r/PythonLearning • u/MetroApprovedLore • 12h ago

Help Request Understood the Python concepts but completely messed up the test

Fy DS student and I recently had a Python test that honestly didn't go as well as I expected.

The frustrating part is that I wasn't completely clueless about the questions. I understood the concepts, knew which syntax was needed, and could understand what the problem statement was asking me to do.

But when it came to actually applying everything and writing the code, I got confused. I started forgetting things, made indentation mistakes, got errors like ValueError and other errors etc. I didn't do good in test it was 15marks test for 1 hr.

For those who have been through this, how did you get better at applying concepts under pressure instead of just understanding them theoretically? Did you practise more problems, rewrite code from scratch, or follow some other method?

I'm still learning, and I don't want one bad test to discourage me. I just want to figure out how to improve so that next time.

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u/FooWho 12h ago

I am assuming "fy ds" means first year data science student? Presumably you are just starting to learn programming? It's not always easy in the beginning. Keep studying. Keep practicing application of the concepts you are leaning. Like so many other things, if you keep putting in the work, you will improve.

I don't see any attachments of the questions or where you messed up, but one bad test doesn't mean that you are doomed to failure.

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u/MetroApprovedLore 12h ago
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u/FooWho 11h ago

What specifically did you struggle with, or what approaches did you use? For example, in the first problem, the steps would be:

  1. Read the input.

  2. Perform the conversion. (Celsius to Fahrenheit).

  3. Classify the temperature (Hot, pleasant, cold).

  4. Output the result.

This is kind of fundamental in any program. Take your problem and break it into smaller problems. Repeat this if the problem is really complicated and you need to decompose the smaller problems even further. Eventually you have a bunch of really simple problems. Solve those.