Learn easier by planning better, and thinking harder

Think about the same problem repeatedly and you learn less. Think about different problems in-between and you learn easier. To learn easier, think harder.

Think about the same problem repeatedly and you learn less.
Think about different problems in-between and you learn easier.

To learn easier, think harder.

Learn easier by knowing your capabilities better

One reason to make things difficult while studying is that making things too easy leads to overconfidence, which in turn leads students to stop studying too soon. Students should actively avoid overconfidence, especially students who have a pattern of doing worse on exams than they expected:

  1. Test yourself.
  2. Consider what could go wrong on a test.
  3. Think about what you don’t know.

Ironically, students also tend to be underconfident in their ability to learn and improve, and so if you are a student who is discouraged by how difficult the material is, you might benefit if you:

  1. Remember if you are prone to underestimating your capacity for learning.

Learn easier by planning better

There are also ways to overcome another huge problem for studiers, the planning fallacy:

  1. Break the task down into elements and consider how long each subtask will take.
  2. Consciously estimate that everything will take twice as long as you think it will take.

Procrastination is a huge hurdle to effective studying. Advice that one should avoid procrastination is easy to find (e.g., Benjamin Franklin: “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today,”) but advice on how to do so is difficult to come by. Research suggests that there are ways of decreasing procrastination:

  1. Increase expectancy of success.
  2. Set appropriate and achievable subgoals.
  3. Form predictable work habits that essentially make the decision that it is time to work for you.

Learn easier by learning to think harder

With respect to how to study, our most general advice is this:

  1. Struggle while thinking.
    Easy studying is often ineffective.
  2. Do not try to take shortcuts on the path to knowledge.
  3. Make it as easy as possible to think hard.
    Avoid pitfalls such as trying to study in a situation that leads to too much distraction.

We have already alluded to multiple productive ways to make things difficult.

  1. Summarize notes during a lecture.
    Don’t transcribe notes during a lecture.
  2. Ask yourself questions while studying.
  3. Simulate test conditions by quizzing yourself and see if you really know the answers.
    Don’t go over the answers and decide that you know them—which is easy when they are right in front of you.
  4. Space repeated study sessions apart in time to allow forgetting.
  5. Return to restudy information that seemed well-learned at one point but might have been forgotten.

These strategies have dual benefits: They enhance learning, and they make self-monitoring more accurate.

Learn easier by learning longer

Studying more is not effective unless one is smart about how to study. We have tried to explain how students can become smarter studiers. Making bad choices about how to study can be akin to pedaling a stationary bike: You put in effort but you go nowhere. Making bad choices about what and when to study can be like riding in the wrong direction (what) or starting a race at the wrong time (when). Our goal in this chapter is to point studiers in the right direction and give them a faster bike.

There is one last piece of advice, and it is the most obvious of all: The more time you spend riding, the farther you get—and the same is true of studying:

  1. Learn to study efficiently.
  2. Study a lot.

Distance = rate × time, and learning = efficiency × time.

If you end up accomplishing your goals and have free time afterward:

  1. Study some more.

Learn easier

learning = efficiency × time

  1. Test yourself.
  2. Consider what could go wrong on a test.
  3. Think about what you don’t know.
  4. Remember if you are prone to underestimating your capacity for learning.
  5. Break the task down into elements and consider how long each subtask will take.
  6. Consciously estimate that everything will take twice as long as you think it will take.
  7. Increase expectancy of success.
  8. Set appropriate and achievable subgoals.
  9. Form predictable work habits that essentially make the decision that it is time to work for you.
  10. Struggle while thinking.
    Easy studying is often ineffective.
  11. Do not try to take shortcuts on the path to knowledge.
  12. Make it as easy as possible to think hard.
    Avoid pitfalls such as trying to study in a situation that leads to too much distraction.
  13. Summarize notes during a lecture.
    Don’t transcribe notes during a lecture.
  14. Ask yourself questions while studying.
  15. Simulate test conditions by quizzing yourself and see if you really know the answers.
    Don’t go over the answers and decide that you know them—which is easy when they are right in front of you.
  16. Space repeated study sessions apart in time to allow forgetting.
  17. Return to restudy information that seemed well-learned at one point but might have been forgotten.
  18. Learn to study efficiently.
  19. Study a lot.
  20. Study some more.[1]

  1. Kornell, Nate, and Bridgid Finn. “Self-regulated learning: An overview of theory and data.” The Oxford Handbook of Metamemory, edited by John Dunlosky and Sarah (Uma) K. Tauber, Oxford University Press, 2016, pp. 325-340.

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