Codeup Student Check In: Month 2

Codeup welcomed our newest cohort, the Wrangell cohort, on July 23. With the start of this cohort, we are launching a new blog series: the Codeup Student Check In. We’ll interview a student over the course of their time with us to see how things are progressing from first impressions all the way to graduation. Thus, welcome to the Codeup Student Check In: Month 2!Check out Month 1 and Month 3.We took the time to sit down with our Wrangell student to see how they’ve been doing so far!Codeup: Describe what you’re learning right now. Is it hard/fun/challenging? Wrangell Student: In this section of the curriculum we are learning about the basics of Java and the building blocks that make up the language. This language is more verbose than previous material, and one of the hardest parts is understanding the instructions and translating them to code. C: How has the learning process/information gathering been?S: A wide variety of resources are available. In addition to the curriculum, I utilize the Head First Java book and the Oracle documentation. Another challenge is combining the knowledge from all these resources into one.C: How do you feel your skill level compares to last month? S: Comparing my skill level now with that of last month is no contest. Everyone around me is improving as well and I am excited to see my classmates skill levels growing. Our skills are improving exponentially!C: How have the instructors and staff been helpful?S: The instructors hold study hall before class and after to give us extra help. They’re constantly posting resources in our slack channel and encouraging us to ask questions. They have no problem going back to review material or clarify any questions we have. At the same time, they encourage our learning. They don’t give us the answer if it’s obvious or an easily searchable question.C: Share a fun experience you had at Codeup!Our great staff gave us some very cool thermoses. I’m a diehard sticker fan. I immediately ordered coding and anime related stickers for this thermos and they’re going straight on the thermos the moment they come in!C: What has been the most memorable part of this month and has anything exciting happened?S: Codeup expanded onto the 6th floor of the Vogue building, so we’re coding in a totally different environment. It’s full of natural light, which makes me very happy. I personally love heights so it’s great to look out the windows while taking a break from coding.Something exciting that happened was that I got my first star! Instructors give us stars for asking good questions. I’m the type of person who needs to google the answer first before asking something. I wouldn’t want to ask something that is easily available on the internet. However, Java is very challenging, and I just needed to ask questions and I got a star! Super exciting!