In my previous article, I made mention that I enrolled in a computer science course at Harvard University a few days ago and I finally started taking the course today. I was feeling reluctant to start because I thought the classes is just going to be like the generic boring classes I am used to in my country but I was amazed by the advanced methods the teacher used in teaching.
Even though it was an online class that was just recorded and uploaded online, it still felt like I was there live and it was very fun. I had no problem understanding most of the things being talked about because there were visually represented on a large screen but back in my country, well, I shouldn't just say anything about that for now, let's just go over to the main event for today.
What's the best way to learn anything?
Learning something better can mean different things to different people. For some, it means understanding a concept more deeply, while for others it is simply absorbing new information. Either way, we all want to learn something new and so I want to give you a few tips on what I have discovered based on research as well as my personal experience.
1. Reread the material
Our brain tends to forget things as we keep learning new information. It's very easy to forget the basics of something we are trying to learn if we just read through the material and just jump right to the advanced aspect without revising the basics.
This is something I have come across while learning coding. I breezed through the basics because I felt it was "easy" and when I got to the advanced part, I realized I could no longer remember a lot of things from the basics, so I took the pain to go back and relearn the whole thing again and you know what happened afterward? It was very effective! I understood a lot of things when I relearned the whole thing
It might be a very stressful process but it does produce good results, this is also the same method I use in the university. I breeze through any note I am reading and don't bother much about memorizing, then I reread the whole thing after I reached the end. I do this about 6 to 7 times and the more I reread, the better I commit what I have read to memory.
2. Take notes by hand
I can hear some people groaning and rolling their eyes right now but this method is very effective! If you're learning something that involves a lot of words, it's better you take notes (not by typing on your phone) by writing things down with a pen and notebook, it makes it easier when you're reading it later on.
Again, this is something I also discovered at the university. Anytime I am in class and I am taking notes of what the professor is saying, it becomes easier when I am reading those notes later on and it will feel like I have read it before but just taking a revision. Back in high school, I don't even read when it was exam period because I always take notes in class, and in the process of taking notes, I am reading as well. Two birds, one stone 😉
3. Practice, practice, practice!
We are getting to the climax of this article and this right here is the penultimate. All that I have said above becomes useless if you don't practice what you have learned, and that's because learning is a process that involves comprehending, thinking, and applying information, with emphasis on "applying information".
How do you practice? You practice by applying what you have learned in real-life situations. Again, I will use my journey of learning coding as an example. I am taking a course with freecodecamp and while going through the course, I find the concepts easy and in my head, I can do all of those wonderful things I am learning, but when I got to the part where I was to create a project from all what I have been learning, I discovered I was stuck in an illusion.
I couldn't remember a lot of things I supposedly thought were too easy to understand and I became a regular visitor to Google and YouTube. But is that actually a bad thing? Definitely not! I try to do something but it failed and I wonder; "why did this fail?", So I check Google for an answer and when I finally get one and solve the problem, I never make that same mistake again, and even when I do, I no longer have to run to Google for help.
I am currently on the 4th project now (or is it 5th?) and I no longer go to Google as much as I did when I was on the first project and that simply means I have gotten better at implementing what I have learned into a real-life project. Now imagine if I just kept reading and watching tutorials without practicing what I have learned, will I be able to remember anything after a week? This is what leads to something called tutorial hell; the state of being stuck in a tutorial loop without doing anything with what you're learning.
4. Teach someone else
Now for the grand finale and the ultimate weapon to learning anything, teaching! This is not something that is being assumed or a theory, it's a fact, a real-world fact that the more you teach something, the better you learn. I am not even going to bother citing an example using myself, you must have experienced it in your life at one point or the other.
No matter what it is you're trying to learn, just merely talking about it to someone else will go a long way in imprinting that knowledge in your brain for a very long time. Teaching someone else simply means you know much about that particular thing and are also confident in talking about it without feeling like you're not good enough to do so (something called imposter syndrome).
Conclusion
Ultimately, the most effective way to learn something is to do it. Bouncing between doing and teaching will help you retain the information you learn, and if it's something that interests you, chances are that you'll be eager to teach it. Be creative with how you learn and teach something, and you'll find that you're able to absorb much more with time.
We have all seen what it takes to learn something better, be it knowledge or skills. However, you don't have to be an expert or highly skilled individual to apply this approach in your life. You don't need the money to be rich or famous, all you need is a hunger for learning and motivation to master new things that can make your life much better because improving yourself is a never-ending journey that will never get to an end if you don't stop.
Thanks for reading 💖💖💖
Wednesday June 22, 2022
The outline you gave are really impressive and it is gonna work if anyone follows it
The example you gave about freecodecamp is really impressive; learning on that site gives you this kind of illusion that you know how to do a particular project. That's why I make sure I snap every lesson so later I can go on to practice it for myself.