When do you think its a good idea to just move to the next lesson ?

Hi Chris,

Before I answer, I should say that everyone learns differently and any advice given may work for some but not everyone. So, take it as a suggestion to try and see if it works for you.

As you're going through the courses, try to understand as much as possible the first time through and when you encounter concepts that are more difficult to fully understand, bookmark or document the teacher's notes/links. If there's nothing in the teacher's notes section for the video, just document some things you can Google later. Then continue through the course picking up as much as you can.

After a course, if you feel like you could use extra practice on the concepts covered, consider going through it a second time at a faster speed and build the project/examples along with the course again. Before moving to the next course read through what you've documented as areas you would like to learn more about. Go to links, Google topics, etc.

Try this approach and let me know if it works for you. The research from your notes may still not put all the pieces together, but it should give you the main idea and allow you to move forward. I find that by doing this, the pieces do begin to come together as I move forward.

I hope this helps.

Hi, as a student, I sometimes get better results when I just ignore the subject that I didn't understand for a while and keep learning, then at some point the new subject make me understand the old one better. I guess it is better to continue and come back again than spending days on one point, I think learning is not a linear progress, you sometimes need to go back and forth between subjects :) I hope it helps, good luck.

This very issue was covered in an awesome Coursera class I took called "Learning How to Learn". It's free and I HIGHLY recommend it to everyone.

https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn

Sometimes, abandoning a topic you don't understand and moving on to something more advanced can help you to better understand the original topic.

I'm like you. I feel the need to master a topic before moving on, and I have to constantly fight that urge. I have found, however, that I learn faster if I just get the gist of something then move on to more advanced topics. But, as Justin correctly said, everyone learns differently. You just have to experiment and try different techniques (flash-cards, grinding through repetitive code etc...) to see what works for you. I take notes. I pause the video and write out detailed notes (that I will probably never read!) about a new and difficult subject as if I was trying to teach it to someone else. It's tedious but it helps cement concepts and, more importantly, it FORCES you to think about them in a different way as you try to put them into your own words.

A lot of my co-workers see me studying code during breaks and are VERY interested in learning to code themselves. (Since they're int IT, I'm always pushing Python.) I always tell someone who is new to learning software development the same thing: you are learning 3 things at once - you are learning the syntax of the language you're studying (of course), you are learning how to think like a programmer, and (the hardest and most important skill to grasp) you're learning HOW to learn a programming language.

Best of luck and, no matter what, don't stop!

"An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox." - Lao Tzu