I am curious as to what are the best learning practices that can be adopted as a student.
I was wondering if it is enough, if as a learner someone just goes through the process of learning something.
Multiple things happen inside our own minds when we just go through that process- watching a lecture, understanding bits of it deeply, thinking, analysing, trying to build a structure in our minds, trying & experimenting stuff, reading relevant readings, and so on! Is just going through this process alone sufficient to make sure we learn something without bothering about other stuff.
To add a cherry on the top, once we go through this complete process, we try explaining it to someone, perhaps by creating a blog for example as strongly advised by Jeremy. Again this process of preparing to explain something organizes things in our minds and sort of fits the gaps that might exist!
Will this be enough?
Please share your approaches of learning new material/skill.
hi, in my personal experience after Iâve studied a subject the best way to make myself understand it to a deeper level is to teach it to others. For example make some slides and prepare a 45 min session, try to get a few people from your company or your professional space to attend to your tech-talk. This will give you valuable feedback on how much you understand the subject, if youâre too technical or too simple in the explanations.
If you feel the anxiety may be too much for a live audience, another way is to record yourself and upload your tech-lesson as a free course in youtube or another platform.
One important aspect, I would say, is to link everything youâre learning together; create a logical flow. Not only will it help you understand, it will also help you remember and recall much more easily.
In a nutshell: create a mental mindmap. To help you create one, draw one up! Some points when drawing one up:
Donât write each teeny tiny detail; itâll litter the map. Not writing them also helps with recall.
Use as few words as possible; donât be verbose. Draw images instead!
There should be an overall direction/flow in the map
Emphasize different links by creating different sorts of connections/arrows/lines
Group/chunk different portions of the map
Through creating such a map, you structure learned content logically in your mind, and I canât emphasize enough how much such a flow helps. Itâll allow you to much more easily absorb new content, itâll help you relate to existing content youâve learned, and again, itâll help you recall much more easily.
And on top of that, any time youâre about to start learning something, you want to have an idea about what you will be learning.
Letâs say youâre going to begin the fastai course. Read/skim through each lessonâs summary and create a map from what youâve read. It doesnât matter if the links youâve made are incorrect or of the sort, you can always change it later. By priming yourself about what you are going to learn, itâll make the process of learning itself much easier. Then when you will begin, say, lesson 1, read through the lesson summary in much more detail, extend upon the map you made for the entire course, and then begin watching the video. After watching the video, complete the map!
It may seem like a lot more effort up front, but itâll save time and effort in the long run. Learning isnât something casual, you gotta feel your brain work!
Damn! This guy validates a lot of things. Things I never could explain it to people when learning. I was somehow not a big fan of jotting down every word from the Profâs mouth or every word from a textbook. JP said this in one of his lectures. We live in this facade of learning but actually donât.
Anyways, thanks for sharing this treasure of a thing !
We live in this facade of learning but actually donât.
Well said . I was the teacher assistant for Physics and Mathematics in high school, and I can attest to that heh.
Learning isnât about writing down notes, memorizing things, or grinding through practice. Itâs about actually understanding the concepts, and linking them all together.