Do-It-Yourself Learning

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If possible, choose a time of day you feel you are at your mental best. You’ll learn more when your mind feels sharpest. If you’re a morning person, consider getting up an hour early and studying before work. If you’re a night owl, skip the eleven o’clock news and study instead.

Although it’s not always possible to have a comfortable, distraction-free place to study, do your best to seek one out. Search out an empty conference room rather than settling for a table in the cafeteria at lunch time. At home, choose a well lit place that is comfortable but not overly cushy. Don’t sink back into your favorite armchair or you’re likely to doze off.

Study sessions don’t have to be marathon events. In fact it’s believed that students learn more through several short sessions than one really long one. It’s almost as if the brain benefits from time to digest and store information before receiving the next batch. You will probably learn more in four one-hour sessions than in one four-hour session.

GRASP What You Study

• (G)et it the first time. If you’re distracted and not paying attention, you won’t learn.
• (R)emember to remember. Learn with the intention of retaining the information for a long time.
• (A)ssociate new information with something you already know, or arrange it in a pattern that’s easy to remember.
• (S)tudy the same information different ways to create more than one path to retrieving it.
• (P)ractice remembering. The more often you recall a piece of information, the easier it will become to do so again.