RMOTR Reviews
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Delio Castillo
Amazing Course
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The advance python course is excellent for learning the stuff that other courses decide to overlook. This course covers the correct way of developing real world applications using the tools that can help you to be an asset to any programming team.
The projects from day one are created using source control and professional ide tools. The main benefit for me personally is that the course taught me the relevance and true advantages of test-driven development. Before I took this course I had read countless articles about writing unit tests for applications, but until I took this course I could not really relate to how this was applied in the real world.
All projects are given with a set of tests which guide the process of the development. Most of the projects have a place where the student has to write their own tests. All projects are recorded on github and they are submitted as pull requests and reviewed by peers, much like it is done in the real world.
I cannot recommend this course enough. It is really time consuming, but the assignments are so fun, that you cannot wait until the next one comes up. This is really how programming should be taught everywhere.
Thanks to the instructors for a great course. Looking forward for the next one!
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Jason Symons
Amazingly helpful people.
This course has been amazing. The teachers are very knowledgable and extremely helpful. Be warned, it's a lot of work, you're looking at an easy 20+ hours of week, but it's totally worth it. After the month you can feel the progress you've made. I wouldn't hesitate about taking another class from Rmotr.
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David Hall
A truly great Python course
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I was skeptical about paying for a course on Advanced Python, but this course was a steal for everything I got out of it. From the very first session, this course taught all the arcane, advanced Python techniques I've been wanting to master. I thought to myself, the first class alone was worth the price of admission. But then, continuing on with real-life inspired labs and lots of help from the instructors and a half-dozen mentors, this class was truly a gem.
Fair warning - it's a heavy time commitment. They say this up-front, 1 class a week, 3 labs with lab partners a week, but there is pre-reading for each class and sometimes the labs take extra time, especially if you get bitten by the bug to perfect your code (which you will want to do). However, the time is well worth it, never boring, and sharpens your skills more than you can imagine.
I've taken a lot of online courses, and most of them these days are pre-recorded professors and a couple interns (and your fellow students) as your only help. This class ( and other rmotr classes) are live and interactive (and recorded in case you miss them ) and the instructors are un-stumpable! Their breadth of knowledge makes learning fun but they also help when you are stuck, helping you connect the dots (whether in class or on slack or google hangouts) to make sure you have the concepts down. That's not in most online courses and should be taken into account when you sign up --- you're getting almost 24 hour assistance and a live class. Not only are they smart, but the instructors/mentors are *good* people.
I could go on, but I doubt you, Kind Reader, are still reading this far. If you are, why?!.... you should be signing up for this (or other Rmotr) class. If you're still in doubt, look at the other reviews. They're all 5s [as of this writing] -- they didn't pay us to say this ( I swear!) --- we paid them!!
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Adonias Delmiro Dantas Neto
Totally recommended
The course is based on projects. Every week we have 3 project assignements and lots of content to study. It's very difficult but at the end i think it's worth. The instructors have great knowledge in python and will help you to increase your skills. I recommend.
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Preston
Excellent Python Course
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This is an excellent python course. It teachs you not only Python syntax but gives you a deep understanding of how Python works and OOP concepts in general that can be applied to other languages you may learn in the future. The coding sessions vary from simple in the begining to some fun little projects towards the end. Make sure you have enough time to dedicate to the course. The reading materials take a few hours a week outside of class to finish and the coding sessions in my experiance averaged 3 ~ 6 hours to complete each project. Overall I found the course fun and very informative and a great value for the cost.
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Nektarios Katakis
Totally recommended!
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I just completed this course and feel totally satisfied! It was intense (worked over 40 hrs per week ) but worth the trouble for sure. I learned python and moreover all the basic programming consepts. In fact I learned in a month more than I would learn on my own in over a year.
The course is really good structured. It starts with very simple stuff but after that is a very steep climb to python programming. All the projects had their unit tests, which really helps you on what you have to produce each time. Also the readings were very well chosen although too many. And finally, the instructors really experienced usually gave you tips you needed to complete or debug your project.
In a month I completed 12 projects and 3 of them were web development with Flask and advanced consepts even there. Couldn't really ask for more. I will repeat though, that this is an advanced course, certainly not for beginners.
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Greg
Great in depth look at python and development
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I think this course is a great, very intensive overview of some advanced python features like iterators, generators, Object oriented programming, and advanced functional programming paradigms. It also gives expansive practice with working in teams and working on fun projects. The course was hard to keep up with as someone full-time, and I wish the projects were more oriented towards the weekend. Also I wish there was a greater emphasis on getting practice with git rather than relying on cloud9. -
Rosie
Unequivocally responsible for jump-starting my Python competency
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The RMOTR team is up front about the course requirements: it's not for beginners, and it is intensive. I admittedly took this a bit too lightly and was quickly overwhelmed. I spent literal nights and weekends reading and coding to get through this course... I starved a little. My boyfriend left me. No just kidding but it was super intense, and I was in bed at 2AM reading through my course material and spending 12 hour straight Saturdays on project assignments.
