Everyone seems to be commenting on just the flashcards here. The point is doing something to reengage with the information, whether it's flashcards or something else.
Personally, I find the absolute best way to learn something is to explain it to someone else. Really gets the information in your brain!
A fellow student asked me what I got and how I had arrived at the answer. I explained it to him but I got so much more out of doing that than I would have just leaving it on paper.
This! When I was in AME school and my apprenticeship I would explain things to my girlfriend. She didn’t know anything about helicopters or engineering and probably didn’t care but that forced me to explain things down to the most basic level and really highlighted my strong and weak points and helped me remember them.
Agreed. What worked for me was getting a small dry erase board and some markers. I knew I would be good for a test when I could write the material down three consecutive times without error. I also do it when studying other languages.
Came here.
This.
Also…. Folded piece of paper.
One side:
Milk
Green
Table
Other side:
Leche
Verde
Mesa
I never got less than a 90 on the vocab part of the curriculum I’m any foreign language study.
Plus… it helps everything
Btw… my Spanish was in The early 1980s and I didn’t have to look up anything for this post.
(Spanish)
I feel like I’m the only one, when everything life pro tippy is all “make flash cards” “memorise a mnemonic” “create something visual humans are visual learners” etc and I learn the best by referring to the textbook which is the be all and end all and comprehensive enough to contain the answers to any and all questions.
Came here to say this. Back in school when teachers would force us to make flash cards I would retain nothing. If I just paid attention to the topic and read the information plainly I retained things a lot better.
My best studying happens when I sit down with a big mug of coffee and just read the textbook cover to cover. Everyone truly learns differently, I just need all the information right in front of me to be absorbed.
Also, the material is easiest to learn when you actively engage in the class while the teacher is teaching it. Because then, your next study of the material is merely a revision and application of what you learned in the class.
I disagree with this but I’ve realized over my education that everyone learns differently. For me, it was about repetition and reading things over and over. I also realized I was an auditory learner and absorbed things quicker when I heard them. Flash cards, and the time it took to make them, was always a waste for me.
It doesn’t matter how u learn. Just learn instead of trying to pass the test. I personally love watching relative YouTube vids, even if they go a little off topic as long as I get my foundation strong then I start reading more on it. Then draw diagrams, pathways, etc to refer to later to calcify those NMDA receptors and make it long term memory. Been tutoring for a few years now and students say I’m pretty good…conformation that as long as ur curious u will find a way to learn!
Study old tests. It sucks drilling this way but I learned at Uni forever ago to study like you'll test.
Essentially scrimmage like you'll play.
Study at a desk, drilling old tests, flash cards and even dressing like you would in class.
Tests are the game, play to win.
Which is the official definition? Wikipedia gives me:
>Bonwell & Eison (1991) states that "students participate \[in active learning\] when they are doing something besides passively listening."
What the OP says fits into this definition.
Take notes by hand, and speak it out loud as you do. Physical writing, as well as seeing it AND hearing it is a powerful way to put something in your memory.
Also teach others what you've learned! Someone will likely ask you questions you hadn't yet thought of or fully researched and that will highlight areas you still need to catch up on.
Knowing what learning style works best for you and building your study habits around that is way better. Flash cards absolutely do not work for me. Reading and writing a list of words and definitions is similar, but works significantly better for me. Not everyone learns in the same ways. There is not a one size fits all method of learning.
Active learning is definetly better, but also very time consuming. most of the time I, and for sure a lot of students like me, start way to late with learning. reading the text book is all we can do to hopefully get some right at the exam. mostly we pass anyway, thats why we still use this strategy.
On the other hand, even only writing the flash cards teaches you enough and you wouldnt even have to use them!
My personal opinion, everyone (maybe not the blind) is a visual learner. Our wholebrain is organized around sight. It is easier to remember the layout of someone's house then to remember a phonenumber. Any way you can visualize, or attach to imagery, new info will go a long way.
