Studying Method

[Trifoilum]

I wonder, how does you study / learn about things? Brainstorming? Understanding? Memorizing? Experiencing? Seeing examples?

Also, how do you do it? Drawing tables? Mindmapping? Getting the gist? Reading the book and understanding its nuance and sentences? Swallowing the book and hoping you swallow the knowledge within? (Just kidding; but IINM, my own culture has a saying that if you burn a book and drink the ashes, you'll remember what it's written. >_>

And I'm putting it here because I wonder if type affects studying methods.

I personally like to understand it first, the patterns, the application, the connection and everything.

 

[Gaze]

I learn through brainstorming and understanding as well as "Reading the book and understanding its nuance and sentences". I can't learn through memorization unless i understand what i'm learning and can make connections to material already learned.

Not good with memorizing names, dates, facts, or figures unless presented in story form or unless discussed by talking about how they relate or connect in human interest way. I am also an audio-visual learner, so seeing something illustrated in pics/video or diagram form really helps to reinforce what i'm learning. And i usually connect more with theoretical topics.

 

[Odyne]

For Engineering studies: understanding then LOTS of problem solving. Sometimes a hands-on approach is also good.

For Languages (including music): practice practice practice. Speaking the language (playing), and then writing (composing).

For Social sciences: reading the book seems to suffice for me.

 

[deadred]

Wow, this is a tough one! I guess I would have to be a brainstormer...I tend to gather information and mull over it deeply. I like to take things apart and see how they fit back together again. Maybe I'm a sub-conscious thinker. It's like there is a machine that collects data and eventually spits out concepts. I am a slow learner, but once I "get it", I've really got it. I try to take my time. This really isn't an easy question.

 

[bamf]

For the most part I don't "study" in the general academic sense. Reading the book and going to lectures gets me through.

I learn best by listening, and thinking it through. Practice gets me almost no where, because I'm not very keen on practicing. Music I always just kinda picked up and went with. If I heard it, I could play it. Everything else was fake-it-til-you-make-it.

 

[Peppermint]

1. Research and accumulate material.
2. Read through, get a feel for the general idea, single out the most important points and facts.
3. Read it a few times to let it sink in nicely, once I've understood the most vital principles, the important points stick with me. Later on I use them, by weaving them together in a story to form a coherent whole.

I especially like to connect and relate different bits of knowledge from other subjects to what I'm currently learning.

 

[Reon]

Hmm. I mostly just read/ the material and contemplate it in my head until I get it, and that's if I don't already get it by the time I've read it. Or listen in class. I used to think I was good at memorizing but I finally realized that I was good at recalling key bit of information but not very 'specific' points of information. I used to excel at history class without knowing any of the dates and such. Just a round about way of knowing when what happened and what it affected.

Although I'm an auditory learner, I was always interested in mind mapping to improve my visual learning skills and also increase my note taking abilities. Honestly, I might have written some notes in class but I never read them (and that's only because I was forced). It's a wonder I passed anything like that.

I wonder, how many of you all take notes?

@Trifoilum: What culture are you? That's pretty interesting.

 

[jn56uytrx]

Not good with memorizing names, dates, facts, or figures unless presented in story form or unless discussed by talking about how they relate or connect in human interest way. I am also an audio-visual learner, so seeing something illustrated in pics/video or diagram form really helps to reinforce what i'm learning. And i usually connect more with theoretical topics.

Similar for me.

I'm visual so reading is better for me than listening. If I see things written, or write them down myself, I'll remember better. Because of this a lot of note-taking is a very helpful study tool for me.

Disconnected facts don't stay with me long. I have to make meaningful connections between new information and existing thought structures. I'm better at remembering facts and terms if they are tools supporting more cohesive engagement with a concept.

Written exercises that challenge me to synthesize new information and expand the connections are very effective in helping emerge with a deeper understanding of a topic.

Kept internal my understandings can sometimes begin to feel tangled and confused. Communicating with others helps me give order to my understanding.

Exploring how another person sees a topic challenges me to consider it from different angles and enriches my experience of a topic. It identifies gaps in my understanding and motivates me to gather more solid information.

 

[Jonathan]

I hardly ever make detailed notes. I don't really need the details. Details only stick with me if they have personal significance, or if I think they'll be useful later in my own personal research. I just tend to make general notes, and let my intuition fill in the gaps. People avoided borrowing my notes in high school, since they were thorough in some places and very general in others.
My studying involves a lot of imagination and contemplation. I'm just as good with visual learning as I am with auditory learning, and I like to connect ideas together in a meaningful way. Making my own concept webs worked very well, since I could see the big picture, but also keep track of smaller details, which I generally have trouble memorizing. During tests and exams, answers would just come to me. Because I focused on the concepts, the details naturally followed.
Mostly, I just needed to try to keep focused and apply things to my interests and life in general, making as many connections as I could.

 

[Trifoilum]

@Reon : Indonesian. I actually don't know if it's local (read : my high school) or actually pretty universal, at least in my town.

And in case someone's wondering, OF COURSE it didn't make any sense and no one (...as far as I know) has ever attempted it

 

[gloomy-optimist]

I understand the main points of what I'm learning, then connect information and consider possibilities. I'm an extremely fast learner, but I hate memorization. I find that being interested in what I'm learning helps a lot...and since you can connect almost every "school subject," that can be easier than one might think.

If I need to study something to memorize, I use note cards and try to find little tricks to memorizing things. There are certain ways to study certain things, too.

 

[fairypotter]

For areas that don't come to me naturally(like math) its not about precision. If I "kinda feel" like I know how to do a problem, that's good enough for me on the day of the test.

And like a lot of ppl said, I gotta know WHY.If I'm asked to memorize something that makes no sense/no summary/no history on it was given, I will have much trouble.

Without trying, I find that I develop certain brief feelings about words, places, ideas I need to know. I just always seem to fall back into doing that.

 

[durentu]

reading: SQ5R method
problem solving exercises: do ALL of them
hog all of the office hours. or find a mentor/tutor
story method for memorization of random things
Mindmapping, printing them out then coloring them in as I go over it

but the best method is:
learn it and teach it to someone else, be a tutor, group study.

sometimes writing or blogging about it as if to teach is a great alternative.

 

[Gaze]

reading: SQ5R method
problem solving exercises: do ALL of them
hog all of the office hours. or find a mentor/tutor
story method for memorization of random things
Mindmapping, printing them out then coloring them in as I go over it

but the best method is:
learn it and teach it to someone else, be a tutor, group study.

sometimes writing or blogging about it as if to teach is a great alternative.

Completely agree. Writing about it is probably the best way to learn it.

 

[Detective Conan]

For me, it depends on what I'm trying to learn. With facts, such as events, the best way for me to approach it is to read about the event a couple of times, mixing it in with other events to help form a concrete understanding.

With skills, practice makes perfect.