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How to Study?A Simplified learning approach
8/7/2015Mounir Rafik Aziz Maurice
Page 1
Outline
About the Author
What is studying?
The problems we face when studying and its outcome
Steps of studying
1st Step: Planning
2nd Step: The actual study
3rd Step: Summarizing and reporting processes
Key notes on successful learning
How to study, a simplified learning approach Page 2
About the AuthorMounir Rafik Aziz Maurice is a graduate of the Arab Academy of Sciences and Technology & Maritime Transport in Alexandria, who majored in accounting and finance with a minor in business administration.
He is a 23 years old accountant, at KPMG Hazem Hassan auditing and consulting firm, who lives currently in the city of El Giza.
His favorite hobbies are drawing, playing video games, listening to music and exploring the vast world of knowledge.
Message of the author“Dear friends,
I would like to welcome you as this is my first time to write a message to my dear audience. I’ m sending this message to tell you the importance of seeking knowledge and always learn new things whenever is possible.
We are all familiar with the quote of “knowledge is power”, but we don’t believe it until we are faced with a situation, where we regret things we should’ve learned in the past.
It is important for us to know that each and every piece of information we acquire through formal and informal learning, is a building block used in our pyramid of knowledge and experience, hence reflecting our true identity!
Yes, the fact that we are the outcome of the accumulation of past experience is what makes me stress the point that what we learn, directly affects ourselves, our appearance and our behavior.
In this article, I will be sharing some of my experience in studying, and how to make learning a productive process without the negative feelings associated. Again welcome and I hope this topic will be to your liking.”
Mounir Rafik Aziz
How to study, a simplified learning approach Page 3
What is studying? If we look up the word (study) in the dictionary, we’ll find out something like this:
“It is the process of investigating, examining and acquiring the knowledge for a
certain period of time.”
So, studying involves, careful investigation and examination of information, or we
should call it (data), because it will be the raw material to our outcome
(information); it involves time.
To make it simpler, we gather the raw material (our data) which will be our input;
the process is studying, and finally the output is the simplified understandable
information which will add up to our body of knowledge and experience.
How to study, a simplified learning approach Page 4
Input
Data
Process
Mental effort spent
Output
Information & expirience
The problems we face when studyingNow that we know what is studying,
let’s know why the majority of the
people hate studying. It is simple, the
bad practice of studying results in a
poor outcome with wasted effort and
resources.
The main cause of the problem is our
way of looking to the process of
studying, most of the people view
studying as a process which includes
lots of effort, time, and even money in
some cases. But we actually don’t work
on making the process neither efficient
nor effective; we just dig in the ground
without knowing where to dig for the
“gold”.
Of course the results of a bad practice
are poor outcome, lots of wasted effort, no motivation, stress, and other factors that
will result in losing interest in studying, and even greater than that, the fear of
studying.
The question now, how to make studying an efficient and effective process? First of
all, we need to agree on something, that studying is a process that requires effort,
there is no easy way. If you are looking for a way where you acquire information
without effort, then you ought to start putting some effort in that too.
We will discuss in the next page, on how to solve this problem through, an
organized and structured way for studying a certain subject, or topic.
How to study, a simplified learning approach Page 5
Steps of studying
How to study, a simplified learning approach Page 6
PlanningSetting the vision and objective of studying.Establishing Criteria of an efficient and effective studying system.Setting the study plan (Scope, Schedule, Quality Control, Communication Channels...)
Executing
Concentarte and focus all your mental effort in the process.Construct a productive and healthy environment.
Reviewing
Summarizing, reporting, Q&As, Storing of informationKey words, and mind mapping.
1st step PlanningThe first and most important step, is to plan the study, if you are familiar with
strategic management, this step should be a piece of cake for you.
The Vision
Start by asking yourself, why am I studying? This question is important, because
you will base all the next steps upon it. Let’s take a look on how this will affect our
studying process, if my goal from studying is to pass a certain exam in a short
period of time with no cost consideration, then my studying plan will be very
efficient in terms of time, and I will focus on just the milestones and the important
topics, with high possibility of coming in the exam. But if my aim is to make a full
understanding of a certain subject, then I will spend more time in research for
example.
After knowing our objective from the studying process, we need to explore the
subject by dividing it into smaller topics, and if necessary, we divide the smaller
topic into fragments until each fragment is at its simplest form (Which means, that
you can understand it in a single learning day).
To clarify this point, let me give you an image on how studying is like. Imagine the
studying process is your digestive system and the subject is the food, which vary in
nature and type.
The objective of the digestive system is to get the benefit from the food for the
body to use; the whole process of digesting the food from the moment it enters our
mouth until fully consumed, is the planning process, where you try to simplify the
information as much as possible, like the food, in order to be consumed and
benefited from.
How to study, a simplified learning approach Page 7
The fragmentation technique
There are several ways and techniques on how to make the data “consumable”, in
this article we are going to use a project management similar approach, which
consists of dividing the subject into topics, subtopics and smaller fragments.
We then analyze each fragment in terms of priority, risk, understandability,
sequence. In case of a new topic, you’d better seek guidance in the analysis process
by an expert, or from multiple trusted sources.
After analyzing each fragment, you should estimate how much time, effort, money
it will take you to finish the fragment in order to proceed to the next one. Establish
a schedule and budget accordingly.
Quality Control
On the other hand, one should establish a quality system in order to ensure that
objectives are met with efficiency and effectiveness. But first things first, what is
quality?
Simply quality is achieving the objectives set, following the standards, with no
delays, within budget.
