Good evening to everybody. I have Zero background with Js, and after following the first
48 lessons in the curriculum, I find myself stuck over and over and over.
Do I need to read something else?
Is this tutorial expected to be followed from people with some background?
Do I need to read something else after each lesson?
Some help please, because I just can’t get it, I am starting to feel I am stupid.
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Hi @JourneyTafs!
What you are feeling is completely normal.
This is your first programming language so the learning curve is going to be different than html and css.
Some challenges might take you 20-30+ minutes to solve and that is fine.
It is not a race to finish the curriculum.
If you get stuck on a challenge you can research articles and documentation.
If you still need help then you can ask the forum for help.
It will take time and practice for the concepts to start making sense.
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Frankly I expected this, I am just so frustrated. I had to vent. My apologies to everybody.
I am taking 4-6 of lessons on Js Curriculum every day, so I can take it slow. And let it sink.
My frustration comes from being unable to understand the basic questions.
I read, reread, re reread, my head is spinning, I felt that this is for more than just plain beginners. I need complementary material, because I have many blanks.
If this is normal then all I need is practice and do-overs.
@jwilkins.oboe Thank you 
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I can understand the frustration because I was there 7 months ago when I started javascript.
All you can do is take it day by day.
It might help to read previous post from other forum users that expressed the same frustrations as you did.
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@jwilkins.oboe … I stand in awe, in awe about what a community is all about. I honestly and truthfully, now, have understood what a Gift to people is FCC.
Reading through all of these, understanding that you are not alone, and realizing that it is just the same for many people has given me a big fat smile. And the energy to try harder and progress.
I cannot thank you enough, You and FCC, you opened my eyes. I also realized that i would like to go and introduce myself to the community, present myself and my background and ask for a buddy.
Thank you, thank you.
And thank you, FCC, you give more than you realize, and ask in return almost nothing.
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Read isn’t enough, you also need to understand how these code work like “Oh, so this function will multiply the variable and will pass the answer” and so on
I read somewhere on the forum, the curriculum itself is created by community and is suitable even for Beginner, which is make sense. You need to to learn HTML and CSS first as a barebone, and you need to learn Javascript and logic as programming require a good problem solving skill.
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Back to work then. Thank you all
I have the same situations where i encounter a block and cannot proceed anymore, but with time ive learned i eventually overcome those obstacles and keep moving and occasionally i look back and realize how much ive achieved since that moment i had doubts i could go further, or there was something i couldnt comprehend, yet now i use it fluently.
The curriculum main purpose is to give those who wish to learn the respective topics, but its only a fraction of what needs to be done in order to “succeed”. Occasionally there is a concept which you cant understand and its a good practice to initiate additional search on the matter, be it look the web or the community on how they did. Chances are someone have had the same problem and even brought a solution. I also advise you to do re-play the challenges, to solidify the knowledge you’ve learned. Make mental checks(or write down) topics you feel you didnt completely grasp and go back to them over time(well if not, they usually come back up eventually). But the main key is practice. Only thru personal experience you can truly adopt that knowledge as your own. Sometimes certain techniques only become clear further in the challenges, after you have been introduced to their complete shape.
Just for reference i went thru the regular expressions challenges like 4 times and still occasionally go back to them whenever i need to utilize one and there is something i am missing, but unlike what i believed in the past, now im pretty good with regex and am eager to use them in my code.
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I see, I made a habit each day before proceeding the next lessons in the curriculum, to redo the last days. I am glad I did this.
ATM I am redoing all HTML and CSS. Working on creating an HTML & CSS Reference personal webpage. I am also working on my JS knowledge.
So FCC gives you the cookie crumps, and need research for mastery of each.
My frustration was pointless, but has won me some wonderful help from all of you.
Again thank you, every time it becomes clearer.
Yeah, completely normal. Don’t worry if you don’t memorize everything (no one could). The more important skill is being able to find the answer, places like MDN and Stack Overflow (google is a developers best friend.)
And if something confuses you, take a mini-detour to check it out - find a blog articles or a youtube video that explains it. If that doesn’t work, ask here.
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The method of search find ask. Thank you
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Freecodecomp is very, very, good but there were examples that I got stuck on as well and I am not a newbie to programming. It is good to have other sites to check the same topic. I also use https://www.w3schools.com/ for quick examples of code.
