Each semester I ask students to write a letter to people who will someday take the class. These are generally written on the last day of class. I present these here in the raw. That is, I have not edited them in anyway. They're here to help you...
Dear student, Pay attention. If you suffered through 173, drop this class :)
The best advice I can give you is to be sure to attend every class else you will miss out on something and be entirely lost the next class period. If you pay attention during class you'll be able to pick things up easily and know your way around things.
Ask questions if you don't understand something, and start working on your assignments right away so that the concepts in class are fresh in your mind and you are ready to work on them.
This class requires a lot of homework, give yourself a lot of time for each assignment. Just because it seems easy doesn't mean it is. You will make a lot of errors which is good because you will get better and better at avoiding them as the semester goes on. Make sure to follow along in all the modules and ask questions.
Dear Future Student. Make sure you pay attention in class and don't hesitate to ask questions. Don't miss a day. Try your best to take notes as well as follow along. Be forthcoming with Mike if you are getting lost or feel he is going too fast. Read your material. Become a professional Googler. Don't give up. Work hard and make sure you give yourself enough time outside of class to complete your work. This class requires more than most outside of the classroom so manage your time wisely.
Reading code is a pain, but once you understand it. You will say, why didn't we learn that earlier?
I found that writing you script down on paper helped, that way you could see everything you where working on with out having to change pages. List to Mike he know whats he's talking about, and ask question, no ones going to answer a question you don't ask. One last thing, and this ones really important. "SAVE~! SAVE OFTEN~! AND IN MORE THEN ONE PLACE~!" This will save your life, trust me.
Dear Future Student, This class is great. You will have to work hard and keep up, but if you do, you will learn a lot. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Mike only looks scary, but he is actually very friendly. :0)
Mike is a great teacher to learn from, he really knows his stuff and if he comes across something he doesn't he will find the answer.
Follow the in class tutorials and you should be able to do all of the assignments. Never feel that you are asking a stupid question, the only stupid questins are the ones not asked, if you have aquestion or a problem ask Mike will answer you. Pay attention to your typing as well, just one wrong letter or punctuation can cause the biggest set back.
If you can take advantage of open labs, they were a great help to me. Youcan also get help from your classmates most will help if they can.
And last but not least, have fun. If you don't like what you are doing and you are not enjoying it then it will be very difficult for you.
When working on a project don't add the bells and whistles until you have all the parts to working so that you aren't surprised in the end by some coding that might slow you down. You can always go back and make the illustrations, etc. more sophisticated when you have the base functionality applied.
1. Take lots of notes, they will save your ass when you forget how somethings supposed to go. Codeing is hard, so write everything down and make it easy on yourself. 2. Save everything, Save often. 3. When working on projects don't try to make a large grand masterpiece to show off your L33tz cOodizng sKILLzs. If you build small, but very well polished projects it just looks a lot better then half made bits and fragments of something you couldn't pull off in time. Will also save you all the stress.
Line up your code. Everything is much, much easier when your opening and closing tags are lined up vertically based on what is inside of what. Even with CS5's tendency to try and screw you over, when it is all lined up you can usually see what is out of place.
The thing that helped me most in class was to code along and go through the motions of the material being taught in class. Outside of class the most important thing were notes and code examples that I took with me on my flash drive or laptop. The biggest problem that I had was that when I thought something wouldn't be important to remember or write down because I would remember it or it was common sense, it wasn't and I should have written it down. The absolute best way to survive this course with flying colors is to listen to everything, write down almost everything, don't miss any classes, and make sure to always be two steps ahead in your projects. *Time is your enemy!*
I don't normally take notes for classes and I do just fine, but you might want to during the php half of the course. It probably would've helped me out a bunch.
Listen to Mike. A lot of other people in the class will always be talking about little nitpicky things that they do or don't know about. Learn those little nitpicky things your way on your own time. Mike knows what works. If Mike doesn't know something, it's just because he deals with it in a different way or just hasn't come across it recently. REMEMBER: Mike works the profession and has done so for a long time. He's been through so many different versions of different programs that he would be a fool to try to memorize every tiny update for every tiny version change for every tiny thing. If a student in the class starts trying to babble on about their preferred ways to do some small specific details in some small specific program, remind them audibly that Mike does know what the hell he's talking about and that he's proven it both in real-life programming and in years of teaching. Tell them to shut up or tell them that you trust Mike's way of doing something. And don't get me wrong, Mike doesn't profess to keeping up with every little detail of every little program. If there is a better method of doing something, he is more open to it than the person babbling on in class about their
Mike will do what he can to assist you. Bring questions to class, and he will do his best to answer them. But please don't expect him to be able to pour this stuff into your head. There is only one way to become adept with software, and that is to put a lot of time into practicing. If you are willing to work outside of class, you will learn more, and the class will be better for everyone. Mike enjoys the questions. Make them worthwhile.
It is important to go see how websites are in real life. Get out there and check the source code for popular sites. See how things are done. This class does take personal interest. Also use other references, do not limit yourself to the class book. ActionScript is very trick in the little things, check your spelling, check your spelling and CHECK YOUR SPELLING, oh and watch out for blank spaces in titles!!!
Dear Student, Don't take this class if you are stupid, The End. Animosity? Yes. haha, sorry.
I found if most helpful to ask questions - to ask classmates as well as Mike. It's also important to remember not to panic right away if things aren't working exactly the way you would like - just keep working at it and don't give up. Look around at other websites for examples and for inspiration and new ideas. Learning something new takes time so don't expect to be a flash expert right away, but to
Dear Future Student, When taking this class, I suggest that you take notes. Write down all of the codes and all of the steps that you don't think you could remember on your own to reference later. When there are videos available to look back at online, USE THEM! And, the last thing that I would suggest, don't assume that you can get a project done in a couple of hours. Give yourself extra time to complete a project!