​Step-by-Step

Best Way to Learn Java, hands down!

By Vincent

 

I had originally heard about Patrick's Java Tutorials when I was reading through comments on other purchases I made for books in C++ and Java. I wanted to learn Java on my own before starting graduate school, and my previous programming experience was limited primarily to FORTRAN I took 2 years ago, which to say has gotten rusty.

 

I bought 2 books in Java, Herbert Schildt's "Java, A beginner's guide, 5th edition" and "Head First's Java programming" by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates. Schildt's textbook felt like the run of the mill textbook that professors would have me read in advanced engineering courses - Dry and boring. It had a fairly difficult learning curve, since it throw out complex terminology at the very start of the book, and expected you to know those terms by heart, since each concept reinforced itself in subsequent chapters. I seriously didn't want to bother reading a book that felt more like a PhD's dissertation, so I scrapped it.

 

In comes "Head First's Java" programming, touted as one of the best Java books in the market today. I've read through approximately 150 pages of the book, and I can see why its been rated so high. It uses a completely different learning approach, by using pictures, stories, "interviews with the compiler", puzzles, crosswords, etc. to teach the subject. It has worked for the most part(I am able to do all of the difficult puzzles so far), however the following issues arise:

1. When reading a subject about programming, understanding the context of how a passage is written slows down my comprehension rate. Since Head First throws out so many different formats when teaching a topic, my mind tends to have a very hard time interpreting the exact meaning of what is being taught for each context. This tremendously slows down my learning rate, and frustrates me to no ends at times

2. Head First's Java is so unconventionally organized, that you simply cannot reference back to it when you need to (i.e. at the end of the chapters). This really hurts me when I spend a week not doing any java, and then attempt to refresh myself. Also this book made a poor reference in the future, unless you take notes on a book separately...(even then it misses some Java essentials)

3. Head First Java is a book (and any book for that matter), so its limited in its teaching ability as opposed to a video, which offers audio and visual aids to enhance learning.

 

In comes Patricks's Java Tutorials. I spent a good number of hours (30+ hours) on and off reading Head First's Java program, and was competent enough to grasp how a battleship game program was made. I decided to try Patrick's Videos, which is a 4 hour video tutorial (to which I've already viewed 2 hours), and I can confidentally say that following:

1. I learned more in 5 hours over 2 days (pausing/taking GOOD reference notes for the future/writing code/quizzing myself/reviewing notes/etc, aka 2 hours of the video) than the 30+ hours I spent frustrating myself over Head First's Java book or any other programming book in C++ for that matter.

2. I actually learned the concepts correctly the first time around, and did not have to waste time trying to understand the context of what was being taught. Patrick explains everything concisely and perfectly, with 0 downtime between concept transitions (meaning you have to pause a lot! lots of good condensed information. No um, uhs, obvious filler messages, "let me open this page...wait while its loading", etc. that you see in low quality YouTube video tutorials). And he even does a 2-3 minute overview of all the concepts learned at the end of every hour. He also gives you exercises / projects for you to test your knowledge before he explains it.

 

Some of the others pros I can say about Patrick's videos:

1. You learn eclipse, an IDE (Integrated Development Environment), while you watch his tutorial. Using the command prompt / Notepad++(or Vim) text editor wasted so much of my time with Head First's Java programming. The IDE greatly reduced the time to do mundane tasks.

2. You can test run his video tutorial (first 1.5 hours FREE, no registration needed) yourself if your skeptical! It was rated as the #1 Java Tutorial on YouTube.

link:

patrickvideo(dot) com or

http://www.youtube (dot) com/watch?v=3u1fu6f8Hto <- Note the (dot)

3. It only costs $--, which in my opinion is really not much. If you compare the quality of his videos to what you see in other tutorials (such as Java 5 day classes by Oracle, the company that makes Java), you would probably pay upwards of ~$500 or more! His video is what corporations use to teach effective Java practices.

4. You get your own video and download link that you can use forever!

 

There aren't really any cons, except a few burps with video editing, but that doesn't really detract anything he says / tries to teach.

 

I don't write reviews often, but Patrick has made an amazing video that has saved me hours of frustration, and I encourage you all to use it!