RMOTR

Interesting projects that exposed me to a variety of topics in python.

Sometimes the projects involved libraries that were confusing, and so instead of getting to spending most of the time learning about the topic that we were supposed to be learning, we had to waste a lot of time struggling to understand the other library (e.g. in the decorator project, dealing with logger. Or in the mix-in project, dealing with argparse.). I would suggest that when there is an extra library being used in a project, there should be some practice with it in the learn platform ahead of time, so we can get used to the syntax.

Also, I think having more experience building a project from scratch is important. Having the interface and tests already created is probably 90% of a typical project. And overall project structure (how to structure packages and modules) is something that I don't know much about and wish I had had the chance to practice in this course.

Another issue was when the tests had errors in them that made it impossible to pass the tests. That made the coding sessions frustrating, because we were not just debugging our own code but the tests also.

Finally, I thought there was a big difference in what was taught during the lessons on Wednesday and what we were expected to do in the coding sessions. I found that most of the Wednesday sessions didn't teach me much that I didn't already know from the assigned reading, learn platform, or previous experience. But then when we got to the actual coding session it was far more difficult than what was taught. I think it would be better to assume/require people have done the reading and then teach the class accordingly so that we learn more in the teaching sessions.

That said, I still think it's a great course and methodology. I would totally recommend it.

I loved the intensity and collaborating with other course takers.

I truly enjoyed my experience with the RMOTR guys, I have just two things I'd want to have shared with me if I were a RMOTR owner: 1. I felt a few times that mentors were pushy / overbearing in their 'help' during coding sessions. I had been cut off mid-thought several times while trying to describe my problem + thought processes. Once the mentor saw the issue, I felt flooded with 'xyz' on what to do; most often this left me more confused on what the code was doing and why. 2. I posted in the mentors-help Slack channel twice over the 4 week course, both times it felt slow to have someone get back to me; which I didn't really like in the moment - a good chunk of the Rmotr sales pitch was 'mentored learning', between this and point 1, I'd have to say I feel better mentored by my peers than Rmotr itself. A few checks-and-balances to what I'm saying here: I asked for mentors-help at weird times (e.g. Sunday evening) and I probably should have been in the beginner's camp (as the material was too dense for me to get through in the 4-week time frame). All in all, I'm very happy I chose RMOTR and would give you my business again under the right circumstances. Thanks so much

The people at RMOTR, whether they are the instructors, mentors, or fellow students, are perhaps the best part of the RMOTR experience. Everyone is very helpful, kind, and they all want you to understand the material.

"What follows is my perspective as a student who literally picked up coding earlier this year in January 2017. For others, I under these criticisms may not apply. At multiple points in the course, I found myself in way over my head in terms of the difficulty of the projects. This is both a good and bad thing. It's good because it is helpful to learn difficult concepts. But on the other hand, the feeling of helplessness during some of the projects left me very drained. Especially with further projects on the horizon with even more difficult and novel concepts. For example, after trying to learn one library or module in one project, we are thrown into a new project where we have to tackle even more modules, novel syntax from other frameworks, and even more new syntax from SQL databases. I am happy to try and learn all of these things. But all at once, in a 2-3 hour coding session, is quite daunting. I would have appreciated more practice and familiarity with some of these modules/libraries and concepts outside of the coding sessions. I'm not sure what could or could not be done with the 'learn' environment. In the latter half of the course, 'learn' is used a lot less and while I'm not sure the comparison to the Introductory Course is apt here, but in that course, the 'learn' assignments were much more helpful in preparation for the coding sessions and projects. Lastly, the more difficult projects seem like they would take most people quite some time to complete, necessitating more coding sessions. It can be difficult to arrange times outside the allotted schedule with other students and mentors to get help. P.S. - You guys should clone Jason Symons."

Mentors truly worked at your pace even when it must have been infuriating.

2 small things I didn't like. The time projects actually took was usually well over the 3 hour projected time. This led to several late nights and burned me out at the end of the course. Second small thing, the lectures skimmed over some material that became extremely important when doing a project. Sometimes felt that they lectures only hit the broadest of topics and we were supposed to research the tiny topics on our own time, most of my own time was spent trying to finish up prior projects.

"The amount of material covered was great, I felt I gained a much stronger grasp of Python during this course. I really like the instructors, and I find curriculum is really well structured. I'm a big fan and I will return when you have more courses that appeal to me, I'm even considering taking the Django class in a few months. Thanks for doing an amazing job!!"

I felt I took on too much by going directly from Intro to Python into Advanced Python. I would love if there was a bridge module that we could take, that consisted of several projects of the same complexity as the last few in Intro, first few of the Advanced class, basically involved object oriented programming problems. This combined with weekly meeting with mentors would have helped me solidify my skills before taking on the large workload and overwhelming amount of information of the advanced class. If I were to do it again, I would make sure that the advanced class was the only thing I had to focus on, as the amount of work is significantly more than the intro class. Waiting a month or two with active programming in Python would also have helped me.

I loved the fixed schedule, I would have never forced myself to read that much and work on projects that much on my own. I also really liked the exercises on the Learn platform, they just seemed to fit perfectly for cementing/applying what you just read. Simple enough to figure out in not too long of time, but with enough twist to make you think and make sure you actually understand what you just read.

I didn't really like working in groups on the projects. I feel more comfortable learning and experimenting with things on my own. In the groups, it either felt like your partner was leaving you behind, or you might be leaving your partner behind, but if you taught everything to your partner and made sure they understood everything, the project would take twice as long.

Having a strict schedule (clear start and end date to the class, scheduled classes) with a short timeline (4 weeks) and lots of accountability (through all the required group work, having to join the Zoom sessions, mandatory human interaction) were all extremely helpful for a non-committal, procrastinating person like me. I usually never finish classes or I slack off, but RMOTR's class somehow pulled out a new level of dedication. I think out of all of those, being in a class with "real people" and interacting with each other was the most helpful in terms of keeping me coming and and staying on track. Taking other online courses can sometimes feel isolating, but RMOTR did the absolute best it could in relieving that.

I have mixed feelings about amount of resources given on the material. If I were not already aware of and familiar with all of the concepts covered, I imagine that the links for reading material would not be enough. The lectures to cover concepts were not that detailed either. I think what filled me in most were the Learn exercises and the group projects, so I would suggest having even more Learn exercises (double the amount, especially for the OOP and Advanced OOP sections) OR adding another project per week on Tuesdays instead of having just a Learn exercise group work day. I think Monday & Tuesday sessions were the least helpful because we wouldn't cover much in the Zoom session and we didn't do any projects those days either.