How to learn
Progressing in academia, one’s learning methodology upgrades and changes, making flexibility important. Don’t sell out neither.
Page summaries
Take a pencil. Sharpen it.
As your eyes read along the sentences, so the pencils move, creasing the paper only when something important has been noticed.
Example:
But this eating by formula was not the hardest trial in that first day. Late in the morning, my friend Judewin gave me a terrible warning. Judewin knew a few words of English; and she had overheard the paleface woman talk about cutting our long, heavy hair. Our mothers had taught us that only unskilled warriors who were captured had their hair shingled by the enemy. Among our people, short hair was worn by mourners, and shingled hair by cowards!
- source: Vistas, supplementary reader by NCERT
After you run through your pencil,
But this eating by formula was not the hardest trial in that first day. Late in the morning, my friend Judewin gave me a terrible warning. Judewin knew a few words of English; and she had overheard the paleface woman talk about cutting our long, heavy hair. Our mothers had taught us that only unskilled warriors who were captured had their hair shingled by the enemy. Among our people, short hair was worn by mourners, and shingled hair by cowards!
Reading those few words quickly must give you ALL.
Its page summary would be:
Judewin warned author that their hair would be cut.
Only unskilled captives and cowards had shingled hair
This is a way of making page summaries. Three or four sentences, and a page is done. This works best for computer science, mathematics and English, at parts where information retention is required.
This requires a single pen and short, succinct sentences
Note making
This is different from note-taking, where you condense lecturer’s speech. Here, you are making your own book. No need to look at those ugly NCERT pages. Give that damn pages your all, make it your own, and throw it away.
This works best for physics and chemistry, at parts where sequential thinking and understanding is required.
This requires several pens of different colours and your sentences. Make it your own.
I was boxing them before the board exam (visual, kinesthetic learning).
Going back home
It takes clarity and willingness to improve to even seek something better. These techniques were all I had during my boards. It was spartan, but it was all I had. I repeated these over and over for all the subjects.
Use these as your swords and arrows. Penetrate through those apparently impregnable fortress of words, to conquer the kingdom of understanding. Just the sheer enjoyment of having understood fulfills, knowing that others are just getting by, mugging up and not really caring. Pride yourself for putting in your hear and soul. Cherish your integrity.
Having picked up the weapons, train ardently and diligently. Don’t look for more and waste time. You can either take one steps in 10 directions looking for more, or 10 steps in one direction excercising what you have.
