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Ray McCoy
537 PointsWhen and How Should I Begin to Practice Outside of These Courses?
I'm a little ways into the Java Objects course (just started the video on creating an MVP/agile, just finished the lesson on throwing and catching exceptions), and this is my first experience with coding. Everything is making sense and I generally blow through the quizzes pretty easily, only needing to reference my code in the example workspace. My hope is to familiarize myself with the basics of coding before potentially pursuing a more rigorous environment to eventually get into game design.
What I'm wondering is how can I actually practice what I've learned so far to see if I have any sort of recall beyond having just watched the video? At what point should I even be trying to practice... like... should I just keep continuing with the videos until I hit some point where I'm instructed on a good way to just "Practice Coding/Problem Solving"? I'm worried I'm not actually internalizing anything and wouldn't know what to do if asked to actually produce something!
2 Answers
Mark Sebeck
Treehouse Moderator 38,105 PointsIt's never too early to start practicing coding on your own. And here's a secret. You are not going to remember everything and that's okay. If you get stuck go back and watch a video or look things up on Google. You don't have to remember all the syntax. Learn concepts such as data types, loops, if logic, object oriented design, etc. The syntax will come as you go.
You have access to such a powerful programming environment in Workspaces. Nothing to install or setup. Go in create a new file and start coding. Create a simple telephone book app or a mad libs game. Code anything you can think of. The more you practice the better you will get. When you're ready, install an compiler and keep programming.
And lastly go to the forms and help others with questions. Sometimes answering question helps you learn a lot more.
Thomas Pope
1,319 PointsAs Mark said, anytime is the perfect time to start practicing on your own. In fact, I've found that doing your own experiments is one of the best ways to learn programming and will go a long way in helping you remember what you've learned. Go try to recreate something you've already done, do it in a different way, or try something completely new. It's all up to you and what you want to learn how to do.
And you will forget things. I've been using Java for almost four years and I still regularly look up the documentation when I don't know how to use a class or keyword. There are simply too many libraries to remember everything, so learning how to read documentation is a valuable skill.