This sounds bad, but in reality, it was the opportunity I needed to deep dive and wrap my head around concepts I that I was unable to fully grasp when studying by myself. In a month I went from wtf'ing 4 pages into the Django tutorial, to writing programs with my colleagues who had been using Python for years. It's also super neat to remain a part of the RMOTR Slack community, where everyone is more than willing to help out with my personal projects, chime in on concept and design debates, and put up with all of our memes. It's the best kind of virtual networking.
Our instructors, Santiago & Martin, are the perfect teaching duo who address doubts and questions quickly and succinctly. They exhibit endless patience and right away it becomes obvious that they genuinely want their students to succeed. Their passion and dedication is nothing short of admirable - it's contagious and inspiring.
Overall it was significantly trying, it was stressful, and while ultimately undeniably fun, in hindsight it was as close to the definition of a coding bootcamp that you can get. I recommend it 100%, to any and everyone willing to dedicate the time and effort. If I could go back I would endure the struggle again in a heartbeat.
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Ben D.
Advanced Python Course Will Advance Your Abilities.
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I wasn't prepared for the Advanced Python course. I hadn't been doing that much programming in the couple of months that led up to it. I hadn't seen a side project of any decent size to completion. But I stuck with Rmotr and I gained more than I could have asked for.
There were a lot of subjects and projects that I didn't fully understand during the course. I completed the preparatory readings and problem sets. I dove into the projects head first. I spent a lot of time feeling like real clarity was just beyond me.
The thing is though, if you want to learn to breathe underwater, you have to drown first.
I spent my time in teams with colleagues who had different strengths, different levels of familiarity with Python and with programming in general. I had the opportunity to see how they worked, to read their code, to learn from my peers. I put in many hours beyond the allotted time. I put in more concentrated time than I ever have learning to code.
The staff were incredibly helpful. The problem sets, the projects, each built incrementally on the last.
When the course ended I worked on a few side projects. It helped me to realize that the course had provided me with something greater than the sum of its parts. Whereas in the past I would approach some programming project and be overwhelmed by the big picture, now I could take a problem and break it down into actionable steps.
Over the next couple of months as I did my own work, little flashes of insight would come as something from Rmotr's Advanced Python course clicked for me. I'm now learning data structures and a few other languages for web development. None of that would have been possible without the incredible leg up that I received from Rmotr.
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NJC
Excellent
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While this course's time committment is fairly significant, several aspects of it, combined into the whole, make it unbeatable. The price point, the scope of the material, and the dedication of the individuals running the course make it stand out above other comparable online classes.
By using test-driven development and pair programming as a core part of the learning process, students are exposed to more than just coding, and gain experience with real-world development strategies that are just as important as knowing the languages involved. They gain experience delegating responsibilities and understanding best practices through instant feedback from peers.
As part of learning advanced Python concepts within the core language, students apply these concepts to crash courses in the basics of libraries like SQLite3, BeautifulSoup, and Flask, to create projects that have similar functionality to real-world applications. Git and Bash concepts are taught to give experience with tools that professional programmers use daily.
While this course is not quite as immersive or demanding as others like Hack Reactor or App Academy, it also doesn't demand such a steep investment. Even with its scope limited to advanced Python concepts, this course's value far outstrips even the less expensive options, which are of dubious quality and still more expensive than this course.
The best part of this course is the knowledgeable instructors and mentors that, as a consequence of being distributed across the world, are able to assist throughout the day and night. For individuals who have odd-hour time committments or are simply in a different part of the world, they can get help as easily as any other student.
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Ben B
The perfect intermediate/advanced course
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Having spent quite a bit of time coding in Python as part of my degree - but never having had any formal education in Python (or programming in general) - Rmotr's course seemed an ideal way to educate myself, specifically about OOP, without having to start from the basics. In short, the course was excellent. Topics covered included: functional programming, OOP, classes, mixins, decorators, magic methods, retrieving and parsing data from external APIs, basic database use, use of web frameworks (Flask in particular) and almost certaibly other topicd I've failed to mention here Needless to say, it's an intense 4 weeks. The lectures are very informative and include numerous Q&A opportunities, the online "Learn" (homework) platform works well and compliments the lectures. The lecturers themselves are somehow almost always available on Slack if you run into difficulty. However, by far the star feature of the course is the team projects (2-3 a week). In these you're paired off with other course members and set projects to complete (relavent to that weeks lectures). After getting over the initially fear of working with "some randomers on the internet" this became really, really fun and by far the most effective way to learn and practice. The projects start easy and gradually get pretty involved. Once you've completed a project and it's passed all the automated tests it's peer reviewed by another team and you do likewise. I found this to be an excellent way of learning and expanding my understanding of Python as a language by seeing how other teams achieved the same results using, sometimes completely, different methodologies. The only downside about this course (of which I was aware going in to it) was, based in the UK, the lectures fell about 11pm to midnight or beyond as the course is geared for North/South American timezones. I was, however, deliberately paired with the two other Europeans on the course so projects could be worked on at more sociable times. All in all Rmotr's course is fantastic value for money and I am a much more confident Python programmer having taken it. I would highly reccomened this to anyone who already has a good understanding of Python basics and wants to take their understanding up a notch. -
Chris
Accelerate your Python journey
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The Advanced Python course is a ~4 week long course where you're pushed to learn a lot of different stuff from decorators, working with Flask to advanced OOP in Python. There is a lot of material for you to work with be it reading material that you otherwise wouldn't come across easily all the way to Python talks/lectures that are more obscure.
