In june I completed 12 katas on codewars. That is a really fun site that gives you coding challenges that (I believe) are similar to what you may get in an interview. I like them because I tend to create programs that do what I know how to code, so asking for something different is a great way to stretch my brain into seeing how other people code.
I started the month thinking really heavily about doing a bootcamp. I have decided to stay away from that for now, but I still may consider it in the future. If nothing else then all of my self guided teaching will help prepare me to get the most out of a bootcamp.
My first class of the month was a 75+ hour bootcamp prep class from flatiron academy. it covered css, html, javascript and ruby. I ended up stopping midway through the js section because I wanted to focus on python. I would like to go back at some point, and I really like the learn.co in browser ide with test-based coding challenges. That was a lot better than the udemy ipython notebook setup because it’s pass fail. either your code works or it doesn’t. It’s tough to tell with the notebook because there aren’t pre-built tests, so you may have a semi-functional program but not considered all edge cases.
I finished the bulk of the coursework on the complete python bootcamp from udemy. I liked the class and the instructor. I ended up watching most of the videos in 1.5 or 2x. It is a lot easier to slow down when you miss something than to pay attention when it is all going soooo sloooowly. I don’t think it was poorly paced, I just didn’t have that much time to spend listening to regular-speed classes. The end of the class has a capstone project that I haven’t specifically done, but I have been working on a few other side ideas and one may end up being worth finishing and publishing.
One strategy I am looking to implement is to take notes during my lessons however makes sense, and then recap them at night into a text file. That will hopefully cement some of the ideas into my memory, remind me a bit of what I have learned, and bring up any questions I may have.
I also have an ongoing list of things I need to look into, as varied as local meetups and learning about github. This will hopefully keep track of my new ideas so that I can focus on learning the one thing at hand.
I’d like to add a time tracker somehow to keep track of days and hours so I can assess how things are going. I’m also going to try to track my typing speed, because I am just now transitioning away from looking at the keyboard(!) That will be a big help to my coding, and I feel stupid it has almost taken me 40 years to learn how to type! My day job requires a lot of mousing and shortcuts, but very little actual typing.
So here it is – my test result from 10fastfingers.com. 39 words per minute. It’s not pretty, but now that I have measured it I can improve on it!