Do any of you guys use active learning styles in your studying?

[Tennis Guy]

I was just wondering because I remember reading about active learning styles (making charts, diagrams, condensing notes, etc.). For my microbiology class, I rewrite the notes/condense them in my own words and then I listen to the podcasts (lectures/powerpoints). I try to make the notes as condensed as I can but it is pretty difficult for me to do sometimes... do you guys have any suggestions? It's rather difficult for me to make charts, tables, and diagrams of the information in the slides. Also, I've been using the power of association in order to remember the material and other important concepts. I feel like I am doing all that I can to learn the material, I hope ... what do you all think? Any advice or insight will be greatly appreciated!

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[Morzh]

I was just wondering because I remember reading about active learning styles (making charts, diagrams, condensing notes, etc.). For my microbiology class, I rewrite the notes/condense them in my own words and then I listen to the podcasts (lectures). I try to make the notes as condensed as I can but it is pretty difficult for me to do sometimes... do you guys have any suggestions? It's rather difficult for me to make charts, tables, and diagrams of the information in the slides. Also, I've been using the power of association in order to remember the material and other important concepts. I feel like I am doing all that I can to learn the material, I hope ... what do you all think? Any advice or insight will be greatly appreciated!

There are no special tricks or shortcuts to learning material well. Some people with fancy education degrees come up with complex sounding names and step-by-step systems, but in the end there is no substitute for spending a lot of concentrated time with the material. Flashcards work well for certain types of information (google "Anki", it's great), while for other things (molecular pathways, etc.) just getting a whiteboard and drawing/redrawing over and over until you can do it from memory is pretty efficient.

It is true that anything that requires you to actively recall information will be better than passive recognition. That's why sitting and reading/rereading textbooks/notes/powerpoints has limited value. Instead, look at the title of a powerpoint slide and then close your eyes and try to recall the information on it from memory before you reread it for the 10th time.

Word associations, mnemonics, "spatial memory" techniques all work. Just try different things in different classes and see what works best for you. But at the end of the day always remember that "Repetition is the mother of all learning".

 

[Tennis Guy]

There are no special tricks or shortcuts to learning material well. Some people with fancy education degrees come up with complex sounding names and step-by-step systems, but in the end there is no substitute for spending a lot of concentrated time with the material. Flashcards work well for certain types of information (google "Anki", it's great), while for other things (molecular pathways, etc.) just getting a whiteboard and drawing/redrawing over and over until you can do it from memory is pretty efficient.

It is true that anything that requires you to actively recall information will be better than passive recognition. That's why sitting and reading/rereading textbooks/notes/powerpoints has limited value. Instead, look at the title of a powerpoint slide and then close your eyes and try to recall the information on it from memory before you reread it for the 10th time.

Word associations, mnemonics, "spatial memory" techniques all work. Just try different things in different classes and see what works best for you. But at the end of the day always remember that "Repetition is the mother of all learning".

Yes, I agree with you 100%. So, I make sure that I spend a lot of time with the material and make it as efficient as possible through association and repetition. I'm going to probably use anki soon, but it seems to me that it might take too much effort to make flashcards over everything, so I'll probably make flashcards out of the material/concepts that I am having trouble understanding/remembering. I'm just wondering how you guys study powerpoints/ lecture slides? Do you just memorize them through repetition or do you make connections/ do some sort of active learning with them?

 

[music2doc]

But at the end of the day always remember that "Repetition is the mother of all learning".

I'm going to have to disagree with that quote. Sure, repetition can be helpful, but it is hardly necessary or worth the expenditure of such time in many cases. Application of the material is key. Also, one way of applying the material is to teach it. As you teach someone else, you are forced to consider new connections in the material and to thoroughly process the material. I'd suggest giving that a try.

 

[Morzh]

I'm going to have to disagree with that quote. Sure, repetition can be helpful, but it is hardly necessary or worth the expenditure of such time in many cases. Application of the material is key. Also, one way of applying the material is to teach it. As you teach someone else, you are forced to consider new connections in the material and to thoroughly process the material. I'd suggest giving that a try.

Yes very true. By repetition I meant becoming intimately familiar with the material through using it repeatedly. Like you are saying, the best way to "use" it is not to just flip through flashcards all day, but actually find applications for it.

Sometimes, though, when you have a truck load of material dumped on you at once, flashcards/repeatedly drawing mechanisms is worth it initially for the first step of getting it into your brain. But you'll never truly master it if you stop with rote memorization and fail to assimilate the info into your mental paradigm of the subject.

 

[StoicJosher]

Most of all review.

 

[otggwmfs]

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