Projects are an integral part of the course and this is where you actually apply all you've learned and in the end you'll even be able to imitate a popular social media site (which one? we'll you'll just have to find out yourself!)
I'm currently also doing the Django course that they just started so I'm still learning new stuff right now but I feel like I wouldn't even be 10% as knowledgable as I am right now if I hadn't taken this course. So, if you're hesitating, don't. It's worth it.
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Luke
A Focus on Programming
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The team behind Rmotr have built an excellent program that puts an emphasis on actual programming over classroom topics. We did 12 projects, each one focusing/requiring a specific element of Python being studied.
I had been self-learning Python for a couple years, but had yet to work on large projects alongside other people. Rmotr gave me the expierence of working with other developers to figure out the projects. It's an invaluble experience and slightly intimidating at first, but really worth the effort.
The teachers were always available, weither via a quick email, Slack, or to hop into a Hangout and discuss a topic. That kind of hands-off support is vital in learning, leaving most of the work to student, but not totally alone.
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Alan J
Great Instructors
RMOTR was pivitol in helping me grow my programming skills beyond a beginner level. Martin and Santiago are extremely knowledgeable and always went above and beyond to help students grasp the topics. Also getting to present our final project to a panel of people working in the industry was a great experience! Would reccomend!
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Ivan Zugnoni
Learn things that books don't teach you.
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This was the first time I participated in a remote programming course. Without any doubts, it worthed the time and money that I spent here.
Teachers at RMOTR always try to explain every topic conceptually and good practices, so you can apply them in professional life regardless of the technologies that you're currently using. Then, with the coding sessions, group works and mentors help you can go deep into Python stuff and learn the language from its roots.
If you're willing to take this course, make sure you have enough time to spend in pre-class readings and group coding sessions. It can turn a little bit tough, but at the end the amount of things that you'll learn in just four weeks is unbelievable.
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Anthony
Very rewarding if you put in the time and effort!
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RMOTR's advanced python programming course is aboslutely worth the time and money. It's very time conusming, so I suggest those with other committments to seriously make time for this course because you only get what you put into it.
The instructors , Martin and Santiago, want you to succeed and will take the time to explain concepts that you have trouble undertstanding. In addition, we had access to mentors that previously took this course. They have a schedule of when they're available, so you might have to wait a day when you/re outside of those hours.
The projects they give us are pretty fun and relevant. I liked how the coursework actually made us use concepts that we've learned in the previous weeks.
Here's one thing that I would like for them to improve: The last week's projects are about web applications. I think they should talk about web app security best practices. While they do teach us to make our programs somewhat robust by running provided tests, I don't recall them mentioning anything about it. I want to bring this up because you have to be familiar with security, otherwise your app that you push into production is going to have vulnerabilities.
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Nicolás S.
Excellent experience for all those interested in Python
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This course was one of my first when it comes to programming, and I have to say has set the bar incredibly high for any others that might follow. The teachers did an excellent job explaining concepts and project, while the mentors were always around to give us a hand if needed.
The course covered both advanced Python concepts and web development using Flask. It's been extremely well designed, focusing on TDD on the practical side to finish the given assignments. It also introduces the concept of collaborative design, so it's a great opportunity for those looking for group projects and the chance to work with Git.
If you have the time and dedication required for this course, take it! Overall, it's a tough but incredibly rewarding experience, and one that I've enjoyed immensely!
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gorrog
Tough, but SO worth the time and money!
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About 6 weeks ago, I was on this page perusing the reviews for the Rmotr course and wondering:
1. If this was a real course and
2. If the glowing reviews were genuine.
Well, 6 weeks later after having taken the course myself, I can assure you that this is indeed a real online course and that any positive reviews you read here are the real thing!
Some background: I'm a computer science graduate and had been studying Python and Django on my own for a few months. While I made some progress, this class has speeded up by learning by at least a factor of 10. If you are interested in going from Python beginner to Python expert in the shortest amount of time, and don't want to take out a massive student loan to do it, this is the course for you.
