Facing problem with remembering what I've learnt so far

I have completed all the challenges till jQuery but when I moved to projects, I seem to forget almost everything that I’ve learnt so far and needs to refer to the solutions of the challenges I had completed. Is there a suggestion of how I should tackle this?

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Something that I realized as I was going through the early stages of the FCC map was that I found it reasonably easy to learn HTML/CSS and I was moving through those challenges pretty quickly. Then I got into the “harder” JavaScript concepts and I kept moving quickly but just wasn’t retaining as much of the information.

A couple of things that helped me:

  1. Slow down - I made sure to really read each example and try to explain to myself in plain English what was happening. Then I would rewrite the code in my text editor and make sure that it worked. And then I would try to do something similar to the example, but I would try to code it from scratch.

  2. After you learn something, step away and come back and try to rewrite it. I’m currently working on learning Node/Express and was really struggling with how to get the app set up and so each morning I’ve been starting a brand new project from scratch and writing the code until I can get a basic app with simple routing parameters to work. This has really helped solidy some concepts and syntax for me.

Hope this helps some! Good luck!

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Great Advice ^^and I would also add that sometimes it just takes repetition. When I’m not quite grasping a concept I’ll try similar exercises on other sites, as well as reexamining previous, related, exercises. I think a lot of people experience what you are saying as there is so much information to take in. When I first got to the portfolio I felt like I hadn’t learned anything, but once I was able to get the ball rolling it started to click. Just keep at it and don’t let yourself get discouraged!

I think it’s fine to refer to solutions for a while as you move forward. Eventually, repetition will help the concepts you use the most stick in your mind. I, for one, am glad to be able to do it this way because I have the same problem as you. I quickly forget how I’ve done previous solutions, so I go back and review them when they can be applied to a more complex problem. I basically think of previously solved solutions as my reference library. I’ve also been saving my solutions in a folder on my local hard drive, in case I’m ever in a situation where I don’t have internet access while I’m working. But fortunately most of the time this shouldn’t be a problem since the nature of this type of work and study is to work online.

I say keep doing what you’re doing! I also agree with @jv88899 that taking the time to really understand something will help you as you move forward.

One thing I always do is write notes.
Before I go to bed I quickly review what I have learned for that day.
When I wake up I review it again.
And before I start the next course, I quickly glance what I learned before.
If you think about it, it only takes less than ten minutes total.

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One way to make things stick to your brain is to use them in actual projects solving a real world problem, even if it’s just a stupid simple task. Rote memorizing of commands isn’t useful if you don’t know how to apply it in a real world problem. You’ll forget them soon enough.

Also even the seasoned developer has to refer to notes and online reference to use a command. One may know there is a command to do X task but may not remember the full details and it’s okay to refer to document reference manual for such things.

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One thing I’ve found is that the same concepts cycle back in different forms as you move through the challenges. The first time I ran into an idea, I might not retain it, but the next time I would think “haven’t I done something like this before?” and it would be a little easier.

I guess what I’m saying is that you would have to be superhuman to memorize all this stuff, but the thought patterns and problem solving skills will stick with you. Nowadays, I frequently check MDN because I’m sure there’s a method that will do the thing, and I’ve just forgotten its name- I find it and solve the problem and move on and don’t worry about memorizing it.

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I have this problem sometimes too

When reading text books I usually give each chapter 2 passes. One without typing out notes/examples just to get an overview of where it’s going. Then I go over it again really slowly, taking a lot of notes and messing with examples. Yes this takes forever but I find works for me.

Aiming to understand every single line you add to your code can really help.

I’ve made things in the past where I have no clear path of how i actually pulled it off because each block of code was just a google frazzle. Taking a break from the proj and then looking over with fresh eyes and spending a decent amount of time improving code can be a more valuable experience than jumping into the next thing and making another huge mess that somehow works.

The other thing is not to worry too much, sometimes things take a little while to stick and with repetition and not jumping around between too many new topics, it will happen.

Thanks a lot everyone for your kind replies. I would definitely work harder and follow all these steps shared by you guys. :slight_smile:

I have completed basic JavaScript but I didn’t feel that it really made the sense it should have. So I signed up for a JavaScript course on Udemy to practice and type along with the exercises. Recall is much better than before, not perfect but vastly improved.