How to learn anything easily and fast!! Study tips
Welcome
to this educational blog that you have
been requesting since a long time. A lot of you have written to me requesting
for studying tricks. How is something learnt? Come, let us see. First, I'd like
to give you some background information I believe that if there's something I'm
good at, then it is- reading, researching, understanding, learning And then
making you understand Because this is what all my blogs basically about. Study tips
How to learn anything easily and fast!!
For the
purpose of this blog I'll classify all the subjects into four categories. Study tips
The first category is understanding concepts.
There are some subjects that involve understanding concepts.
The second
category is memorization Some subjects involve rote learning.
The third
category is that of Languages. Languages is a separate category on its own .
The fourth
category is Application based subjects which involve the application of
concepts. Constant practicing is required.
Come let us see the subjects of these four
categories What are the different tricks that will help you study, understand
and learn from them.
The first
category is understanding concepts. This involves subjects like Physics,
thermodynamics and economics which require a deep understanding to grasp their
concepts. The trick which can be used in this is that of Feynmann Technique.
Feynmann was a Nobel Prize winning physicist who, while studying in his
university, discovered a technique that has become very famous in today's times
which helps you learn something very easily He made a notebook and on it, wrote
down the topic which he was trying to understand. He studied about the topic
and tried explaining it in his own words on a blank page in the notebook For
example, there is a concept in economics- Lorenz curve which shows inequality
Now, I'll make use of the Feynmann
Technique to understand the concept of Lorenz Curve How will I do it? Study tips
First, I'll look through my study materials. I'll try and understand it from the books that I have, If I'm unable to understand then I'll look up Lorenz curve on Google And then I'll look at the results. I could also look at videos to understand it properly I could look at its definition If the definition is complicated, which it does appear, when looked at, Since it is a curve, I'll look at its images. I've taken a look at the images.
How to Study Well!! hà nội study
Here in the image you can see the Lorenz curve. So, Lorenz curve
shows the distribution between x and y axis. My next step would be
closing my study material Open up a blank page in the notebook I will write
"Lorenz Curve" here at the top and try explaining it in my own words
Whatever I have read on Google and my books When I write it down here, then I'd
be able to see the gaps in my understanding This would become clear only upon
writing When I'd encounter gaps, then I'd go back and refer to see what it was
After this, the next step would be explaining out loud in words, whatever I've
written down I will not think quietly but say it out loud It has been
scientifically proven that speaking out loud ensures a better understanding as
compared to when you talk/ think quietly in your mind.
Now, I'd
explain imagining a person standing in front of me. In fact, you should imagine
a five year old child standing in front of you Your understanding should be
enough to make a 5 year old child understand. Reading and understanding is a
skill that you can practice even outside the purview of studies You can even
practice it in daily life. For instance, if you're reading the newspaper Read
any article n the newspaper and summarize to your parents at home what the key
points of the article were. This is going to enhance your skill of reading
something and understanding its keypoints. Feynmann Technique can be used even outside the purview of studies to
improve our overall learning.
How to learn anything easily and fast!!
The second category is memorization. This
includes subjects like civics, history, law, biology, medicine. All the
subjects that involve rote learning Actually , in India almost all the subjects
involve rote learning somewhere. The first thing you need to understand about
our memory is that whatever our brains see or write It cannot retain the
written text very well What are the things that our brains can retain well? Study tips
First is -
emotional things - The things that we are emotionally attached to, the things
that make us angry or happy or scared. We can retain these things better.
Second is-
the things that activate more than one of our senses. For example, you don't
just eat your food but also smell it. It also has smell Sometimes, there's also
involvement of sounds in food. So, you can remember it better. Some things
involve feeling, a sense of touch So, you can remember it even better The more
number of senses you activate, the better you will be able to remember The
involvement of senses can be done by using your imagination.
How to Study Well!!
There are some techniques for this. One of the
techniques is a Memory Palace. Memory Palace is a trick which involves using
real life locations that you know of through which you create imaginary objects
and create associations with the thing that you want to remember In Memory
Palace, you make use of an existing location that you know very well. For
example, the neighbourhood around your house or your very own home. You will
use this location in creating in extremely weird story line Because you can
navigate from the location. Assume this is your house Now, I will use this
house in creating a story line. The story can be funny, weird or absurd Because
emotional things and the things that activate multiple senses are better
remembered by us.
We also
retain stories and images better. So, I want to learn the periodic table Now,
I'd make use of my house. Assume I get inside my house because it is very sunny
Sunlight means sun and the sun means Hydrogen The periodic table begins with
hydrogen. Now, what's the next thing you see after entering inside the house?
