How to Become a Better Learner

There are strategies to use to become a better learner. Learning takes more than just wanting to learn and spending time on it with things like reading. It takes more than even putting effort into it. Becoming a better learner requires metacognition, or knowing how you learn. You have to know the research on learning and know your own personal learning strengths and weaknesses. That will help you to use the best strategies to increase your learning potential.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Embrace every learning opportunity in order to become a better learner.
   
   If something interests you and you do not know all about it, look it up and learn about it. Find out about things that you are interested in. Learning does not need to be limited to a classroom. Make your whole life a learning experience. You will find that, as you increase your knowledge base, learning new things will be even easier because you can make connections between what you are learning and what you already know much more efficiently.

2. Space out your learning or study time.
   
   This is called "spaced trials" and is based on some of the earliest research on learning. You will learn far more if you study for, say 30 minutes per day for ten days in a row, than you will if you study for 5 hours straight the day before an exam.

3. Use all of your senses when you study in order to be a better learner.
   
   This is multi-sensory learning and it what learning styles are based on. You might be more visual than auditory, for example. However, if you hear information, speak about it, see it, write it, etc. then you will own the information much better than if you only hear it or only read it.

4. Question and find out anything you do not fully understand while you are studying.
   
   Too often, more study time in spent looking at material over and over again and not really understanding it any better. If there are terms or concepts that you are not clear on, look them up. In this day when libraries of information are right at your fingertips on your computer, there is no reason to not look information up.

5. Apply the information you have taken in.
   
   Application is a much higher level of learning and, when you can apply information, it will be far more apt to stay in your long-term memory. You know the old saying, "use it or loose it."

Tips & Warnings

• Learning how you learn is the key.