6 weeks ago, when I enrolled, I had a fairly basic knowledge of python programming. I could do simple things, but it took me time and effort to think about them, and I wasn't confident in any way. Last night, I just submitted my solution for a Twitter clone's API to my Github account and did a pull request for the teachers and my classmates to review it. The code I wrote is backed by extensive tests and works correctly in 4 versions of Python. Not only was I able to do this, but I understood everything I was doing and I can honesly say I felt fairly comfortable doing it. This is a big deal for me because even after 4 years of programming in Java at university, I never felt as comfortable coding as I do now. I now feel confident that given time, I can tackle pretty much any problem I need to using Python.
Santiago and Martin are great teachers and the mentors are always helpful and friendly. Even though I was in a completely different time zone, I didn't have many occasions when I wasn't able to get help from somebody.
One warning though - you must be prepared to work. This is a tough course and the pace is fast. You'll need a significant amount of time available to get through all the work for each week. However, if you can devote yourself to it for 4 weeks, you will be amazed at how much you learn.
Highly recommended!
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Demetri Koziris
Excellent python and programming course
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This course, while relatively short at 4 weeks, is very densly packed and takes you through prgramming in python from the very basics all the way to more advance concepts as well as touching on APIs, databases, and web development.
The strength of the course is in how it's structured. In addition to readings and small homework problems, you work with other students on 3 projects every week with guidance and help from instructors and mentors.
While the course requires dedication and a decent time commitment, having access to mentors means that you don't have to waste a lot of time spinning your wheels or stuck for hours on a problem. Most of your time is spent actively learning and working on projects with other students and that is why it was valuable for me. I definitely learned a lot and feel confident in recommending this course to others. -
Tod Lazarov
RMOTR
Great course top to bottom. I thouroughly enjoyed the projects that we build(they were many, up to 3 per week). They are difficult and thought provoking that push you to learn and go outside of your comfort zone.
Suggestion for people that are planning on taking this course: Get a head start on the readings and make sure you stay ahead. -
Alonso Gutierrez
Excellent bootcamp to go from beginner/intermediate to advanced python programmer
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This was an excellent bootcamp and the reasons are the following:
- The mentors and teachers cared about the students. They made sure that we could always find the answers when we got stuck.
- The program covers a lot of useful material. It takes a lot of time and dedication, so you should be prepare to invest time was well, but it is rewarding the amount of things that you learn from it. (It helped me a lot to perform well in a couple of interviews).
- The atmosphere is great, friendly, and tolerant. Whether you are an expert programmer or a beginner with a silly question you are always welcome to ask your questions.
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Landon Simmons
This was an excellent investment
Extremely helpful students, teachers, and mentors. Great course and indepth looks at advanced programming concepts and projects. This course has given me a real look at what the field requires of a programmer. I am grateful that I got a chance to work with this team and with my fellow students. If you like programming and would like to learn more and indepth, this class will do wonders.
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Jessica Ngo
Amazing course, mentors and projects!
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I can't say enough about how helpful this course was for me. It was extremely efficient in its teaching, and I have learned so much in only 4 weeks. However, you do need to be ready to put in the work for this course, as it is very content-heavy.
A key part of this course is learning through doing, and the projects selected in this course are fantastic at getting you to really solidify your understanding of key concepts while completing your project. Lectures are only a fraction of the course, and the majority of learning will be focused on readings the student is expected to complete each week, and the projects. I think this way is a much more efficient way of teaching, since students can decide how they want to approach the material, and spend different amounts of time on concepts based on how much they know, and ask mentors if there are any difficulties. Also I believe that listening to lectures about coding is not as helpful as actually coding. The reason this course is able to cover so much material, and is so efficient in its teaching is actually because the course chooses this method of teaching and has a great mentor support system.
On top of that, their amazing support system of mentors makes it so you can always ask for help if you get stuck, and they will give you a little nudge in the right direction, or clarify any misunderstandings. Mentors will even go out of their way to check up on you every now and then to see how you're doing. Everyone is very friendly, and encouraging. Definitely a great environment to be learning in!One of the most exciting part of the course is at the end, where there is a optional project, and students can collaborate together to make something for a demo day. I am currently working on mine, and I can't wait to see everyone else's projects too. :)
One suggestion is that maybe there should be a collection of previous demo day projects somewhere, like a display of some sort to see what previous students have accomplished. It would be also interesting to see progress of students as the course gets improved even more or changes! It would also be useful for prospective students to get an idea of what they will be able to do at the end of the course. -
Brian
Dedicated teachers, mentors, and students
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With so many bootcamps out there, I came to rmotr based on price point. However, I most certainly got more than I paid for.
To echo some of the other reviews, this is not a walk in the park, especially for those coming in with little programming experience. That is not to say that you can't do it if you have less experience - it's to say that one should be prepared to spend a greater amount of time understanding, reading, and playing around with the projects. As the saying goes: "You get as much as you're willing to put in."
As someone who was moderately versed in Python, the class definitely challenged me, and it brought me new, usable knowledge in a very short time.
Just a short note about job assistance. It's not that job assistance is lacking from rmotr, it's that job placement is not the main focus here. People of all backgrounds come to this, some as students, some as professional, some seekings jobs. The mentors will do their best to help point you the right direction, but ultimately there's too broad of a scope to cover.
