A student’s advice to other students

When we are students, we have wonderful opportunities for learning new things. We can learn concepts from the academic concern, and also extra-curricular activities. We can learn musical instruments, sports, and different things and learn to do something well and useful to be called as skilled in the present.

Everything in the natural world has an algorithm. An Algorithm is nothing but a set of steps that are used to carry out a certain task. From eating, to studying, to even sleeping, everything has an algorithm, or a set of steps that we do to carry out these life functions. Even in the natural and involuntary world, we see algorithmic functioning, or systematic functioning. The Earth spins from west to east. The sun keeps all the planets in the solar system in their respective orbits. Animals and plants have a certain algorithm to carry out all of their life functions.

So if everything in the natural world has an algorithm, then obviously, as far as academics are concerned, they also have a certain algorithm to carry out the tasks effectively. A book called “Learning how to learn”, co-authored by three authors: Dr. Barbara Oakley, Terrence Sejnowski, and Alistair McConville wonderfully explains how to become the best student that you can be. I would suggest you to surely read the book, it is written in a very clear, and understandable manner and is suitable for all ages. Let me give you an overview of what this book has.

This book teaches us that to learn something effectively, so that we remember it for a long time, we have to learn and understand the algorithm of learning. Note that I used the word “remember”. “Remember” and “Memorize” are two different things, but most people don’t know the difference and their lack of this knowledge keeps their overall knowledge to a minimum level and does not let the person to think openly and thoroughly for proper understanding the topic. The simple rule is that, you must slowly train yourself and your brain scientifically to become the best that you can be. You have to think scientific while learning, that is you have to learn by asking questions. Never fear asking questions. Today we have so many resources to boost up our progress. There is never a lack of people who would help you by answering your questions. You don’t have to fear asking the questions in the present time, and moreover, people will appreciate you for asking questions, because they now would observe that this student is giving proper attention and so he is asking questions. Questions are not obstacles from learning for students, but they are the way to go to become a better learner.

This book mainly gives us the following steps to become a better learner and the best student that we can be:

• Browsing: When you start a new chapter, browse through the chapter just once. After you are done with browsing, try to attempt the questions of the chapter, to see what you already know about and what new thing that you are about to learn. This would give you a brief overview of the chapter. You don’t need to read aloud for the first time, you just have to have a glimpse of the chapter and its contents.

• Noting and underlining (brief explanation): Now that you have browsed through the chapter, start reading out loud once again from the beginning and note down the important points and underline the topics that you think are important. This would make you explain the whole chapter to yourself and also the notes and underlines that you will make will help you to revise at the time of the tests.

• Attempting exercises: Now after the brief explanation that you give to yourself, now attempt the exercises of the chapter in your notebook. This would make you self-sufficient in terms of doing your exercises and no matter if your class has done the chapter’s questions or not. If you wait for the teacher to start the chapter, it might turn out that the overall progress of yours would turn out to be lesser because the teacher has to take the doubts and questions from all the students of the class to clarify the subject matter for everyone in the class, which would take a longer time than you alone would be able to do it. Moreover, if you already do the exercises then it would mean that your concept is clear and you will have revision when your teacher will be explaining the topics to you.

• Testing yourself/recalling what you have learnt: This is the final task that you must do and this would make your understanding of the concept even clearer. Rather than re-attempting the questions already given in the book, try framing your own questions with regard to the topic and answer those questions yourself. Learn to think like a teacher.

• Teaching others: In ancient India, people taught their children that sharing the knowledge that you have to others who are eager to learn is one of the best deeds someone can do in their life. There are many unfortunate people who still don’t have enough resources to support themselves and have adequate opportunities for going to better schools. In that case, if you are one of those who are fortunate, then use this privilege of yours to support others and help them to learn new things. You will be surprised that the more and the more people you teach, the clearer and clearer the concept in your mind will be for you. Any knowledge that you have, be it from academics, or from extra-curricular activities; the more you teach, the more you learn. So never try keeping all the knowledge and learnings to yourself, teach others so that you can become a better you and help them so that they can get the knowledge. This will help both you and the person learning from you. Knowledge is different from money. The more and more money you keep, and don’t share it to the less fortunate, the richer and richer you will get. But, the more and more knowledge you keep, and don’t share it to the less fortunate, the worse your knowledge will become and you will find that you will lose that knowledge eventually. So to become a better learner, you have to become a better teacher; otherwise anything that you will learn will be of no use.

Do you find something familiar in this? If you do, then you must understand this is what a teacher does for us. The main thing is that you have to become your own teacher. There is no doctor that can cure you, and there is no teacher that can teach you; it is you who cures you, and it is you who teaches you. No matter how much some doctor tries to save you, if your body doesn’t will to cure itself, then you will not be cured. And similarly, no matter whether you have the best teachers in the world, if you don’t will to teach yourself, you will not learn anything. A doctor or a teacher is just an instrument, you are the main character of your life and you have to decide what you want. A famous quote says “If you change nothing, nothing will change.” This means that you have to decide what you want, what you don’t want; what you should do, what you should not do. So why not deciding to do something better for yourself and becoming the pivotal point or an inspiration for others, rather than just deciding to do something completely useless for yourself and the future.