How do you "self-learn?" (1 Viewer)

[j12onuzim]

I am in year 11, starting year 12 soon and I don't go tutoring but I only get average marks.
The dux of the grade doesn't go tutoring, yet gets such high marks.
I was wondering, how does one manage to "self-teach" and understand the concepts and get such high marks?
Share your tips

 

[Drongoski]

To self-learn, pick up a book, or 2 or 3, on the subject, and read a few pages at a time, maybe at first in a cursory fashion, to have a rough idea of what it is all about. (Let me refer to maths, to be specific.) If this is an entirely new topic, maybe many of the ideas are new to you, and you may not have a clue as to what it is all about. (The smarter students may have a reasonable grasp of the main idea). Don't worry - that is only to be expected. Read again, this time more deliberately. Try your best to understand the main ideas. If there are a few worked examples, study them carefully; often this greatly furthers your understanding. Maybe read another time. Then try some of the simpler exercises; if you can manage, try the harder ones. If you cannot do these, read again and see if you now understand a little more. If not, read another book on this topic. If after a while, you still do not understand a few areas/concepts, ask your friends, teacher etc. Keep trying in this way, keep going thru the various topics, until you eventually master them. If after lots of serious efforts, you still don't get it, then maybe, if you can afford it, get a tutor.

 

[Crobat]

I did it by always asking why instead of trying just taking everything in at face value. That went for maths and stuff too where I'd ditch the idea of formulas and just try to understand the reasoning behind them.

 

[Riproot]

Some are born smarter than others, unfortunately.

I don't necessarily agree with this.

I think some have an ability to do better because the environment they're in has fostered that.

I think if the OP wants to do well he should probably get some facilitated learning first and then gain skills to self-study, which can be difficult (I'm not great at it), BUT not everyone who does it is smart, and not all smart people can do it well. It's a skill.

 

[Menomaths]

What's so hard about self learning? There are so many resources like Youtube etc...

 

[HSC2014]

I don't necessarily agree with this.

I think some have an ability to do better because the environment they're in has fostered that.

I think if the OP wants to do well he should probably get some facilitated learning first and then gain skills to self-study, which can be difficult (I'm not great at it), BUT not everyone who does it is smart, and not all smart people can do it well. It's a skill.

Yes environmental influences affect intellect but that doesn't explain some young prodigies who seem to alienate their own parents and surroundings. There must be some sought of gene or something (not really a bio person) that affects this area; and perhaps they were mutations of such gene. That's what i think

 

[timeslowsdown]

Yes environmental influences affect intellect but that doesn't explain some young prodigies who seem to alienate their own parents and surroundings. There must be some sought of gene or something (not really a bio person) that affects this area; and perhaps they were mutations of such gene. That's what i think

Yeah I agree with this. For example, when my sister was little she could have been considered a child prodigy - she was really intelligent from the age of 3 onwards. On the other hand, I wasn't anywhere as near as naturally gifted as her - I had to try a lot more harder. She definitely had a natural ability

 

[coffee_]

There are thousands of online resources that you can use to self-learn and one of my teachers even recommends self-teaching to prepare for university. My teacher gave us two assignments for year 12 for physics, one worth 30% and the other worth 20% and what the assignment literally was you have 2 months to self-learn the syllabus content for Ideas and Implementations and Space and we had an exam on the topic. He gave us plenty of resources both hard copy and online. I recommend the youtube channel, Letslearnscience, crashcourse, myedonline, the textbooks they provide at school. You just go through each syllabus dot point, make sure you understand the dot point. Read sources, create notes and then do a few questions to test your knowledge. Rinse and repeat for the rest of the syllabus!

 

[randomnessss]

I agree with drogonski's and coffee_'s advice however, if possible, you should also consider learning things in a group setting with your friends if you're comfortable with the idea. For example, you could delegate dot-points and get each other to explain it to each other. By doing that, you need to be able to understand the content before you can properly explain it to someone else. You can also get different perspectives and question each other if you want more depth on particular dot-points or issues. I can only speak based on experience but I have found that it has worked really well for Science subjects but I hope that it gives you some ideas to help you study for your HSC year.

 

[Drongoski]

Self-learning in a group setting is a really good idea.

 

[coffee_]

I also agree with randomnessss and Drongoski. Complete isolated study can be hard. There have been times where I was just completely stuck on concepts and needed to ask teachers and other students for clarification. Self-learning is a great way to gain independence in your studies but engaging with other teachers and students can enhance your learning

 

[KitchenSinky]

The key is to hook your nipples up to a car battery. If you find yourself losing focus just complete the circuit and repeat. You could also hire some asian parents, get them to chuck a couple of 1000 page textbooks at you if you're not studying? The dux of your grade is probably asian so don't feel too bad if you can't compete, he's been at since he was 6.

 

[bluecrisps]

The key is to hook your nipples up to a car battery. If you find yourself losing focus just complete the circuit and repeat

can vouch for this great technique, been using it for years!

 

[bluecrisps]

But in all seriousness if you're studying alone,
- Read your textbooks and do the questions in them
- Make notes based on syllabus dotpoints
- Get some practice/past exam papers and do them all AND MARK IT, read the marking guidelines/sample answers so you feel confident and know what to write about in the real exams
- Do all homework your teachers set (if you aren't already) and ask them for more stuff if you think it's too little or too easy
- be consistent - study regularly in a quiet, environment and take breaks regularly maybe 5mins break every 50 mins or even every 30 mins

 

[pheelx3]

it depends on what subject really. :/

Eng: practise and ask peers to edit
Maths: past papers. in maths for me, understanding the concept doesnt mean you can do q's. its actually doing the q's that count.
Sci: textbooks. I cannot stress this fact enough The more you read, the better and more enhanced your understanding will be, and when you answer questions, you WILL know your shit