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Stephen Spears
Move to the next level
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I've been studying Python as a hobby for a couple of years now. I made it to a certain level on my own but hit a wall that I could not get over. Taking this class helped me scale the wall and put me on a track to expand my knowledge even further. The group setting of the course is great because I was able to learn from other students just as much as I was able to learn from the RMOTR team. The work is intensive, and for a month all I did was think about coding. Now that I've finished the course, I'm writing a personal website for my family with custom applications utilizing API's and Flask.
As for the instructors and the mentor team, they understand what it takes to deal with the multitude of personalities and levels of experience with python in their students. Never did I feel like I couldn't get help but I also know it would be JUST enough help to get us to do the work on our own. What a great balance.
Even though RMOTR doesn't actually help with Job Assistance, they do gear the course around a work style environment. All the education is directed towards finding employment. These guys have experience in the real world and share what it takes to make it as a developer.
I can't wait to take the Django course RMOTR offers. If you take this course, be ready to work for a month straight and be glad for every moment.
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Phil W
This is how you learn to code like a pro
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This course was definitely a challenge, and it was definitely worth it. Rmotr's teacher and mentor teams pushed me to learn features of the language I was not familiar with through readings, lectures, examples, and exercises, and they encouraged me to ask questions along the way. They did a great job of answering my immediate questions accurately and thoroughly, and giving me good recommendations on what documents to read to go deeper. The course included an impressive 12 programming projects, and looking back on it, I am surprised at all we were able to accomplish in the short span of time the course occupied.
I was cautiously optimistic about the course going into it. I've had bad experiences in the past using glitchy web conferencing services, and using web-based dev environments don't give you too little freedom to really learn how to work with a language. However, the conferencing tools the Rmotr team chose made lectures and coding sessions feel like they were in-person. And they walked us through the steps of getting set up on a cloud coding platform that reminded me of working on my home computer. I've even used it for personal projects since the course finished!
My confidence in my programming abilities has increased sharply since I completed the course. In addition to the language-specific topics Rmotr advertised in the course description, I gained great experience working on coding projects as part of a team, reviewing and commenting on code written by others, writing tests for my code, ensuring my code was version-independent, and deploying my code on the Python Package Index. I would recommend this course to anyone who has a basic grasp of Python or some other programming language, who desires to become a Python expert, and who is willing to get down and dirty for a few intense weeks of coding.
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Philipp
really enjoyed it
I really like this course. The classes were fine, but the projects are what really made it for me. There was almost always a mentor around, we even got someone available during european times, just for our one european group.
The projects were challanging and interesting. I would really recommend this course to everyone.
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Anubhav Yadav
Full of python awesomeness for one month!
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If you know python, but need some motivation in taking it to the next level, this course is for you. You will learn, the advanced concepts of python such as Functional Programming, Context Managers, Classes and Decorators, Web Development using Flask and not only that, you will learn when you should be using what.
The pre-reading compiled for the classes are exhaustive, and an excellent compilation on the best of the material available on the internet.
The most fun part for me were the group assignments, where the assignments given to use were actual real life problems, and the solution that was expected from us were nothing short of production ready code. Collaboration with other people on the course on the group projects was awesome, and doing code reviews on other groups submissions made me a better programmer.
You will learn how to use virtualenv effectively, create production ready Web Applications, learn the best practices for many things, including choosing the architecture for login based applications, how to structure your database etc. You will learn how to effectively write tests cases, and how to use py.test to test your code as you develop your application.
Most importantly you will enjoy!
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Christopher Li
Warning: You will learn a lot
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Rmotr.com is a fantastic programming class/bootcamp. I'm no stranger to online learning - CodeAcademy, Coursera, e-books - I've tried it all. One criticism of online learning is the isolation one can feel as they plow through a 'stack' of pre-made content, whether that's a set of chapters in a book or a queue of pre-recorded videos. It's easy to become disconnected. Santiago and Martin are doing a tremendous job bridging structured content with collaboration based learning - creating a virtual learning environment that's both effective and fun for students.
Rmotr.com builds upon students' knowledge of basic concepts in Python programming by focusing on building data-intensive projects and following good industry habits like TDD. A student will utilize OOP principles and advanced syntax features as they get their hands dirty with API development and basic web programming. Perhaps the most important highlight is the emphasis on group programming. Using a variety of web-based tools, students must learn to effectively communicate ideas, collaborate in shared workspaces and manage contributions linked to shared codebases through version control in order to succeed.
Not coincidentally, these are the kinds of soft skills aspiring engineers must have if they wish to succeed in the "real world" of development, and so students start practicing from the very start. For me this was the most challenging but also the most rewarding aspect of Rmotr.com. I'm still friends with some of my classmates, and we continue working on projects today!
This is more of an intermediate course, so make sure you have a grasp of fundamentals before signing-up. Things move quick, and expect to get your hands dirty early. You will learn a lot - you've been warned!
