B1
What if they can not do the "Re-Do-Pro" technique?
If they can not do the program without help or reference material; then, they can watch again the recorded lessons, and/or ask questions. Whatever they need for them to understand. After that, they have to try again and do the program by themselves from zero, with no reference material, making their own tweaks and commenting on it, clearly.
Whenever they do it using help, they have to do the program once more without any help whatsoever, from zero. If they still need help they have to do it with the help they need, but then they have to do it again without help, from zero. So it is a cycle until they can do it all with no reference material:
the program from zero, the explaining/commenting on it from zero, and the tweaking.
It doesn't matter if the student needs several "rounds" or cycles. It is perfectly normal to need several rounds, so do not worry if you need to do 3 or 4 rounds of attempts until you are really able to do it all alone by yourself and explaining/commenting it by yourself.
It is very important to remember that it is perfectly normal for a lot of students to do several rounds, it is really key that you feel comfortable doing several rounds, maybe other of your classmates will be able to do it in one round, you mustn't worry about that.
During my decades-long experience, I have come to realize that it is not important if a student needs to do this technique several times. I have seen students who always did the technique in one round, vs students who always needed several rounds (hence needed overall more time to learn to program). Only to see, after some years, that a lot of times the students who needed more time to learn ended up being far better programmers, after time passed.
It was not always like that; but about 80% of the time, the ones who needed more rounds; and actually took the time and effort to do those rounds (the way they have to be done without cheating); actually ended up being far more successful.
It was mesmerizing to see 80% of the times, those who were supposed to be the geniuses of programming, ended way below on the programming game ladder. Whilst those who struggled (but accepted the challenge), ended up above and earning way more money. Again, not always the case; but most of the time it was indeed the case, trust me on this one.
We have several hypotheses to explain the reason for this, but that is not part of this article.
The important part is that you have to feel confident and happy to do the technique even if you require to do it several times. And a few of your classmates only require to do it once. Trust me, it will really pay off.
The important part is that you end up doing it all by yourself and explaining it and commenting on it, all from zero.
Explaining and commenting from zero is as important as doing the code.
I can not stress enough the importance of commenting and explaining from zero until you do not need any help and can do it perfectly.
This technique is extremely powerful.
