My freelancer course member Pratyush wants to improve learning efficiency in Python. He asked me the question: “how can I accelerate the pace of my problem-solving mind?”
Focus first and foremost on reading and writing massive amounts of code. It’s that simple. Maximize the time you are looking at source code, and improvement will come automatically.
While any learning material will lead you toward your goal of improving your Python skills, some methods are much more efficient than others.
For example, it’s a well-known, scientifically proven fact that active learning beats passive learning in regard to learning efficiency. Here are a few active learning techniques:
- Work on your own code projects. Seriously, spend 70% of your learning time actively writing your own source code. This is the fastest way of growing your skills as a beginner.
- Solve Python puzzles and quizzes. At a certain point, your improvement will start to converge when solving only practical projects. That’s why you should also improve your ability of speed-reading Python code. Python puzzles challenge you and keep you actively learning.
- Read more books. Ask any expert in any field, and they will tell you that reading books is one of the most important things you can do. But not all reading is created equal. You should actively think about what you are reading. Ask yourself questions first and read the book to answer these questions. Don’t passively read from the first to the last page. Work with books!
- Complete PRACTICAL courses. They have to be challenging and ask a lot of questions. They must involve your problem-solving mind.
- Teach Python. Write blog articles, make videos, and form learning groups. Teaching is always a way of pursuing active learning–so it’s one of the most effective ways of learning.
These strategies are not easy, but the best way of learning Python is not an easy one. If you aim for easy, don’t start learning to code.
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