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Python

Posted by Trevor Kenyon
Trevor Kenyon
950 Points

Help having the language stick.

Hey all,

I was wondering what you're doing to help remember all of this? I go through the lessons and it all makes sense. Basically, I can read the code just fine and figure out what's supposed to happen. I just can't for the life of me remember anything. During some of the videos Craig will write comments and then tell you to pause and write it out yourself and then play again to see how you did. This is where I fall very much short, like I forgot how to create an empty list and then to create the function to then add items to that list.

I keep telling myself it's because I've only been learning this for the past week, and I sort of believe it. But when I go to practice on my own with simple projects I don't know where to start or even remember how to do the simplest of things.

TL;DR I need advice on how to not be dumb.

1 Answer

Ben Slivinn
Ben Slivinn
10,156 Points

Every learning curve is individual, but there is one concept that applies for everyone. Repetition and consistency. If you will keep trying yourself and be consistent about it's just a matter of time your brain will store the data you learn.

That is the best mantra I really believe in, but here is a practical trick that helped me a lot : Every video you watch write notes with bullet point about the subject. For example if you are learning about lists methods, I'll write the subject and the methods with short explanation.

Python list():

  1. list().append(item) - Add an item to existing list.

There is two main benefits by doing that.

  1. If you like me, I remember by writing things down, i consume data by sight and by hand.
  2. Later on, you will remember that you've learned about lists, and here was some method that adds items to lists. You check your notes and see the actual method.

That works for me, maybe not the most efficient way of learning, but for me the sure one.

As i said, the learning curve of an individual is - how surprising - Individual.

Good luck finding yours. Happy coding!