This document discusses effective study techniques for college students. It recommends using focused and diffused modes of learning. In focused mode, students should read textbooks multiple times, take detailed notes in class, and review them shortly after. In diffused mode, students allow their mind to process the information subconsciously by taking breaks between study sessions. The document also stresses the importance of practicing retrieval of information through techniques like flashcards and self-testing to commit concepts to long-term memory through chunk formation and spaced repetition. Regularly alternating between focused study and diffused relaxation modes can help students learn and retain information more effectively.

1. Learning to
learn
How your life in
college can be easier

2. Read, underline, make
summaries, prepare mind
maps
If you read your textbook at least 7
times, you’ll be fine.
Read again and again
Is it the answer? .

3. Read, underline, make summaries
prepare mind maps
I you read your textbook at least 7 times,
you’ll be fine.
Read again and again
Is it the answer? NO!

4. Overlearning
• When we read the same notes again and
again, they become familiar

5. Illusion of competence
• As the material becomes familiar, we gain
fluency
• There is a feeling we already know the
material
• In fact, we don’t

6. Use focused mode during lectures
Review your notes later that day
Practice and test
Go for a walk or otherwise use the
diffused mode
There is a better way

7. Focused mode
• Allows the mind to
recognize familiar
patterns
• Problems related to
these patterns are
easily solved
• Works in a sequencial
way – step by step
reasoning

8. Allow no distractions
Keep your mobile turned off. Do not sit
next to your best friend
Try to follow the lecture. Take notes of the
key points
Try to connect what’s being said to other
things you already know
At the end of the lecture, write a brief
summary of the main points covered
Focused mode

9. Revision allows the information to find a
place in the large store of the long term
memory
Start chunk formation
Review your notes later that day

10. Chunk formation
• Use focused
attention
• Understand the
problem
• Practice
New chunks will be placed in your hanger
(long term memory)

11. Understand the
problem
Top down learning
Understanding the big picture

12. Chunk formation
However, simple
understanding
how a problem is
solved does not
necessarily create
a chunk that can
be used later

13. Close the book and try
to solve the problem
by yourself
The chunk (creation of neural
patterns) will only be created by
doing it yourself
Bottom up learning
How the chunk fits in the big picture

14. Practice
As the saying
goes, Practice
makes
permanent

15. Interleave
But do not keep working
on the same kind of
problems for too long
Change type of problems
or change subjects

16. Deliberate Practice
Focus on the most difficult part
Spaced repetition
Review frequently
Bottom up learning
Practice .

17. We can also look at chunks
as if they were a puzzle.
In the beginning, it is difficult to place the
pieces.

18. We can also look at chunks
as if they were a puzzle.
We then get some pieces together – they can
be seen as a chunk.
The more chunks we have, the easiest it gets
to
place the next piece

19. We can also look at chunks
as if they were a puzzle.
Even if we did not know how the puzzle would
look like, we start to see the big picture after
having done some chunks.

20. If you think it is difficult to
find the will to do the
Practice…

21. Use a pomodoro

22. No, it is not for throwing at
the teacher!

23. It is an “anti-procrastination”
technique
• Find a place where you can be concentrated
• Shut out all interruptions
• Work for 25 minutes

24. Use flashcards
Test yourself
• Do it consistently for short periods of time
• Recall will allow the information to
be stored in the long term memory
• Use manual or computarized
flash cards
• In any case, make your own – you
are the only person to know what you need to
learn!

25. Do it every day (ok, you can
take Sunday off)
Eventually all the new concepts will be safely
kept in the long term memory.
New concepts will be easier to grasp, because
you have now more chunks,
more hangers to help connect the
new material.

26. Revisions
• Recall and think about the material in
different places than the one
where you first learned it
• It increases the neural
connections

27. Go for a walk or otherwise use the
diffused mode
There is a better way

28. Diffused mode
• Now it is time for your brain to work on the
material at his own pace
• You can take a nap, go for a walk, go clean
your room , and your brain will be working
on the material

29. Diffused mode
What we talked about
Do you recall all the topics?
Chunks
Pomodoro
Deliberate
practice
Spaced repetition
Overlearning
Illusion of
competency
Focused mode

30. Happy learning!
.
Don’t forget your diffused time!

31. Credits
• Content is based on the materials covered
in the course “Learning how to learn”, Dr.
Barbara Oakley and Dr. Terrence Sejnowski
• PowerPoint presentation
template:Presenter Media
• Cliparts – Presenter Media and Office.com
• Photographs – my own

32. Thanks to:
• Nicole Charest, for a very helpful review
and the idea of throwing tomatoes
• Cristian Artoni, for the link to the
Pomodoro Timer