Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

by Barbara Oakley

I headed back to university to study engineering. I started at the lowest possible level of math—algebra for people who had failed it in high school.

It’s easy to believe that you should only concentrate on subjects that come easily for you. But my story reveals that you can do well in subjects you don’t even like. The truth is, it’s okay to follow your passions. But I also found that broadening my passions opened many wonderful opportunities. Learning new subjects I didn’t think I could do turned out to be an adventure!

Instead, when you start a new chapter, go on a “picture walk”* through it. Scan it. Look briefly at all the pictures, captions, and diagrams, but also at the section headings, bold words, and summary, and even questions at the end of the chapter, if the book has them. It’s important to do a “picture walk” through the book to see the pictures and the section headings before you begin reading.

Neuroscientists have discovered that your brain works in two different ways. We’ll call these two ways of working the focused mode and the diffuse mode.* Both modes are important in helping you to learn.

Diffuse mode is when your mind is relaxed and free. You’re thinking about nothing in particular. You’re in diffuse mode when you’re daydreaming or doodling just for fun. If your teacher tells you to concentrate, you have probably slipped into diffuse mode.

Diffuse mode is when we’re not focusing on anything in particular. You can enter diffuse mode by just letting go and not concentrating on anything. Going for a walk helps. Or looking out a window from a bus. Or taking a shower. Or falling asleep. (Many famous people have had great insights when the events of the day were sloshing around during sleep.

But it seems that the best ways to give your diffuse mode a chance to work out a difficult problem are through activities like sleeping, exercising, or going for a ride in a vehicle.

Today’s scientific research confirms what Santiago discovered. We can all “think” ourselves smarter. Learning makes us smarter. And learning how to learn is one of the best things you can do to get the ball rolling and make learning more successful. This is the most important idea in this book! So keep reading!

If you spend some time learning a particular item each day for several days, it allows you to get several periods of sleep. This gives more time for new synaptic links to grow and helps the new learning to really take hold.

Exercise isn’t just good for every organ in your body. It’s good for your brain, too. It improves understanding, decision-making, and focusing. It assists with remembering and switching between tasks. It can also help people recover from mental illness. Some psychiatrists say that exercise is stronger than any medicine. Pause

This idea of focusing on the harder stuff is called deliberate practice.2 Deliberate practice is how you become an expert more quickly in whatever you are studying.

Interleaving: Interleaving means practicing different aspects of what you are trying to learn so you understand the differences between the techniques. Chapter 4 in your algebra textbook may introduce you to one set of problem-solving techniques, while chapter 5 introduces you to a different set of problem-solving techniques. Interleaving means alternating between chapter 4– and chapter

We learn best when we use several different senses—hearing, seeing, and, perhaps especially, being able to feel with our hands. At deep levels in your brain, you see and hear. You see and smell. You hear and touch. When your brain creates its impressions of the world, you want as many senses involved as possible.

Sometimes, and for some people, music can be helpful. But sometimes music can fool you into thinking it’s helpful when it’s actually harmful.

It seems that your attentional octopus can be more easily distracted by loud music, and by music with words in it. The words fill one of your octopus’s arms, making it less efficient. But quieter music with no words can sometimes be helpful, depending on what you are studying.