Should I be taking notes?

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Hello,
My name is Logan. I’m still a beginner and I find myself wondering if I should be taking notes like I usually would if I was in college. I know I won’t remember everything on my first run of the projects but I figure if I forget something I can always re-run the entire project for fun and try remembering the basic structures of programs using what ever brain cells remain. Am I the only one not taking notes?

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If you want to. Some people really benefit from taking notes because it forces us to take the time to explain concepts in our own words. In my experience, you probably won’t use your notes though. You’ll be googling the things you don’t remember.

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Hey @CodingCoding welcome to the forum
I think the idea of taking notes is subjective,I personally do take note because I am sure you can’t grasp all the concept in your first attempt,but always remember you should not memorize code We learn by practicing and make sure you are consistent

Happy coding!!

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I take extensive notes but that’s just indicative of how I learn in general, whether it’s coding or anything else.

The Pros:

  1. You can explore and understand concepts more fully than if you simply work through challenges/exercises
  2. You have notes to refer back to which you understand, as you wrote them
  3. You can keep track of your overall learning journey more easily
  4. You can update your notes and understanding of concepts as your experience grows, including linking together concepts/ideas which you originally may have learned in isolation

The Cons:

  1. It can be very time-consuming and take time away from hands-on experience of writing code
  2. You may simply amass a huge quantity of notes which may prove of limited use to you in future
  3. Some notes you have taken may become redundant as certain libraries or features are deprecated
  4. It is often considerably easier to search online for articles or documentation which can help you to learn stuff which you’re struggling to understand

My notes contain detailed breakdowns of the materials explored in the FCC Curriculum as well as links to external resources and articles which I found useful at the time I learned them. I do find it useful to refer back to them at times. For instance, when I was struggling to write a recursive function for a coding project, I went straight back to my notes on the ‘recursion’ section of the JS course, where I had several code examples with line-by-line explanations of exactly how they worked and why the recursive approach was useful in those cases.

Each to their own, but it’s clear that the most productive way to learn is simply by doing. Move fast and break things!

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Wow! Your response was spot on. I no longer have any inclination of questioning about taking notes. Thanks for your supportive advice! :slightly_smiling_face:

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Nicely said! I’m in the process of making consistency my main habit. Thanks for your reply! :slightly_smiling_face:

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I will remember google in trying times! Thanks for your input! :slightly_smiling_face:

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I take physical notes but never actually use them after I write them.

There is some interesting research suggesting that the act of using physical notes can help you remember information: Study shows stronger brain activity after writing on paper than on tablet or smartphone | ScienceDaily

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Ooooh! I like that information. Very helpful! I may take a few notes on the good stuff that I think will be handy later. Thanks! :slightly_smiling_face:

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