Learning How to Learn Quotes

“To be a successful problem solver, focus first. We get stuck in problem solving when we don’t first prepare our brain by focusing on the basics. Don’t just dive into problem solving without studying the explanations first. You need to lay some basic trails on the focused pinball table.”
― Barbara Oakley, Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

“The best way to speed your learning is to avoid lazy learning. If you spend too much time on material you already know, you won’t have time to learn new material. 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.3”
― Barbara Oakley, Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

“Pulling the key idea from your own mind, instead of just reading or rereading it on the page, is the critical idea behind active recall.”
― Barbara Oakley, Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

“The Three Key Steps to Powerful Reading Picture walk Read with care Use active recall”
― Barbara Oakley, Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

“Don’t be afraid to go back to a beginner’s level, even if you are older than other students.”
― Barbara Oakley; Terrence Sejnowski; Alistair McConville, Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

“Coming up with a creative metaphor is one of the best ways to learn a new concept or share an important idea.”
― Barbara Oakley, Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

“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.”
― Barbara Oakley, Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

“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.”
― Barbara Oakley, Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

“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”
― Barbara Oakley, Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

“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.”
― Barbara Oakley, Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

“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.”
― Barbara Oakley, Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

“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.”
― Barbara Oakley, Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

“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”
― Barbara Oakley, Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

“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.”
― Barbara Oakley, Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

“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. So whenever you’re learning anything, try to take advantage of all your senses. Don’t think of yourself as having a preferred learning style. Think of yourself as an “all-inclusive” learner. If you imagine hearing a famous person from history speaking to you, or you visualize a chemical, that counts as multisensory learning, which is the most effective kind. For everyone.”
― Barbara Oakley, Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

“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.”
― Barbara Oakley, Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

“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!”
― Barbara Oakley, Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

“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.”
― Barbara Oakley, Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

“When you think of a metaphor, a trail in your brain is activated. (Yes, this trail is the set of brain-links you saw before.) The trail allows you to more easily do complex thinking about the “real” concept. Just by thinking of a metaphor, you’ve started understanding the tougher concept! Metaphors help you to get it faster. (All this relates to something called the “neural reuse theory.”8 You are reusing ideas you have already learned to assist you in learning new ideas.)”
― Barbara Oakley, Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

“It doesn’t seem like it hurts if you put off your studies a little longer. Or spend another “few minutes” on social media. But if you get used to procrastinating, it will make learning harder, because you will have less time when you do buckle down to learn. You’ll get stressed, miss deadlines, and not learn things properly. You can get really behind. All this will make you a less effective student.”
― Barbara Oakley, Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

“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.”
― Barbara Oakley, Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

“The diffuse mode helps you make imaginative connections between ideas. Creativity often seems to pop out of using the diffuse mode. It turns out that your brain has to go back and forth between focused and diffuse modes in order to learn effectively.”
― Barbara Oakley, Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

“Diffuse mode is when your mind is relaxed and free. You’re thinking about nothing in particular.”
― Barbara Oakley, Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

“1 When you are trying to learn something new, you must first focus intently on it in order to “turn on” those parts of the brain and get the learning process started.”
― Barbara Oakley, Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

“Sometimes we need to lose concentration so we can think more clearly. Zoning out occasionally (not all the time) can be useful when you’re learning or problem solving.”
― Barbara Oakley, Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens