Did you hear this joke?
One teacher says to other: “All students are so stupid. I explain them once – they don’t get it, I explain them twice – they don’t get it. I explain them third time – even I’ve got it already, but they still don’t!”
Well, this joke is not far away from the truth actually. The point is to find the most effective ways of learning and use them to study all the material the best you can. These most effective methods had been successfully found by Edgar Dale in 1969, who made the following conclusion out of his researches:
- The least effective way to study is to listen to lectures and read the materials on the subject given.
- The most effective way to study is to teach others and use the materials on the subject in your everyday life.
Mr. Dale taught the same material with different methods, and thenanalyzed his students’ abilities to remember the information after the material had been learned. So, if you want to study better and remember the material in details, follow five tips given below. You may share this experience with your group mates of course, or just make these tips become the secret tricks of your inspiration and success. It’s up to you what to choose, but all five of them are real must-know for every student.
Give some Lectures
Yes, you are not a professor. Yet. But it doesn’t mean that you can’t give some improvised lectures to your friends for example. The point is that you will not remember anything if you just listen to your professor’s lectures, but you’ll know everything if you give these lectures by yourself! Giving a lecture (as a teacher) is one of the most effective ways to remember the information.
Don’t know where to find “students” to give a lecture for? Follow the example of Demosthenes, one of the most popular ancient orators, who trained himself to speak clearly in front of a mirror. Yes, you can give a lecture to yourself, the main point is to speak all the information aloud. It’s a proven fact, that your chances to remember the material will increase much using this method.
Write Articles
Add some creativity to the process of your study. Almost all people have their personal blogs or live journals on the Web, where they share their news, thoughts, and problems with others. If you are one of them, why not to share the material you need to study with them?
Just read the information given by your professor, then close your textbook and write a blog post about what you’ve just read. You can do it in a quite unusual and creative manner, for example. Use pictures and some witty comments, draw graphs, create infographics… It will be interesting for your blog’s followers to read some new information, not just news about what you ate or where you went yesterday.
Create Video Programs
Even if you don’t have your personal blog or web page, many video portals can be found today where you can post your video materials for free reviews. Let’s take YouTube for example. We bet you had a chance to find thousands of educative videos there, that taught us how to improve our writing for example, or where to search for inspiration when it’s needed, or how to play this or that game, and so on and so forth. The proven fact is that such a method is very effective when it comes to your study process, because you prepare the material not for your professor and group mates only, but the worldwide audience as well.
With the help of your own video program you’ll be able to remember all the material much better and help other people learn something new for them. Doesn’t it inspire you?
Discuss Everything with Friends
One of the simplest and most available methods to study better is to communicate with the people of your social surrounding. Any appropriate time you can start a discussion of the topic both you and your friends are interested in, and share all your thoughts and knowledge on it. The more people you discuss this material with – the more chances you get to remember it for a long period of time.
There are also hundreds of methods to have such discussions online: visit forums, communicate with people in social networks, comment on different blogs posts, use live chats, etc.
Do it yourself!
You can teach others, you can give them advice on how to improve their lives, you can discuss various philosophical questions, and try to persuade everyone in something. But if you don’t do the same by yourself, all the information you give others will not have any value at all.
Make sure you do it yourself, and it will be easier and more effective for you to remember the information you try to learn and teach. And don’t forget that all tips given here are not a dogma. Everyone can have his own approach to study, and the main thing is to find the one that will fit you most.