Boost Your Study Skills. Understand Complex Issues Fast.

Section two is all about motivation – a critical component of effective studying.

To be successful at anything in life, you have to be interested in it! You won’t excel in any field if you’re not strongly focused. The same applies to studying.

When you know why you want to study a particular course, it doesn’t mean the rest will be easy. There will still be many obstacles to overcome.

You now know what you want to study and have put aside time for it, but that’s not enough for long-term efficiency.

You probably already know how to use search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Maybe you use Wikipedia on a daily basis and think you know how to find information. But did you know that according to professional estimates, only 4% of content on the internet is possible to find through regular search methods? What about the other 96%? It’s hidden in the Deep Web.

An important part of deeper learning is being able to study from many different resources. However, this may be very time-consuming and counter-productive without the knowledge of smart reading.

A concept that works very well for me is the “snowball principle”. I start with one or more resources suggested by the teacher, such as a textbook, book, or article mentioned in the course syllabus. Ones written by your teacher have the highest priority. Many students tend to end here, though, and that is a big mistake because it can be very time-consuming to try to understand a topic well using only one source. For deeper learning, you don’t want to just memorize definitions and statements from your teacher; you want to understand what the topic is really about.

Without being able to take good notes during smart reading, the entire study session could end up being worthless! You could end up frustrated at spending so many hours at the library without actually learning anything.

If you’ve read through and completed each step so far, then you’ve written down the essential facts necessary for understanding your particular topic in your notes. Read your notes carefully and try to find similarities or connections. You may use the mind maps method to describe the topic in a more visual way. If you find that some notes are unclear, adjust them using notes from other sources, or study the same source again.

It’s important to move this newly learned information from your short-term memory to your long-term memory in order to be able to recall the information any time you need it. All of the important facts are written in your notes, but how can you make sure you don’t forget them? Simple! Sort and associate the facts.

This is the final step! I hope you’ve realize how easy it can be to understand even very complex topics without superpowers or expending extraordinary amounts of energy. Continue using these techniques on an everyday basis. After you finish one topic, move on to the next. You’ll find that you’ll improve these techniques every time you use them on your own. Each of us are different, and we each have different skills and habits, so you’ll surely find ways to further enhance these techniques and make them even more effective for yourself. I’d love to hear the tips you find useful!

In one sentence: you have learned how to boost your study skills to a higher level. You know the ten necessary steps to understand what you learn without changing your brain or expending a lot of energy.

If you want improve your study skills on the long-term basis, join the SGC described at this lecture.