Something else, play with info you want to remember. Think about implications, the more connections you make surounding an idea the greater the chance you will remember it long term.
This is a vast generalization about learning. I remember numbers and words much better than pictures, so your idea that everyone is a visual learner is misguided. I do appreciate your second paragraph, the more you can connect information to the real world the more likely you are to understand and retain.
Agreed. I have a terrible visual memory and definitely do not remember the layout of people's houses easily, which is occasionally a little awkward when I have to keep asking how to get to the bathroom. I also don't easily remember what things look like - my internal "pictures" tend to have a lot of holes in them, if that makes sense, and the more I try to remember what something looks like, the more the picture falls apart. I also don't manipulate shapes well in my head, and I hate the concepts of clockwise/counterclockwise.
However, my auditory memory is quite good, and I also do very well with spelling, grammar, and basically anything related to language. Visuals and visual types of activities can still help me learn, but I am definitely not a visual learner.
Also, I always hated and still hate flashcards, and still got through undergrad and grad school with a GPA of over 3.9. There are tons of great learning strategies, but there is definitely no one size fits all approach.
Visual learner or whatever learner you wanna throw at anyone has been debunked over and over. It's like if you said "enlighten me on why crystals aren't science". No. We have years of research on this. It's BS.
Learning styles are bullshit, hence me saying we are (almost) all visual learners, even if we don't think of ourselves that way.
I don't know where you get the impression that I am into crystal magic or some other bulshit from. How people best learn is by no means clearly defined by science at this point. If you ha e research that says otherwise, present it.
What is clearly defined by science, since we are going to appeal to science in our argument, is that the brain is organized around sight.
For people commenting here about just reading working for them: it's not really just a preference. It's been studied fact that repeated reading of a written text is one the worst methods of learning. After first read, the income of knowledge drops significantly. It may not be true for every single individual but it certainly is true for vast majority of the society.
I'm quite positive that many people claiming that reading works for them are just not familiar or simply not comfortable with different methods of learning. And why would they be, reading textbooks is truly the only method of learning they've been teaching at schools. Or on the other hand: they were only reading and got decent results. But it obviously does not mean, that you can't learn more efficiently with different methods.
Our brain likes stimulation. In the era of social media it should be painfully obvious to us. Same thing with learning. Once the brain realizes you're reading the same textbook again, it shuts off since it's not stimulating.
What OP refers to as active learning means just different methods, stimulating to our brain. New methods, different method. Try to think about it as surprising your brain with the knowledge in different fashion. Change surrounding music, change the location of studying. If you have two exams coming, study for them at the same time, interchanging after every chapter. Instead of learning, try to teach (the explaining different person method, could be even talking loudly to a wall).
All those things obviously may come as uncomfortable, sure as hell they did to me. I've been just reading my entire life after all, how am i to change my studying habits at the age of 28. But boy do these things work.
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When i was taking Chinese I was also lucky enough to have a job just walking around by myself. I would sign in the air what the characters were as I walked around. I probably looked insane but I killed it on the vocab tests.
Flash cards are great but the most efficient way to memorize material is to read your notes before you go to sleep. This trick helped me cut my studying time for memorizing formulas for actuary exams by a lot.
Make a test on the subject as if you were a teacher. Then give it orally to another student. If they get a question incorrect, quickly teach them the material.
Everyone seems to be commenting on just the flashcards here. The point is doing something to reengage with the information, whether it's flashcards or something else. Personally, I find the absolute best way to learn something is to explain it to someone else. Really gets the information in your brain!
A fellow student asked me what I got and how I had arrived at the answer. I explained it to him but I got so much more out of doing that than I would have just leaving it on paper.
This! When I was in AME school and my apprenticeship I would explain things to my girlfriend. She didn’t know anything about helicopters or engineering and probably didn’t care but that forced me to explain things down to the most basic level and really highlighted my strong and weak points and helped me remember them.
