I mistakenly decided to watch the screencast first, as that was what I had done in previous courses that provided it. Only after reading all of the instructions for BrowserHistory1 did I realize the mistake I had made. I was a little angry with myself because I had robbed myself of the experience of figuring it out on my own. However, I don’t think I would have gotten very far on my own before having to watch the screencast. BrowserHistory1 took me two tries. The first time was spent following along with the screencast, which was helpful but inefficient. The second time, I was able to do it on my own and only had to refer to the screencast to double check my code. Again, I wish I had done it without viewing the screencast first, but I took that lesson to my other WODs.
For BrowserHistory2, I ran into a bit of an issue. For some reason, my webpage was not changing at all. After thinking that I was doing something wrong, I decided to watch the screencast and realized that I was doing everything right or at least similarly. I then discovered that my page was simply not changing. I had restarted my server as well as VSCode and got very frustrated. I learned to combat this issue by having my developer tools open in chrome while I worked so I could see the code changing and making sure that the page was reflecting the changes I made. I firmly believe that I would have finished BrowserHistory2 on the first try with a Rx or Av time. I had also reviewed the resources prior to completing BrowserHistory2 so I think that aided me in not necessarily needing the screencast. BrowserHistory2 took me 2 times due to the technical issues I had.
BrowserHistory3 was interesting. I had done independent research outside of the resources provided and found a way to do the columns. I thought that the code I had done made the columns match the reference image even though I didn’t use the code that Professor Johnson used in the screencast. That made me really happy! However, I didn’t know how to do the navigation bar despite a couple of tries so I had to watch the screencast to figure out how to do so.
My advice to someone doing these WODs would be to read the resources and really digest them prior to starting the WOD. I think that being familiar with the structure of the resources is also a good strategy. You can’t remember everything so it would be nice to know where you need to reference to make sure you’re doing the right thing. I would also listen to the instructions and attempt the WOD once before watching the screencast. Then, you can have a little happy moment like me when you come up with your own solutions!