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Helen
Great experience
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The best part of the course was getting to work on the group projects with other students. Trying to teach yourself can be a really draining experience sometimes (I am a long time sufferer of "analysis paralysis"), so having a guided curriculum and fellow classmates was a fantastic experience.
The course goes over a lot of topics in a short time, and true to its name ("advanced python programming") you will get more out of it if you are decently familiar with programming. The last quarter of the class is heavily focused on web development.
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Charles L.
Awesome Course for the Uninitiated
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Rmotr was not just a class but also a collaboration between dedicated students and passionate mentors. The program aimed to go beyond just teaching the fundamentals of programming using a popular programming language, python, but provided the tools and environment so that newer developers would be well equipped to dive into the world of web development. Due to the nature of the course’s speed, the first couple of weeks were to ensure that all students were able to implement basic concepts such as conditionals, loops and simple data structures (lists, dictionaries, sets, etc.). The following weeks dove into intermediate topics including generators, decorators, comprehensions and object oriented programming (OOP). Each topic was not just thoroughly discussed but put into practice through easy to intermediate assignments. In-session assignments were usually solved through a group effort which in addition, assured that all students were on the same page before moving on to the next task. I can admittedly say that, initially, I had some difficulty with the concept of working on smaller problems as a group. Having taught myself for the months prior, I was able to rush through most of the problems. However, taking the time to discuss the problem as a group had taught me something that most technical books would never cover: how to effectively communicate with a team. Through smaller sessions of group programming, it was evident that we all had slight variations in approaching a specific problem. The mere act of verbally explaining the mental steps that I took would lead to one of two benefits. It would either help another student better understand the approach or it would provide a window for discussion which almost always has led to a better method in solving the task at hand. Both those outcomes were huge successes in my book. Following weeks were then spent on further reviewing object oriented concepts (inheritance, abstract classes, polymorphism, encapsulation) and taking the time to understand how a relational database functioned. These two tasks were critical during the development of the web app. Instead of blindly using an ORM, we would now be able to identify what commands were being initiated by SQLAlchemy methods. Structuring the configuration file around object oriented design, we were able to reduce the repetitiveness of the file but also make it easier to switch amongst the different environments (development, testing, production). The benefits of writing clear and concise programs was becoming increasingly evident as the project developed. As you may have guessed at this point, the last weeks were not class hangouts but geared towards diving into web development. I want to point out that most of the students had very little to no experience developing any type of web app. With the minimal supervision of the mentors, the students were set free to devise, organize and create a Flask app by the end of a given deadline. To emulate a working environment, groups would meet to discuss the scope of a given project, and to provide a proposal that outlined both the features and purpose of the app. The project would span for a total of four weeks, where a part of each week was spent in researching and building the app. Using Flask was an excellent choice for an intro to web development because it required the developers to pull the various components of the web app together which would teach the valuable lesson of reading through documentation. At the end of the four weeks, Santi and Martin had organized a demo day in which professional developers from various backgrounds provided well needed feedback of our apps. The developers asked questions which felt similar to code reviews. There were many questions about testing that I personally would keep in mind for future projects. By the final day of the program, I felt not only accomplished of what I have learned but also gained a small but close community of developers that I was more than willing to work with. -
Lana
The future of education
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I've been learning to code on my own for a few years now. I've gone through many books and online courses ranging from free to expensive, and I've completed a lot of coding challenges and exercises. I got to a point where I felt like I had written so much code that I should be ready to build things that other people can use. However, nearly every time I tried to write something from scratch I would stare blankly at my empty text editor, not knowing where to start, how to design or structure a program, how to create a whole product starting just from an idea, or how to break down a large objective into smaller pieces. Sometimes I might make it work, but I would be frustrated and annoyed the whole time and it would take me ages to finally complete it. How could I feel like I had no idea what I was doing when I've written so much code and solved so many problems successfully?
These resources I had been using all these years that made it easy for me to learn made it too easy. It was too easy to solve each objective, and while I might have learned some syntax, logic or a nifty language feature, I wasn't really learning how to think like a programmer. Programming isn't all that intuitive, despite languages and frameworks maturing and being updated with powerful new features. Programming is ultimately writing instructions for a computer -- a dumb, fast machine -- that just does what you tell it to do, which is the problem.
The most valuable and powerful thing I learned through this course that made me feel like a better programmer who finally made it to the next level was not about Python, or fancy techniques, or code design. It was the realization that programming is hard. It's really hard, and it can't be made easy no matter how you break it apart. And you shouldn't want it to be made easy, or at least I don't want it to anymore after this experience of working on multiple challenging projects per week for a month. I've grown vastly more in the month of the course as a programmer than I had in the previous multiple years of learning to code the easy way.
