Is the Basic JavaScript portion of FCC effective?

I feel like a lot of the exercises I’ve done thus far are just copying what is shown as an example, coding it myself once, and getting my green checkmark. They seem sort of shallow- like sure I can follow the steps you’re showing me but why am I doing this? What is its application?

My most effective learning so far has been in actually building things. Like I REALLY learned a lot about bootstrap and CSS by building my portfolio. It was great.

Was the information relayed in the FCC javascript portion of the course really helpful for you? Were you ready to tackle the algorithms once you’d finished?

I’m sure JS will be vital to my success in the algorithm scripting portions of the course but I’m thinking maybe I should be using other learning resources as well.

Thanks for your thoughts guys.

Hello there, I am a new camper like you. I also interest in what you say.
I try to search in the forum and I find that the farther you go in the course, you can do and learn some algorithmic challenges. If that is what you mean in paragraph 3.

And for my understanding, if you continue to learn in fcc eventually you have to make some projects also. You can really build something for your portfolio, if that is also one of your concern.

Lastly, I think the greatest thing about fcc is the community. You can learn, build something, and ask the opinions of other campers. Just now, I read someone make a portoflio website in codepen and asked suggestions from others. Then two campers give their 2 cents, and I think the suggestions are very good and constructive.

I think I am bias because I really like learning in fcc :innocent:

2 Likes

It is helpful, but it is not complete.

You’ll find that the algorithm challenge pages provide links to suggested documentation pages if a solution may require use of something that wasn’t covered in depth. Also, you may decide to use an approach that uses a method you haven’t been taught.

Relying on external documentation is a crucial part of the process when you attempt the algorithms, although many of them can be done with the basics covered in the curriculum.

Make sure you have a good grasp of variables, arrays, loops and conditional statements (if…else etc) and you’ll be good to go.

Knowing string and array methods is useful, too. The MDN documentation has a comprehensive list of those.

3 Likes