Essential Study/Tutoring Skills
There are lots of ways to study and there is no one right answer but knowledge is retained best when all 5 steps of the learning process are covered. Most likely you will not have time for using every learning method but that is not important as long as you keep the information in you. You can use this source to help you identify new ways to study and include these 5 steps. I based the information on what I learned when I was working as a tutor at BYU-I, an online course dedicated to a 10-step learning process and based on a 100-hour learning process used by a Youtuber named NerdForge.
Preparation
Preparation is all about your state of being before you even start trying to study.
Health — Keep your body in good condition to study by getting adequate sleep and eating healthy beforehand. Expect to take breaks to rest you mind. Ensure you are in the right state of mind.
Focus — Find a comfortable spot away from distractions, and plan when to handle other concerns.
Habits — How well do you allocate your time? How long does it take you to get a small task done? What habits, it any, could distract you from your work?
Value — How important is this material to you? How will this knowledge help you in the near and far future? Does the subject interest or bore you?
Input
Input means researching and increasing your understanding about how to perform better.
I suggest spending 3% of your available study time here.
Get the big picture — What are the extents of the topic you are going to learn? What can you do with this knowledge to make it an asset?
Background — Identify what you already know.
Determine scope — What aspect of the topic is most relevant to what you want to use this for? Define this as narrowly as possible.
Define success — What can you expect to learn in the time frame you have? What makes someone a professional in this topic? What is your goal for the study session?
Find Resources — What resources can you find on the subject? Gather a wide array of resources within the scope of your topic.
Create a learning plan — Identify how you can use the knowledge you gained and form a step-by-step plan. Start small. You most likely cant conquer Rome in a day.
Filter resources — Reduce the resources based on your learning plan.
Research — Dive into the resources to get an idea of best practices.
I suggest spending 22% of your available study time playing around, practicing what you learned.
Play around — Try out using the information you found through each resource and see what you can do with it outside of the assignments.
Processing
Processing involves thinking through and working directly on the problem. I suggest spending 65% of your available study time processing what you learned.
Probe — Understand the question. Be able to explain clearly to someone else what you are trying to accomplish.
Prod — Make an educated guess.
Prompt — Divide the problem into steps.
Informal Quiz — Make a quiz for yourself.
Mapping — Organize the material in your own way. Find visual examples. Draw out the problem.
Note taking and processing — Record key points from the lecture. Review and organize the information after to ensure you can return to it and quickly get the information you need.
Predict test questions — Identify potential areas that would be hard to remember such as equations.
Terminology — Record the meaning of terms in your own words.
Brainstorm — Identify a wide array of possible solutions. Try the idea in a test run if possible before disregarding it.
Pair up — Work alongside someone else. Compare differences in how you reached a solution and determine who was correct or how to adjust understanding.
Learn enough to do something useful — Practice making use of your knowledge in a practical way.
Storage
Storage involves ensuring the information sticks through review. I suggest spending 10% of your available study time here.
Process — Think through the information by restating what was learned. Go back through your notes if needed.
Extra Assignments — Go beyond the class assignments making problems to ensure you can solve similar problems.
Teach — Instruct someone else how to use part the skill you learned.
Share — If you created something someone else may appreciate, consider giving it away. This will show you the immediate value of the skill.
Get feedback — It is hard to improve your work unless you get both positive and negative feedback on your work. Someone may see your work very differently from how you do.
Output
Get something to prove your abilities to other people such as a certification, completing an exam, starting a side hustle, adding to your portfolio or making the topic your profession. You will feel a lot better about your work if you get something out of it besides a grade.
Group work Issues
Individual/Tutee Work Issues
How I study: Web Development
Throughout the problem-solving process I strive to record your progress you make on each task. Often I forget but I try to keep my time through Pomodoro’s. Keep track of how much time you spend on a task. If it takes more than 3 hours reach out to someone on your team.
Focus — I try to get my morning routine of running, eating special K, getting my 3 year old started on school, cleaning, getting showered and dressed for the day all done for the day so it doesn't sit at the forefront of my mind when I am trying to work on something else. As someone with ADHD it is incredibly easy to get distracted if I do not do this.
Get the big picture — I find what all is involved in the problem. Usually the task covers several files. Understanding how the code is already working requires reading through it and hoping around the repository. When I do a practice issue like through leetcode I write and test out the requirements. ie Do I really know how roman numerals work?
Mapping — Map out possible solutions and their implications on clean code, performance, etc. Often I draw this out on paper first like through a diagram listing out the steps.
I impliment the solution which often still requires a fair amount of debugging. If I get stuck on one particular issue for a long time I reach out and pair up. I clean up my work during and after I get it working. I try not to commit my changes until it is in a functional state.
Teach — In the past when I take notes I tend not to use them or even not able to understand them .I create medium article as my form of notetaking to stay organized and present information in an understandable way.
Output — I get my PR reviewed.
How I study: Animation
Focus — Same as for when I do web development.
Create a learning plan — I like to use lineofaction.com to give me a scheduled way to draw out the human figure. I then plan what image I will use for my project.
Mapping — I create a value study and map out similar sizes and angles on the reference paper. Sometimes I just do this as I am working on the project.
Get feedback — I ask another artist or often the teacher for what I could improve to push the artwork a little farther.
Output — I post my work to a portfolio website such as deviantart or behance.