What surprised me the most about learning core is....how afraid I was that I wouldn't be able to learn. It's bizarre to admit it but I think having been out of school or any learning environment for so long, I was really quite worried that I would struggle to keep up with the course. Learning about neuroplasticity definitely helped to alleviate those concerns. For now I'm happy with the progress I've made, we'll see what bootcamp brings!
As above the core learnings have been helpful in the sense that they've helped me to understand that I can learn. This has been particularly helpful when I've hit roadblocks along the way. When a particular piece of code isn't working as expected it's easy to look internally and blame yourself. There were definitely a number of times where I went back to re-learn a certain concept only to find that I was using it correctly. My confidence in myself and my own abilities has definitely been grown and cultivated through the core exercises.
1. Sometimes it's best just to take a break. It's so tempting to sit there and bash your head against the screen for hours on end, but I've definitely found that sometimes it's far more productive just to walk away for a few minutes and come back to the problem from a different perspective.
2. I need to celebrate my successes! Whether it be hi-fiving Karl when we'd get something running in our pair programming exercises or cranking up my music and having a little boogie at home nothing beats recognising and revelling in success.
Probably that it put something into words that I always suspected to be true. Learning about neural pathways and how the brain 'builds' itself helped shape my study programme of chipping away at problems in small, regular pieces.
Honestly, while I found the core exercises to be useful I didn't find them challenging. They seemed more like a good way to maximize your learning through reflection and a good way to keep your head-space in a good place.