#40: HOW TO STUDY A HARD COURSE

Have you been finding it challenging to study a certain course due to how hard it is? 

Or, perhaps you've managed to study for an extensive period but unfortunately, you keep flunking your test because you find it hard to comprehend?

If you said yes to any of these questions, this is the right place you should be. 

I've been in that spot too. I reasonably understand how you feel. 

That's why I'm writing this article so that you can feel better and do better when it comes to excelling in courses you find challenging to study. 

I'm giving you key insights. Things I've tried and tested. I'm reasonably sure that it'll work for you too if you do it right. 

To get a clear picture of where we are headed, it'll be good if we look into some of the reasons students find a course they are trying to study hard. 

Why Are Some Courses Hard? 

People are dynamic. What makes a course hard for me might not necessarily be the reason it's hard for you. So instead of making generalizations, here's a fragment of a non-exhaustive list that highlights why some courses are hard:

• Natural Hardness

There are courses that are inherently hard, really hard. On the other hand, some are easier. It's something you can't change. The best you can do is to accept it as it is while devising a means to study and understand it to the best of your ability. 

• Fear

Our brains are designed in such a way that makes us want to stay away from anything that makes us uncomfortable. 

If you don't understand a course, and you're scared about it, and then you succumb to that fear, you'll find it hard to comprehend. The good thing is, fear is an emotion. And that emotion should inspire action. It should inspire you to see that there's a gap in your understanding that you need to close by studying harder.

Simply put, the more you fear a course, the more you should spend time studying it instead of shying away from it. 

• Misunderstood Concepts

Some courses are hard because there are underlying concepts that one has failed to get a grasp of. The only way to bridge that gap of understanding is by trying to understand those concepts first. 

• Disliking the Teacher

If you dislike the one who's teaching you, you'll hardly learn. In order to learn, you need to like the one who's conveying the message. Whether you like it or not, you have to if at all you intend to pass with an excellent grade. Not liking the teacher while hoping to pass is like a bird that's trying to fly without its feathers.

• Poor Teaching Skills

Some teachers are terrible. They make the lives of students miserable because they don't know how to teach. Yes, that's bad. But if you find yourself in such situation and there's nothing you can do, try to manage the teacher like that and look for help elsewhere so that you can gain a better understanding. 

• Cognitive Ability 

Our brains are all wired in different ways. I'm sure you know someone who studies for only a short period of time and yet he aces his test more than someone out there who studies more than he does.

It's often like that. Some will understand faster and easier than others while some will not. And that's because we all have different cognitive abilities 

That shouldn't bother you anyway. Instead, try to figure out where your cognitive strength and weakness lies. Once you do that, you'll be able to navigate through. Truth is, learning about oneself is the beginning of all learning. 

I'll be happy if you do sit down and think about some of the possible reasons you're finding a course hard or challenging.

Obviously, these can't be the only reasons why some courses are hard to get a grasp of. The above-stated are just a few out of many. 

Having looked briefly into these reasons and how to go about addressing them, I believe you're starting to get a clearer view of the picture I'm trying to paint in your head. Thus, to chalk it up, here are some tips that'll help you in systematically understanding any hard course:

1. Understand Yourself 

How retentive is your memory? 

Are you a night owl or you prefer reading during the day? 

Are you a legendary procrastinator or you just hate reading? 

What are your strengths and weaknesses in terms of studying? 

These are questions you should ask yourself. In fact, these are just a few out of many. In order to tackle any challenging course, you must first tackle yourself. 

“How can I tackle myself?” You ask? 

Simple. 

You can do so by doing your best to understand yourself better. 

Learning about oneself is the beginning of all learning.

 If you do know yourself well enough, you can compose yourself and direct your actions and inactions towards finding effective measures in seeing how you can tackle any challenge that's before you. 

2. Read Consistently 

Success is no movie magic. You have to play your part before God will help you. If a course is hard, study it harder, consistently, and ask God to increase you in understanding. 

That's one sure way to hit the nail on its head. However, studying harder with inefficient techniques is as good as nonsense. At the end of the day, it'll yield not much of a positive result. 

Keep reading. In the next tips I'll equip you with the needed techniques. 

3. Dig Deep

So, assuming I give you a digger and I tell you to dig one meter deep into the soil of a particular portion of land. As you start digging and progressing deeper, you'll see that the soil is made up of different layers. 

Now, looking at these layers, you'll notice that the composition of each layer is slightly different from the other. But these layers, all combined, generally make up the soil. 

Isn't that amazing? 

Just as soil is made up of different layers, that's how all areas of learning are made of different layers. 

If you're finding it challenging to study a course due to how hard it is, I suggest you dig deep so as to find the different layers of understanding that entails that concept you're trying to learn. 

For example, you can't understand how to solve differential equations if you don't know differentiation and integration. 

And in order to understanding integration, you first have to understand differentiation.

And for you to know what differentiation is, you must understand the basic rules of differentiation.

And in order to understand these basic rules, you must have a sound understanding of algebraic operations. 

If we keep moving in this fashion, you'll see that we're digging deep and trying to understand the underlying concepts right from where it all started. Thus, enabling us to bridge that gap of understanding.

4. Have Multiple Perspectives

If you seek understanding, you need to learn to see things from different perspectives. 

Let's take a look at this student of knowledge. We'll call him Mr X.

When he came across a problem, let's call it a quadratic equation problem, he analyzed it first. After that, he started thinking of which method he can use to find the values of the variables in the given problem. 

