5 practical ways to accelerate learning

Have you ever learned anything that was forgotten the very next day? So that the time spent and the effort invested in the training were literally put to the wind, and the skills and knowledge were never used again?

The root of this problem often lies in the way in which this knowledge was obtained. Few of us know how to learn in the most efficient and fast way, so that new skills and knowledge are preserved at least for a long time.
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The answer to this problem may be the following tips on intensification, to speed up learning. The proposed methods will allow you to master any skill much harder and faster.

Find a meaningful (emotionally colored) learning goal.

Man is a strange creature. We are for the most part illogical and extremely emotional. One can argue about the benefits of our device, but this is just a natural mechanism, inherited from our distant ancestors, tightly remembering events connected with strong emotional experiences. Previously, this mechanism provided our species with survival, and now we can use it to intensify learning and memorization. For this you need to emotionally connect the studied subject. When a strong passion is attached to learning, the knowledge and skills associated with this emotion are absorbed instantly and almost tightly regardless of the quality of the emotion (although negative emotions have a slightly higher efficiency). For me, for example, after the first disc shattered into pieces, the skill of working with a grinder and safety techniques were imprinted for life (I was physically not harmed by any luck).

We need a strong incentive to learn. The big goal, tied to the emotional component, is visualized and activates the brain processes of collecting and remembering information.

As all teachers know and many students realize that learning for the sake of learning is rarely a good idea. Here, situations come to mind when, after passing sessional exams, students “format” memory, freeing themselves from unnecessary knowledge.

Michael Jordan, under the fear of leaving the basketball team in high school, performed more than a thousand free throws every morning in order to become the best player in the world (everyone knows the result).

An example is the situation in which a person who was previously considered to be completely untrained in foreign languages, a kind of antipolyglot, could motivate himself so that three months before the trip to Spain he learned to speak Spanish fluently.

Such a shift of the target point into the emotional sphere significantly increases the motivation to learn at the subconscious level, which in turn leads to an increase in the level of efficiency and speed of learning.

Remember? Better write it down!

Long time did not write by hand? Do you think this skill is no longer relevant? In vain! Old as the world is the truth, is that the dumbest pencil is better than the sharpest memory.

Studies were conducted in which the subjects divided into two groups, in one of which the participants wrote by hand, and the second part of the group used different electronic devices. Exactly half an hour after the lecture, a survey showed the superiority of the group recording the material manually. A week later, another control section was carried out, showing even more pronounced superiority of the group that took notes by hand.

What can be learned from the results of this study? First, it is obvious that the capabilities of the human brain are extremely poorly understood, but the experiment shows the presence of effective mechanisms for the indirect assimilation of information, which are used in the case of mechanical recording. Secondly, it is foolish to insist on the archaic nature of this method of recording information and not to use it for more effective training.

Teach someone else

Have you ever tried to explain a difficult-to-formulate concept or problem to someone? When you try to teach someone, you have to simplify concepts in order to help another person to understand them easily. Thereby, the task of understanding is made easier for you, which makes the material more clear and easy to digest.

Studies show that people only remember:

• 5% of what they learned from the lecture.
• 10% of what they read.
• 20% of what they learned through audio-visual impact.
• 30% visual demonstration (experience, experiment).
• 50% of the group discussion material.
• 75% of the practical theory
• 90% of what someone else explains.

In the process of learning, you can use various auxiliary materials, such as mental maps. Having examined any concept “on the fingers”, you will not be able to forget it, no matter how much you would like it. From personal experience I can recall a rather odd case when an electronics teacher explained the principle of the transistor operation to us using the example of a toilet bowl and a drain system.

Use or hammer

Many language learners know that even having reached a certain level of fluency and an impressive amount of vocabulary, the lack of practice still leads to a deterioration of the skill and depletion of the dictionary.

Lack of practice is detrimental to any skill. Sometimes, after long pauses, it is difficult even to ride a bike, let alone more subtle things. Therefore, it is imperative to allocate time to practice in order to maintain the level of skill.

In the process of maintaining the form, pay attention to the fact that your environment at least sometimes corresponds to this task. In the case of the language, try to allocate time to communicate with the same interested people. The commonality of interest in the subject allows us to constantly be in a state of learning in the process of communication, receiving, moreover, instantaneous feedback.

Do not forget about the modern possibilities. After all, before with like-minded people you could be divided thousands of kilometers, and now you are at a distance of a mouse click. Thematic groups in social networks and forums will give you a social circle that you want.

Watch yourself

When you are 20 years old you can easily squander a course of lectures all night and be a cucumber in the morning, but every year the body's resources only decrease and nightly vigils will lead you to remember nothing in the morning. Sleep is absolutely necessary, since it is one of the phases of processing and assimilating information. Student nightly cramming involves a short-term memory, which is why a situation arises in which students do not know anything after passing the exams. Thus, if we want to preserve skills in the long term, non-regime pressure of the brain is completely unacceptable.

Dozens of studies have shown that the amount of sleep is directly proportional to the amount of information acquired. Without adequate sleep and rest, neurons plowing for wear may not function properly, as a result of which the ability to reproduce previously recorded information is lost.

The quality of sleep also matters. Poor quality of sleep adversely affects the emotional balance, which, as I mentioned above, is very important for learning information and has a profound effect on learning ability. Changes in mood affect our ability to acquire and retain information.

To improve the quality of sleep, doctors recommend exercise. Good sleep and exercise optimize thinking, improve alertness, attention and motivation, as well as boost the development of new nerve cells from stem cells in the hippocampus (a brain area associated with memory and learning).

The next time you are ready to learn something, remember these simple advice and use at least one, I guarantee a more efficient and intensive process, and a better result. Thanks for attention!