I just finished the basic of javascript a week ago and since then, i have been working on a small web app . My problem is i learn building the app through the guide of a website, they explain each step very specific and i don’t know if i’m learning to code the right way. I mean, they give me the code, the solutions, all i have to do is just to understand what they gave me and mimic them. I feel like i’m doing it wrong, i really need advices to adjust my way of learning. Feel free to share your learning method, thank you all.
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I think it is better when you learn it and challenge yourself,this will help you take it in faster.
So does that mean i should figure out the solutions by myself instead of relying on the tutorial ?
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Still be using the app. But after tutorials so as to test your knowledge, do it again and again. If it guides you to creating a game or a project or anything, after do your own. Be flexible when doing yours. And anything kind of weird, you can still consult the site.
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Beware of Tutorial Hell
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There’s nothing wrong with going through tutorials, but ideally you want to go beyond them. As you’ve sensed, if you just follow along, you won’t learn that much, and you’ll probably forget most of it. Some ideas for bringing your learning to the next level:
- Do the tutorial, but stop along and play around with it every step of the way. Experiment, complicate it, change it, break it, console things. This way, your mind is more active. You’ll also pick up more things than just what the teacher decided to tell you.
- Once you finish a tutorial, make something very similar, a variation on the project. Try to do this, as much as possible, without looking at the tutorial. Only peek when you forget something. You might have to peek every line, but still make the effort to do it without looking! It is good to make yourself think!
- Do a tutorial, but once you get the idea, stop it and try to do it yourself. It may not be possible, so you have to decide when this is realitistic.
- Yes, build your own projects, too. It can be very simple. Can you make your own index.html file? Can you hook it up to a styleheet? Can you hook it up to a js file? Now… can you make a button to change the color of the text? Or the background?
Can you use JS to get what someone wrote in the file?
If you can’t, then google this each step of the way.
a) how can I make an index.html file on my computer?
b) how can I add a css file to my index.html?
c) how can I add a JavaScript file to my index.html?
d) how can I change the color of the screen using JavaScript?
e) how can I trigger a javascript function using a button on a website?
etc…
In this way, you will sort of be making your own tutorial. Your teachers will be MDN docs and Stack.overflow (and you can ask here, too).
You will learn whatever you want, when you want.
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I was in a similar situation, following tutorials and never feeling like a knew anything.
I decided to look at Data Structres and Algorithms in Javascript and that really helped me improve my use of the language.
Writing tests also helps me think about the problem and what I need to achieve.
Good udemy course by Colte Steel (think that’s his name) that has helped me.