Learning How to Learn
These are notes from the Coursera course Learning How to Learn, presented by Dr. Barbara Oakley and Dr. Terrence Sejnowski from UCSD.
Focused vs Diffused Learning
Your brain can switch between diffused and focused modes of learning to learn something difficult.
Take breaks after learning something difficult (walk a bit, swim, whatever)
Analogies are powerful ways of thinking about what you have read. Try creating analogies or conclude whatever you have learnt in your own words.
Sleep is almost equal to brain upgrading itself. 7-8 hours of sleep everyday is vital.
Pomodoro technique
Read for 25 min without interruptions, after that some treat (talk to your friend, run around whatever) to fix procrastination.
Chunking
Divide whatever you want to learn into checkpoints. Learn different things everyday, do not spend one day trying to learn everything about one subject.
Spaced repetition - repeat something over several alternate days (4-5 times), initially keep frequency high.
How to read a paper
1.) Survey and Priming read the table of contents of a book or abstract of a paper, glance through the whole paper.
2.) Go through examples, then solve examples on your own.
3.) Apply the examples in different contexts.
So — let’s say I was trying to learn React and I was lucky enough to find Tyler McGinnis’s awesome React.js Program course. To apply this suggested process, I would first look over all the units in the course to try to get a general gist of the topics covered. Then, I would follow along closely as Tyler builds an example application. After that, I would build my own application. And finally, I’d apply those learnings into the new features we are developing in React at my job.
From https://medium.com/learn-love-code/learnings-from-learning-how-to-learn-19d149920dc4
Going through pictures/ chapter subheadings in a chapter before going through the material can help with big picture learning (how this fits in with other stuff) In a paper going through the abstract, then subheadings, pictures etc first helps a lot
Going through the material after a lecture may help, but trying to recall what you learnt before going through notes is much better
Just going through a solution and saying to yourself yeah i understand why they did that is not enough. Solve the problem on your own
Less underlining or highlighting - one sentence or less per para on the other hand margin notes are way better than underlining
Recall
Test yourself on what you are learning. If you make mistakes in your self tests are is a good thing Recall and think of the material in different physical environments
Bite-sized testing
understanding / grasping is not enough, review fairly soon / trying to solve problem yourself without books will speed up your learning process
experts practice for 70 hours for 20 min ted talk
Deliberate practice - focusing on what you are not good at,helpful for learning
Read the text book, attend lectures, view online lectures, speak to knowledgeable people, then start homework
Interleaving
Solve different examples and questions of the book in random order
Study Groups
Try teaching someone what you have studied.
Others
The more abstract something is, the more you need to practice it to create new synapses
Solve problem from start without looking at solutions.
Dreaming about what you are studying is good, studying difficult stuff before evening nap/ night sleep increases probability that you will dream about difficult stuff
Learning by doing experiments, and learning by osmosis from people who are experts ask questions (active engagement in boring lecture helps a lot)
new neurons -> active simulating environment (good peers) / exercise
being in a creative environment with other people being creative is a way of enhancing your creativity.
I have better ideas if I am talking to somebody and trying to explain those ideas -> having other people around to bounce ideas off
passion and persistence, not giving up -> success
Interleave your practice session with different types of problems, concepts, approaches etc Do End of chapter problems with practice problems Interleaving studies, reviewing for a test go through chapters problems and sections in different chapters randomly