Some people encounter the kitchen first Imagine that your mother is blowing up
balloons inside the kitchen. She's blowing up a big red balloon. Why? Because
the balloons have helium So, after hydrogen comes Helium So, I'm imagining a
very weird thing because the more weird and emotional it is, the more you''ll
retain it. After hydrogen and helium, comes Lithium To imagine batteries,
visualize your younger brother has strewn batteries all around. Whatever comes
beyond the kitchen in your house. Next, imagine Beryllium. Now, Beryllium
cannot be associated with a real life thing So you can use its word. For
example, Beryllium has the word "berry" in it Now, from berry you can
imagine turning towards your bathroom next and seeing stains of berries on your
T shirts Here, I'm using the locations to remember the order First I came
inside the house- that was hydrogen then came helium and after that lithium I'm
making use of these weird situations to make an emotional impact so that I can
remember them.
How to Study Well!!
So, here
you are making use of your imagination and existing memories to remember a new
thing. This technique is effective when you have to learn a lot of something It
is obviously not of much use for smaller things. For example, other techniques
are better for learning the periodic table A mnemonic trick is widely used to
learn the periodic table For example, there's one "Kalu Nath Ca Mali Aloo
Zara Feekay Pakata Hai" So, from Kalu , we'd see K, which stands for
potassium Nath would be Sodium Next comes calcium, magnesium, aluminium You
must have heard of this trick in school. This trick is widely used in India So,
I will not talk a lot about this trick because almost all of us already used it,
You must also be using it. You can use it in any kind of thing If someone else
does not make the mnemonics, then you can make one for yourself that are self
created.
How to learn anything easily and fast!!
The third category is that of Languages. Languages
have also been my weak point. I've only failed in 1 subject in the past year
And that subject was Spanish. I know English Hindi and German fluently, But I
know Spanish only upto the intermediate level But I failed because language
isn't something that you can study for 10-20 days and pass. Language requires
an everyday learning in small quantities and it requires a lot of practice.
Language
can be divided into four categories Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking.
Reading and listening can be practiced easily You can merely go on the internet
and read any entertaining stuff in that language for practice. Anything that
you like reading You can practice listening similarly by watching your favorite
movie in that language with subtitles But there's a lot of requirement of
practice. Speaking is something which is very difficult to learn, sitting at
home.
How to Study Well!!
There's a wonderful app for this- Cambly.
Cambly is an app on which you can have a one on one talk with native English
speakers on a video call. This is the best way to learn any language because
what could be better than talking to a native speaker? The only thing better
than this would be knowing and talking directly to a native speaker in real
life "And the type of people who come to you to learn from this app.. What
kind of level are they normally at?" "And how much do they improve,
do you think?" "They're all over the board" "I have some
people who don't speak any English.." "okay.." "What do
Indians generally like to talk about?" "They're more interested in
job opportunities" "Okay.." "Like in Canada because we have
a lot of east Indians in Canada" "Okay.." "So they're
always asking me about how to get jobs. So I give them the Canadian government
website" "Canadian accent.. when you talk to someone , do you think
people have problems understanding it sometimes?" "They tell me, no
problem".
How to learn anything easily and fast!!
The fourth
category is Application based subjects. It involves problem solving and question
solving. The theory is quite small. The problems and questions are more in
number. This includes subjects like Maths, Accounting and Mechanics There's
only one trick to solve them and that is - practice, practice and practice. In
fact it requires so much of practice that you can ignore the theory most of the
times You can start studying these subjects by looking at the example questions
Look at how the example problems are solved Recognize the pattern in the
solutions and try and imitate it when you are done solving some problems, then
you can go back to the theory to understand the theory of the entire thing and
what were the formulas being used in these questions.
I'd like to
give you a bonus suggestion here. Sometimes it so happens that you are reading
something but you lose concentration and it all goes above your head because
you don't find it interesting. A possible solution in this case would be trying
to go to the depths of studying that thing (try and find out) why are you
actually studying it? What is the purpose behind what you are studying? What is
its history? Why was such a thing made? Why am I studying it today? Who was the
first person to make it and why? What was he thinking of (while making it)? If
you go to history, you'll understand the purpose behind its existence and why
are you studying it today.
I hope you would have learnt a lot from this blog
You would have learnt "learning". What is the way to learn things?
how to study? If you found it useful then share this blog. You can even put it
in your "Bookmark" or "favorites", So that whenever you
start studying, you can read this blog before you begin So that you're able to
make use of these tricks while studying and increase your learning speed by
10-15 times.
Thank you.
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