
Ask HN: How do you learn? - colourfulclock
A lot of you on Hacker News are successful, particularly academically, so I though I'd ask some advice. How do you learn? How do you study for exams? How do you learn every little fact or understand every physics concept?<p>I read this post (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2125742) and it got me thinking!
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Swizec
Well I think there are actually two questions in your question. First you're
talking about learning, then you're talking about studying for exams.

For me those two are distinctly different concepts.

As far as learning goes, I usually take the route of reading a lot about a
subject, dabbling with it, trying to find a pet project to do in the field.
Usually just going through a bunch of wikipedia stuff and trying to mingle
with the people more knowledgable than me. This process can take months,
sometimes years or decades. But it is _very_ effective and it plays to my
eternal learning and slight polymathic side.

Then there is studying for exams. That is a short term process (and the
knowledge is a lot more superficial and short term ish). This involves a lot
of quick reading[1], cramming as much wikipedia in my head and doing as much
practice as I can to get a good enough grasp on the subject to pass. This
usually takes a few days, a few tens of hours that is. Depending on how
difficult I find the exam/subject.

[1]my method of quick reading is a very simple subvocal technique, I can only
do about two pages a minute. Not something fierce like some people can. It
also involves first going through the book just reading the titles, then just
reading the first paragraph under every title, then the first page under every
title. Then the whole book (twice-ish). This structurally builds up the data
in my head well enough that I can then at least sort of know what I'm looking
at when taking the exam.

And now some anecdotal evidence that my way of studying for exams works: Last
year I passed 8 exams (more than in the two years prior to that), while also
doing a startup full-time and part-time freelancing.

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unignorant
I learn best by _doing_. In an academic sense that means going to class and:

* If math/science, then _solving_ the homework or problem sets.

* If humanities, then _writing_ about whatever it is you've been reading.

* If computer science, then _coding_ up whatever you've been studying.

I rarely study for exams explicitly. Following the above and going to class
seems usually to be sufficient. "Studying" for me is something active rather
than passive, and it occurs over time, rather than in one night of desperate
cramming.

Whenever I've deviated from these rules (it happens ;-) the results have not
been to my liking.

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coderdude
>I read this post (<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2125742>) and it got
me thinking!

I think you've just answered your own question in a way. People who learn a
lot tend to do a lot of reading. Reading and absorbing, reading and absorbing.
It's a process that you repeat ad nauseam (not literally, as most people who
read a lot enjoy it).

To expand on this, as younata mentioned programming, learning some things also
requires a liberal amount of practice. That is especially true with
programming and many other tech-related fields.

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aDemoUzer
it _depends_ on the course material, the teacher and past experiences I got B
and C on physics, so nothing for that. I don't learn every little fact, I
usually learn what I think is most likely to be on the exam and focus on it. I
go through the process of figuring out the key material by paying attention to
teacher when it is announced what will be on the exam. During the class, the
teacher would spend more time on certain concepts than others because they are
likely to be the key concepts.

I tend to go over the course's lecture notes and write a condensed version for
myself. I tend to write in my own words because then I can better understand
it. When you have to summarize the content well, you have to be able to
understand it. If you try to half-ass it, you will pay for it later, so I am
assuming that you are willing to spend the time to study and do it right. Once
you understand the concept, then it comes down to memorization. If you have
the time, doing some application would help. That is why there are physics
lab. For CS, we have our computers to write out the needleman-wunsch algorithm
and try it out, if hand-simulation is not enough to learn the concept. For
math, you will need to solve the equations, right the proof, draw the graph
and trace out the algorithm. For english, you would go through examples in the
book.

The best situation is when the teacher provides a sample exam, which has same
problems as the final exam, but the variables are different. Then you would
just try to re-do sample exam.

I also like to go over the homeworks and make sure I understnad why I was made
to do them and what I learned from them.

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younata
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2125742>

your link is clickable.

I learn by doing. If it's math, then I'll get a textbook, and just go through
the problems. Then I'll check them. If it's anything programming, then I'll
find a tutorial and then build stuff from there. If it's writing, then I'll
write and ask others to critique it.

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znt
"Example isn't another way to teach, it is the only way to teach" - Einstein

Learning is actually self-teaching, so checking out the examples about what
I'm trying to learn has worked out well for me so far.

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nmaio
I learn best by failing. Sometimes it takes failing over and over again until
I learn one little thing. But eventually my repetitive failures lead to small
successes.