And then he started thinking, thinking and thinking. “Oh, I can solve it using the quadratic formula,” he said. 

So Mr X says it can be solved using the quadratic formula which, of course, is right. 

“But this can't be the only way to solve it,” he said to himself. He then sat down and looked at the same problem again. This time around, from a different perspective. He analyzed it, critiqued it, made several attempts and failed. 

After repeating this painstaking process for several hours, he then figured out that the problem can be solved using an approach known as completing the square method.

He still wasn't ready to stop there. He looked at it again, critiqued it and repeated this tedious process again and again. Eventually, he solved the same problem using a different approach called the elimination method.

Now, looking at these three ways in which we can solve this problem, we can clearly say that by looking at the same problem from distinct viewpoints, Mr X gained a better understanding of the problem and even went ahead to solve it correctly using different techniques.

Well, our ability as humans to see things from different perspectives is not as easy as it sounds. It's a skill that we need to ingrain in our selves. It's something that we need to learn continually.

Once we can do that, we can be able to make sense out of concepts we find hard to comprehend.

When next you study, try to see the problems or exercises you encounter from different perspectives.

5. Practice More

There's this friend of mine who went to class and passed the night there reading for a paper we had the next day in the afternoon.

He had skipped reading right from the beginning of the semester but when exam commenced, he thought he could cheat time and magically understand everything he needed to learn within the span of three months all in one night. 

Isn't that stupid? Clearly, he's expecting magic to happen. Of course, there's no way he's going to understand that much. 

Spending hours in class reading through the night and practicing solved examples or questions when you've not been reading right from the beginning of the semester isn't what I mean by you should practice more.

What I mean by practice more is a spaced kind of practice that takes place over the semester at regular intervals. 

In order to tackle hard courses, you need to study religiously. You also need to do it regularly and frequently. As to how you decide to schedule your study sessions, it's all up to you. You know yourself better than I do. Thus, organize it to your specification. 

What I'm concerned about is that as you do so, you take due awareness of the frequency at which you study. Because how intensed, focused and frequent your study session is will determine your rate of comprehension.

Here are some tips that'll help you as you practice:

• Do A lot of Exercises

Some students study their books as though they are reading a newspaper. That's bad. Students who read like this are bound to forget everything they read the moment they flip to the next page. 

Look, when you first get exposed to a new concept, it doesn't stays ingrained in your brain. It takes deliberate and repetitive practice for our brains to form new neural connections that'll help in storing new information and even be able to retrieve it when it's needed. 

Thus, new information stays in our short term memory. But after much practice, it gets stored in our long term memory. 

That's why you need to do a lot of exercises in order to increase your chances of retrieval and also to gain a holistic understanding of what you're trying to study. 

• Active Recall

One of the key techniques you can use in ingraning key concepts into your memory is active recall. Research has shown that active retrieval enhances learning. Thus, it's pretty damn effective. 

Once I read a page and memorize some formulas (yes, I study physics), I close my note and get a sheet of paper. On that paper, I try to write everything I can recall from the page I read. However, without looking at the note. 

If I can't recall that much, I then go back and read it again. I repeat this process over and over again till I gain a firm understanding. 

• Study Past Questions, Assignments, Tests and Others... 

I don't joke with past questions. I study it religiously. Same applies to my assignments, tests and any other exercise the teacher gives. Often times questions are picked from these places.

As for past questions, take a trip back in time and study the questions that were set for students, at least three years ago. It helps a lot. 

•Use Acronyms 

The human brain is forgetful. You must learn to save information in your brain using efficient methods if at all you want to be able to retrieve it. 

Remember, I just gave you some tips that'll help in making your practice sessions more effective. Can you recall what they are without scrolling up to read it again? 

You can barely do that I guess. But what if you save it in your brain using some keywords such as this acronym—ERPA. 

And that'll translate to:

E= Exercises 

R= Recall

P= Past Questions 

A= Acronyms 

Perhaps you're smiling now because you're starting to get the picture. If you're, I'm glad. 

So that's how to do it. Try to chunk sentences into fewer words that you can save in your memory for easy retrieval. I do that a lot. 

6. Take Notes in Class

If I'm finding it hard to understand a course, I make sure I copy the course's note very very well. I do pay attention to every detail.

The harder a course is, the more you should copy its note.

As you begin to understand the course in due time, you'll come to appreciate how you dedicated your time in writing brilliant notes. 

7. YouTube is Your Friend

YouTube is very helpful when you're trying to study. If anything confuses you, trust me when I say there's a tutorial out there about it. If you can't find it, that means you didn't search well enough. There are many YouTube channels dedicated to sharing knowledge. Look for these channels and devour the resources that are relavent to you. 

Here's a list of some channels:

•OrgChemTutor

•AK Lectures 

•Khan Academy 

8. Make Friends

Try to make friends with those who have a better understanding than you do. You can ask them to help you out. What you've taken several hours to understand on your own could be understood in a lesser amount of time if you ask someone who knows better. 

That'll save you time and other resources. Nevertheless, before you ask someone to help you, make sure you've done your best to understand first. At least, the person helping you should see that you've tried in your way before approaching him.

If you made it to this paragraph, I'm glad. I want to believe you understood a thing or two. However, this isn't to say I've exhausted the possible techniques or ways you can use to study a course you're finding hard. 

This is just a tip of the iceberg. Feel free to explore and find more answers.