Learning techniques that make you successful

Learning while studying requires processing and storing large amounts of information from different disciplines and subject areas at the same time, which can be particularly challenging when the information is completely new. In response, students try out different learning approaches — often based on their experiences from school and what they see with their fellow students. While it's great to try out different styles and approaches to learning and studying, it's also smart to incorporate some learning practices supported by recent research into your daily habits.

The following are some effective learning practices suggested by research in the cognitive and learning sciences:

Take responsibility for your educational experience. As an engaged learner, it is important to take on an active, self-determined role in your academic experience. It may be new for you to take on responsibility. At school, you may have felt that you had little control over your learning experience, so transitioning to an environment where you're expected to take initiative can be disorienting.

However, changing the way you think about personal responsibility can make a big difference in your ability to learn effectively and get the results you want from your courses.

Here are four concrete steps you can take to take responsibility for your education:

• Attend office hours. Come prepared with questions to your teacher about lectures, readings, or other aspects of the course.
• Schedule meetings with administrators and instructors to discuss your academic career and educational goals. You could meet with your student advisor, course instructor, or director of student affairs in your department.
• Identify areas for growth and development based on your academic goals. Then explore ways to shape and further refine your skills in these areas.
• Commit for support, tools, equipment, or considerations that meet your learning needs.

Search for opportunities for active learning. Many courses offer opportunities for active and engaged learning within their structure. Use these opportunities to improve your understanding of the material. If such opportunities aren't built into the course structure, you can develop your own active learning strategies, including participating in study groups and using other active learning methods. Every time you actively engage with your course material instead of passively absorbing it, you are actively learning. This will increase your storage of key course concepts.

One particularly effective way to keep yourself focused and engaged in the learning process is to cultivate learning communities, such as responsibility groups and study groups. Working in community with other engaged learners can help you remember why you love learning or why you chose a particular course, focus, research project, or field of study. These reminders can revive and refocus your efforts.

Practice study strategies that promote deep learning. In an effort to keep pace with study requirements, many students learn concepts just in time for assessment standards (tests, exams, and quizzes). The problem with this methodology is that in many disciplines (and in particular in STEM subjects), the concepts build on each other. Students survive the course only to be confronted with concepts from the first quiz that they have long forgotten. That is why deep learning is important. Deep learning occurs when students use study strategies that ensure that course ideas and concepts are embedded in long-term rather than just short-term memory. Build your study plans and review sessions to help you create a conceptual framework of the material that will serve you now and in the long run.

Here are a few study strategies that promote deep learning:

• Concept mapping: A concept map is a visualization of knowledge organized through the relationships between topics. At its core, it consists of concepts that are connected by lines (or arrows) that are labeled with the relationship between the concepts.
• Collaboration: You don't have to do it alone. In fact, research on learning suggests that it's best not to do that. Using study groups, ARC accountability hours, office hours, question centers, and other opportunities to engage with your colleagues will not only help you test your understanding but also learn different approaches to coping with the material.
• Self-test: Quiz yourself on the material you need to know, with notes removed. Re-acquaint yourself with the answers to questions you had wrong, wait a few hours, and then try to ask yourself again. Use practice tests provided by your courses, or use free apps to create quizzes yourself.
• Make a connection: When you're trying to understand how all the concepts and ideas from your course fit together, try to connect new information to something you already know. Making connections can help you create a more holistic picture of the material you're learning.
• Teach someone something (including yourself!) : Try teaching someone the concept you want to remember. You can even try talking to yourself about it! Saying out helps activate various sensory processes, which can improve memory and help you anchor concepts more deeply.
• Overlap: We often think we'd learn best by studying a subject for a long time, but research contradicts that. Try working with smaller time frames (half an hour to an hour) and switch subjects. Return to concepts you've studied earlier at intervals to make sure you've learned them enough.

Be deliberate when starting out and avoid procrastination.When students have difficulty completing assignments and projects, their procrastination is not due to laziness, but rather to anxiety and the negative emotions that come with starting the task. Understanding which conditions encourage or hinder starting a task can help you avoid procrastination.
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Tips for an effective start:

1. Eating the frog: The “frog” is that one task on your to-do list that you have absolutely no motivation to do and that you are most likely to put off. “Eating the frog” means just getting started and getting it over with. If you don't, there's a good chance that you'll procrastinate all day. As soon as this one task is completed, you will feel a sense of accomplishment and gain momentum for the rest of the day.
2. Pomodoro technique: Sometimes we put off tasks because the expected time to complete them overwhelms us. But while it can be difficult to sit down for several hours, most of us can easily spend half an hour working on just about any task. The Pomodoro Technique consists of dividing work into short, time-limited intervals (around 25 minutes), which are interrupted by short breaks (5 minutes). Working at short intervals trains your brain to focus for manageable periods of time and helps you meet deadlines. The Pomodoro Technique can even improve your attention span and concentration over time. It's a cyclical system: You work in short sprints and take regular breaks that strengthen your motivation and prepare you for the next Pomodoro.
3. Distraction pads: Sometimes we stop doing a task that took us a lot of time because we're distracted by something else. To avoid this, keep a notebook handy while you work and write down any distracting thoughts to address later. Distracting thoughts can range from remembering another task to do to daydreaming about the next meal. Later in the day, when you have some free time, you can check your distraction pad to see if any of these thoughts are important and need to be addressed.
4. online apps: It can be difficult to rely on willpower alone to start a task. Therefore, consider using external support. There are many self-control apps that are available online for free (search for “self-control apps”). Take a look at a few and choose one that is most likely to help you eliminate distractions that can hinder you from starting and finishing your work.

Apply metacognition

Metacognition is an effective learning tool. Metacognition is the process of “thinking about thinking” or reflecting on personal habits, knowledge, and learning approaches. Engaging with metacognition enables students to become aware of what they need to do to start and keep up with tasks, evaluate their own learning strategies, and invest the appropriate mental effort to be successful. When students are aware of their own thinking and learning, they are more likely to recognize patterns and intentionally transfer knowledge and skills to solve increasingly complex problems. They also develop a greater sense of self-efficacy.

Mentally checking yourself while studying is a great metacognitive technique for assessing your level of understanding. Asking lots of “why,” “how,” and “what” questions about the reviewed material helps you reflect on your learning and develop strategies for tackling difficult material. If you know something, you should be able to explain how you know it. If you don't know something, you should first identify exactly what you don't know and figure out how to find the answer.

Metacognition is important for overcoming illusions of competence (our brain's natural tendency to think we know more than we actually know). All too often, students only discover what they really know during a test. Metacognition helps you be a better assessor of how well you understand your course material, which then allows you to refine your learning approach and better prepare for exams.