Need advise and help for ML and coding

Course Q&A Machine Learning Specialization Supervised ML: Regression and Classification
1

Hello Everyone,

I have a few questions which I’d like to ask if someone could help or been in the same situation:

I am new to coding which i already found difficult to understand and I passed the Python exam for AI but still feel so weak in it, I am now enrolled in supervised machine learning, finding it interesting actually but in labs and coding im so weak and barely can write a code.

my questions are:

shall I keep going overall and try to understand ML in general and not deeply in coding? maybe working as PM or any other field away from coding?

or shall i enhance more in coding and try to push more to understand how to code and implement ML?

sorry for this long thread.

2

I recommend you take a Python programming course now, and come back to the Machine Learning Specialization afterward.

The MLS courses assume you already understand the fundamentals of programming in Python.

3

I have completed Python for Data Science, AI & development, and actually felt pretty decent and enjoyable and passed the exam with no struggling at all.

shall i take another course that could help me more in ML to understand more how to implement it?

4

I didn’t get your point. In the first post, you said you are weak in Python but now you are saying you passed the Python course with no effort.

As Tom highlighted, this specialization assumes you are familiar with the basics of Python.

5

I mean, when i took the Python course and the exam I felt it was decent and did not struggle.

When I started ML with labs I struggled so much with coding and how to analyze the case to create a code

sorry if it felt complicated.

6

Hi Mohannad,

I get the gist of what you going through. I have had felt the same. But with every course, week and assignment, your understanding and learning will improve. The reason why you feel it difficult is because of different concepts of ML or deep learning concept to understand and then compile into the desired result.

I had days when I would take hours to just understand what a code cell meant, but I would keep searching from simple terminologies to complicated answers, and when I still didn’t understand or get the desired answer, then I would ask in Community learning AI platform. Mentors here are really very helpful per se the learners are ready to learn and be respectful, and not fed with direct answers as everyone wants to learn.

So I would say don’t be upset and keep trying. Most of the course assignment problems you just need to first search with similar error or problem you are facing. You will already find many post regarding these assignments, and if you still do not find your desired result, you can always create your own post, with problem, doubt or error encountered with right selection of correct specialisation, course, week and assignment name. So get prompt reply from mentors.

Keep Learning!!!

Regards
DP

1 Like
7

Hello @Mohannad_Abdelfattah

Deepti’s response reminded me of my beginning of learning to code. I was using a different language, I didn’t have a programming background, and I had never taken a course for that language. Yet I was tasked to build a monitoring software, and the only thing provided to me was a programming interface to start the work.

The software had to work with a hardware device, so I googled a lot of articles using the language’s name and the device’s name as the keywords. I forgot how many days it took me to finally reach the first milestone, but at least I had made something.

Since the first day of my programming life, it has been 15 years and I have not mastered a programming language through course. It has always been hands-on work that matters the most.

If people can achieve a certain objective with a certain Python package, and I don’t know about it, then I google “package objective example”. Then, I read, I copy any example code to my jupyter notebook, and I experiment.

If I went back to 15 years ago to the moment right before I was tasked that software, given that I would not retain my memory over the 15 years and so I didn’t know that I would manage to finish it. @Mohannad_Abdelfattah, let me ask you,

  • should I take up that task?
  • should I ask my boss to wait and let me finish a few courses first?
  • should I ask my boss back whether I should take up the task?

I think the key here is, because I decided to finish the software, I had to take whatever actions I needed to help me get through all of the obstacles. It was my decision.

At that time, I didn’t know what problem was ahead, and nobody on the team knew about that software language, but I did know there might be discussions and examples on the internet, and there was a library nearby. I had a programming interface and a keyboard, and I could type and try. I could read and experiment. I could learn from my mistakes.

@Mohannad_Abdelfattah, I hope you don’t have less than what I had, so then the question is, what is your decision? Do you require yourself to know how to code? If you do, then my recommendation is whenever you read something you don’t know, write that something down on a piece of paper, and then start googling about it. After you manage it, cross it out from the paper.

It will take as long as you need to get everything clear, and it is one way of self-learning.

Nobody here can tell you what you cannot do. I also think we cannot tell you what you should do, but only you can decide what you want to do.

Cheers,
Raymond

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8

I looked at the syllabus for that course. It contains only lectures and quizzes, and has no labs that would give you practical experience in writing Python code.

Perhaps someone who is following this thread could suggest a tutorial course that would give practical experience.

Personally, I suggest you install a local copy of Python on your computer and work through the materials in the official Python Tutorial.

The other important skill required in the MLS courses is the ability to look at a math equation and implement it in Python. That requires familiarity with algebra, summations, etc.

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