Struggling to Understand Programming Concepts—How Can I Improve?

A great tip is to read what you’ve written and ask yourself why you chose to write that. This sort of reflective questioning can clarify your understanding. Utilizing AI tools can also be a useful way to explore concepts and clarify doubts!

It's all about practice! The best way to understand and retain programming concepts is by actually using them. Think of it like reading about how to write a novel versus actually writing one yourself. You can know a ton about code, but unless you're actually coding, it won't stick. Focus on the design process that leads to the code implementation; that's often where many tutorials miss the mark. They show you the final product, but don't cover the design and thought process needed to get there. Just like you can't learn to build a car by only looking at one—it’s the process behind it that counts!

What you're facing is really about "Learning how to Learn" rather than solely about coding concepts. You might want to check out tools like Obsidian and engage with the personal knowledge management (PKM) community. They have some great resources that could really help you out!

Recreating the tutorials on your own is a fantastic way to learn. It's like building a puzzle; once you’ve seen how the pieces fit together, try assembling them without looking at the picture. For practice, I built a 3D game as a project to explore different frameworks. It really helped lock in those concepts for me.

One great way to get a better grasp of your projects is to explain the code to yourself or even to someone else. Start with a project you've already built. Go through the code and comment on what each function does without looking at the tutorial for help. If you hit a snag, spend some time reading the documentation for that function and take notes. Also, try pausing the tutorial to consider why certain lines of code are necessary. If you're still unsure, revisit the documentation to solidify your understanding. Dedicate some time for revision to go back and review previous codes to help retain the concepts.