Hi All, question for you.

I'm a certified admin looking to hopefully become a certified developer. From looking at the course requirements, it looks like you must have at least two years experience with java and be somewhat proficient in the language.

This is where I'm at on a knowledge level...
I have been a certified admin for 3 years now. I consider myself a somewhat advanced admin. Extremely proficient with workflows, process builder, and flows. I can get by with making simple changes to VF pages, etc. I've deployed change sets, but have never been taught the best practices for making changes to an org (meaning: instead of making changes in Sandbox and then deploying the change set to Production, a lot of my changes are done directly in production.. would like knowledge on best practices for this). I am no java/apex language expert, but I can usually look at code and be able to at least tell you what it's doing...

Basically, I want to take the developer course that SF offers, but I don't want to get there and 10 minutes in be totally lost and regret paying for the course. If I'm overthinking it, please let me know. If there are other third party educational resources you can offer for what I'm looking for, please let me know. SF doesn't seem to offer an "Admin-to-Developer" type of course.

All feedback, advice is appreciated. Thanks.
-Justin