This video is sponsored by Coursera a few weeks ago
I released this video about how I recently went through an entire Proofs textbook on my own which is something I had never done before
And you guys seem to like it, but I also got a lot of follow-up questions about more advice
I would give so I want to make this video to talk about some of the things I think I did well and
Other things I could have done differently
Now, like I said in that video it took me about four months to get through the entire textbook which consisted of at least 30
Minutes a day of working through it whether it be reading, doing practice problems, or whatever
So the first thing that I seriously never did while I was in school
But I did a lot will going through this textbook was look ahead at future chapters
So I could see exactly what was coming. This really helped me see the big picture of where I was headed with this textbook
So it was easier to kind of connect the dots as I work through it
so when I came across new vocab words
I would often look ahead to see where they came up again in future chapters
And I would never start working through a section before I skimmed through all of it to kind of see what the key material was
Really? I was just trying to build chunks of this puzzle
That is the subject at hand so that I could see the big picture even if I couldn't solve every little thing quite yet
This is actually a screenshot from Coursera's course on learning how to learn and this part is something I definitely agreed with
Learn the major concepts or points first
These are often the key parts of a good instructor or book chapters outline flowcharts tables or concept maps
Once you have Mis done fill in the details
I actually think a lot of schools are very bad at this at least that's how it was in my
Experience because a lot of the engineering courses I took to start off with technical information whether it be equations formulas
Engineering vocab words and so on but there was really no context about where this was headed or why we were learning it
I actually still have my textbook from the electromagnetism courses I had to take and I remember on the first day. I was so confused
Yeah, I remember my teacher immediately gave us this circuit that I had never seen before then
She shows us the more official representation and proceeds to go through a derivation of key equations. That's literally how it started
There was no introduction no context. No foreplay. Nothing just right into it
honestly that first day to me sounded like whereas
deulim metric abullah equals x and
Bibbidi-bobbidi-boo is why put them together? And what have you got Bodi? Bobby-boo X plus y equals y x equals zero
The song is badly written. Yeah that pretty much sums it up
But that's often how glasses went for me where we didn't really get the big picture
What's to come so I should have done that research on my own as I recommend you guys should whenever entering a new class
So the moral of the story is looking ahead at future sections just getting an idea of what's to come is a really powerful
Learning strategy next up another classic example of what everyone tells you is
Don't cram because it takes time to learn something new which we all know is totally not true
Because we've all crammed before and done totally fine on various tests
But let me ask you this that test you cram for like two years ago
How much of that information do you still remember or how well could you do if you had to take that test again?
Yeah, the answer is probably not very well
Unless of course you've seen that material since then
So when people say don't cram it's because you'll never gain a deep understanding
of any subject by trying to learn it all at once and I think the fact I didn't have any tests or exams we're going
Through this made it easier to not cram
Actually, I never gave myself goals or deadlines or anything like that
Which maybe I should have done but I feel like that would have rushed me
I always took as long as I needed to learn something well
And then I could move on from there and I feel like that really helped
I'm not saying you should learn too slowly because if I had more time I would have definitely used it
But the fact that I could never cram in an entire section in one day probably did help a little bit now
I think one thing we could all relate to is being overwhelmed by all the material in a course
Especially when it comes to a midterm or a final
since I'm not in school
I didn't have to deal with those but looking at the sheer amount of material definitely was overwhelming at times
Especially combined with how slow the progress was
But the one thing I had to keep telling myself
Was any progress was good progress if I read one page in an hour and understood it decently that was progress
If I did part a of one problem, then that was good, even if it was wrong
I would almost always have spent at least thirty minutes trying to figure it out and was just that I would usually learn something I
Remember, I was watching an online math lecture a while back and this one line really stuck with me
Most of the time you won't feel as though you're making any progress
Your goal has to be understanding not doing
Now he goes on to say you start to do practice problems, but overall it's the learning that should be the goal
Not just getting the right answer even though that is good to do - you can think of this as process over product
Which you can't say when designing a plane like I don't care how you do it
but you better get me to my destination alive, but when it comes to learning
It's more important that you learn the material rather than just get the right answer and move on
so when working through questions
I would always tell myself even if I was completely wrong that so long as I had put real effort into it
Maybe learn something new along the way maybe recall something from an earlier chapter and applied it. Well, then that was progress
I know it's different for the people that are in school
