Day 24. Pre-course. Chris Pine finally completed

Well it’s about time I started my blog of my Makers Academy journey. I can say without doubt that the pre-course has been more challenging than I thought it would be. I have had many moments over the past 3 weeks in which something just didn’t make sense and I have had to abandon it in despair. BUT I would always return to it later in the day after a refreshing walk or just a break and lo and behold…it suddenly clicked. For me, learning to code requires a certain amount of patience. I have had to train myself to not get agitated or annoyed with myself when I don’t understand something.

The support offered by other colleagues has been fantastic. At no point have I felt embarrassed to ask people for help with something that I am struggling with. I admit that I have not yet been the one to give help, as it appears that many of the people on this course are a bit more experienced than me. Hopefully, in the weeks to come the difference in experience will level out a bit and I will get more opportunities to be the one explaining something to another. Explaining a concept to another is, without a doubt, the best way to gain a better understanding of it yourself.

Chris Pine’s Learn to Program has been a valuable resource. However, I have found that with every new concept he explains, I have had to turn to other resources to properly understand what he is saying. The challenges that he gives at the end of a chapter always seem to be a massive jump up in complexity compared with the examples he gives in his explanations. I have always found that lots of small steps upwards have always been better than taking leaps when learning something (it is for this exact reason that I love Codecademy and RubyMonk). This has led to much frustration when attempting Pine’s challenges. It is now my sworn belief that roman numerals should be abolished forever! Just kidding — but they are a pain in the neck.

Next step: Get my score up on Codewars!