Every student develops her/ his own learning strategies, but if you’re having trouble with a subject, the best thing to do is to find new strategies. Often, a learning problem does not arise from material that is too difficult; it means that you just haven’t found the best way to learn it.
The common veins through all learning strategies are repetition and rephrasing
Flashcards are useful because they reorder the information; homework problems review concepts with different variations. For classroom concepts, a good idea is to rewrite the lesson in your own words. If you are a creative student who finds math difficult, try to tell a story to explain how a function works. Setting concepts to songs can be exceptionally effective: Try singing the quadratic equation to the tune of “Pop Goes the Weasel,” and you’ll never forget it.
Literature classes are also especially apt for creative learning. If you need to memorize symbols or ideas from a story or poem, write your own using the same concepts. Other social sciences like history or psychology are more memorable if you don’t force yourself to focus solely on dates and facts. Find a first-person account of an event to make the details relatable. When reading about studies, think about how the findings are relevant to you or someone you know. If the song method works for you, research children’s shows and other educational sources that have set simple facts and historical lists to familiar tunes.
The Results Of Strategies Increasing Your Rating Will Surprise You!
Learning as understanding, sometimes called “deep learning,” can have frustrating side effects. You may find that you are better at writing essays or leading discussions, but pop quizzes and multiple-choice questions that focus on facts are more difficult. It is important to consider how the teacher tests knowledge. If you are comfortable with the material, but you are unable to perform well on tests, consider asking the teacher for a different way to demonstrate your knowledge.
You can augment your understanding with flash cards and other more quiz-like strategies, but years later, you’ll find that the things from school that really stuck with you were the lessons that you took the time to understand and interpret. In the long run, these will be far more useful than a list of memorized words that quickly fade from memory.
Every student has a particular learning strategy that has worked best for her/ him. Implementing new strategies can increase your rate of retention of material, and when you interact directly with someone, it may help you further your understanding and retention!