2023-11-25 23:00:00
“Each of us has a high-performance computer between our ears. What is often missing is the instruction manual to utilize its full potential.”
Learning strategies – the path to success
The areas of learning psychology and the best approaches to becoming an A candidate yourself are of course comprehensive – what follows is a small excerpt of the motivation coach’s strategies.
A first step in the right direction is the training plan. In the case of learning, the journey is not the goal, because it is important to avoid overtime and not to start learning without a plan, but rather to focus on the essential content. “Since the entrance exam was demanding, I put in a lot of effort and memorized an entire book on economics. In theory, I had a lot of mechanisms in my head. In practice, however, I was not able to apply it to the situation,” Krengel gives an example from his own life. “400 pages of information in my head – all worthless!” His conclusion: “It’s no use going twice as fast if we’re traveling in the wrong direction.”
Warm up for learning: Preparing to learn saves time and stress
Just like with exercise, you should warm up before studying and switch to learning mode. Krengel: “So that we don’t get stressed, we have to overcome the biggest obstacles straight away: initial inhibition, distraction, lack of time and a lack of enthusiasm.”
His tip is: Preparation makes life easier. “Anyone who rushes after the material is making things unnecessarily difficult for themselves. Preparation saves time and stress.” The comparison is with a wardrobe without compartments, says the author: “If you fill it with things, there is chaos. Drawers help! The brain has to be able to sort new things. Preparation creates such drawers: you know what topics are coming up, you can Clarify foreign words beforehand.” The follow-up is then shorter and you are more successful because you think about your goals. “30 minutes of preparation is more effective than an hour of follow-up.”
Structure: This is how you learn 128 words in three rounds
Information needs a framework into which it can be sorted – like the skeleton in our body. This is where structure comes into play. “Visualizing the internal connections brings the one-dimensional level of information into a spatial order,” explains Krengel. “It allows you to see at a glance how the various aspects of the learning material relate to each other.”
Organizing information into groups and assigning it to general categories improved memory performance enormously. This was also shown by a study in which students were asked to memorize 128 minerals. The most successful were those who sorted the minerals according to their categories – such as precious metals, industrial metals, gemstones. “By sorting, the individual vocabulary items were compared, divided into groups and differentiated from others. This involved thinking about the meaning of the words and making cross-connections. Processing was intensified and complexity was reduced,” explains the learning trainer.
The last few meters of learning: Reduce and keep an eye on the most important thing
Towards the end of the learning process, it’s time to reduce and keep an eye on the most important things. Much of the learning content does not need to be repeated once you have understood it. “We just need keywords to remember important points, or a guide to guide us through the exam, oral exam or our presentation,” says Krengel. If you condense the material, the amount of repetition can be reduced, the essentials can be kept in view and more clarity can be created.
Repetition is “strength training” when it comes to learning – however, the author advocates that you don’t repeat learning material in a dull manner, but rather bring variety to the topic. “Now the material has to be applied, consolidated with examples and practiced: quick calculations are required here, the presentation has to be straight to the point,” says the motivational psychologist. And further: “That’s why the term ‘training’ is a better term for this process than ‘repetition’. This illustrates the active part of this learning phase – you can save yourself boring, passive reading of your notes.”
When it finally goes into the “competition”, the plan is to take a tactical approach and keep your nerve. The key is to stay calm and keep an eye on the success factors. “A little tactic also helps to play to strengths and work around weaknesses.” Structure, networked thinking and elegant expression are among the “magic” three approaches.
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