However much we may want to hurry stuff up its really good to remember that coding is a skill that requires time and effort to grasp and use it in the real world. Personally while learning to code, I have seen that not all approaches to studying don’t work as well as we want them to, but applying these simple four tips to my programming study I have been able to drastically accelerate learning.
1. Doing deliberate practice / active practice.
When learning we will read about a topic or watch a video and we have a feeling of “I think I’ve got it now “, but in real sense we only know the theory behind and have no real practical understanding of the topic at hand and when you maybe go to do some practice problems we get frustrated and end up giving up.
Doing active practice involves you setting clear and well defined goals for your learning and going through what the question really wants while doing this a number of times you gain proficiency through repetition.
2. You are going to have to step out of your comfort zone.
“The easiest way to learn is the hard way
” I picked up this quote from Bob Zirol while doing the react course on scrimba.com which implies that we will have to do things that we don’t necessarily want to do because they make up feel less of an expert.
Practice what you have learnt, apply it in a project and just be curious, ask yourself questions go deeper not wider.
3. Attacking your problems head on.
When we are coding out a certain problem, times will come when we hit that “un-solvable” error or something that needs a certain kind of concept that we may or may not know. When this happens most of us including me sometimes get frustrated and comment out that part and move to the next section and when we come back we don’t know why we commented and the cycle continues. Instead try to think about the concept, note down what you don’t understand (your weaknesses) and then sit down and do drills whereby you are learning how to deal with different variations of complexity, doing this will gradually improve your understanding.
4. be sure to keep your brain rested and healthy.
Having a good 6-8 hours of sleep daily is a necessity while learning in general because during sleep we process information, catalogue and store. Working/Studying in blocks to space learning and allow time for rest and recuperation.
Lastly, when you are trying to teach yourself you need to have a self-determined path to follow that maximizes active learning and keeps you motivated and gives you momentum, with that I hope you found this super useful. I would really love to hear from you in the comments Tell me about your best strategies for effective study. Glad to have shared my first dev.to post the first of many more.
Top comments (0)