How to learn
by joelabc · 22 things on NewTwos
- Get Specific
- Identify Key Skills
- Get Good Resources
- Make a Schedule
- Get Valuable Feedback
- Be Careful with Goals
- Revise the Plan
- Learning Checklist
- Did you get a reasonable night’s sleep before the test?
- Did you review your notes from class not long after you took them? Did you use active recall during your review to see if you could easily pull to mind the key ideas?
- Did you study a little bit on most days instead of waiting until the last minute and cramming right before the test?
- Did you focus carefully during your study sessions, doing your best to avoid distractions except when you were taking a break?
- Did you study in different locations?
- Did you read your textbook or class worksheets carefully? (Just fishing around for the answer to what you’re working on doesn’t count.) While you were reading, did you avoid too much underlining and highlighting your textbook? Did you make brief notes about the book’s key ideas and then look away to see if you could recall them?
- If your studies involved working problems, did you actively work and rework key examples by yourself, so you turned them into sets of brainlinks and could rapidly call the solution to mind?
- Did you discuss homework problems with classmates, or at least check your solutions with others?
- Did you actively work every homework problem yourself?
- Did you talk to your teachers, or to other students who could help, when you were having trouble with your understanding?
- Did you spend most of your study time focusing on the material you found harder? That is, did you do deliberate practice?
- Did you interleave your studies? In other words, did you practice when to use different techniques?
- Did you explain key ideas to yourself, and perhaps to others, using funny metaphors and images?
- Did you take occasional breaks from your studies that included some physical activity?