10 Effective Ways to Learn

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Effective Ways to Learn

Author Benjamin Wright-Parkin

Date of Writing : 15th May 2011

Introduction

The skill of learning effectively can be very useful in modern life. Just how useful it

can be is demonstrated by the following list of seven possible reasons why learning

skills may be useful:

1) To pass exams which are a requirement for another personal goal.

2) To gain a skill for personal enjoyment (for example playing an instrument).

3) To build self esteem by mastering a skill or subject area.

4) To help your children in their schoolwork.

5) To improve your productivity at work.

6) To win a particular job.7) To gain an understanding of topics in a short time interval in order to better

understand the world we live in.

Methods of Learning

From the author’s personal experience there are ten methods to effectively learn.

Chapter 1 – Breaking a Subject Into Topics

Confidence is an important aspect in the ability to learn. Many subjects of study can

seem overwhelming at first glance. Take for example studying calculus in high school

or university. Calculus consists of many topics: derivatives, integrals, calculus for

physics, trigonometric functions in calculus. By attempting only one topic at a time

the subject can seem much easier.

Chapter 2 – Researching “Idiots Guide To…” Books

The Idiots Guide To… books are of course very popular because for many people

they do not have to time to delve in depth through the literature on a topic in a library

or on the internet. Also, much of the knowledge on certain topics is not published because the market for that topic is not large enough. Books on singing are one topic

that comes to mind. There are plenty of singing tutors available in different cities but

the knowledge they have is not written up in many books. This is a case where

reading the “Idiots Guide To Singing” could be useful for someone who would like to

know about singing but who does not want to pay for lessons.

Chapter 3 – Researching Original Sources

Just because a book is old does not mean it is useless or boring. Many textbooks in a

school or university bookshop are written by academics who have understood the

development of a subject or topic. This assists in their understanding of the area theyare writing about but their knowledge is not included in the textbook they have



written. A modern theory of education – constructivism – asserts that students learn

by building on top of knowledge they already possess. One outcome of this is the fact

it is much easier to follow a line of reasoning in a subject if the student starts at the

beginning of the argument. One way to do this is to research old books. Two websites

are useful for this – Google Books and Archive.org. Once a student reads the writings

of the original authors who developed a subject they can gain understanding of themodern state of the subject.

Chapter 4 – Teaching Others

Studies have shown that teaching others a topic will actually help the teacher learn a

subject better than the person they are teaching – strange but true.

Chapter 5 – Completing a Project

Completing a working project on a topic can provide feedback on a learners learning.

If you were to simply complete an exam on a topic there is no real feedback (other than a grade). Having to apply knowledge to a real world problem provides feedback

on a students understanding. If they don’t understand a topic they will fail in building

something which uses that knowledge.

Chapter 6 – Asking “Dumb” Questions

Many so called experts do not understand the topic they assert they understand. Being

able to complete a degree in a subject may cause a person to believe they understand a

set of topics. However it is sometimes only when a student asks a different question to

the ones they have encountered that they realise they cannot use their knowledge to

answer it. So ask those dumb questions, many times the teacher will realise their own

short comings in learning!

Chapter 7 – Notetaking

This might sound boring but taking notes as you read or listen to someone teach can

slow down your thinking (through the act of writing) and lead to better cognition and

memory retainment.

Chapter 8 – Use a Planner

Who really likes to use a diary or wall planner? Not many from the author’s

experience. However, there is a limited amount to time to use for learning, and that

amount is probably a lot less than you think. If each subject in your university course

has one textbook associated with it, then as a rule of thumb you will need to complete

the study of each chapter in two hours. That means one hour of reading and one hour

of answering end-of-chapter questions. It really is not much time, so writing in

milestones for reading, questions, tutorials, assignments and exam revisions is vital

unless you have the genius brainpower of Stephen Hawking, which not many of us

do.



Chapter 9 – Look after Your Physical and Mental Health

This may seem another boring method. However, if your body or brain is struggling

to cope with everyday life then there will not be many resources for learning topics

which are unrelated to everyday life.

