A practical step by step guide to learning Frontend Web Development.
Tags: beginners, webdev, codenewbie, productivity
Published: 2020-11-11 12:12:53

If you're reading this and you're not sure where to start learning to develop websites and web apps, you might find this [article](https://dev.to/nkwadochi/i-want-to-become-a-web-developer-where-do-i-start-part-1-frontend-pmg) helpful.
If you've decided that Frontend Web Development is where your heart is at and you have researched and decided on what learning resources work best for you, this post will help you outline a practical study plan that allows for knowledge retention and productivity.

**Why do I need a study plan and what do you mean by Practical?**

Many times, I see a lot of people say they will learn the basic frontend languages (Html, CSS, and Javascript) in one month. I am here to tell you that this is impossible. I am no web development expert or educationist if you but from the little I know; my experience, and interacting with experienced developers, I dare say that every day if you keep at it, you will learn something new. Everyday.
To learn effectively, you not only need a study plan, you need a practical one. A practical study plan puts everything into consideration, your job (part-time or full), your education, other commitments, etc. It doesn't exhaust you because you said you'd finish in a month but it's been 3 weeks, and you just got started on CSS. A practical study plan when followed aims at giving you the best learning experience and is effective.

**What are your suggestions on Practical Study Plans?**

1.**Know or Have a Syllabus and follow it**

A syllabus is a document that outlines everything that will be studied/covered in a class. All the learning resources I shared in my last [post](https://dev.to/nkwadochi/i-want-to-become-a-web-developer-where-do-i-start-part-1-frontend-pmg) have syllabuses. To further explain why this is a great approach, I will be using the syllabus from [MDN](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Front-end_web_developer).
The MDN not only outlines a syllabus but gives an average finish time for each topic. This means that for every topic, you can decipher when you'll round up. This is very helpful and is a great way to plan your learning around your life. For a topic with a 10 hour finish time, you can decide that it'll take you 7 days because you work long hours or your school course work will take your time, etc, and then go ahead to divide 10 hours by 7 days. The answer will be 1 hour, 43 minutes. This will be your target when studying. Most times, you'll find that you surpass it or not reach it at all, they're all okay, no need to beat yourself up about it. Just readjust the time and divide again until you find the number of hours a day or week that you can freely study.

2.**Practices are just as important as the learning resources**

If you spend the next 4 months studying the basics of frontend web development but practice nothing, your knowledge is useless. You **MUST** practice, it is not negotiable. 

**But Why?**

As you move along in the ladder that is the learning of frontend web development computer languages, you'll find that the codes become more difficult to retain in your brain, don't fight it, you're not a robot. You will not win. There's a joke that Software engineers are paid to sit in one place and google lines of code, it is true. You will find yourself googling which code fits into a line, copying and pasting it than actually writing an original code. But with practice, you will understand the basics of these languages and know when a line of code is necessary to get the website to look or behave the way you want it to. With Practice, you will have found more codes that do the same thing and wouldn't need to google again but only with practice. With practice, you will test your knowledge of the basics you learned, you will find your weakest links and improve on them, you will find that understanding a topic theoretically and applying the knowledge to practice are two different things. But with Practice, you will get better. Only with practice!!!

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I will say this now, learning any new thing is not very easy, this is not any different, you'll need more than just sitting by a laptop with a book and pen. You'll need to be **determined**, be **consistent** and **persevere**.

Until I write again, I leave you with the words of Henry Hazlitt;

> The only way we could remember would be by constant re-reading, for knowledge unused tends to drop out of mind. Knowledge used does not need to be remembered; practice forms habits and habits make memory unnecessary. The rule is nothing; the application is everything.

Stay safe and Learn smart.

Nkwadochi

PS-If you're as excited as I am about the potentials of this blog, kindly share among your friends and together, we can build a community.