Why are the instructions so unclear?
Many of the instructions provided here are unclear, or at least, worded in such a way that they’re hard to follow. This is equally true when you step down to the Hint sections. Many times I find my code isn’t working because I failed to understand something that was in the instructions. I usually determine this after running the code and examining the error message, at which point I’m able to go back and fix it so it is receiving what it requested. Do others encounter this same problem?
Answer 50a53654d245f78ee4001b9f
I only found this with courses designed by Adam W. Cooper. It is nothing against him, it’s just that my learning style does not sync well with his teaching style. I hope he doesn’t stop developing though. If I have learned anything from his courses, it is that, just like in real life, you will have to go to other sources of information to accomplish the task at hand.
10 comments
It’s not just the style, his code checking is really erratic as well. Makes it a really frustrating and confusing course.
I agree with you objectPro. It’s mostly Adam’s courses that I sometimes have no understanding on what I am supposed to do in the task
I agree with you guys, instructions are unclear and hard to follow! I am pretty smart guy and i have to often ask for someone to explain me better what am i supposed to do. Adam’s courses ofc. ( nothing offensive )
That’s the thing with Adam, he will teach you 1 + 1 then he will ask you what is 1 * 1 & what’s 1 / 1.
Indeed guys. I feel so frustrated in his courses.
Weinstein too!
I only found trouble when I came to the fizzCount exercise. I don’t mind being challenged a little more than normal but the directions are unclear even after reading the hint. I’m guessing it has something to do with the Fizz Buzz game?
First of all “counter” should have been taught, since it’s a very useful thing to know. It shouldn’t show up in a Hint. That’s strange. Secondly, if I interpret the instruction “Write a function called fizzCount that returns the count of the string “fizz” in a list” I imagine the result to be [4], since that is a list containing “4”, the count of “fizz”. Then I am asking myself, why would I create a list with one number in it, the number 4? Beyond that, I have no idea what else this could be asking. Maybe to return [1,2,3,4] ? This is the first exercise in the Python track where I’ve had this kind of misunderstanding.
Adam has a different way of teaching. But the only think he needs to work on is the compiler checking. It returns false on correct codes too. I sometimes double check it on scratchpad or codecademy labs.
I didn’t understand this exercise with fizz either, i ended up just using x.index(“fizz”) instead and it passed, which by the way should not be acceptable but it doesn’t match the instructions in the hint at all and i still don’t know how to counter, which is frustrating and i spent so much time (and still am) on that I also found the whole thing so unclear ><’ Could someone explain or give me a hint? I probably should just Google’ing it after all .. sigh
Answer 50b5240ad1a07faa7a000e49
Here’s a better wording for the exercise:
Write a function called fizzCount. The function takes a list as input and returns the number of times “fizz” appears as an item in this list.
At first I thought I was supposed to use fizz as the name of the input variable which was a string, and that I was supposed to return a count of the number of letters in that string. I didn’t get what he was asking for until I saw the error message and read over both the initial wording and the hint several times each.
3 comments
I thought the exact same thing as you when I read it Joseph. The error “Make sure you’ve correctly defined the fizzCount function.” was no help at all to me, and I came looking for a better explanation here after the hint didn’t make any sense given the original problem.
Thanks!
same here
Exactly. Thanks for the clarification. Very helpful! I was able to write it w/o errors. Posted below…
Answer 509aa79c94bb270200009bc1
Sometimes there are problems with the way courses are written because the person writing them assumes you know what they mean (its a human flaw). Other times it’s because the instructor decided to change something last minute. And many times it only seems complicated until you figure out for yourself what is wrong.
If there is a specific problem you are having trouble with, there are tons of people here to help. If you want to send the course creator constructive feedback, feel free to become a beta tester. (Go to your settings and check the boxes and update.)
3 comments
I have no idea what this section wants me to do.
^This +1,000,000. Cooper’s courses suck. They should all be titled “Just go to the forums already and copy the answer from someone who already knows how to code.”
