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General Discussion

Posted by Marius Posogan
Marius Posogan
11,184 Points

Learning speed

Greetings! I am working on setting up a study schedule. My goal was 3-4 hours a week but I found ways to allocate 1 hour per day of study, so about 7-8 a week. Now, these hours are not actual course video hours. I watch a video 2-3 times, I pause, I take notes, I experiment lesson related stuff in the Workspace and so on. My estimate is that in an hour of study I only complete about 15 minutes of Treehouse content. So I feel like I am making slow progress. Of course I could fly through the videos and take the tests and challenges but I don't feel like I'm learning much. Also I don't want to get stuck in the analysis paralysis so I guess I am looking for that sweet spot. I am curious how you learn? What's your process like? How much Treehouse content are you actually completing in one hour of study?

4 Answers

Brian Ball
Brian Ball
23,661 Points
Brian Ball
Brian Ball
23,661 Points

Marius, coding can be difficult to retain without practice. I'm about to implement a daily warm-up / review in the language I want to be current with. It will include writing out code that has some basic functionality, connecting to and using external APIs, manipulating arrays and objects etc.

Think of code like jogging - you're only able to do it if you're doing it. Don't worry about speed, focus on really understanding what you're reading and writing.

Marius Posogan
Marius Posogan
11,184 Points

Makes sense Brian, thank you

Jennifer Nordell
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STAFF
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Jennifer Nordell
Treehouse Teacher
Jennifer Nordell
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Jennifer Nordell
Treehouse Teacher

Hi there, Marius Posogan . Ironically enough, I just wrote a blog post about this exact thing. It was published today on the Treehouse blog. In it I talk about certain "breakthrough" points. The problem with these are that they are highly unpredictable.

Take a look at my thoughts on the subject in this blog contribution.

Hope this helps! :sparkles:

Marius Posogan
Marius Posogan
11,184 Points

Awesome! I just read it. Thanks again Jennifer

Randy Fournier
Randy Fournier
1,347 Points
Randy Fournier
Randy Fournier
1,347 Points

Great post! so it's not just me. I feel that way all the time and always wondered if others went through that struggle and that cliff part I literally just experienced like 2 days ago with one of the courses on here..and I've been through tons of courses..and it just clicked!

Jennifer Nordell
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Jennifer Nordell
Treehouse Teacher
Jennifer Nordell
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Jennifer Nordell
Treehouse Teacher

Randy Fournier Thanks! It won't be the last time something just "clicks" either. The frustrating part is that those moments seem so unpredictable, but when they happen they are priceless :smiley:

Kristiana Georgieva
Kristiana Georgieva
14,595 Points
Kristiana Georgieva
Kristiana Georgieva
14,595 Points

Hi! For me it really depends on the subject I'm studying. For example, I found the HTML and CSS classes to be very easy to grasp, but when I got to JavaScript and jQuery I had to rewatch all the videos a few times and repeat the challenges, take notes - all that jazz. Occasionally, after going through a patch of new content, I still go back to the bits that were hardest for me to see if the information has stuck and note my progress (and I'll probably keep doing that for the foreseeable future).

For some topics I had to search for additional information from YouTube, , articles, blogs, the Community forum, etc. (like Object-Oriented JavaScript for example. I spend a whole day reading up about this from every place imaginable until it started to make a little bit of sense).

I'd say I' moving slow as well, but since I don't have a deadline for learning this stuff and am allowed to move at my own pace and convenience it doesn't really bother me.

Good luck with your studies :)

Marius Posogan
Marius Posogan
11,184 Points

Hi Kristiana, thank you and good luck to you too!