A Smarter Way to Learn Python

Book excerpt: I designed a learning system for myself that quadrupled my aptitude for learning computer languages. It worked so well for me that I've used it to teach coding to grandmothers, cab drivers, musicians, and 50,000 other newbies. Washington University research shows that a key teaching method I use--interactive recall practice--improves learning performance 400 percent. Computer languages are not inherently hard to understand, even for non-techies. Remembering is the problem. Research shows that you will remember everything if you're repeatedly asked to recall it. That's the beauty of flash cards. But technology offers an even better way to make information stick. With my book you get almost a thousand interactive exercises--they're free online--that embed the whole book in your memory. Algorithms check your work to make sure you know what you think you know. When you stumble, you do the exercise again. You keep trying until you know the chapter cold. The exercises keep you engaged, give you extra practice where you're shaky, and prepare you for each next step. Every lesson is built on top of a solid foundation that you and I have carefully constructed. Each individual step is small. But all the little steps add up to real knowledge--knowledge that you retain. You don't need to be a computer genius to learn Python. You just need to be smart about how you learn it.--Amazon.com description.