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Tina Huynh
Tina Huynh

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CodingDojo: First Impressions

The first couple weeks, you come in learning "Programming Basics". Beginner programmers learn how to download an IDE, what's an IDE, what a variable is, etc. They then go through platform algorithms with basic Javascript to learn if statements and for loops. This continues for two weeks.

After these two weeks end, students begin "Web Fundamentals". Students are introduced to HTML. What's a div, a p tag, a tags, etc. After days of working on HTML, CSS is introduced to style their pages. They get practice assignments that are short to get hands-on practice to implement their studies. Afterwards, they brush on how to implement and connect Javascript to their websites using getElementByID and querySelector. After the exam, they are introduced to Bootstrap and what APIs are. They are introduced to fetch and, depending on the instructor, possibly ajax.

For beginner programmers who have not touched an IDE or had any programming experience, the first month and a half would be a good starter. But if anyone has any coding experience, it is very tedious to sit through. The instructors and TAs are reluctant to answer any questions they deem "too advanced" for the class to learn or help on any projects you work on on your own time. Depending on the instructor's experience teaching, the time management during class time can also be wasted. Personally, my instructor is ALWAYS behind schedule and struggles to explain basic concepts in an efficient manner, when a beginner programmer can explain concepts better.

If you get a "beginner" instructor, I would ask to switch as soon as possible, especially if you are an experienced instructor since they will waste your time. And you will find yourself twiddling your thumbs for a month and a half. But if you get the head instructor, or simply an instructor who encourages their students to learn and pushes their curiosity to venture outside the class's material, find yourself lucky.

At the end of the day, the cost of the bootcamp is cheaper than going to university. And you learn more hands-on material that is needed in the industry. But what I do not respect is instructors not treating students fairly based on their experience level and instead generalizing an entire class and making everyone slow down for the beginners.

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