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Thank you, I am using that site as well. It is rich and in depth.
Also, after a Suggestion from @TheOwl, I got into Javascript.info website.
To Read and study, I have created my first alert, both with internal script tag and also from an external .js file. As I was told before, when it finally works is like magic.
Also, now I am going over all the lesson to solidify my knowledge and proceed.
The most important thing I have forgotten was that trial and error, makes perfect.
Hey there,
I’m a bit like you, but less frustrated!
You have to know and respect the fact that you need time to process everything.
I really love the FCC community too, usefull and refreshing.
What you can also do is check on youtube a guy named “useful programmer”,.
He’s doing the FCC challenges and explains why and how .
One last thing, i’m learning JS with Codecademy too, and having the opportunity to learn the same concepts with different point of views is very beneficial, at least for me!
Just to be clear, I’m not saying that one is better than the other, but there’s so much informations out there, you just need to dive in !
Perseverance and passion are the keys !
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Thank you for the reply.
I personally don’t like the code academy, for my own reasons, but I will definitely try.
I am using, w3s, FCC, and JavaScript info.
Thank you again.
I just wanted to say that I found reading through this post super-encouraging!
I’ve had many moments over the last few weeks of sitting in front of my laptop screen, scratching my head, trying to work out what I am supposed to be doing. Sometimes, I get there and then there is that amazing feeling of having cracked something. Then, of course there are those frustrating moments of having to resort to the hints, and almost feeling like a failure.
So thank you @JourneyTafs for your post, because it’s helped motivate me to persevere, and knowing that many of us don’t always find the FCC journey an easy one makes it easier to keep going when the going gets tough. The main thing I guess is to enjoy the journey, and not give up! All the best to you in the weeks ahead! 
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Thank you for your kind words.
I am really glad that I help motivate you :).
After this post to tell you the truth I found my Js journey easier. Seems like I was expecting to breeze through it, like HTML & CSS, and after the first lessons my mind shut down.
All in all the best I can tell you, is redo the whole tutorial, on Js, I have done it three times up to the 60 lesson, and also I add 2 lessons every day, plus I am reading a book on Js with some exercises, from a Webpage called JavaScript.info. Super helpful, not easy on the eyes, but if you drink a nice cup of coffee with each chapter once a day, it really does sink in very nicely. Our minds, do a wonderful job, piecing crap together, while we sleep, or do other stuff, and everyday it feels a breeze.
Also, listening to an audiobook on how memory works, but that is just me.
I wish you the best, and don’t ever hesitate to PM me, I will help if I can, or learn with you cheers -Alex-
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Hi, @JourneyTafs, what you feel is completely normal. As you mentioned, you have no background in programming so the first programming language you learn is gonna take some time to sink in.
Loops and conditionals can be a little confusing at first. I think watching a beginner-friendly video on youtube might help you. These animated videos make it easy to understand how the loops iterate. How a condition is checked.
Let me share my experience, I completed the Basic Javascript section in 2-3 days and thought it would be a breeze to learn the rest of the stuff. To my surprise, it took more than a month to understand the new ES6 syntax and regular expressions and algorithm scripting. After that I revised everything again. Its been some time and now I’m going back to the javascript section.
Sharing this in hope that it might be helpful. Also, watching a youtube explanation works for me, it might work for you too. Happy Coding.
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I see, well it is helpful, because I never even though of a YouTube video…gee…
Do you mind sharing any clues on videos, before I go searching to weed out the non-good ones? Only as a Head start.
At the moment, I am re-reading and doing all I have done in the week, JavaScript based.
Also searching for other sources to read the same things from different perspective.
Thanks again, I will give myself a good long month maybe even more to learn JavaScript.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkZNo7MFNFg I found this full course on javascript. This video course is also provided by freeCodeCamp. So, you can refer to it for topics that you find difficult to understand just by reading. It is well structured and time-stamps are given for each topic so that you can jump to a specific topic.
Now, what you can do is to search for each topic like "for loops explained " in case you need more detailed explaination.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NZZ9Y-j_mw
Here is another video that describes the concept of looping very well and in a very easy to understand language. Note, here this person is describing the whole process on a board so if you want to understand how the loop iterates, how many times its going to iterate, this video can come handy. Although this course is for C language but the loops work similarly for javascript too.
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