Falling off the wagon

Community Careers, Journeys, and Stories
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I’m a new user, first time posting, but possibly shortly to be an ex-user. I can’t get past the fact that I think I’m in way over my head here. Apologies if this doesn’t seem like the right forum, it’s just the closest match I could find.

To give a little background - I will keep this very brief. I’m currently serving in the Forces, and am trying to learn to code for some extra employability on the day I decide to leave. To be clear, I’m not just dabbling, but do this pretty much all the time when I’m not at work. I started with Python.

I’m currently at the Practice Makes Perfect point of the course, but this is the third time I’ve done it. Each of the first two runs through, I hit a wall (at respectively around 45% and 55%) where each time the course asked me to do something, I basically couldn’t. When you have to hit Solution each and every time to make it through, you start to think that maybe you’ve not understood or taken much of it in, so I reset the course, and had another run. Trouble is, now it’s happening again at Practice Makes Perfect, around the 63% mark.

I’ve had to hit Solution on every exercise from digit_sum onwards - I couldn’t get past even with the use of the forums, help, hints, and everything. I basically just don’t know how to do any of what it’s asking. I feel like I’m encountering absolutely loads of stuff that’s not been covered particularly up to now, or where the explanations given just seem like gobbledygook (“floor division”??). I’m now onto anti_vowel, and I have the same issue again where I just bluntly don’t have a clue. I’m sure I paid attention more this time through, so resetting the progress won’t do much good this time round either.

I’m… honestly just not sure exactly what to do with this now. Is there any point in trying to continue when I’m so far out of my depth? Is the idea now that you’re supposed to trawl through Google for the answers to stuff you’re not sure of? Am I supposed to work on the same course for a good few years until I get it, rather than the weeks and months I have been? Or am I supposed to understand and interpret more widely than I have been doing? Bearing in mind this is the third attempt I’ve had at this, I’m truly on the verge of giving up. Maybe coding just not for me, or I’m not wired for it.

Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions? I’ve paid for six months Pro, and really don’t want to lose the money either :frowning:

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Practice makes perfect is really challenging, it challenges you to come up with solutions

You are always welcome to make posts when stuck in a certain exercise, then we can personally help you rather then existing forum post which might not fit you.

As for your pro-subscription, you could cancel it for now? I think you get a refund then, check the help pages

maybe you need another learning source as well? Maybe a single source isn’t right for you, or codecademy doesn’t fit your learning style? There isn’t a one fit solution to learn programming

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You could possibly try learning some front end development. I have been in similar situations as you but I kind of just fell off of doing the python and java courses. This is like my 5th account on here. What I can say thought is that I really enjoy front-end development and even if that is not what you want to do, it could give you a good starting point to expand into other language. I have seen a lot of users on here posting in the forums saying they began with Ruby. Maybe that could potentially be a starting point for you as well?

If you do learn front end developing make sure you look into what Bootstrap is, and make sure you do learn some of the elements of javascript(It was almost impossible for me to make a website with only html and css and have it actually look good and everything lined up and proportional.

And yes you should be looking on google when you dont understand, or even posting on here. You can even find the entire base code for projects and lessons. This would be useful so you can compare your code and see what you did incorrectly.

Best of luck to you if you do continue :grinning:

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Hey Nick, my friend Pat wrote a couple of posts on the process of learning to code that I think might help you.

Stetim and Dylan’s advice is more practical than I could muster, but I just wanted to say that you aren’t alone. Everyone has struggled with coding and hit the wall at one time or another – just look at the replies on Pat’s post for example.

[edit] One thing I will suggest though after looking at your profile, you should strongly consider learning with the Pro Paths and not with just taking courses pick and mix style. If you’re already set on learning Python, learn it with the Computer Science path, it is a far newer course than the one you have been taking. If you aren’t set on learning Python, or at least not doing so straightaway, start from the beginning with the Code Foundations path and consider going with HTML and CSS after that with the Web Development path. Many people struggle with going straight into something like Python, and something like HTML / CSS is a smoother intro to coding.

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Many thanks all. I’ve decided to persevere with it for now. In a balanced, non-despairing perspective, I have had to basically look up answers to some problems but others I’ve been able to do off my own back. So… I must have learned something :slight_smile:

The articles were really helpful. I am following the Computer Science Pro path, still on the Python course, for now.

Thanks all again.

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