So I’ll preface by saying I’m extremely new when it comes to any form of coding what-so-ever. However I’m frustrated with myself in this moment; I definitely feel like I have a clear understanding of the language so far (I get 90-100% on all of the quizzes and when doing the on-site projects have rarely had issues understanding the objective and completing it accurately - always double checking my work with the AI assistant.
BUT, the second I get to an off-site project (i.e. Debugging Fotomatic or Tea Cozy) it’s like any knowledge I did have flies right out the window. Is this an issue that a lot of other people face? Is it just because I’m still so new to HTML and CSS in-general? I really felt like I was making progress actually understanding the core fundamentals of the language, but I have spent at least 5 hours on each of the aforementioned projects and make very little progress, and what little I do make feels like it’s not the correct way of doing it at all.
Maybe I’m over complicating things for myself. Quite probably my structuring is off in a way that quickly overwhelms me.
Any insight on this phenomena would be greatly appreciated as it’s extremely disgruntling.
I think this is a natural thought process to have when starting a new language. Don’t be afraid or worried to use search engines like Google when working on projects; whether it be for projects here in Codecademy or in the “real world” when you’re working on a project. We all learn differently and at different rates. Programming is about learning the patterns and using what you have learned to improve upon what you might have done earlier. I see you’re learning CSS. I think this is one of those languages people do learn first but like you mentioned, it can be overwhelming with all the different things you can do with it. I think the important thing at the early stages is understanding why things are happening the way they are and how a specific change can alter something. When you see what and where a change can affect other things, then you’re definitely on your way to gaining more experience. Just keep with it and you’ll go further than what you think. Good luck!
So I guess, I don’t have as fundamental of an understanding as I might have hoped. Maybe I’m just thinking about it the wrong way.
If I may ask where do you think I should focus first as I’m having A LOT of trouble completing the Tea Cozy project to be as close to the original as possible. It may be something very simple that I am just overlooking because the language is so new.
Here is what I have so far: Tea Cozy WIP
And here is the goal of the project :Tea Cozy Specs
EDIT: This is a copy/paste from my VSC with the image links switched so they would display in the workstation.
It will come with time. You’ve got to give yourself some room to grow. It might not seem like you are learning but you’re currently building your ability to ride the bike without training wheels.
Have you heard the phrase, “there’s more than one way to skin a cat?” I’m not quite sure where that phrase comes from or if I like it very much but essentially coding is like this. There’s more than one way to approach and solve a problem. If it works, it works! That’s the beauty of coding. That’s not to say there’s not ways to optimize the code but give yourself time enough to learn those techniques as well.
Maybe you don’t have a full understanding yet, but you have already made some progress. PROGRESS IS PROGRESS!
I’m going to share things I do and ways of thinking that are helpful to me, in the hopes that something here might be helpful to you too:
For each lesson, I make notes in my notebook and think about the structure of everything and how it fits together before I practice.
It’s a whole other LANGUAGE, really. And we do not learn languages overnight; that’s just not how our brains work. But honestly, the code that makes up the digital world has got to be the coolest set of languages out there! And it all makes sense if you look at it and think about what the details represent.
You’re going to GET IT the more you practice, practice, practice + think of it as a clear and organized language + pay attention to the patterns and methodical ways of labeling similar details.
I like to study and think of the two parts together = what a part means + how it’s written. It makes me think of learning spelling. Just like with learning to spell words in English that are spelled and sound different from each other. Like the word “conscience”, for example. I’ll think to myself “con-science” AND “conchins”. So it’s the same with the code, <li> is both <li> in my head and “list item”. But if I say it, I say “list item”.
So moving back to that lesson and in general, I wonder if you’re drawing out notes as you study? It can make it much easier to reference them and think about it as you write. I usually write the code on the left side of my paper (literally hand writing, not typing) and then on the write explain whatever I need to know about it.
When I’m completing a project, I can just look at my notes as a reminder if I need to do so. But I “get it” more already, just because I have written it down, taken notes, analyzed the heck out of it and PRACTICED!
I really do hope this helps in some way and that you will stick with it! I found it quite difficult in the beginning but also sincerely just SO COOL.
I’m having the same problem here, but I think that this is a problem in the learning structure in Codecademy and other sites that I already entered before.
In the start I liked Codecademy because most exercises were controlled by a mark setup and if I made some mistake, readily the site, or the AI, would say where is the problem and how to correct it. This was a thing that made me love the way of learning here.
But with the time, and entering new advanced modules, I realized that the focus was only in the topic and the previous things learnt were skipped. Instead of a continous learning (including themes already put in previous modules to reinforce your learning in the head), you just learn the actual module. That way I could get 90% - 100% in quizes, finish the projects that only asks the actual module, but that wouldn’t mean that I was learning HTML/CSS as a sum of everthing that I passed.
For me, the reality came in Tea Cozy project, where only was given in a model page with parameters of HTML with CSS inscripted, and in my head came how can I do this? Where are the marked step by step parts that I saw before? Where is the AI to say how or where I could start (in the place was a general hint saying almost nothing)? Well, in that moment, I perceived the huge gap between knowing individual parts of HTML/CSS and use all these individual parts to create a site.
Well guys, sorry for this answer but I had to put my frustation in some place (beyond feedbacks that I don’t know if they even read). I have to say thanks to Codecademy for teaching me all individual parts of HTML/CSS, but at the same time I have to find another place where I can put all that I learnt and made me feel secure that I’m really ready to make a site.