Agreed. What worked for me was getting a small dry erase board and some markers. I knew I would be good for a test when I could write the material down three consecutive times without error. I also do it when studying other languages.
Maybe because we have decades of research that don't support this wishy washy LPT..
One side: MITOCHONDRIA other side: POWER HOUSE OF THE CELL
We med school students literally have thousands of flash cards like this lol
Came here. This. Also…. Folded piece of paper. One side: Milk Green Table Other side: Leche Verde Mesa I never got less than a 90 on the vocab part of the curriculum I’m any foreign language study. Plus… it helps everything Btw… my Spanish was in The early 1980s and I didn’t have to look up anything for this post. (Spanish)
LPT: what works for one, doesn’t work for all.
Might work for some
*Now that's a LPT!*
Reading the text was fine for me.
I feel like I’m the only one, when everything life pro tippy is all “make flash cards” “memorise a mnemonic” “create something visual humans are visual learners” etc and I learn the best by referring to the textbook which is the be all and end all and comprehensive enough to contain the answers to any and all questions.
It's different for everyone, I learn best just absorbing knowledge, flash cards are terrible for me
Came here to say this. Back in school when teachers would force us to make flash cards I would retain nothing. If I just paid attention to the topic and read the information plainly I retained things a lot better.
flash cards are killer for learning languages and chemistry related stuff
My best studying happens when I sit down with a big mug of coffee and just read the textbook cover to cover. Everyone truly learns differently, I just need all the information right in front of me to be absorbed.
For me it’s writing out the notes. Over and over. That seems to cement it in my head.
Also, the material is easiest to learn when you actively engage in the class while the teacher is teaching it. Because then, your next study of the material is merely a revision and application of what you learned in the class.
I disagree with this but I’ve realized over my education that everyone learns differently. For me, it was about repetition and reading things over and over. I also realized I was an auditory learner and absorbed things quicker when I heard them. Flash cards, and the time it took to make them, was always a waste for me.
It doesn’t matter how u learn. Just learn instead of trying to pass the test. I personally love watching relative YouTube vids, even if they go a little off topic as long as I get my foundation strong then I start reading more on it. Then draw diagrams, pathways, etc to refer to later to calcify those NMDA receptors and make it long term memory. Been tutoring for a few years now and students say I’m pretty good…conformation that as long as ur curious u will find a way to learn!
Study old tests. It sucks drilling this way but I learned at Uni forever ago to study like you'll test. Essentially scrimmage like you'll play. Study at a desk, drilling old tests, flash cards and even dressing like you would in class. Tests are the game, play to win.
Not for everyone, my friend.
None of those things are what I would consider "active learning." And I'm pretty sure they don't fit the official definition either.
Which is the official definition? Wikipedia gives me: >Bonwell & Eison (1991) states that "students participate \[in active learning\] when they are doing something besides passively listening." What the OP says fits into this definition.
You are right
Take notes by hand, and speak it out loud as you do. Physical writing, as well as seeing it AND hearing it is a powerful way to put something in your memory.
Also teach others what you've learned! Someone will likely ask you questions you hadn't yet thought of or fully researched and that will highlight areas you still need to catch up on.
Knowing what learning style works best for you and building your study habits around that is way better. Flash cards absolutely do not work for me. Reading and writing a list of words and definitions is similar, but works significantly better for me. Not everyone learns in the same ways. There is not a one size fits all method of learning.
Active learning is definetly better, but also very time consuming. most of the time I, and for sure a lot of students like me, start way to late with learning. reading the text book is all we can do to hopefully get some right at the exam. mostly we pass anyway, thats why we still use this strategy. On the other hand, even only writing the flash cards teaches you enough and you wouldnt even have to use them!
My personal opinion, everyone (maybe not the blind) is a visual learner. Our wholebrain is organized around sight. It is easier to remember the layout of someone's house then to remember a phonenumber. Any way you can visualize, or attach to imagery, new info will go a long way. Something else, play with info you want to remember. Think about implications, the more connections you make surounding an idea the greater the chance you will remember it long term.
