Ample research shows that there are better ways of studying, not just for passing the test, but for creating deep understanding. Below are ten essential strategies you should keep mind any time you need to learn something important. These lessons are drawn from my course, Rapid Learner.
Practice on Questions From the Test
Retrieval practice: shut the book and try to recall what you’ve learned without looking at it
- The value of actively trying to remember goes beyond simply correcting mistakes
- Best questions to test yourself on are those most similar to the test
- These desirable difficulties lead to more efficient studying over easier tests
Never multitask
When we multitask, we quickly switch between tasks in our minds.
- Each of these switches comes at a cost, however, as the contents of the previous task stay with our mind even as we work on the new one.
- Obvious fixes include silence your phone, turn off email and remove noisy distractions.
Pretend to Teach It
The teacher often learns more than the student
- Putting something into your own words checks whether you really understand it
- Coming up with analogies that would help someone else learn helps you figure out if you have a good picture
- Showing how to solve a problem, makes clear you’ve mastered it
Find Your Reason to Be Interested
Genuine interest can’t be faked, but it can be fostered
- If you can find a reason to be interested in insight and not just a grade, you’ll often end up with both
- Next week, I’ll be sharing three more lessons like this one. Stay tuned
Slow Down to Understand Better
Our limited working memory corresponds roughly to what we think of as our mental bandwidth.
- If you’re required to put together a dozen different pieces to understand an idea, then, you’ll be hopelessly lost. The fix is to write out what you’re trying to learn on a piece of paper.
Expose Yourself Multiple Times to the Same Information
Avoid cramming if you want to learn things deeply.
- Whenever possible, test yourself throughout your classes, not just on the current unit, but on previous ones. This ends up saving time needed to learn everything right before the exam.
Get Clear on What Confuses You
Instead of trying to understand the idea all at once, you need to ask yourself what’s missing to understand it.
- This doesn’t just apply to math classes. Confusing paragraphs in philosophy can be stepped through one-word-at-a-word, making sure you understand the point of each.
Don’t Get Too Far From the Real Thing
One fix is to always keep the real thing you care about close when learning.
- Going back between more formal learning and real projects can be helpful. This not only prevents knowledge from ossifying into something purely academic but it also acts as a check to ensure you’re learning what mattered most in the first place.
Drill the Basics Until They’re Automatic
Whenever you’re struggling to learn anything, always ask if you’ve mastered the basics
- The feelings of inadequacy that frustrate harder skills can often be remedied by fixing the foundation
- Direct instruction overcomes this by ensuring core skills are mastered before moving to harder tasks
Test Your Knowledge Before You’re “Ready”
Most students know they eventually need to test themselves on what they’ve learned, if they’re going to learn it deeply.
- However, many feel that they aren’t “ready” for this stage yet, so they stick to re-reading their notes at first.
- Clever experiments show that this is a mistake.
