Getting Started with Coding in academic life : Tips for Beginners

© Al Shahriar Abid

Hey there, BracU fams! Facing difficulties in your beginner Courses like CSE110 or CSE111? No worries ; I'm going to share some simple tips to help you to ace in these courses!

1. Basic is the key:

To make your basics strong, learn the simple stuff first. Like, read online articles like what variables and data types are, how they work, etc. Websites like Codecademy, W3Schools, and GeeksforGeeks have all necessary articles with proper examples.

2. Practice Makes Perfect:

There is a phrase that says that practice makes a man perfect. So solve more and more problems; try to approach them differently to solve the same problem in different ways. You can try websites like Edabit; they have lots of beginner-friendly problems to play with (of course after successfully solving assignments and practice sheets provided by our university).

3. Take help from Online :

Learn new things from online. Google it or check out forums like StackOverflow and GeeksforGeeks. They're full of articles related to problem solving. If you are facing difficulties, you can also look for local BracU forums. Also, GitHub is a popular platform for contributing and sharing code; give it a try too.

4. Trace your code:

Coding is about understanding the code. Try to understand, trace why and what you're writing in your code. Trace manually. It will help you to write better code, debug your code, and overall improve your code.

5. Team Up and Get Feedback:

Learning with a small group helps a lot in academic life. Work with friends, do group study, and ask for feedback. Also, teach your friends and share your feedback. Learning from friends helps to improve your own skills.

 6. Show Off Your Work:

Create a collection of your coding projects on Github (you can share your assignments if you're not ready to contribute or create any project). This is like your coding resume. Include assignments given by the university, personal ones, and anything else you're coding. Basically, learn the basics of Github.

7. Learn to accept errors:

Getting errors is a common thing in coding. Don’t break your PC while getting continuous errors (just kidding!). Instead of getting frustrated,try to learn from mistakes. Learn how to debug and fix errors. Also, this is going to help you with manual tracing too.

8. Keep yourself updated: 

While doing coding, keep yourself updated with modern tech like DevOps, cloud computing, or research fields like ML, data science, and AI. You don't have to learn these things in the beginning. Just keep up with the latest topics so that you can search for your interests or just keep yourself updated.

9. Time Management:

You need to keep patience while coding. Schedule your tasks to avoid rushing at the last minute, especially assignments. Make tasks easier by formatting big tasks down into smaller ones and setting realistic time limits.

10. Make Coder Friends:

Make friends with people who enjoy coding or are interested to learn . Participate in online meetups, join coding clubs or IT clubs, and learn from experienced people. It's a great way to introduce yourself with new people and learn at the same time.

11. Ask for Help:

Never be embarrassed to ask for help if you're stuck with any task. Your faculties, friends are there to help. Asking questions is a great way to learn new things.

Although learning to code might seem difficult at first, don't worry . You'll learn day by day if you enjoy the learning process, maintain focus, and never give up. You will also receive superb grades in exams! Happy coding guys!