So I feel like I'm just playing Simon says. Feel like I am not retaining. How can I fix this?

Hi Trevon Kitchen,

I'm onto Data Structures next but to address your question I can only tell you what works for me and it may work for you.

If I don't understand the challenge or line(s) of code I first re-watch the video several times and ask myself "What does this line of code do?" I break down the line of code by reading it out loud and wording as much of it to English as I can. It's amazing what you do when you read things out loud and take it slowly.

If I really don't understand the concept of the video and/or challenge I refer to the forum, the people here are amazing at answering questions from different point of views and seeing the question answered from a different point of view, will make something click in your brain and suddenly you'll be like "wow I understand now!" like it has done for me in the past.

Hope this helps you

~Gabe

Thanks Gabe,

Like I said I'm not new to Java and I can break down what they mean. But at times I have this fear that I'm just regurgitating instead of understanding.

Just as a heads-up, on the off-chance that your Simon Says feeling is recent to this point in the coursework .... the instructor says in another question on this video (https://teamtreehouse.com/community/tough-tutorials) that basically he went in too deep on this one, so don't worry too much about this particular concept/video.

No problem :D

I'm very new to OOP and programming in general but I have an example that worked for me to really understand the line of code rather than just doing it because I know how to write it and that is:

Recently I came across for and enhanced for loops and I knew how to write them like muscle memory but I didn't truly understand how it worked so I checked the Oracle sources to break it down and see how the syntax works together, maybe this is something you can refer too? Maybe you'll retain the information that way!

Good luck with your adventures :D

~Gabe

Thanks again Gabe :D

I'll definitely take this into consideration when I'm trying to understand future concepts.