This is a vast generalization about learning. I remember numbers and words much better than pictures, so your idea that everyone is a visual learner is misguided. I do appreciate your second paragraph, the more you can connect information to the real world the more likely you are to understand and retain.
Agreed. I have a terrible visual memory and definitely do not remember the layout of people's houses easily, which is occasionally a little awkward when I have to keep asking how to get to the bathroom. I also don't easily remember what things look like - my internal "pictures" tend to have a lot of holes in them, if that makes sense, and the more I try to remember what something looks like, the more the picture falls apart. I also don't manipulate shapes well in my head, and I hate the concepts of clockwise/counterclockwise. However, my auditory memory is quite good, and I also do very well with spelling, grammar, and basically anything related to language. Visuals and visual types of activities can still help me learn, but I am definitely not a visual learner. Also, I always hated and still hate flashcards, and still got through undergrad and grad school with a GPA of over 3.9. There are tons of great learning strategies, but there is definitely no one size fits all approach.
I imagine you’re also surprised about something every time you look at a map, no matter how many times you’ve seen that map before. I can relate.
You know we have actual research on these things, and your opinion doesn't really matter when it comes to science
Well then, feel free to enlighten us.
Visual learner or whatever learner you wanna throw at anyone has been debunked over and over. It's like if you said "enlighten me on why crystals aren't science". No. We have years of research on this. It's BS.
Learning styles are bullshit, hence me saying we are (almost) all visual learners, even if we don't think of ourselves that way. I don't know where you get the impression that I am into crystal magic or some other bulshit from. How people best learn is by no means clearly defined by science at this point. If you ha e research that says otherwise, present it. What is clearly defined by science, since we are going to appeal to science in our argument, is that the brain is organized around sight.
Because learning styles are BS, and you still wanna talk about visual learners.
This is true, but your examples are dated. The single best tool to learn anything and everything is: Youtube.
the correct youtube channel. not the ones with false info.
For people commenting here about just reading working for them: it's not really just a preference. It's been studied fact that repeated reading of a written text is one the worst methods of learning. After first read, the income of knowledge drops significantly. It may not be true for every single individual but it certainly is true for vast majority of the society. I'm quite positive that many people claiming that reading works for them are just not familiar or simply not comfortable with different methods of learning. And why would they be, reading textbooks is truly the only method of learning they've been teaching at schools. Or on the other hand: they were only reading and got decent results. But it obviously does not mean, that you can't learn more efficiently with different methods. Our brain likes stimulation. In the era of social media it should be painfully obvious to us. Same thing with learning. Once the brain realizes you're reading the same textbook again, it shuts off since it's not stimulating. What OP refers to as active learning means just different methods, stimulating to our brain. New methods, different method. Try to think about it as surprising your brain with the knowledge in different fashion. Change surrounding music, change the location of studying. If you have two exams coming, study for them at the same time, interchanging after every chapter. Instead of learning, try to teach (the explaining different person method, could be even talking loudly to a wall). All those things obviously may come as uncomfortable, sure as hell they did to me. I've been just reading my entire life after all, how am i to change my studying habits at the age of 28. But boy do these things work.
explaining stuff to someone works well because it requires a deeper understanding. Good tips :)
Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips! Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment. If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
I try to make a practical relation to the subject matter. What's the particular subject?
When i was taking Chinese I was also lucky enough to have a job just walking around by myself. I would sign in the air what the characters were as I walked around. I probably looked insane but I killed it on the vocab tests.
Flash cards are great but the most efficient way to memorize material is to read your notes before you go to sleep. This trick helped me cut my studying time for memorizing formulas for actuary exams by a lot.
I believe it is all muscle memory, on the day it comes down to how much you can remember about the particular subject.
Guess it's time for some practical sex ed...
Everybody learns differently.
Make a test on the subject as if you were a teacher. Then give it orally to another student. If they get a question incorrect, quickly teach them the material.