What you can do to improve programming skills when you lag behind

BY KRISTIAN KRISYK

Programming is a complicated subject, and it is all too easy to get behind the rest of your peers if you are not paying sufficient attention or missed a couple of classes. After that, it is often exceedingly hard to catch up with them just by following the instructions of your teacher or professor; so what can one do to improve? How can one get better at programming on one’s own? Let’s find out.

1.    Use free and low-cost learning resources

To improve one’s knowledge of programming, there is no need to sign up for yet another expensive course. The Internet today is rife with free and affordable learning resources such as Coursera and Codecademy where you can get all the additional learning you are ever going to need without overpaying for it. There are plenty of narrow-focused courses that will improve your understanding of particular topics, so check them out.

2.    Learn by example

It is often said that the best way to learn something is to take a look at the way this something is done by somebody who has already mastered it. Now, it may be not so obvious where you are supposed to get examples when studying programming, but there are plenty of sources online, such as ABC Assignment Help and numerous other websites where you can get high-quality code samples.

3.    Learn from others

We live in the age of the Internet, which means that other people skilled at what you study right now are usually just a couple of clicks away. There are plenty of communities that bring together people specializing in programming, and you can often address them with your questions to receive highly personalized answers. Take Stack Overflow, for example – a leading website for anybody having any issues related to programming and coding. You can ask virtually any question here and expect it to be answered by skilled and experienced coders, often in a matter of minutes. A good decision is to stick to the 15-minute rule – if you haven’t made any progress with a task for 15 minutes or more, go to Stack Overflow and describe your problem. You may still solve it yourself, but at least there will be a backup for you to go to.

4.    Get better every day

If you are serious about getting better and catching up with your class (and outperforming them in future), you should make it your primary rule to get at least a little bit better every day. Don’t just do tasks mechanically – take time to stop and make meaningful improvement every single day. For example, read a page out of the manual, learn a new language feature and practice using it, clean up a piece of redundant code – in other words, make qualitative instead of quantitative progress.

5.    Contribute to GitHub

GitHub is a resource that hosts an ever-increasing number of open source programming projects. Taking part in one of them is advantageous in a number of ways: you get acquainted with new people from the coding community, many of whom have something to teach you, you get practical experience that will boost your expertise and confidence in your skills, you receive valuable feedback from other programmers. You can be sure that this is the experience most of your class will lack.

Even if you are seriously lagging behind your class in programming, there is no need to panic. With a little bit of ingenuity and readiness to apply yourself, you will be able to close the gap and get ahead.

BY LINE–Kristian Krisyk had been working in the field of web design for 7 years before becoming an entrepreneur in 2014 in design and marketing. His professional interests and hobbies defined major topics of his articles. These days Kristian runs his business and looks for new development opportunities. Follow him @KristianKrisyk or contact at kristian.krisyk@gmail.com