The first steps are sometimes the hardest. I found this to be true when starting the Data Science course at Flatiron School.
Like my classmates, I did most of the pre-work and was nervous about the interviews required to be accepted into the program. I was so excited when I was admitted. And then nervous. Having come from a background NOT coding or in math - my learning curve is very steep.
The first couple of weeks I felt completely overwhelmed. Like - really overwhelmed. Like I was sitting at the smart kids table and wondering how they let me do it. I felt like way in over my head. There was so much material and process being thrown at us daily. NOTHING made sense. Hoenstly - I wanted to quit. When I saw what was expected of us - even looking at the first project that was due - I became so anxious and had serious doubts.
I had talked to a copule of other students who were ahead of me who shared that when they began they felt the same, and in talking to my ed coach - she assured me that I wasn’t alone in these feelings. Being a bit of a data nerd, and perhaps I am a data scientist at heart - I began to plot how I felt daily on a scale from 0-5. 0 = quitting. 5 = YES! I made the right choice! I love this! I reasonded that if there were enough 0’s I would have made an informed decision using data.
Below is my chart. The data speaks for itself. My advice to anyone struggling. Keep showing up and give it an honest effort. Pay attention. Communicate - with your instructor, ed coach, cohort - stay connected. Learn strategies. Then see for yourself:
<img src=”https://raw.githubusercontent.com/andiosika/andiosika.github.io/master/img/DS%20Feels%20Image.png” ,width=”80%”,style=”text-align:center;” /img>