Chapter 10 – Using a Whiteboard

Writing on a large surface such as a whiteboard can aid in pictorial learning for

students. With arrows, diagrams and pictures they can organise the learning material

logically and better recall facts from their brain.

Chapter 11 – Gaining Confidence

Completing a small section of work to a very high standard and demonstrating

aptitude in this one area can be useful to gaining confidence. For example, the student

may be learning the piano. Both melody and chords constitute the playing of onesong. The student may focus on learning only the melodic notes of the song. After

mastering this they may perform just the melody of the song for their famliy/friends

and receive positive feedback. They can then learn the chords for the song and master

these. Finally, they may combine the melodic and chord components of the song to

produce the final song. If the student attempted to play with both hands initially (the

melody and the chord components) they may have become disheartened because there

was a long period of practice before receiving positive feedback from their

family/friends.

Chapter 12 – Being “Put on the Spot”

One difference between operating in a workplace compared with a study environment

is the emphasis put on the efficiency of a workers use of time compared with a

student's. A student is using their own time to understand a concept in their studies.

Understanding a complex idea, such as Einstein's theory of relativity may require

large amounts of time. Once the student has spent this time their knowledge will

enable them to apply their knowledge to many problems (developing satellite

positioning systems for example). They are not being paid to learn so no one is on

their back to show results from their learning. The students will likely sit an exam to

test their knowledge but this in a case where they are not being asked to develop a

unique solution to a problem. In an assignment they may be asked to develop a uniquesolution to a new problem but they can spend as much of their own time on the

assignment as they wish. They will receive a grade based on the quality of their work,

not the quality of their work and the time taken to produce the work. Because of this a

student may feel they have a solid grasp of concepts when they actually do not. Once

they graduate into a paid position they will often be shocked by how little they

actually know. Their boss will be now paying them to work to a strict timeframe. If

they cannot produce in the timeframe which the industry in which they are working

expects then of course they will be out of a job soon. Some may argue that the former

student's problems may be partly due to not “knowing how to learn” and blame the

learning institution. However, the student must know how to learn well if they have

passed their course. What they are lacking is the ability to learn effectively with



respect to their time spent. You as the reader may come up with ideas to be “put on

the spot” to learn material in a set time period.

Chapter 13 – Keep at Things

Think of the glacial movement of the world's continents over geological time. It hastaken hundreds of millions of years for the world to take its present shape. In a similar

way, remaining on task with an area of study will yield results in the end. Just keep at

it!

Chapter 14 – See the Point in what you are Studying

There is nothing as disheartening as performing a task for countless hours with no

meaningful result, just ask sweatshop workers! If the subject you are studying appears

to have no point to your career path then attempt to generalise the courses utility. For

example, a student may be required to study a mathematics subject in their final year

of high school. They may wish to work as a chef when they graduate and so see little point in mastering the subject. However, if they rationalise that they can learn how to

master a complex and abstract subject area they may be more motiviated. They may

gain skills to assist with the complex subject of writing a business plan when they

wish to open a new restaurant.

Chapter 15 – Emulate Famous Students

Often as children we like looking up to famous people. Maybe we want to be a soccer

star or a famous author. As teenagers and adults we realise the limits in life. However,

who says we must be the best at something? If you simply aim to be slightly worse

than a famous person in your studies then you will likely earn money from the subject

area you are studying and find enjoyment from it. For example, if your subject is

physics and you want a career in this area, you may emulate Einstein and set a goal to

understand as much physics as he did. With the internet and modern libraries this is

quite possible to do throughout a science degree majoring in physics. You may not be

good enough to become famous as Einstein was, but you can probably still go into

teaching or academia and earn money for your family. And, anyway, chances are you

will have a better famlily life than Einstein did anyway, as his was not ideal. And isn't

that more important?

Chapter 16 – Ignore Distractions

Let us be honest, there are always going to be distractions. If you want to learn

something do not give into the thinking of “I'll just do _______, then I'll get around to

studying some more”. This is not to say that you should not reward yourself with a

break, but just be aware that this thinking will inevitably lead to no study being done.

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10 Effective Ways to Learn