Fast-Track Your Learning: 5 Effective Science Based Techniques
Accelerate Your Knowledge Acquisition with These 5 Proven Methods
Introduction:
Learning is a lifelong journey, so it’s a great idea to “learn” how to do it properly. The visualization below fundamentally explains how humans (and machines) learn.
In this article, we’ll go over 5 techniques to help you learn more effectively.
1. The Feyman technique:
As the name implies, this technique was popularized by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman: Spaced repetition. It states that, in order to truly understand a concept, an effective approach is to teach it or explain it in simple terms.
It goes hand in hand with the famous Einstein quote:
“If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.”
The visualization below shows the steps to apply this technique:
To effectively apply it, it’s always better to get external feedback on your understanding. Not everyone will have access to a person to fulfill that role. If that’s the case, the next best thing is to seek feedback from the internet by posting online.
This technique not only will help you understand complex topics by continuously identifying and addressing knowledge gaps, but it will also improve your communication skills and critical thinking!
2. Retrieval practice:
It basically states that recalling is superior to restudying or rereading notes for retaining information. Here are some ways that you can apply it:
- Test yourself as soon as possible and more often; testing should be considered a part of learning.
- Get immediate feedback on your performance on the test.
- Reflect on gaps in your knowledge and target those.
- If you can’t find ready-made tests on what you want to learn, make your own tests.”
3. Spaced Repetition:
This is based on an effect that has been extensively studied called “the spacing effect.” It states that repetitions spaced in time tend to produce stronger memories than repetitions massed closer together in time.
The most popular practical application is flashcard systems. These systems use an algorithm that, based on your ability to recall a particular card, will show it to you on either a longer or a shorter interval. A free and popular software that implements this is Anki. This is effective for skills that rely heavily on memory, for instance, language learning.
You can also apply this outside of flashcards. For example, if you’re practicing a skill such as playing a song on the piano, during your training sessions, it’s more effective to focus on training the parts of the song that you struggle with and train the easy parts infrequently.
4. Mind mapping:
Mind mapping is a visual tool that helps you organize and connect ideas, information, or concepts in a structured and creative way. It typically starts with a central idea or topic in the center of a page, and then branches out into related subtopics or ideas through lines and nodes.
It’s a visual way to put ideas out of your mind, which can be very effective in helping you grasp the big picture and gain a deeper understanding of a subject.
To start mind mapping, you can use specialized software such as Xmind.
5. Using AI tools:
With AI, the power of a multifaceted teacher is readily accessible to you. For instance, you can harness the capabilities of ChatGPT to enhance your application of the aforementioned techniques. ChatGPT serves as a dynamic learning companion in the context of the Feynman technique. It not only creates custom tests tailored to your needs but also offers insightful feedback on your performance. Furthermore, it excels at breaking down difficult concepts into simplified, easily digestible explanations, making complex subjects more accessible to you.
Conclusion:
By delving into these five powerful learning techniques , you’ll be equipped with a diverse toolkit to supercharge your learning journey.
The strategies we’ve discussed here are not just tools for acing exams or achieving short-term goals; they are keys to unlocking the door to a lifetime of growth and understanding.