Oh Python, you beautiful nasty devil. I love you. I hate you. You make me feel smart. You make me feel stupid. You make me feel powerful. You make me feel ill. I previously only thought highly of Python and programming in general because it was so easy, but I hadn't realized I was rarely doing anything incredibly complicated with it. Being challenged stretches you out in different directions and it mangles you as you travel around on an emotional and mental rollercoaster going from singing eurekas to shouting obscenities, but you come out of it an improved version of yourself. That can be quite an uncomfortable experience during the ride, especially if you're doing it alone. Thanks to rmotr, I didn't go through it alone. I had fellow students alongside me who were getting beat up too, and we had the wonderful teachers and mentors to guide us and unstick us when we were too bloodied to go on.
And those fine folks are the value you're paying for. The teachers spent the time laying out the curriculum, which is structured expertly with a concise weekly lecture and 12 fun projects that very effectively get to the heart of each concept and test your understanding at all times. You don't just get high quality mentorship, or their well-designed code examples and explanations. All of this has culminated in coding experience that has caused me to lose the hesitation to experiment, gain confidence to break things, and enjoy collaboration.
You can put any price tag you want on information, and that's what much of the education field is comprised of, unfortunately. Who needs to consume information as their education when we live in a world that runs on information technology? Almost no one nowadays. These education systems are outdated. People don't need to learn information, they need to learn how to learn, think, and solve problems. People pay tens of thousands of dollars or more for university (credentials + information), ten to twenty thousand dollars for in-person coding bootcamps (interview prep + information + coding with other people in a desk-filled room), and a bit of money here and there for online courses or books (information). There's mostly nothing wrong with any of those options depending on your situation, but they might be relatively wasteful or ineffective if there's a better way.
If formative experiences are invaluable, information is abundant, and a person's time is scarce, how do you arrive at only $300 (or free if you get approved for their scholarship) for a month-long course that results in a formative experience that empowers you to be the productive, efficient programmer you've imagined you could be but couldn't figure out how on your own? That must be rare, or perhaps even unprecedented.
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Jonathan Hartford
Advanced Python Programming
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This is an excellent course. Working with other on collaborative group projects is a skill I'd never exercised before, and they introduced it right away. The materials are well set up, and lead right into the exercises.
This is a programming class; you're going to be writing a LOT of code, which is really the only way to learn. With some team mates to rely on, you can quickly get unstuck and learn a lot.
The mentors, which are always available on slack, are quick to jump on any questions you have, and can help dive into your code to provide a quick lesson or get you back on track.
They could charge a lot more and it would still be worth it.
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Luis Alvarez
Great intermediate/advanced program
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I'm convinced teaching is not for everybody. But Santiago and Martin got exactly what it takes, they have a gift for listening to people's questions, the patience to try to understand them, and the interest to resolve them.
The program is great for intermediate and advanced Python devs, it goes through some cool stuff, like decorators and iterators. I was able to apply some of those tricks right away, at work.
The networking is also fantastic, you get to meet/work with some cool people. I think the group work was my favourite part of the course, and looking at the project through the eyes of my teammates, looking at them try to solve the problem, was a great learning experience.
I'm sure the course/system has some aspects that can be worked on, but you'll notice these guys are brushing up their codebase daily, pushing fixes, and just improving overall.
Just for the chance of working with these instructors, and some cool teammates, the course it totally worth taking, imo.
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Akshith Yellapragada
Highly recommended! But not for beginners.
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Getting through the beginning of learning to code is quite easy. There is so much information on the internet out there for beginners learning to code, give me 5 minutes and I'll find you 20 different guides on getting Python running, and how to use the terminal and an IDE.
There are drastically fewer resources for intermediate programmers though. Once you get past the point of learning how to make a for loop, or having knowledge on all the basic data structures, you're left on your own. The next level of what you're told to do is "Go make a project of something you find fun!", and you're entirely lost.
I'll be completely honest, I think if you're dedicated enough, have the right mindset, have a really good work ethic, and have the time, you're probably able to get through that hurdle on your own and you don't need this class.
Unfortunately for us, and fortunately for Santiago and Martin, I'd say 99% of the people in the world who are trying to learn to code don't fit those requirements. This class gives you the direction and focus you need to help you break through that intermediate wall. A journey that on my own probably would've taken me a year, I feel like I've gone through just this last month.
The basic structure of the class is like this: You have some solo reading with some homework to help you force yourself to apply the reading, you have a couple of classes where they go more indepth into the reading, and then you have the meat of the class, and the most helpful part, the group coding sessions. Every week you get a new group of people, and you get 3 coding assignments where you really start to grow as a developer. Each assignment isn't a small project you run a simple script for and get the output and return that, it feels like you're doing a professional level project, and helps you get in the proper mindset and to learn many of the best practices.
I do stress that this class isn't for beginners. They spend barely any time on the bare essentials like for loops or syntax, so you're going to have to know all that before you even apply. If you can't write a loop to get all the odd numbers out of a given list, for example, look at some of the beginner resources again. If on the other hand that looks incredibly easy to you, just go ahead and apply!
