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How To Learn

The document discusses the science of learning, emphasizing the importance of neural connections, the impact of sleep, and techniques to enhance learning such as chunking and spaced repetition. It highlights the need to overcome procrastination by starting tasks despite discomfort and the significance of practicing recall and testing oneself. Additionally, it advises against ineffective study habits like excessive highlighting and encourages mixing problems to deepen understanding.

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rdate128
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23 views3 pages

How To Learn

The document discusses the science of learning, emphasizing the importance of neural connections, the impact of sleep, and techniques to enhance learning such as chunking and spaced repetition. It highlights the need to overcome procrastination by starting tasks despite discomfort and the significance of practicing recall and testing oneself. Additionally, it advises against ineffective study habits like excessive highlighting and encourages mixing problems to deepen understanding.

Uploaded by

rdate128
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Week 1: What is Learning?

Brain Facts:
 Cells of the nervous system are called neurons. Information from one neuron flows to another
neuron across a synapse. Human brain has a million billion synapses.
 Your brain creates synapses whenever you learn something new. Sleeping helps "update"
your brain cells. Literally.

Why do we procrastinate (scientifically):


Problem:
Learning a new thing or doing something you would rather not do can be stressing. This can cause
anxiety at first. This activates the area associated with pain in the brain.
Your brain looks for a way to stop that negative feeling by switching your attention to something else
more pleasant.
Solution:
The trick is to just start. Researchers discovered that not long after people start actually working out
what they didn’t like, that neuro-discomfort disappeared.
Remember that the better you get at something, the more enjoyable it can become.
Consider using the pomodoro technique.

Learning hard and abstract things:


The more abstract something is, the more important it is to practice to create and strengthen neural
connections to bring the abstract ideas to reality for you.
Ex: You should practice a lot with the math vocabulary to understand it and recall it easier. [∫∞e x dx,
k!(n−k)!]

Summary of what I learnt:


1. There are two modes of thinking:
a. Focused mode: Concentrating on things that are usually familiar.
b. Diffused mode: A relaxed mode of thinking "your thoughts are free to wander".
2. When you don’t desire doing/learning something, go through it and just start. The discomfort
goes away and, in the long term, this will lead to satisfaction.
3. When you learn something new, make sure to take time to rest, then come back to it and
recall what you learnt.
3. This is very important. Don’t cram information in one day. This leads to inefficient learning.
It’s like building a wall without letting it dry.
4. Revisiting and practicing what you learn is important. Research shows that spaced
repetition (repeating things after few days) is the best way to build and strengthen the
synaptic connections.
4. Sleep is very important. It clears the metabolic toxins from the brain after a day of "brain use".
It is best to sleep directly after learning new things.
5. It was shown that exercising and/or being in a rich social environment helps your brain
produce new neurons. Don’t lock yourself in your room. Stay active and spare time for
exercise (including general physical activities) and friends daily.
Week 2: Chunking

Chunks:
Pieces of information, neuroscientifically speaking, bond together through use and meaning. They
can get bigger and more complex, but at the same time, they are single easy to access items that
can fit into the slot of the working memory.
 Chunking is the act of grouping concepts into compact packages of information that are
easier for the mind to access.
 Example: If you understand and practice a math formula. You no longer will need to focus
much to solve it like you did the first time. That’s because your "formula chunk" got so
abstracted into your brain that it can only take one slot of your working memory to solve it.

Turn off distractions. You want to use all the four slots of your working memory when studying.
Learning will be inefficient if some of those slots are connected to something else.

You have to solve the problem yourself. Just because you see it, or even understand it,
doesn't mean that you will be able to solve it (Illusion of competence). It is always easier to
look at the material, even if you think it’s easy, then doing it yourself.

It gets easier. When you think that a chapter or a book has too much information and that there’s
no way to go through them all; just focus on whatever section you’re studying. You’ll find that once
you put that first concept in your mental library, the following one will be easier.
This concept is called Transfer; a chunk you have mastered in one area can often help you much
more easily learn other chunks of information in different areas.

Master the major idea and then start getting deeper. However, make sure not to get stuck in
some details before having a general idea. Practice to help yourself gain mastery and sense of the
big picture context. Try taking a "picture walk" before you dig through the material, this means, look
briefly at the pictures, chapter titles, formulas used… before diving into details.

Recall mentally without looking at the material. This is proven more effective than to simply
rereading. Reread only after you try to recall and write down what was in the material.
Consider recalling when you are in different places to become independent of the cues from any
giving location. This will help you when taking a test in the class.

Test yourself to make sure you are actually learning and not fooling yourself into learning.
Mistakes are a good thing. They allow you to catch illusions of competence.

Don’t always trust your initial intuition. Einstellung problem (a German word for
Mindset). An idea or a neural pattern you developed might prevent a new better idea from being
found. Sometimes your initial intuition on what you need to be doing is misleading.You’ve to unlearn
old ideas and approaches as you are learning new ones.

Mix up the problems (Interleaving) from different chapters. This is helpful to create
connections between your chunks. It can make your learning a bit more difficult, but it helps you
learn more deeply. Interleaving is very important. It is where you leave the world of practice and
repetition, and begin thinking more independently.

Don’ts:
 Highlighting too much and creating maps are often ineffective without recalling.
 Repeating something you already learnt or know very well is easy. It can bring the illusion
of competence; that you’ve mastered the full material when you actually just know the
easy stuff. Balance your studies and focus on the more difficult (deliberate practice).
This sets the difference between a good student and a great student.
 A big mistake is to blindly start working on an exercise without reading the textbook or
attending the class. This is a recipe of sinking. It’s like randomly allowing a thought to pop off
in the focus mode without paying attention to where the solution truly lies.

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