Welcome to this educational article that you have been requesting for a long time A lot of you have written to me requesting studying tricks How is something learned? 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 by categories the types.
- The first category is understanding concepts Some subjects involve understanding concepts
- The second category is memorization Some subjects involve rote learning.
- The third category is Languages is a separate category on its own.
- The fourth category is Application subjects which involve the application of concepts Constant practicing is required.
The first category is understanding concepts:
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 that can be used in this is that of the Feynman Technique.
Feynman was a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who, while studying at 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- the Lorenz curve which shows inequality Now, I’ll make use of the Feynman Technique to understand the concept of the Lorenz Curve How will I do it? 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 the 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 here in the image you can see that the bottom 29% of the population has 24% of total income Looking at this, my understanding is that the population on x-axis is 29% and the income on y-axis is 24% So, Lorenz curve shows the distribution between population and income.
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 by imagining a person standing in front of me 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 in 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 key points Feynman Technique can be used even outside the purview of studies to improve our overall learning.
The second category is memorization:
The second category is memorization This includes subjects like civics, history, law, biology, medicine all the subjects that involve rote learning, 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?
- 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 the 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 senses you activate, the better you will be able to remember The involvement of the senses can be done by using your imagination There are some techniques for this
- One of the techniques is a Memory Palace:
Memory Palace is a trick that 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 neighborhood around your house or your very own home You will use this location to create in extremely weird storyline Because you can navigate from the location. Assume this is your house
Now, I will use this house to create a storyline 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 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, after hydrogen comes Helium So, I’m imagining a very weird thing because the weirder and emotional it is, the more you’ll retain it.
After hydrogen and helium, comes Lithium to imagine batteries, visualize your younger brother having 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 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 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 NA (Sodium)
Next comes calcium, magnesium, aluminum
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 use 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.
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 up to the intermediate level.
But I failed because language isn’t something that you can study for 10-20 days and pass Language requires 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 are a lot of requirements of practice There’s a wonderful app for practicing and learning grammar called – Duolingo.
It is a completely free app You can learn any language on it Speaking is something which is very difficult to learn, sitting at home.
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 Math’s, Accounting, and Mechanics. There’s only one trick to solve them and that is – practice, practice, and practice. In fact, it requires so much practice that you can ignore the theory most of the time You can start studying these subjects by looking at the example questions Looking at how the example problems are solved Recognizing the pattern in the solutions and trying 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.