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Many students assume that they need better time management to learn their course material. Improved time management definitely helps but, in many cases, students mistakenly assume that more time will improve their marks when the real problem is how they spend the time they already have. Choosing better strategies for reading, taking notes, and studying can help you learn more without requiring more of your time.
Many, maybe even most, students rely on ineffective strategies for learning new material. This is an easy mistake to make because it stems from a key conflict in learning. When people choose a learning method, they tend to assume that the ones that feel the easiest are the most effective. This isn't unique to learning, either: consider the number of times we search for the shortest or fastest route somewhere, or the proliferation of hacks for pretty much everything.
Just because a learning strategy feels easy in the moment does not mean that you will be able to demonstrate your learning later, though. Effective learning, the kind of learning that allows you to understand complex material or recall information later on, requires deep processing, and methods for deep processing tend to take more effort and feel more challenging. We're drawn to simplicity and ease (i.e., shallow learning methods), but the difficulty is what helps us learn.
The good news is that strategies that promote deep processing do not take more time than methods that promote shallow processing. In fact, in a lot of cases they take less time to get better results. They just take more effort, so they feel less effective in the moment:
You need to pay closer attention to what you're doing, especially if you've just starting using a new strategy, and so it feel more awkward and time-consuming
You’re more likely to make mistakes or forget things during the learning process, which feels more discouraging
You’re less likely to feel like you’ve made significant progress after a single session, which can make you doubt whether you're learning
These difficulties are what enhance your learning, though, so part of adopting effective learning strategies is embracing desirable difficulty.
part 2 of the series started in an earlier section of this site
Whether you are reading a textbook chapter for the first time, taking notes in class, or studying for an exam, there are a couple of principles that are always applicable:
You learn course content to do certain things, so the best use of your time is to tailor how you study, take notes, or read about a topic to what you need to do with the information once you've learned it.
For example, if you know that your assignments will involve applying theories to case studies, then look for concrete examples of the theories in your textbook and your instructor's lectures. If your exams will focus on definitions, then start building a set of flashcards to review.
How can you figure out why you're learning something?
Look at your syllabus, especially the learning outcomes
Look through Moodle for clues. How is the course organized? Are there exam descriptions or assignment instructions that can guide you?
What do you want to do with the material once you've learned it? Is this a course in your major, and you want to make sure you understand the basics before taking more advanced classes? Do you want to use it to better understand a "real life" question or issue?
This is one area where desirable difficulties play a role. Rather than just memorizing the material that’s given to you, take the time to connect it to new ideas and information.
For example, in order to elaborate on what you're learning, you could:
Compare and contrast what you're learning to other course concepts or to material from your other courses
Reorganize the material into meaningful categories (chunking)
Pay attention to the connection between diagrams in your textbooks and lecture slides and the material you read
Create your own meaningful images by drawing diagrams or mindmaps
Find concrete, real-life examples of what you're learning
Connect the material to your personal experiences
Part 3 of the series started on previous page