I’m currently doing the Basic JavaScript portion of the front end certificate, about 3/4 of the way through, and I just feel ‘lost’ on what I’m doing. I’ve had to look up at least 3 or 4 of the challenges because I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I feel like at the rate I’m going I’m going to get to the project portion and not understand a thing still. Do you think it is worth going back through the Basic JavaScript portion to really make sure I understand what I am doing, or is this just how JavaScript is?
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The “trick” to learning is practice. Looking them up is perfectly fine and is something you should get used to doing for now. The more you do it, the easier it becomes. A few things you can do is:
- Get an editor like Atom, Notepad++, Sublime or VisualStudioCode(VSCode). There’s others but those are the most popular.
- Do the FreeCodeCamp exercises in the editor you choose also . Doing them twice or more will make it more familiar. You can even add your own twist to the code.
- Do the exercises over and over again, resetting the code in the FCC editor until you’re comfortable.
- Start a side project using each step in the learning track.
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love this!! it’s exactly what got me through it when i experienced the same problems as you and many others. using the console tool in my browser made a greater impact on my journey. if you wanna feel the magic of coding then try creating the entire puzzle on your own in your own playground/editor. Just see the magic of every thing coming from you. Coming from nothing, i know its stupid but when you do something from scratch, no matter how small the puzzle, it feels like you have the shot to solve anything. idkk, i would highly suggest taking @rmonastra advice.
I have found that I occasionally need to break free from FCC’s curriculum and visit YouTube, W3Schools, or other online resources to do some additional learning before moving along.
Currently I’m reading a book on JavaScript and jQuery as well as moving through some of LearnCode.Academy’s YouTube series and am finding it extremely helpful. Can’t wait to apply it to some FCC challenges 
Hope this helps!!
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If you need help with your javascript or programming just send a message, we can have a chat or skype or whatever
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A digital meetup / group of campers working on some javaScript sounds like a really good idea!
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Well, I’m from italy but we can always make a meeting online with google hangouts or whatever!
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I hear you! I don’t yet have it figured out how to do anything other than output to the console. I started coding last year on the self taught path with Java, difficult but I got it. I soon realized that I needed a more structured approach so I found FCC. Since joining last October, I took a bit of a break to take a Python course and that’s my new favorite language! I have actually figured out about 6 intermediate algorithm challenges by first solving then In Python. But I like it because I can create stuff with it… I am still looking for a tutorial as good as what shay Howe offers for HTML and CSS where I can start with 3 blank text files and end up with an HTML/CSS/JavaScript site, even if it’s just on my desktop… I find myself better off for learning more than one language because then you are learning programming concepts, not just syntax.
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