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Python Object-Oriented Python Dice Roller Yatzy Scoring

Brandon Hoffman
Brandon Hoffman
3,642 Points

This video/series isn't that helpful and here is why

Hey, Kenny, the way you are doing this yatzy project isn't the best for beginners.

You are just going step by step in your own head without us really knowing whats going to be next. I would suggest before even starting this project give us all the requirements or details of what we are building first and go into detail what you expect everything class/method to accomplish.Then you really don't go into much detail about whatever we just made, and then hurrying along to the next part, making it feel quite overwhelming and confusing trying to just follow along without any sort of proper explanation.

I respect you and what you do, just wanted to share how I felt, I suggest take these things a little slower (: Kenneth Love

nicole lumpkin
nicole lumpkin
Courses Plus Student 5,328 Points

I have to second Brandon's sentiments. I feel like I'm constantly losing the thread in the project because I have no clue where we're headed. I will be going back to the beginning of this section to piece it all together(not that I mind doing so).

nicole lumpkin
nicole lumpkin
Courses Plus Student 5,328 Points

Just wanted to follow up on my earlier comment re: the video. After reviewing the entire section from the beginning, it all makes sense lol. Yes, the video moves fast, but in the end, it's a video, hence we can re watch and dissect each sentence(as I had to do) in order to grasp the concepts. Thanks Kenneth Love for such great classes!!

Robert Baucus
Robert Baucus
3,400 Points

I really enjoy your choice of projects and especially your choice of RPG and dice games to model programs after (RIFTS fo' LIFE) but I must second that sometimes you go a bit too fast. I am really struggling to understand the ideas of classes and how to implement them and have had to resort to a lot of outside resources to wrap my head around the ideas.
I think more practical exercises (without the cursed Workspaces, argh!) and a slower, more detailed explanation of why we are programming something and what all the little parts mean/what their function is would help us neophyte lvl.1 programmers a lot ! Thank you for all your Python Knowedge!

Ryan Cross
Ryan Cross
5,742 Points

I agree. I like to be able to take the problem away and work on my own. In this series I feel like the problems or the mission are not defined enough to proceed.

17 Answers

Ankoor Bhagat
Ankoor Bhagat
1,097 Points

Dice Roller Project is a waste of time. I am not sure how he is designing, seems like a whim. He is a bad teacher, goes so fast and speaks so fast. He did not break projects into chunks and give details of the ultimate goal and how the chunks help you reach that goal. He is just adding classes based on his whims, and I am not interested learning Yatzee rules (should have asked as a pre-requisite), instead the project should be something more practical, e.g. Simple Banking Transaction System, or Simple Library System, or Grocery Store system.

David Luo
David Luo
1,215 Points

I have to echo some of the sentiments above. I've gone through everything up to this section and this project seems a bit overwhelming. I really enjoy your teaching so far Kenneth. I really think you've done a great job deconstructing all the concepts into digestible chunks. Especially on dungeon game and collections videos.

But I'm starting to get lost even though I would consider myself a fairly quick learner. This section, particularly on piecing it all together with this project seems to require a lot of google search on how to construct the proper syntaxes (e.g., @classmethod, or why one thing is used over another, or how to structure the code). I'm only figuring it out by browsing through multiple examples on google and then by trial and error, piecing the syntaxes or logic together. You may have intended for us to do this (and I think it's also a great way to learn and solidify what we've learned so far from your videos). Overall just want to say the pace seems a bit too quick, especially for something as important as Objects. I will have to rewatch some of the videos again.

Lihua Yao
Lihua Yao
4,218 Points

Quite agree, after several times of watching this video, I still can't catch up what we are doing@_@

Since I don't play games, any games, I don't have a big picture of the game, and don't know why we have these methods either.

I'm just not familiar with this game "Yatzy" and even though I've looked it up on several youtube tutorials, I just don't seem to get it.

Josh Gold
Josh Gold
12,207 Points

Kenneth Love I respect your Python expertise and I understand it probably took years of work and practice to get there. At the same time, this video series is much more about watching someone else program in Python, than teaching people how to program in Python.

Also as others have mentioned, the pace is too fast, and the code we are asked to write in the exercises is a little bit too extensive / advanced.

That being said I am 2/3 through the course, and I am still getting something out of this, and I will complete the course.

"This video series is much more about watching someone else program in Python, than teaching people how to program in Python" -- spot on. It's like he's at a job interview given a quiz to construct a Yahtzee program and he's explaining his thought process while writing the code, not for educational purposes.

Youssef Moustahib
Youssef Moustahib
7,779 Points

This has hands down been the hardest part of my python journey so far. I've never heard of a game called yatzy before and im sure the average person does not either, this makes understanding OOP even harder because I have to understand Yatzy also.

This teaching moves far too fast and wish it would provide a multitude of code challenges so that it would cement my learning. I've had to refer to youtube tutorials that have helped me understand the basics of OOP far better and theyre not taking $200 from me a month.

Recently Treehouse revised the Python Basics course which had many beginners struggling. It took almost 3 years of feedback from students to have this implemented. I hope treehouse can listen to students more often and implement necessary changes quicker. I love this website but for $200 a month I expect a bit more. Right now I'm learning OOP from youtube and a book because I'm now simply lost.

Mark Jones
seal-mask
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Mark Jones
Full Stack JavaScript Techdegree Graduate 29,362 Points

I got Yatzee for Christmas when I was 10. It seemed boring and I never played it but a couple of times. Anyway. He could have given better intros to help out with where he is going in the code. ..He is moving way too fast and not explaining quite enough. I think the course is OK though. I think the $200 a month is not worth it. Just pay for the pro plan.

ashton ellis
ashton ellis
8,298 Points

It was very helpful for me to brush up on how the scoring in Yatzy works before re-watching the scoresheet explanation. It gave me the understanding of the goal of the individual functions.

