Should I take notes while watching a Python tutorial?

[u/Easy_Chipmunk_3612]

I want to learn Python, but I wanted to know if it is better to take notes as you watch a tutorial and code or just code as you watch without taking notes?

[u/cyrixlord]

no. your notes are to write your own code based off of the exercises you are given and understand that code, changing it and tinkering with it until you do. only by writing your own code and debugging it will you learn. not tutorials, not lectures, not videos., not books....

[u/musbur]

Use a written tutorial. Videos are a pain in the ass because you can't use them as reference. And yes, your code is the notes, whatever medium the tutorial is.

[u/nog642]

I wouldn't recommend using a video tutorial

[u/arjunnath]

Make a list of tasks in increasing difficulty, or if you can't think of some then look online.
Start implementing the tasks in python. Use whatever reference and documentation you can but avoid using any AI to solve the tasks.
Start right now and stop thinking about it.

[u/GXWT]

You could be writing the code as you go through it

Imo there is nothing worth taking notes about in python that you don’t pick up 100x more effectively by just coding.

[u/tonymasiello]

There is no harm to take notes as you go if you find that helpful. Another thing I like to do is put comments in my code as I am working through an idea. For me, this is like leaving breadcrumbs so I can look back and know what a particular block of code is trying to achieve and what syntax I am using in doing so.

The most important thing is to find what works best for you.

[u/Turbulent_Pin_8310]

It depends on your study style. If you are the note taking type, then continue

[u/desrtfx]

You shouldn't watch a tutorial in the first place. You should program along, or even better not do video based tutorials, but textual ones, like the MOOC Python Programming 2026 - this course is free, textual, extremely practice oriented, top quality and a proper first semester of "Introduction to Computer Science" from the University of Helsinki.

[u/Gtdef]

It really depends on how the lesson is structured. You can write notes with comments directly in the code. Personally I find that I internalise concepts much faster if I summarise the lesson in my own words and write it down (meaning I take notes). However you will never familiarise yourself with the language if you don't actually write a lot of code.

Try this:

Whatever code the lesson includes, open your text editor and write it yourself. But don't write word for word. Read the code line once, write it whole. You will probably do syntax mistakes here and there. When you do, delete the whole line, reread the code line again, try to write it again, till you fix the syntax error.

[u/solarsnowstorm]

I think it is best to watch videos first without taking notes in order to absorb and understand as much as you can given the topic. While watching feel free to rewind the video as many times as needed… and at the end try to identify a problem of the same sort and solve that on your own, without the use of the video, only relying on the debugger. This gets you interested in the topic, as well as making it harder to “cheat” at the answer by looking at the video (which you shouldn’t do anyway, until you’ve spent a fair amount of time trying to figure it out on your own!)