But overall if you're overwhelmed by something just at least take it one topic at a time
Because as soon as you teach yourself one thing it just gets easier from there one piece of advice
I took away from a video
I made a long time ago was recalling material is more beneficial than rereading it to know that you understand something
You should try to recall it yourself, whether it be reciting a vocabulary definition or doing the math problem on your own
Just leaning over it again will make you think you know it when in fact you might not
Honestly, it was crazy. Just how often I would go to replicate a proof
I was just reading over only to find out I didn't even remember what the first step was
Or maybe I didn't remember how to go from step two to step three and so on
So before I would ever tell myself I understood something
I would make sure I could do it on my own now
One thing I did not do well relates to the two modes of thinking which are focus mode and diffuse mode
Focus mode is of course where your focus on something with no
distractions whereas diffuse mode which is just as
Important is where you take a break from the learning and just let your mind make connections in the background and that way you come
Back to the content with a fresh mind and I know this sounds odd, but it's very true
Just think about when you leave and examine figure out the solution to that one problem within a minute of walking out the door
Even top mathematicians have made discoveries when they were doing just some leisure activity not when they were focusing on finding an answer. I
kind of combined these two modes of learning which wasn't great as I would often work like with the TV on
You tube up in front of me and I would start doing a problem, but might become distracted after five minutes
And I want to get into a real focus mode of learning
I mean sometimes I did but other times I didn't to really learn something on a deep level
It's best to focus on that task for some amount of time whether it be 30 minutes or an hour and then take a break
after that
Another thing I kind of did well, but also kind of didn't is spaced repetition
Check out this one part from the learning how to learn course
When you encounter something new you often use your working memory to handle it if you want to move that information
Into your long-term memory it often takes time and practice to help with this process
Use a technique called
spaced repetition
This technique involves repeating what you're trying to retain, but what you want to do is spaced this repetition out
Repeating a new vocabulary word or a problem-solving technique for example over a number of days
why I'm saying I did this kind of well is because again any section would take me over a week to complete and
Sometimes one problem would take me two or three days so it would force me to well do all those problems over several days
but I also didn't do this well because while going through this book
All I wanted to do was learn the information well
and then move on I
Never really went back and looked over old material like you have to when dealing with exams and finals and all that
Because of this I did notice that trying to recall material from earlier chapters
Sometimes was harder when I hadn't seen it since then
Another thing I did not do well was interleaving
now when most of us do our homework
We do it from one section and then the following day or week or whatever
We do it from the next section as assigned by our teacher, which is exactly what I did
But in order to help your brain think more independently and allow for more creativity
It can be more beneficial
To mix up the problems that you do like before your next final try do some problems from chapter 5 and then chapter 3 then
chapter 7 and so on because when you're on the integration by parts section of your calculus textbook, and you know that
It's obvious what the approach will be during the integration by parts mode
But if you mix it up and pull random problems on varying topics
Like a final exam is built to do it will allow you to think more independently and bring together the various subjects
You were taught in that course
It would have been smart of me when I was on like chapter 5
Just flip back to maybe chapter 3 and attempt one of the problems
Even if I did that like once a week, it would have been beneficial
but I just didn't I honestly
Did not know whether I'd be able to make it through the entire textbook because this is actually something I've tried before and failed that
After I reached a certain point where it just felt like I couldn't move on without getting help from someone, but for one
That's why we have the internet which I use a lot when going through this textbook and two there ways to get better at learning
Ways to make the process of learning a new subject or going through a new course
Easier and the Coursera course I was going through which is one of their most popular
Again called learning how to learn has several more techniques and strategies for getting over classic problems. That students have whether it be
Procrastination test taking improving memory or just becoming a better learner
the lectures give you tangible ways to improve your learning and tips to get over bad habits that may be holding you back from a
Higher GPA or just developing a better understanding of a complex subject
So whether you need to improve your grades or you're thinking about going back to school
I need to relearn old subjects or you just want to learn something new then
I definitely recommend this course which is link below or if you just want to jump into real technical subjects
Coursera partners with industry leaders from Stanford and Yale to Google or IBM to bring you courses
I know many people in this audience would find interesting including machine learning and data science to robotics and power electronics
Again links are below and with that I'm gonna end that video there if you guys enjoyed it
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