Learning How to Learn

Question 1

Benefits of doodling

Answer 1

• relaxes the mind so ideas can be absorbed better
• visually represents difficult ideas
• looking at the doodles helps for recalling the ideas

Question 2

What is the creativity process?

Answer 2

• preparing and studying obsessively to gain mastery
• relaxing and incubating on what you know
• the “Eureka!” moment of inspiration
• cold hard verification that the idea is good

Question 3

What are traits of creativity?

Answer 3

• obsessiveness on the subject
• simplicity
• craziness, thinking outside the box
• courageousness, not letting fear get in the way
• being wrong and bouncing back
• relax

Question 4

Describe procrastination

Answer 4

• thinking about doing an unpleasant task triggers the brain’s pain response
• you try to alleviate the pain by doing something else, procrastinating
• however soon after starting the task the pain goes away

Question 5

What are the stages of habits?

Answer 5

• cue: the cue that triggers the habit
• routine: dropping into the automatic actions of the habit
• reward: the mental reward for finishing the action
• belief: belief that the habit is good and or necessary

Question 6

How do you fight procrastination?

Answer 6

• focus on process instead of product, like regular schedules and pomodoros
• tell yourself to “just do it”, but willpower is scarce so use sparingly

Question 7

How do you enlist habits to fight procrastination?

Answer 7

• cues: understand the cues and create an environment without them
• routine: use routine to your advantage and create a task routine, where the mind can be on auto-pilot
• reward: make sure to reward yourself consistently for the effort, through frequent breaks, doing things you enjoy, and bigger rewards for bigger accomplishments
• belief: believe that your routine and process works

Question 8

What are effective ways to introduce process?

Answer 8

• keep a task journal
• write out what you will do the next day in the journal
• make the goals achievable
• set a definite and reasonable end time
• work on hardest tasks first
• make note of what is and isn’t effective for your process

Question 9

What are methods to improve memory retention?

Answer 9

• use your visual memory to remember things
• use striking and wild images
• use as much detail in the images as possible
• practice the memory images regularly, daily, weekly, then monthly
• use flash cards with images

Question 10

Zombie Mode

Answer 10

• the relaxed state of routine action
• very little thought involved
• examples are tying your shoes, brushing your teeth, driving, riding a bike, etc.

Question 11

How can your senses help you with memory?

Answer 11

• engaging more senses helps to create more detail and more memorable images and ideas

Question 12

How can acronyms and mnemonic phrases help with memorization?

Answer 12

• you can take a list of ideas either related or unrelated and the create acronyms from the first letter of each word
• you can take a list of ideas and relate them with a short story in the form of a phrase

Question 13

What are some benefits of exercise?

Answer 13

• it keeps neurons from new learning (red) alive
• it’s better than any drug on the market for brain stimulation in learning

Question 14

How can you use Metaphors and Analogy in learning?

Answer 14

• you create metaphors for things you want to learn and remember to remember and understand them better
  
  • an anion which is the negative counterpart to a cation is like an onion in that it makes you cry
  • a cation which is positive is like a cat playing
  • Syria looks like a bowl of cereal on a map
• metaphors can also be mini stories putting different concepts together in interesting ways
• you can also put yourself in the middle of the story to make it resonate better

Question 15

What are the benefits of brainstorming?

Answer 15

• helps to gut check your assumptions by bouncing your ideas off of others
• helps to come up with new ideas
• acts as a large-scale diffuse mode

Question 16

Why is testing yourself effective?

Answer 16

• it engages retreival and recall to help learning
• it actually tests your knowledge so you can correct mistakes and false assumptions

Question 17

What is the Test Checklist?

Answer 17

• be able to answer yes to these questions
• Did you try hard to understand the text?
• Did you work with classmates on homework problems?
• Did you try every problem before working with classmates?
• Did you actively participate in study sessions?
• Did you consult with instructors when you had trouble?
• Did you understand all of your homework solutions?
• Did you go through and master everything in the study guide?
• Did you attempt solutions without focusing on the math?
• Did you go over the study guide with classmates and quiz each other?
• Did you attend the review session?
• Did you get enough sleep?

Question 18

What is the Hard Start-Jump to Easy technique?

Answer 18

• a test-taking technique where you start by skimming to find the hardest problems and start on those first
• when you get stuck quickly switch to an easy problem
• the time off allows your diffuse mode to kick in
• regularly return to the hard problems, and hopefully new answers will be there

Question 19

What are some test-taking hints?

Answer 19

• shift your stress response from fear to excitement
• use deep breathing to calm yourself
• look away and blink to get unstuck and out of mental ruts
• use the Hard Start-Jump to Easy technique
• have a Plan B, so you worry less about performance
• review answers from the back of the test to the front to check for errors
• get plenty of sleep!

Question 20

Why take 30 seconds?

Answer 20

• after listening to a lecture, or a story, or reading a chapter of a book, take 30 seconds to recall and summarize the most important points
• it’s key that it’s only the most important points which forces you to understand the subject holistically, instead of focusing on details