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Jordan Siu
10,042 PointsI love JavaScript but I suck
I'm on the Front-End Web Dev track and currently on the JavaScript Loops, Arrays and Objects course. Out of everything I have done so far I found myself in love with Dave McFarland's teaching style and feel like I understand the concepts behind everything he's teaching us. I even take word by word notes in my handy-dandy notebook. However, when it comes to the end-section challenges I feel stumped. I simply cannot apply what I have learned.
I review my notes and sometimes I review the videos. I try to watch supplementary videos on YouTube but that ends up irritating me even further. No matter how many hours I spend on his final challenges I get stuck and usually give up, I feel lame because to me, to be a great coder you should be able to find and fix your mistakes and all that good sh*t but I just suck man. What am I to do?
4 Answers
John Pace IV
3,214 PointsI went through the Full Sail University Online program to get my Bachelor's Degree in Web Design and Development. I did terribly when I was first learning Javascript. But after a while it will start to make sense. Just make sure you take your time. Like Mr. Adams said, it's like learning a new language. The further you get into it, the more it will begin to make sense. To me, Javascript seems to build on itself where the basics actually make a little more sense as you progress onto more of the advanced Javascript. Use stack exchange if you are getting error messages. Many developers get frustrated too and go on there to try and keep sane. I've done it and everyone is very understanding and helpful. And again, make sure you take breaks if you're getting frustrated. I've found, at least with me, if I'm really frustrated, I start doing more damage to the code trying to figure it out. Just stepping away and grabbing a small bite to eat or drink of water and coming back to it can really help clear your head and make those things that are frustrating a lot less so. And one tip a lot of my instructors gave me when dealing with Javascript is use console.log and alert() to find out where exactly problems may be in your code. Hope this helps and good luck! It gets a lot easier as you go along, in my opinion. ~John
Jordan Siu
10,042 Points"I start doing more damage to the code trying to figure it out. Just stepping away and grabbing a small bite to eat or drink of water and coming back to it can really help clear your head and make those things that are frustrating a lot less so" I did just that along with reading Greg's link. Thanks for the tip on stack exchange.
Cena Mayo
55,236 PointsHi Jordan,
You're on the right track! Writing down notes and reviewing the videos are great ways to imprint the material. (And they're things I do myself, even when I think I already know something.)
That said, could you give a specific example of a code challenge you're getting stuck on? Maybe there's some small piece of the puzzle you're missing that a fellow Treehouser could clear up for you in a few minutes and makes all the difference in your comprehension/ability to apply the concept.
That said, it sounds like you might be a very beginning programmer? If so, you might find it helpful to try something like the JavaScript course on Codecademy, or start the FreeCodeCamp program. They'll both, at the very least, give you additional practice and reinforcement with JS. (And they're free!)
Finally, don't give up. Programming is hard. I've been self-teaching for over 2 years now, have attended a coding bootcamp, and I'm not, by any stretch of the imagination, an expert. I tend to think of myself as an advanced beginner. There's always something new to learn, a difficult concept to grasp, and it can be a real challenge to keep it up when you feel like you're banging your head against the wall with what are supposed to be 'simple' concepts. Don't fall prey to your worst, self-doubting instincts about yourself. You CAN do this. It takes work, for sure, but you can absolutely do this.
Ask all the questions you need to. Don't be afraid to ask for help. You're not too dumb to learn. We're all here to educate ourselves, and to help each other. One of these days you're gonna be the one doing some answering. :)
Best, Cena
Greg Adams
13,268 PointsDon't despair and keep up the work! Think of it like learning a new spoken language -- you will go through ups and downs, but you're getting better each time your practice. I had the same experiences with some of the courses here, but over time it worked it's way into my brain and those techniques clicked when I started on my own projects. See this article for some encouragement:
http://www.vikingcodeschool.com/posts/why-learning-to-code-is-so-damn-hard
Best, Greg
Cena Mayo
55,236 PointsThis is a really good analogy since it looks like Jordan's learning French, too. :)
Jordan Siu
10,042 PointsThe link really helped out a lot. I'm still game. Thanks for that.
Konrad Pilch
2,435 PointsOne sentence. Thats good, at least you are somewhere! Now, practice and give it more time, and ud be proficient in it in few months. Everything is long term :)
Look at best practices. Ask as meny questions as you can, if you think they are stupid, thats better. Just ask, Ask, ask and ask. You will learn a hell lot more if you ask! Im doing that :D i learned soo much :D like really! A lot, by just asking. Maybe sometimes i ask too much xD
Dont compare your self to treehouse teachers. I did that, and nothing good came out. They have the course pre-done, so you dont actually see how they did it in first time. Every developer will examine and all that stuff, they are not perfect, but they are deffinitelly super good at it, its just they give more time to it.
Im getting a lot better in HTML/CSS, even tho im sitting in WordPress now.
Well, a bit mroe than one sentence. One paragraph :D
Juanita Brumback
878 PointsJuanita Brumback
878 PointsI think the best thing to do really is to have an understanding of Java in the area you are learning. Sometimes I get stuck also on the challenges because sometimes they ask something I feel like wasn't covered or even sometimes the program doesn't accept my answer even though it is correct. I discovered one of these in the Java Basics course the (Equality.Java) challenge for some reason no matter how many times I try the answer it never accepts it, and I even tried in on the workspace and it works every time.
So my best advice would be to try to understand the material and keep distractions at a minimum, because I have 3 small kids I use headphones. And if worst comes to worst & it still stumps you, continue on and try again later. I have found that frustration does me no good, and actually makes me code worse.