I'm scared I might not be learning

So I get through my challenges, but sometimes I feel like its all a lot and surreal. I get scared I would have forgotten lots of things before my projects and that bothers me the deeper I get. Is this feeling okay or am I screwed? Is there something I should be doing?

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I get this feeling sometimes and the only answer (IMO) is to keep practising, what are you scared of losing? What type of code? Just keep building things, even to keep your brain active. I think if you keep doing the same type of work / challenges over and over I doubt you will forget - good luck.

John.

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Thanks John for taking the time to reply, much appreciated. So you proposing I try redoing challenges I already did? Or just trust the FCC learning process?

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Yeah retry or go to https://www.codewars.com/ to try their coding challenges, the simple point if you feel that you are going to forget something do it over and over. Repetition is key to learning any new skill, like flying a plane, learning to paint, riding a bike etc.

Repetition, many hours of practice will = success.

:slight_smile:

One equality sign means assignment, two of them are for comparison :smiley:

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You know that made me LOL

Like John said keep practicing. Also take notes! What I like to do is after a lesson I will write down some code in my editor, and add some notes about what the code does, where it can be used, what arguments the method takes, etc. That way if I forget I always have something to look back on. Don’t think you’re going to remember all of this, that’s just impossible. Coding is so huge that you can’t remember all of this.

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Cody has a nice approach. As he said, he makes notes. The best way to learn is just build and build. You can also build so called ‘knowledge library’ for yourself. I did for my latest challenge. https://codepen.io/edvinasurbasius1/full/ZMpJaJ/ I will use this page as my JavaScript knowledge library. Even if it looks funny, I still have some sort of material to refer to, if I am stuck. Good luck.

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A little harsh talk.

Are you coming to the forum, asking for the answer and getting something you can copy and paste, and then are done. Then you’re probably not learning. You might still get a job, but your coworkers will hate you when they have to answer simple questions all the time and find you can’t figure the answer or troubleshoot on your own.

HOWEVER

Are you searching for the answer? When you do ask for help are you following the steps given and trying out solutions rather than copy and pasting? Are you looking up documentation for language you are working? Reading articles on the problem.

Then you are learning.

Coding not only takes practice, but must be constantly used and built upon. You’ll be surprised when you get down to that we’re problem that doesn’t make sense…and you realize it’s saying to do something simple. And you can do it.

It may be silly to go over declaring variables again and again but that’s how it sticks in your head. You’ll get there, keep trying, reading and searching. You’ll learn.

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This is a common feeling. Once you get to the projects, you freeze, then "uh how do i start… " then u start looking things up and go “oh yeah!”. You repeat and rinse until u build mamy projects then it kind of starts to come together for you. Keep it up

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I totally get you my friend, that has been also one of my life-long problems, even after getting my degree in CS, I had that feeling of not actually learning anytghing, that adds up to the “Imposter Syndrome” of these days. Reading, and hoarding or acumulating facts is not actual learning. I had been reluctant to start learning web development until I know how to learn efficiently and effectively and be able to understand new information/knowledge proactively.

In order to know if you’re really learning you gotta understand what you’re learning, also you gotta have a goal in mind of what are you learning and why and how to learn it efficiently and effectively, you got to assest your learning. In other words you want to be able to remember what you know, and what you know is what you can undertsand, therefore to know something, you must first be able to understand it(to some extent), if you do, then you’re Learning!

I found this website that shows the different Learning Styles and Intelligences:

They have this Self-Assesment test you can take to see which are your strengs and weaknesses regarding to your learning style and also ways to improve in each area.
http://www.literacynet.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html

The most effective skill you can get as a developer (or any other discipline that requires frequent learning) is Learning Efficiently and Effectively . So you need to build a Learning System !

I found this nice post in medium about Studying Smarter, not harder that can give you some tips:

Also to build an effective Learning System this post teaches something about it:
https://medium.com/the-polymath-project/how-to-learn-anything-the-sonmez-10-step-system-30f343cf1112

The learning process never ends, but you can always make sure to tweak your approach to get better results each time, in this field (as in many others) we gotta stay sharp learning anything from everything and vice-versa, it is okay to scope the process , have a firm foundation, set different learning goals, always be self-aware and take action.

“Education without application is just entertainment.”
— Tim Sanders

Hope all this helps a little bit :wink:
~fr33