I did the same thing for php and learned to code fairly well really fast - and got enough skill to eventually roll out two different web applications I fully coded myself. One was a virtual currency processing platform and the other one a social sharing site.
The way I did it was I watched two Lynda tutorials, starter and advanced in the first 3 days. I didn't do this to actually learn to code but to get a really good overall understanding of the programming language and its syntax.
After that I just jumped in coding of a simple web application I had in mind. Here's when it gets fun.
You have no idea what you're doing but you know exactly what you want to achieve. So I was 24/7 on google looking for code examples and basically raping stackoverflow. This is IMO the absolute fastest way to learn how to code. You just start building from nothing and in order to be able to integrate code you get curious what it does and how it works. It just sucks you in and it's a really fun process.
Doing it this way you won't need to memorize anything or even try to force yourself to remember how a language works because your brain will automatically soak it in and it will be effortless.
GL
Pretty much exactly how I learned PHP myself. Lynda tutorials first so I could get a grip on the basics then finding examples of code I wanted to implement in my solution, then tinkering around to get things the way I want them.
I did Comp Sci at Uni and it was more of a theory then put it into practice when we did Java and C++. This approach bored the hell out of me, since I learn best and retain what I learn by just trying to create something or solve a solution.