Doing the 42 Wolfsburg Remote Piscine (Week 0)
When the pandemic hit last year, I was unsure about what to do with all the newfound time at home. That’s when I decided it would be a great time to learn to code, since I had always been curious about it, but never was able to take that first step. I started off with trying to do CS50 — a computer science course by Harvard University found on EdX. I found the topics fascinating, but I found it hard to understand the lectures and complete the exercises, thinking yet again that ‘I was not smart enough’ for coding.
In November 2020, I was talking to a friend in Tokyo told me she had just gotten into a school called 42 which allows her to learn coding for free and with no prior experience. I immediately looked it up and found out there were campuses all over the world, and 42 Wolfsburg in Germany was even offering a remote “Piscine” this year.(The “Piscine” is a one month coding experience that determines whether you can attend the 42 school.) I immediately applied, and after passing some logic tests online, I got into the Piscine!
Now, finally onto the exciting part. I started the March Piscine last Monday and thought it would be nice to make a short review about my first week!
The organisation of the Remote Piscine:
To create a sense of community between the staff and the “Pisciners”, 42 Wolfsburg has come up with a system where we are all “Campers” and put into “Tribes” — a group of 6 peers whom you get to know well. The “WolfP.A.C.K” (a group of students in the 42 Network) is there to answer any questions, as well as the 42 Wolfsburg staff. Finally the sites and means of communication (Discord, Notion, etc.) used for the Piscine are called the “Basecamp” and is a place where everyone can talk and socialise. The 42 model is based on peer-to-peer learning, which means that creating this community really helps to get to know the people you will learn from.
Things I did this week:
- Virtually meet my peers (around 140 people from all different age groups, backgrounds, and coding experiences) and get to know some of them.
- Get to know the staff and ethos of 42 Wolfsburg.
- Join my tribe (an amazing bunch of people!)
- Learn about how to optimise my own learning and create goals for the future.
- Learn how to use Discord.
- Get insights into the tech industry from guest speakers.
- Get a virtual tour of 42 Wolfsburg.
- Learn how to be a little less introverted. (Introverts unite!)
Things I learnt this week:
- It’s okay to not be good at coding at the start — everyone starts somewhere.
- Cheating is just hurting your own learning.
- There is nothing wrong with failing.
- Don’t compare your progress with others (especially because in the Piscine there are some people who have prior coding experience and others that have no experience).
- It’s okay if there are strong points and weak points in your personality — nothing is set in stone and there is always room for development.
- The importance of eating healthy and sleeping for a clear mind.
- That it is good to have an idea on how you want to live your life in a holistic way.
#NextGenerationEducation
All in all, my first week of the Piscine was the start of one of the most exciting learning experiences in my life. I learnt a lot about myself, and started to see education in a new way. I thought that from Day 1 (or 0) we would go straight into coding exercises, but I was pleasantly surprised. In fact there were no coding tasks this week, and everything was dedicated to getting comfortable with the learning platforms, and getting to know the community. I look forward to the coming weeks where I will continue my coding adventure!
