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Anthony Beckles
2,057 PointsWhat's The Best Way to Learn + How Do You Deal With Forgetting Stuff
Hey everyone,
I came on today to do some more learning and I realized. I don't remember anything that I have learned thus far. I am not sure if this has happened to anyone else.
When I am going through the lessons I feel great and that I am taking steps to become a decent programmer. However, the second I come off or do some practicing. I forget everything.
(For example, I am currently learning PHP and I came on to do some practicing using some of the stuff I learned and I don't even remember how to correctly write basic things such as loops or arrays.)
So I'd like to ask all of you what you think the best way to learn (and more importantly) remember all the stuff from the lessons.
Thanks,
-Anthony
P.S. In the case of this happening again. Are there any tricks you guys use to quickly remember the things you have forgotten.
2 Answers
Kevin Archer
2,619 PointsHi Anthony,
I think most, if not all, learners will have experienced the same problem at one point or another: forgetting things we thought we had nailed down!
It's a bit of cliche (and cliches are just that for a reason; they've been proven to work!), but practice really does make perfect. If I come back to a topic I'm learning after a day or two, and find that I've completely forgotten how something works, I look it up. I'll maybe have to do this on one or two more occasions, but after that the information starts to stick.
Effective note taking can be a major help. Find a system that works for you. Something quick and to the point whilst you're learning which you can then expand upon for more in-depth notes. This technique works for me.
I'm very much a beginner when it comes to coding; but I've already noticed how my brain responds to repetition.
Keep your chin up and focus on your goal - your hard work will payoff.
Kevin
Max Senden
23,177 PointsHi Anthony,
Most people need some time to learn code. After doing it for several years I can do a lot of things from the top of my head, but often if find myself checking W3S or MDN for things. Something that really helped me improve a lot and get a good understanding of Front-End development was to apply the stuff that I learned (and often forgot) to real projects. By working on real projects you force yourself to connect all the little chunks of knowledge and experience that you gathered here at TreeHouse and at other places. It's quite tough in the beginning, but after a few projects you'll find yourself writing code without thinking about it.
Just keep at it, and good luck! If it was easy everybody would be coding and making the big bucks. Max
Anthony Beckles
2,057 PointsThanks, Max. What I am going to be doing now is to go through WordPress plugins & other stuff, so that I can see what certain things look like when used in an actual program.
I am also playing around with Atom and Workspaces to test out things and it's already helping me understand things.
Anthony Beckles
2,057 PointsAnthony Beckles
2,057 PointsThanks, Kevin. I was starting to worry that I wasn't going to improve. Now I understand that it's not best to just watch and copy.