Retention for Newbies

Hi there! I'd suggest both reviewing and practicing. Coding/programming is not about memorization. It's about understanding ideas and ways to solve problems to obtain your desired result. It's the reason there's documentation. A lot of things you will learn simply by repetition. You might very well have to look up how to make the different elements of a form on a web page several times while doing it. But when it becomes something you've done over and over again, the retention will come with time and practice. You will find yourself looking it up less and less often.

I highly discourage rote memorization for several reasons:

• The thing you're memorizing is likely to change soon. Things are updated and changed all the time.
• It's a waste of time and energy when documentation is so abundant
• It's better to learn by repetition than striving to memorize small details.

I hope this helps!

Jennifer has given us sound advice that I really need to actually take heed.

I follow courses and I swear with each passing day I find myself saying... "I understand this but how am I going to remember this?"

And that's the trap I keep falling into. I spend too much time trying to force the information into my brain and nowhere near enough time actually practicing. And then of course I have projects that I do have to work on for my business and other things going on in my life. How do I make this work?

Not giving up on my dreams is the first and only place to start. If you're focused and you want it badly enough it'll happen for you. :-)

I've been writing code since I was 8 years old, but I still can't do anything much more complicated than a "hello world" program without looking up documentation for something. You won't be able to memorize everything. Google is your best friend, and always will be. Don't aim for memorization; aim for use, and the memorization will come naturally for the things you use most often. The key is to just build stuff, and you'll be a pro in no time