I Created An Amazing Programming Study Plan with ChatGPT: Here’s how!
Tags: chatgpt, webdev, react, tutorial
Published: 2023-10-30 17:00:00

Let's be honest—ChatGPT has its limitations. But when it comes to crafting in-depth study plans, it's an amazing resource! Creating a comprehensive study plan isn't a one-prompt wonder; it's a project that may take a few hours and additional resources. The end result? A meticulously designed roadmap that can guide you to mastery in any subject area.

## A Sneak Peek into a Study Module

Before we dive into the nitty-gritty, let's explore a sample module from the study plan. I'll also provide a link to the complete plan in Markdown format on GitHub at the end of this article.

```
## Component Architecture

### Importance

React applications are built using components. Understanding how to structure and compose these components is key to building scalable and maintainable applications. Components use states, props, and lifecycle methods to function and interact with each other.

### Goal

Design and structure React applications by decomposing user interfaces into modular, reusable components.

### Resources

[React Patterns](https://reactpatterns.com/)

[Thinking in React – React](https://react.dev/learn/thinking-in-react) 

[Your First Component – React](https://react.dev/learn/your-first-component)

[How to Structure Your React Project](https://daveceddia.com/react-project-structure/) 

### Reflection

- In front-end development, component-based architecture is fundamental. Can you explain what component composition means and why it's crucial for building scalable and maintainable web applications? Provide an example of how you've used component composition in a previous project.
- Components often manage both state and props. Can you differentiate between component state and props in React? How do you decide when to use state and when to use props in a component? Please provide an example of a situation where you made this decision and how it influenced your component's architecture.
- One of the key advantages of component architecture is reusability and modularity. How do you ensure that your components are reusable across different parts of an application or even in different projects? Can you share an example of a highly reusable component you've designed and how it contributed to the overall project architecture?
```

## Crafting Your Study Plan: A Step-by-Step Guide

### Step 1: Identify Your Learning Goals

Start by using this prompt to identify the skills and topics you need to master:

```
Act as an expert [role you want] who uses [technology / skill you want to learn]. You're helping a student who is skilled with [list technologies / skills that you already understand] develop a study plan for them to learn to do what you do. List 10 technical skills and 5 conceptual topics that the student must master in order to do so. Then list these 15 topics in the order that the student could best learn them. Use the Pareto principle.
```

### Step 2: Create a Structured Document

Once you've identified the topics, create a document with these as headings. I personally use Notion, but plain Markdown works just as well.

You’ll be copying and pasting content into this document because the study plan eventually becomes too long for ChatGPT to remember all of the content.

### Step 3: Elaborate on Importance

Next, you’ll use this prompt to develop a section explaining the importance of each topic:

```
Assume that the student is developing a study plan with each of these 15 topics as a module. For each module, explain in 1 - 2 sentences why mastering this topic is important for getting a job as a [role you want]. Then explain in 1 - 2 sentences how each module connects with other modules in the study plan. Format these 2 - 4 sentences as a short paragraph.
```

Then, copy and paste these into each modules in the document under a heading called “Importance” or “Significance”.

### Step 4: Define Learning Objectives

Develop specific learning objectives for each module using this prompt:

```
For each of the 15 modules in the learning plan, develop 3 - 5 specific learning objectives for the student to master in order to demonstrate understanding of each topic. Format these learning objectives a short paragraph instead of bullet points.
```

Then, copy and paste these into each modules in the document under a heading called “Goals” or “Learning Objectives”.

You may not understand all of the concepts mentioned in these learning objectives. That’s okay! You’ll understand them when you get to that module.

We’ll skip the resources section for now.

### Step 5: Prepare for Interviews

Generate example interview questions for each module:

```
For each of the 15 modules in this learning plan, develop 3 example questions that a student should be able to answer well in order to demonstrate understanding of each topic in an interview for a [role you want] position. Write the questions exactly how they might be asked in an interview. Format the interview questions in a unordered list.
```

Then, copy and paste these into each modules in the document under a heading called “Interview Questions” or “Reflection”.

Again, you probably won’t be able to confidently answer the questions listed at this time. If you can, your learning plan may not be at your level.

### Step 6: Curate Resources

Finally, compile a list of resources for each module. For the most accurate and relevant suggestions, I recommend using the GPT-4 model with a web-browsing plugin.

Unlike the previous prompts, we’ll asking ChatGPT to answer the prompt for each module. Here’s the prompt I used:

```
For the [module name] module, list 5 - 8 specific resources that the student can use to master the learning objectives created above. Specifically list [types of resources].
```

Now, you need to check each resource to make sure that it’s still online and that it’s actually relevant.

If you ask for books, you may need to look into the table of contents of the suggested books and see which topics are relevant to that specific module.

You may need to expand the list of resources yourself. Some great sites are Codecademy, Geeks for Geeks, W3Schools, freeCodeCamp, Dev.to, and of course, documentation sites.

Final Thoughts

Here’s the link to a [series of study plans](https://github.com/ChaseTramel/react-study-plans) I created with this methodology.

Creating a study plan with ChatGPT takes some invest. It may require some time and additional resources, but the payoff is a well-structured plan that can guide you to success. So, take the leap and start your journey today!