2019-11-18 20:44:00
Today, someone on Reddit posted the following question:
"I have the [...] practice exams, I typed the entire [...] video course from YouTube and I just brought the exam cram book but no matter how much I study I don’t retain anything. Do you guys have tips?"
OP ran into the wall that is learning styles: cramming simply doesn't work for everybody! I'm no expert by any means, but I did explain the following:
It is entirely possible that your current method simply does not suit your personal learning style! If you start poking around the web a little bit, researching learning styles, you will find very quickly that there are many different methods!
You can try and keep brute-forcing your learning the way you have right now, but maybe that will simply not get the results you want. Why not have a think about your days in primary, middle and high school? What did the classes you did best in have in common?
Perhaps you're someone who simply needs something else than quiet self-study, taking notes while listening to a teacher.
Personally I have found that I put great importance on putting new information into context. I don't want to learn floating, individual topics, I want to put them into a context that I'm already familiar with, or build a context around them. This helps me better understand the new material's place. One thing that could help you with this is making mind maps.
Or perhaps you're someone who better learns by doing then by hearing. I understand that playing around with new tools and concepts in a lab can take a lot of time, but there's a reason why many books include lab exercises for the reader. It is often said that people learn <20% by hearing and >50% by doing.
Finally, it is also often said that one way to solidify and test your understanding of a subject, is to explain the topic to somebody else. If you can explain X or Y to a friend, your partner or a rubber ducky, then you can be sure that you've come to a proper understanding. Or perhaps you will find a few gaps in your knowledge that you need to fill out. Either way, it's a win-win.
kilala.nl tags: studies,
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