Effective Learning Strategies (How to Study)
by Reggy Chang
1. Active learning
1.1. Interact with information
2. Analogies
2.1. This is similar to that
3. Associate
3.1. Link new information to existing knowledge
4. Big picture
4.1. Overview
4.2. Details
5. Breakdown
5.1. Break skills into smart parts
5.2. Practice, measure, improve
6. Chunking
6.1. Grouping information
7. Concentrate
7.1. Stay focused
7.2. Pay attention
8. Connect information
8.1. Connect the dots
8.2. How does it all connect?
8.3. Build new knowledge on existing knowledge
9. Connect with others
9.1. Interact with others students
9.2. Group work
9.3. Teachers
9.4. Parents
10. Cram
10.1. Studying the night before
11. Deliberate practice
11.1. Quality + Quantity
11.2. Highly structured
11.2.1. Improve performance
11.3. Requires
11.3.1. Focus
11.3.2. Effort
11.3.3. Time
11.4. Process
11.4.1. Motivated to improve performance
11.4.2. Build on existing knowledge
11.4.3. Immediate informative feedback on performance
11.4.4. Repeat until mastered
11.4.4.1. Not inherently enjoyable
12. Distributed practice
12.1. Spread out study sessions over time
12.2. Each subsequent phase reinforces the previous phase
12.3. Go back to what you don't understand
12.4. Don't cram
12.5. Longer intervals lead to longer retention
13. Elaborate
13.1. Work with extended information
13.2. Beyond class materials
14. Elaborative interrogation
14.1. Generate explanations
14.2. Why is this true?
15. Emotions
15.1. Heart
15.2. Feelings
16. Explain
16.1. Discuss with others
16.2. In your own words
17. Engaged
17.1. Interest
17.2. Curious
17.3. Critical thinking
18. Environment
18.1. Change study place
18.2. Slows down forgetting
19. Experience
19.1. Life is greatest teacher
19.2. Case studies
20. Feedback
20.1. See results of how you're learning
20.2. Adjust learning strategies based on feedback
21. Feynman Technique
21.1. 1. Explain idea as if teaching another student
21.2. 2. If stuck, go back to reference materials and relearn
21.3. 3. Explain idea again
21.4. 4. Explanations simple as possible
22. Filter
22.1. Choose important concepts
22.2. Eliminate the fluff
23. Flash cards
23.1. See practice testing
23.2. Flash cards
23.2.1. Quizlet
23.2.2. StudyBlue
23.2.3. FlashCardMachine
24. Hierarchies
24.1. Recognize different levels of information
25. Highlighting/ underlining
25.1. Mark important text
25.2. Difficult to make connections
26. Imagery for text
26.1. Form mental images of text
27. Inquire
27.1. Key questions & key concepts
27.2. Critical thinking
28. Insightful
28.1. New ideas
28.2. New understanding
28.3. Deep understanding
28.4. Creative
28.5. Unique
29. Interleaved practice
29.1. Different kinds of materials
30. Intent
30.1. Passion for subject
30.2. Determined to remember
30.3. Determined to learn
31. Key concepts
31.1. What's important?
32. Key questions
32.1. Inquiry-based learning
32.2. Purposeful
33. Keyword mnemonic
33.1. Keywords
33.2. Mental imagery
34. Logical
34.1. Sound reasoning
34.2. Part makes sense in the whole
35. Meaningful
35.1. Does it make sense to you?
35.2. Learn from general to specific
35.2.1. Start with outline
35.2.2. Add details
36. Organize
36.1. Structure information
36.2. Arrange and rearrange
37. Mnemonics
37.1. Visuals
37.2. Connections
38. Paraphrase
38.1. Your own words
39. Reflect
39.1. Process information in your own way
39.2. What you know about what you know
39.3. How you learn
40. Practice testing
40.1. Self-testing
40.2. Practice tests
40.3. Practice recall
40.4. Helps with future retrieval
41. Retain and recall
41.1. Recall information
41.2. Recreate mind map
42. Spaced repetition
42.1. See distributed practice
43. Rereading
43.1. Restudying material after initial reading
44. Review and reinforce
44.1. How much have you learned?
44.2. What needs additional work?
45. Self-explanation
45.1. Explaining how new information is related to known information
45.2. Explaining steps taken during problem solving
46. Simulate
46.1. Practice with new problems
46.2. Declarative knowledge (facts)
46.3. Procedural knowledge (process)
47. Student-directed
47.1. You're in charge of your own learning
47.2. Responsibility
47.3. Control of your learning
48. Subconscious
48.1. Sleep on it
48.2. Revisit later
48.3. Thinking "to go"
49. Summarization
49.1. Condense text
49.2. Capture important ideas
50. Teach
50.1. You colleagues
50.2. Other students
51. Think
51.1. While learning
51.2. About what you're learning
51.3. About how you're learning
52. Verbalize
52.1. Condense data into key concepts
52.2. Translate to your own words
53. Visualize
53.1. Pictures, colors, cartoons
53.2. Diagrams, charts, graphs
53.3. Bizzare visualizations/associations
54. Videos
54.1. Supplement reading materials with videos
55. Legend
55.1. Highly effective
55.1.1. Robust
55.1.2. Generalize widely
55.2. Moderately effective
55.2.1. Shows promise but insufficient evidence
55.2.2. Works for some people
55.3. Low effectiveness
55.3.1. Low utility
56. Resources
56.1. Blogs
56.1.1. Toni Krasnic
56.1.1.1. 5Ps of CLM
56.1.1.1.1. 1. Preview
56.1.1.1.2. 2. Participate
56.1.1.1.3. 3. Process
56.1.1.1.4. 4. Practice
56.1.1.1.5. 5. Produce
56.1.2. Cal Newport
56.1.3. Annie Murphy Paul
56.1.4. Scott H Young
56.2. Articles
56.2.1. Strengthening the Student Toolbox (Dunlosky)
56.2.2. Improving Students’ Learning With Effective Learning Techniques (Dunlosky et al.)