…, so you should first know where you want to go. What is your goal? What do you want to achieve? Often, you can narrow down the learning material by informing yourself about the upcoming exam or the expected performance. Which topics are required? How will they be tested? You can then orientate your learning accordingly.
If your goal is already clear to you, you can start to categorise in order to be able to use suitable learning methods for pupils and students. Whether this is done by subject or number of pages etc. is up to you and the subject matter. The only important thing is that you divide up the material in good time and leave yourself a small buffer at the end. If you want to learn 100 pages of material in 50 days, plan 3 pages per day from the beginning so that you still have time at the end. You can use this time to revise or if not everything has gone according to plan.
A study plan can really help with regular learning and is therefore a must for students. After all, you want to work on a small piece of material every day and not have to read half the book at the end of the week. You can use the feedback calendar for this. This tool will not only remind you to take a little study break, but will also give you an overview of how well you are doing.
Don’t forget that breaks are also part of learning. This goes for small 5-minute breaks every 20 to 30 minutes, as well as for single days when you simply relax. Without breaks, you will soon overload your brain and some of the content you have learned will be erased due to lack of memory.
All learning material consists of many different units of information. You have to learn names and technical terms as well as numbers, formulas and dates. In addition, there is an understanding of contexts or procedures. All completely different challenges for our brain – and yet most people learn everything with the same method.
So before you start learning, think about which elements belong together and which method you want to use to learn them. This means skimming your learning and breaking it down into units of information.
The more complex learning methods for pupils and students are now based on the individual learning challenges. For example, a text or even a book can be read using the SQR3 method. However, it makes sense to extend this for more complex learning material. To do this, you take the basic idea of the method and apply it to the entire material: First skim and categorise. Then ask questions about the individual topics and chapters. Finally, you write the information units in such a way that you can use the right tools to process them.
For the text, use the SQR3 method or a tool for knowledge networks. In addition, while reading the text, it is useful to develop a “key word” or an image for each paragraph. These act like little notes that you use in presentations, etc., and make it easier to structure the text mentally.
For names and technical terms, use the mnemonics for people, words or stories or the loci method.
You can learn formulas, procedures and processes with associations, pictures and stories or the loci method. It depends on what suits you best or fits the material. Not all learning methods for pupils and students work for every type.
Numbers are best learned with number pictures, associations or the major system. However, you should consider whether you really need to know the numbers by heart. It may make sense to learn them at the end, when there is still time left.