u/michaelnovati replied · ★ FEATURED
In general, the bar is set so you kind of have to figure it out on your own. Whether that means leveraging the community, self studying, googling, hours of trial and error, finding pair programming buddies, etc... Codesmith selects for people that can figure it out on their own and it's a trait that will help you succeed as an engineer.
While in Codesmith you have access to more people for support, but oftentimes it's peers and recent alumni who are TAs and many describe it as a firehose of constantly feeling behind (which is what staff say is expected and normal). So if navigating a state of constant confusion isn't for you then it might not be the best program for you... not saying it isn't, just suggesting to consider if it's the right program for you vs wanting to get in because you think it's the best program.
Some possible things to consider for help:
1. Ask in Slack - don't just ask for broad help, but post progress and ask for what's wrong
2. Find a pair in Slack to work through problems with.
3. Find a rubber duck https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging
4. Try other prep programs to see if the style is better or worse for you, like Launch School, App Academy, Rithm prep, Hack Reactor prep
5. Do one of the paid JS courses Codesmith offers