Whether you’re a college student or working professional, it’s likely that you’ll be faced with learning new material. More mature learners often comment that it’s been such a long time since they were in college that they forgotten how to learn. (This is not true, of course, but it can feel that way.) College students may be more used to learning, but they’re faced with lots of material so learn, so experienced or not, it can be overwhelming. Here are some tips to make learning easier:
- Get yourself organized. Look over the material (syllabus, notes, reading material, etc.) and set goals for what you’ll cover each day/week/month so you can finish the course on schedule.
- Create a study plan. Learning takes repetition. Divide your weekly study time into shorter periods so you can avoid mental fatigue and give yourself time to review the material a few times.
- Find a way to relate to the information. We remember what we connect with, so look for your own examples that relate to the content.
- Use a technique to help you remember. To memorize a Toastmaster’s speech, I break my content into bullet points and put them in alphabetical order, making it easier for me to recall them. I still name the planets (as they were understood in the 1970s) using “my very educated mother just served us nine pizza pies.”
- Use outlines, summaries, groupings, and hierarchies to help you memorize large amounts of information.
- Study in an environment as close to the testing situation as possible. According to the Academic Success Center at Iowa State University of Science and Technology, the more similar the two settings are, the greater the likelihood that the material will be recalled during a test.
If these tips are new to you, consider working with an Academic Coach. I complete my academic coaching certification in May, so let me know if you’d like to learn more (no pun intended).