author really describes and defines things in a way that fCC and many online tutorials fail to. It goes from the very basics all the way up to stuff I am so far from being able to comprehend, it’s scary. But I sit with it and read through each sentence very methodically, sometimes reading the same sentence or paragraph several times over. After I finish a section I go back through and highlight just the parts I feel really essentialize the text. Finally after I finish a chapter I read back through it just focusing on my highlighted text, and only reading additional text if I feel like I forgot something along the way.
The other resource I have found to be invaluable is ChatGPT. Whether I’m tackling a fCC course or following a tutorial, I ALWAYS have questions the instructor does not answer. I keep ChatGPT open on my second monitor, and immediately pause the video or stop what I’m doing and ask ChatGPT my questions in a way that it won’t just outright tell me the answer to a lesson. You may have to preface that you do not want the solution to your problem, but rather an explanation to your question. You may also have to reiterate this from time to time, but it mostly comes down to how you ask the question.
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Careful though - you need to double check the accuracy of things ChatGPT tells you. It’s a helpful tool, but one that can feed you wrong information very confidently.
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Thanks for the tip. So far it’s been reliable, but I’ve definitely heard stories about ChatGPT presenting misinformation. I’ve also had it tell me some things, unrelated to coding or programming, that are just slightly incorrect or heavily debated topics. So yes, thank you for bringing that up. Not just for me, but also for anyone else that might read this thread.
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