9 Science-backed Tips to Learn Anything Faster
If you’re one of those people who would like to learn new things faster, here are 9 science-backed tips to learn anything. They will help you to be more agile when understanding, memorizing, and learning new information. In addition, you will be able to retain all the information.
Each person has different and complex cognitive processes for learning. However, if you know and put into practice some methods to make it faster and easier, your brain will remember information effectively and you will achieve your goal.
In this article, we’re going to present some of the tips that science gives us to learn faster. Don’t miss them!
1. Visual techniques
A study points out the importance of using visual techniques as an innovative learning method and alternative. It points out that the use of resources such as images, mind maps, and infographics is very useful for learning historical facts, important dates, data, theories, and concepts.
Information is stored in the brain in a dynamic and didactic way. In addition, when processed in a chronological and meaningful way, it’s easier to learn and remember this information when we need to use it.
2. Teamwork
An investigation, whose objective was to determine the learning strategies most used by students of the Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo, indicated that the most predominant in this population is related to teamwork.
This study established that when students have the possibility of studying in a team, they learn faster. This improves if active forms of trial and error are included. Likewise, this learning mechanism also makes the acquired knowledge last longer.
The reason for this is that in this teamwork different techniques are used, such as reading, writing, and visual forms that are then socialized or shared among peers.
3. Concentration
When you want to learn faster, the best thing you can do is to get right down to studying. This means no distractions or other obligations. If you put yourself in multitasking mode it will be more difficult to store the information you want.
In addition, every time you get distracted, it will take you 20 minutes to concentrate again. Concentration is so important that studies on academic performance show that the lack of it in school students limits the development of knowledge.
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4. Write down what you’ve learned
If you’re studying and you have already learned something new, you should take a sheet of paper and a pen and write it down. It works the same if you’re taking notes during the process, because when you read you learn, but when you write it down you are reinforcing the codification of the information.
In fact, studies on the impact of writing as a learning method have pointed out that writing is more than a skill. It’s a method of storing knowledge and helping to improve the way the world is conceived.
5. Practice
Another science-backed tip for learning anything faster lies in practicing what you learn. Several studies have pointed out that knowledge or theoretical content should always be accompanied by practice.
Once you practice, your brain will encode that moment and, for the next time you have to do it, you will have reinforcement and you will do it better and better.
6. Teach someone else what you’ve learned
When you use your knowledge to teach others you are using your own words to describe the theory of something you have already mastered. Therefore, you’re accessing information that you’ve already encoded in your brain and reinforcing it every time you verbalize it.
On the other hand, every time you have to teach a subject, even if you have mastered it, it’s normal to study to clear up possible doubts, also reinforcing what you have already learned. Thus, little by little, you become an expert.
7. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes
Making mistakes is not wrong; it is natural. Mistakes help us to internalize how we do things and what we can do to improve them next time.
In fact, studies on motor learning show that people need to practice frequently, make mistakes and correct them.
The goal of this is to improve the learning process and achieve the goal of making fewer mistakes and reducing the effort put into the task or subject.
8. Learn little by little
Skills are easier to master when you learn them little by little. If you break everything you need to study into small, concrete sections, you concentrate on learning them one at a time. You will also be giving yourself room to master all the knowledge you seek without getting saturated.
As mentioned in the previous point, this way you will be able to err, solve and continue with a new topic, strengthening your knowledge. If you’re patient, once you learn everything and gather the knowledge you will see how you will obtain a superior ability.
9. Get some sleep between study sessions
Many college students tend to study without rest and neglect sleep. It turns out that a study on the relationship between sleep and learning pointed out that sleep helps to retain information in the long term. According to this research, this happens because memory processes are reactivated.
Additionally, learning sessions in conjunction with sleep reduce the amount of practice needed by 50%. In addition, information is retained much better and for a longer period of time. So, the idea is to study what you need, sleep, and then return to your session.
The experts who wrote this article point out that the ideal is to have a study session of 30 to 50 minutes, take a 1-hour rest, and continue with another session of another 30 or 50 minutes.
Like this article? You may also like to read: Learn what Albert Camus Had to Say about the Meaning of Life
Practice these science-backed tips to learn anything faster!
As we mentioned, putting into practice these science-backed tips to learn faster can bring many advantages to your learning process. They’re very simple and easy to practice, but they will make a big difference in your methodology.
If better learning is your goal, don’t settle for just one tip. Put at least two tips into practice and see how they work for you. If one doesn’t seem useful, you can try another one or reinforce the one that did work.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
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