How to consolidate the knowledge that you receive in the class? You need to practice. This means that homework is indispensable. We will share with you a small guide on how to cope with coding homework assignments.
What are homework assignments?
For repetition and consolidation of skills
If you decide to learn one of the programming languages, be prepared to closely monitor the teacher’s actions during lectures and then repeat what you saw in order to bring the work with the code to automatism. This is the only way you can learn how to write code.
Creative and immersive
Advanced learning takes a different approach. Some assignments are more creative, designed to appeal not only to the materials learned in lectures but also to your professional experience. Here you have to solve real problems that face the projects operating on the market. Sometimes it will be very difficult, but you can get coding homework help on special services. Experts who work there can deal even with the most difficult coding tasks.
Some creative coding homework assignments proved to be a major challenge for many students. If the lecture itself can be viewed just for acquaintance, without going into details, then the homework may involve a very deep immersion in the topic.
In coding, assignments are made so that the student can go beyond the local understanding of the programmer profession and look at the entire product development process in its entirety. There are no easy practical tasks at all; everywhere, you need to think, analyze. Sometimes it’s really hard. But all this is so that at the end of the study, you can develop a really cool final project, which will become the basis of the graduate’s portfolio.
Developing skills and professionalism
A study that allows you to fully master the profession of a programmer is the path from the very basics to the level of a serious specialist. The level of coding homework assignments that students receive at home grows from lesson to lesson. It all starts with copying the teacher’s code and eventually comes to an independent solution to difficult professional problems.
How to do coding homework assignments?
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Use editors
Atom is a modern open-source text editor optimized for coding as much as possible. Sublime Text is another up-and-coming code editor. Also, you can use TextMate. As noted by the developers of it, the editor is able to compensate for the shortcomings of IDE systems. Coda is the favorite editor for Mac OS users – especially for those who edit HTML, CSS. Brackets is another helper for doing coding homework. Use the one that is the most suitable for you.
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Use comments
You need comments critically. You don’t learn to appreciate them until you write a thousand-line size code and leave it for a couple of days. Then come back to it, trying to figure it out. You need to include useful comments to make it easier for people who will deal with your code after you.
Add clear, one-line comments for incomprehensible parts of the code; include a complete description of the functions, parameters, and methods; for complex blocks, describe the logic before them as needed.
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Use meaningful names
Don’t use names like $k, $m and $test for your variables. How can such code be read in the future? In good code, the names of variables, methods/functions, classes should have logical meaning. Some good variable names are $dbResult, $request, and $tempFile (it all depends on the coding style).
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Read programming books
You can learn coding through trial and error. But why not use good programming tutorials instead?
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Watch instructional videos
You will learn more about key coding concepts from video tutorials. Moreover, with the help of illustrations, you will better understand all steps. One more plus of such videos is that you can find almost any information on your homework topic.
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Play educational and STEM games
Basically, we are talking about games, which can help you develop skills in doing assignments with variables and cycles. The exact sciences are very popular now. STEM games challenge many stereotypes (like “women have nothing to do in coding” or “you can’t mix programming and creativity”).
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Visit summer school or campus
To hone programming skills and be able to do coding homework easily, students can attend summer schools for programmers. Such institutions offer different courses in processing theory, data analysis, machine learning, and other areas of programming. By attending summer schools, you will learn with the help of pre-recorded lectures and scheduled sessions.
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Learn all the time
Trends in the IT world are changing very quickly. To do homework successfully, you need to monitor technical innovations constantly: fresh libraries, web applications, and so on. You don’t have to learn everything. The main thing is to keep abreast of updates in your specialization. And don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to learn all the concepts of coding.
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Study theories and concepts
It is very important to understand the basic concepts of coding and build a foundation of theoretical knowledge. You can start simple courses yourself at Codecademy and CS50 at Harvard. You just need to start. Pick one programming language and start with the basics (variables, loops, data structures, etc.). It is better to focus on one thing but study thoroughly than learn a little bit of everything.
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Develop computational thinking
In order to cope with coding homework easily, you need to improve skills in areas like algorithms, pattern recognition, and abstract representations. Keep in mind that coding has its own jargon. For example, you will work with a concept called “loops,” no matter what programming language you work with.
Home coding education has become more affordable because educational technology offers a lot of courses and programs. Now people have more time for studying; these resources will help students to learn and do their homework more effectively. The beginners will learn the basics of coding; the experienced programmers will be able to hone their skills.
The high competition in the labor market forces student to enrich their skillset constantly. It is not surprising that not only statesmen but also most parents are advocating for programming to be part of education.
Use these tips, and you will deal with your coding homework assignments quickly. Good luck!