I guess to summarize, I highly recommend the class, the structure and reading material really felt helpful to my progress as a developer, and to get past the initial hump of lack-of-direction. I feel a lot more confident in my abilities to do larger projects.
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DCJ
Great Advanced Python Course
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I greatly enjoyed Rmotr's advanced python course. They gave rigorous treatment to iterators & generators, oop, decorators, and web frameworks. We also covered use of a number of popular modules & packages including SQLite, pymongo, flask, beautifulsoup among others.
One of the best aspects of the course was the group programming -- ranging from 2-3 people and tackling challenging code projects, complete with unit testing.
Overall the support structure, presentation of content and hands-on practice came together for a great course. I learned a ton.
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David Granas
Highly recommended - a revolutionary programming course!
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I highly recommend the Advanced Python Programming class from rmotr for anyone looking to take their programming to the next level.
One great aspect of the course is participating in live group programming. We were given three assignments a week to complete in a group of 2 or 3 people. Each student had different backgrounds and we were able to share expertise on different subjects. We learned how to come up with a plan to tackle the problems as a group, and how to split up different areas in an efficient manner. I had previously taken online courses through coursera and edX, but rmotr's group programming approach really revolutionized the online education system. It was an amazing experience to work side-by-side on a program with someone on the opposite side of the world. This gave me the chance to really get to know my fellow students and form a network of support and possible collaborations going forward.
A second aspect I enjoyed was the assignments themselves. They rose in difficulty in a way that built on itself. Early assignments introduced classes, iterators, and decorators while later assignments made use of these features in an intuitive way. This class was particularly good for me because I had always been intimidated to jump into web development. I never knew what packages to use or what project to try. This class gave me the push I needed to just start doing it, and provided a solid groundwork in web development that can be applied to whatever tools you are using. For everything I learned about writing actual Python code, I learned even more about the higher-level aspects of programming such as understanding packages, working with github, unit-testing, and even submitting a package to PyPI.
This class packed a ton of experience and information into a short amount of time. Although I am by no means an expert in the subjects covered, I know have a solid groundwork and the confidence I can tackle new problems that I couldn't before.
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Jason
Great Python Course!
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I took this course two months ago and was quite impressed with it. I had entry level experience in programming and python and was interested in transitioning into a career involving python. This course helped me to finally get into more advanced concepts with material that is very practical for real world use in the workplace. In my opinion, doing projects is the best way to learn a language and there were plenty of them (challenging too!). The instructors did a great job answering questions and making the learning process casual and comfortable. This course does require a lot of hours and you need to be ready for that, but for me it was definitely a solid time investment. At the end of the class, you are able to create a real world demo project with a group that you present to other python developers so you really get the full experience.
Since the course ended, I now can feature my demo day project in my portfolio as I am searching for jobs. I'm a part of the group on slack with all previous rmotr students and the instructors where we talk about job opportunities, further studies in python, and help each other with coding and questions. This course provided me with direction when I really needed it (I struggled with self-taught courses) and has left me with a great opportunity to find a python related job. Couldn't recommend it more.
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Yatri Trivedi
A stellar course for budding programmers
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I found this course on reddit and applied, thinking that I was still pretty new to programming. I had been teaching myself Python for a while, but definitely felt pretty stuck on the intermediate side of things. I applied to Rmotr, got accepted, and took the course. It was one of the best decisions I made. (Full disclosure: I now work with the company as a TA)
The course took me though a lot of the more advanced concepts that I struggled to figure out on my own. There were excellent reading/studying resources, live classes over video chat, solo homework, and group projects. We tackled advanced mechanics of the language like decorators and generators, flask/web backends, and working with databases. We also focused a lot on the conceptual side, like when to use classes, when to use iterators vs generators, how to structure a project in flask, etc. The end of the class saw us forming a group and going from an idea to a coded, functional, deployed proof-of-concept project in a few short weeks. We got a lot of feedback from that, and also got advice on turning our new skills into a job (for me, this didn't apply).
I made a large investment of time, but got a lot out of it. They've recently restructured their course with feedback from former students like me and it's even more streamlined and focused now. As I said, it was definitely one of the best programming classes I've ever taken. It bridged that gap from self-study to actually working with python professionally. The instructors did a great job tying the things we learned together and definitely helped us build bigger projects as time went on. Aside from that, they continue to be super helpful in answering any questions (from "is there a library that does x" to "any tips on this job posting?") I or other classmates have had.
In the interest of full disclosure, I now work with the company as a TA, helping new students find answers and troubleshoot problems during their group work or in general. It's been about a year since I started the course and I am very happy to be a part of something I got so much out of. I definitely would have written this review if I wasn't working with the company, and I have written reviews in the past before I signed on.
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Anonymous
I learned a lot, and I had a lot of fun doing so!
I took RMOTR's free python course on August 2017, and I had a pretty positive experience. The environment was great, I shared classes with people from all around the world and had a lot of fun while learning. Not even mentioning that everything was given for free.