Of course, we all know that the world isn’t perfect, and in the majority of situations,
we found ourselves behind deadline, over budget, and not achieving the highest
possible. Sometimes the problems could be because the plan isn’t flexible enough,
or the objectives aren’t clear and precise, so that’s why we need the quality control
process, to ensure that all other steps work perfectly.
Establishing the schedule
The schedule should contain the duration unit used, for example the week basis,
day basis or month basis scheduling system. Set a starting day and a deadline, and
then distribute each fragment in the working day according to the unit used.
The schedule should be flexible and precise in order to be efficient and effective.
How to study, a simplified learning approach Page 8
Communication channels
In case of studying with a group, a communication channels should be established
in order to access the information needed on time.
Communication channels should be agreed upon from the beginning with the group.
Environment preparation
The studying environment should be a clean, comfortable and quiet environment
with no distractions. Also the environment should contain all the tools and
equipment needed to make the studying process easy, such as IT support, good
lightning system and desktop equipment availability.
Now that everything is set, we know where we are going to dig for the gold, we
have prepared ourselves; have all the needed tools and equipment, now it is the
time to dig!
How to study, a simplified learning approach Page 9
2nd Step the actual studyAfter spending about 80% of our time in planning and simplifying the subject, we
are now ready to start in the 20% remaining part; which consists of the actual study
and review.
There isn’t much to say in this step, as we already covered the most important
parts, but let me highlight some important things. As we discussed before we are
going to use the LPR method which consists of learning, practice and review.
Learning process
Learning is the process of focusing mental effort by examining, inspecting and
analyzing the data, to come up with understandable information. Let me give you
an example, let us imagine our brains as CPU, this CPU only reads the coding
system of zeros and ones (e.g.: o1oooo1111o1o); the data on hand are written in
the analog system; so in order to understand the data and transform it into useful
information, we exercise some effort in order to transform the analog language into
digital language; that’s exactly what happens in the learning process.
So according to the plan, we must make a healthy and productive environment in
order to be able to focus all our mental effort in the studying process, remember
that our brain is very sensitive to outside effects, that’s why we need to maintain a
quiet environment as possible.
Practice process
After acquiring the information, we should apply it, through tests, Q&As, quizzes,
essays …etc.
The importance of the practice process is that it allows you to use the acquired
information in a simulated example, it is like an experiment, where you test a
certain chemical element, which is said that it has a certain effect, according to the
books, but you need to see it in reality.
In some cases, practice material are not available for us, what should we do then?
In my opinion, we can use the information gained, and construct our own tests, it is
How to study, a simplified learning approach Page 10
like a reverse engineering, although we need to be familiar with such procedure if
we are going to use it.
Review process
It is the process of comparing the practice with learning, and coming out with our
own conclusion and opinion. The review process is as important as the other two
processes, and we should spend enough time in it as well.
How to study, a simplified learning approach Page 11
3rd Step Summarizing & reportingWe have planned and established vision, strategy, and a system of studying, after
that we have conducted the actual study through the LPR method. Now it is time to
write down what we have learned.
The importance of the reporting process is to not just writing down the information
for storing purposes, but also to make it easier for you to reallocate the information
at any time in the future.
Let me use another figure in order to clarify things, imagine that the brain is like a
desktop, where all memories, knowledge, experience, daily problems, emotional
thinking and lots of other stuff are on this desk, if you were to allocate a piece of
information stored in the past month, you will find that this piece of information is
buried under the pile of other things.
So you have here two options, either to make this desktop organized, which needs a
lot of effort and discipline, or to just “label” the piece of information.
We can “label” by using techniques such as the keyword method or the mind
mapping, there are lots of other ways, but we are going to discuss those two ways
in this article.
Keywording
When we summarize the information, we are putting the pieces together again,
making it a bulk again, so we use the keyword technique simply to make our brain
recall the bulk using simple words. We can use other things than words, such as
graphs, smart arts, drawings for example.
How to study, a simplified learning approach Page 12
The mind mapping
This is a sample of a mind mapping chart, it is self explanatory; the subject is about
buying a new car, the aspects of the car are drawn in the first lines such as the
performance, setting, interior …. Etc
We notice that in mind mapping, the lines are drawn in a curvy shapes, not linear
ones; that because it is easier for the brain to absorb it that way. (For more
information about mind mapping, see Buzan mind mapping technique.)
How to study, a simplified learning approach Page 13
Key notes on successful learning Spend lots of effort and time in the planning process, as it is considered the
foundation which you will build on the rest of the pyramid of knowledge.
Be ready to face problems, problems are natural things that rise in a certain
situation, be sure to analyze the problems, to know its sources and solve
them as soon as possible. (For more information about problem solving, you
can find a whole article discussing about this topic.)
Always keep track of your plan, scope, quality control, schedule and learning
method for updates.
You need to be dedicated for the study. If you are not up to it, just don’t take
it.
Your schedule is your tool, not your master, make sure to update the
schedule in order to satisfy your needs and meet your objective.
Take a step away from the study from time to time, and make sure that your
schedule applies that; spending overtime in studying will result in an opposite
effect to what’s desired.
Make sure to reward yourself, in case of great performance.
Use your imagination when studying, it sometimes helps in boosting your
brain and motivating you; for example, you can imagine yourself as a great
scientist when you are studying chemistry.
I recommend to use notes, pen, papers, and pencils; I know that the IT and
software are better in a lot of aspects, but the traditional pen and paper
method has its perks too.
Keep track of your performance and evaluate yourself on a regular basis, let
this be an opportunity to discover new skills, new techniques and new
experience for you.
How to study, a simplified learning approach Page 14