I do agree with some of the previously-expressed sentiment regarding the pace of the videos being faster than is possible for most beginners to grasp in one viewing. However, I would recommend altering your expectations! Expect that you'll have to watch and re-watch the videos multiple times before you grasp all of the concepts. (The video on packing/unpacking must have taken me a dozen re-views!)

I think that the pace is perfect! If you're a begginer (like myself), you can rewatch the videos as many time as you want/need. If you're already an experienced programmer, and just want to learn a new programming language, then this video series will still be excellent for you.

Thanks Kenneth for putting out such high quality content. Keep up the good work!

J llama
J llama
12,631 Points

i agree. awful job by treehouse. also their cust support staff is brutal

Please replace all kenneth love courses. All the other teachers are great, but I can't seem to get through his lectures. It is very annoying the way he teaches.

Ricardo Büttner
Ricardo Büttner
2,426 Points

I just feel like there is no teaching happening here whatsoever. Differently from other courses, we aren't asked to do anything, just watch whatever Kenneth is creating. I wish he would tell us what we have to create, and then show us how he would do it. I believe this is what a project is supposed to be like, at least it has been so far in all the other courses. I don't understand the point in having a project like this.

Kenneth Love I just wanted to let you know I enjoy your teaching. I know you've received some less than positive feedback on here, and different teaching styles work better for different people, but I have gotten a lot out of this course. I don't believe having to pause often and look things up, or struggle to figure something out, should be looked at in such a negative light. At some point in our learning journey, we transition from being told exactly what to do, and how to do it, to having to struggle a bit, with the teacher there as a guide to help point us in the right direction. I agree that your teaching style in this series favors the more independent learner, which apparently some people take issue with because Treehouse is a paid service. This is a frequent issue where I attend college as well, with the majority of students preferring a highly self contained curriculum with little to no outside research necessary, personally relevant and/or concrete examples over difficult abstraction, and tasks that can be accomplished quickly. Again, the reason given for these preferences is that college is a paid service, so they should be treated as a customer. I know Treehouse ultimately has to conform somewhat to what its paying customers are demanding, and I'm okay with that because it allows Treehouse to continue to exist and provide valuable content. I wish you well wherever you are teaching and/or working now and thank you for the time you've spent teaching at Treehouse!

this looks like a bunch of people complaining about one guys teaching styles

but yah he is a little confuseing

gabrielalcaraz Check Corey Schafer on youtube explain OOP python for a proper effective teaching style. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDa-Z5JzLYM&list=PL-osiE80TeTsqhIuOqKhwlXsIBIdSeYtc&index=1

for a second I thought maybe its just me, so I went to read this post under the video. I guess if you guys going to replace yaatzy game with something else, it would make much sense for most of the rookies here.

Sean Akin
Sean Akin
4,130 Points

Echoing what has been said above, this is not an easy series to follow especially if you dont understand what Yahtzee is.

I would recommend a project that is easier to follow

William Shaylor
William Shaylor
3,014 Points

I find it difficult when new functionality is introduced without any explanation as to what it does. For instance the 'items()' method suddenly appears in this video. I've not seen that before, it wasn't referenced or explained, it just appeared in the example code.

I'm afraid this is a bit of a common theme on Kenneth's videos. Yes, we can pause the video and go look it up, but that's not what I'm paying for. Please take this as constructive criticism, all the previous python course I've been doing up until now made a lot of sense and I was learning well and found it easy to follow along. Kenneth, I think you need to look at those videos and see why people are learning better from those.

For me though, brushing over new concepts without even explaining what they do is very confusing for someone trying to learn. I'd rather have an entire video just explaining what one thing is, for example I would happily watch an entire video just explaining the convention of using single underscores for naming, using examples. Another example would be the use of '[:]' - I don't recall what that does at all, just a quick reminder of what things like this does is really important!

EDIT: To add as well. I think the previous teacher videos work better because they explain concepts several times. No one learns things well from just learning about them once. You have to remind people again and again what something does, and how it works. Repetitive learning is highly effective.

Paul H T
Paul H T
19,730 Points

I wanted to quit programming so many times because of this python web development series but fortunately for me, I didn't. If you passed your Python basics track you have the skills required to learn Flask and/or Django but Kenneth isn't a very good teacher. Treehouse is very good for intro to programming and frontend web dev subjects in general but lacks consistency in the advanced subjects in the field! Keep on coding you can do it!

I understand if that is how you feel. But it is your opinion, and if you just play the video multiple times and look through the community it could help a lot! I know that it might not help, I am a beginner myself around here! And if it doesn't help you can research online for more clarification if necessary. And things are sometimes very overwhelming but that's the fun of programming! the point is to solve problems and be creative. I respect your arguments and I understand your problems, But Python is very challenging, I have a little trouble myself sometimes. All we need is a positive mindset and we can get through what roadblocks we are facing.

I understand if that is how you feel. But it is your opinion, and if you just play the video multiple times and look through the community it could help a lot! I know that it might not help, I am a beginner myself around here! And if it doesn't help you can research online for more clarification if necessary. And things are sometimes very overwhelming but that's the fun of programming! the point is to solve problems and be creative. I respect your arguments and I understand your problems, But Python is very challenging, I have a little trouble myself sometimes. All we need is a positive mindset and we can get through what roadblocks we are facing.