Twice the Insight: My Strategic Coding Tutorial Watching Technique

Intro

Let's imagine: you're learning from a coding tutorial. You paused the tutorial to find an answer to a question that suddenly popped up. It takes some time to find an answer. But then, you find out that the instructor explains it moments later. This may lead to frustration and inefficient learning. In this blog post, I'll share a practical approach to watching coding tutorials that can help you learn more effectively and save time.

How to Watch Tutorials More Effectively

How did I usually watch coding tutorials? I followed along, paused where I needed to understand something, and continued afterwards, often finding out that the instructor was answering the question I had. But one day, after having a lot of experience watching tutorials, I realized that it is much better to watch the tutorial the first time without actively trying to comprehend everything. But, this is only better if the tutorial is difficult enough to comprehend. If this is easy enough for you, no need to watch it twice.

During the first watch, I pause rarely for the sake of trying to understand something, but I still pause to take notes and write code. One caveat here: if the instructor directly asks a question or offers to solve a challenge, then yeah, I would pause and do it. But most of the time, this is not the case. What is the benefit here? Because I pause rarely to think, I have questions I want to find an answer to. And also, by watching it for the first time without significant pauses to understand something, I won't waste time doing that without having all the puzzle pieces. With the first watch, I get a broad exposure to the material, not caring much about details.

The second time I watch the same tutorial, I pause whenever I want and for as long as I want, trying to understand everything. Because I already have questions, it is more interesting to watch the tutorial where I can find answers to them. I already know what I need to understand when I watch the tutorial the second time. Therefore, I pay more attention to it. Interest spikes attention. If I were only broadly exposed to the material the first time, then the second time I explore it in a more detailed fashion.

Benefits of the Two-Watch Tutorial Learning Approach

• Saves Time: Avoiding getting stuck on details during the first watch
• Prevents Premature Problem-Solving: saves time and reduces the likelihood of mental fatigue
• Makes it easier to learn, because of having more interest in having your questions answered during the second watch. More interest = more attention paid = better learning. We could say that we also have an interest during the first watch when a question pops up. But if we pause there, we have the disadvantages I discussed above. Plus, we have more meaningful questions by having all the puzzle pieces gathered after the first watch
• Improves retention: The two-stage approach reinforces learning, which means more material sticks

Conclusion

That's it! This is how you can transform your learning experience, save hours of wasted effort, and eliminate the mood-crushing frustration of premature comprehension attempts. If you like this article, please share it with someone who might find it interesting too. Like my blog? Subscribe to the newsletter.

Got questions? Send an email to commitnobug@outlook.com.