^^^^ LOL I thought I was the only one doing that. I hate doing it because I don’t learn anything from copying.
Answer 50bf9b13125ed524d70021f2
The strangest part of the misunderstanding is the working code:
def fizzCount():
len("fizz")
==> None That’s correct! Next Exercise: String Looping
5 comments
It really shouldn’t though because it asks for a list as you put below :)
Ivan: I also misinterpreted the intent of the question as you did and wrote the same 2 lines of code as you. I thought it was asking to write a function that counts the number of letters in the word “fizz.” I agree that this question was written imprecisely.
I wrote exactly the same code, but knew it was wrong because it had nothing to do with lists. If the instructions had said something about needing to count the number of times “fizz” appears in a list, that would have been much more helpful.
haha it also works with x.index(“fizz”), but im still obsessing over doing it the proper way (how i arrived here) and i have yet to find someone who actually figured it out on the forum -__- maybe ill just try asking the teacher? i still dont know how to count the number of times an item appears in a list and my curiosity is eating me!!
Well you could iterate through the list, increasing the counter variable each time… something like - for item in list: if item == lookingfor counter += 1
Answer 51672785880ad242f6000722
def fizz_count(x):
count = 0
for item in x:
if item == "fizz":
count = (count + 1)
return count
3 comments
this worked for me!
why is the loop (for item in x:) needed? couldn’t we just writ it directly in the function? and why isn’t it working if return is replaced by print? it doesn’t even print anything at all!
This also worked for me but why is (x) defined already? I was under the impression that we would have to make the list after defining the function. That was the confusing part to me. Before I used that snippet of code I was running my own list but the error kept showing me items in a list that I had not entered.
Answer 509ab047249f1f0200009fcc
Just make sure you execute the lines in BOLD. Try and get the concept from that or refer to the hint. Makes things clear more often than not
Answer 50c37e0aaed66170810067ed
I have to agree!
I do like the courses by Andrew, but the wording is incredibly hard to understand what he wants.
I didn’t get the code right because i didn’t understand the question- and I feel to not even continue with this module- as I’m not learning much by keeping coming into the forum to look at the answers
Answer 50cee0855cd97329c6002337
I cleaned it up a little with some DRY practices applied:
List = ["fizz", "fizzd", "fizz", "fizz", "fizzs", "fizza"]
def fizzCount(thelist,var):
count = 0
for x in lista:
if (x == var):
count += 1
else:
pass
print count
fizzCount(List,"fizz")
3 comments
so i’m new at this but how does += works?
thanks btw
As you would expect, it adds the result and resets the variable. count += 1 is the same as count = 1 + count
Answer 50eee10008e60a6aa2006f28
def fizzCount(var):
count = 0
for x in var:
if( str(x) == 'fizz' ):
count += 1
return count
fizzList = [“fizz”, 542, “fizz”, “fizz”, 777] print fizzCount(fizzList)
1 comments
Just to clarify this answer, since we haven’t yet learned “+=”, that is the same as: “X = X+1” –> “X +=1”
Answer 50f04f008549b7a390005bb2
Always a few ways to do things in programming. This worked perfectly. No errors:
fizzList = ["fizz", "notfizz", "tooth", "fizz", "snowman", 0]
def fizzCount(fizzList):
count == 0
for item in fizzList:
if item == str("fizz"):
count = count + 1
print count
1 comments
I tried that piece of code and it’s not working for me….
Answer 52a0394a8c1ccc50d1001dcb
I agree, usually I am able to fly by the course , occasionally using the hint button.This was not the case with Adam’s. Now I just click the hint button regardless because there is something that I probably haven’t learned. Also, I have never gone to the question and answer forum either. He just over complicates what needs to be said. Don’t get me wrong, I love what he has done, but sitting there trying to figure out what was wrong with “orange”. Turned out instead of “price:” and “stock:” it needed to be “price: “ and “stock: “ . Was the space really that necessary?
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