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I'm writing a book on the subject so I'll post a few pages here. It's a work in progress so sorry about the typos.


Chapter 1
The first steps
Before you begin doing anything come in with a relaxed state of mind. Leave all your worries and get rid of all distractions. If you’re someone who has trouble relaxing or focusing then you need to do yoga. I can’t stress that enough. Youtube has plenty of videos on that.
Okay so you are relaxed. Make your goals. These goals are different from the ones in the previous chapter. These goals will be more like, ‘I will get an A in chemistry this year.’
The reason I keep going back to goals is so that you’re clear about what you want. You need to know what it is that you’re aiming for. Always make goals, goals tell you whether you’re making progress or not.
Sit up right. There should be ample light. Stand up if you have to. Now you’re ready.
First things first, write the things you already know. Take a chapter from a book, it can be any subject. Take the subject that you least like. Write down all the things that you know in this chapter.
This is how you will find out the flaws in your thinking. There are things that you know and there are things that you think you know but you actually don’t. Once you’ve written everything down read the chapter again. You will now have a much deeper understanding of the content then before you started.
Always be making questions. After you’ve answered the questions at the back of the chapter I want you to make your own questions. Don’t just consult one book. Ask the questions that you made from your teachers. Are you in agreement with their answer?
You are forming a habit here. It will take time for you to get good at this. When you’re making questions inadvertently you’re going over the material in your head. You’re looking at the material through a new angle.
Make up questions or alter the questions that you’ve been presented with. Think of the different ways that same question can be asked.
Read a chapter at least thrice. Highlight the important points and recreate them from memory. Once you’ve done that voice record the important points. On your laptop listen to them at twice the normal speed. It will sound like chipmunks but keep listening. As you are listening to that you need to be looking at the same points on your book. You will get through the book or chapter in half the time it would have taken you. I learned this technique from the YouTube channel called fighting mediocrity.
People like Edison, Einstein and Da vinci asked a lot of questions. Einstein most famously came up with the theory of relativity when he posed himself the question that what would happen if he rode on a photon across the universe. He came to the conclusion that after sometime he would come back to where he started.
When the plague hit England in the sixteen hundreds Isaac Newton was forced to leave Cambridge. Cambridge like all the other universities was forced to shut down. Back at his home in Woolsthorpe Lincolnshire Newton used to ponder on many questions. Questions that were left unanswered since his days at Cambridge. One day he looked at an apple tree and asked himself the question, what caused the apple to fall to the ground? He then looked up and saw the moon. He asked himself that why didn’t the moon fall. The answers to these two questions gave birth to the law of gravitation.












Chapter 2
Remembering
If you take anything out from this book I want it to be the following piece of advice. You remember best what you see, hear, say and do. Write that down somewhere, somewhere where you can look at it every day. If you’re having a hard time remembering I want you to write that thing down, say it out, draw it out and act it out.
What really helps in remembering is taking deliberate breaks. After every thirty minutes you need to take a five minute break. The human brain can’t concentrate after thirty minutes. Give it the rest it craves.
Remember that to get the most out of a study session you’ve to write it out, say it out, draw it out and act it out. Those first three are something that you’ll be familiar with. Let’s focus on the last one. By acting it out I mean that you use your body to help you remember. Imagine you’re the teacher and you’re teaching to a class. Now you’ve got to explain everything that you’ve learned to them. This is done best if you do it with an actual person and they ask you questions.
Another way to go about acting it out is to form groups of two or three. Each person in the group goes over the material. If you think they’ve missed something you tell that person. After they’re done it’s your turn to go over the material. A word of caution when doing this exercise, always keep a positive frame of mind. You’re here to learn and check the flaws in your understanding. If you’re doing this exercise a day before the exam you will be stressed out if you suddenly find out you don’t know as much. Do this at least a week before the exams.
Back in school the subject that I liked the most was English. When I got to grade five Math became my favorite. In grade six I fell in love with the sciences. In grade eight it was History. This continued all throughout. Why? Why was it that after a year or so my favorite subjects changed? The reason is because of the teachers. Or in other words because of the teaching style. But looking back at everything now I realize that it wasn’t just that I liked the teachers sometimes I didn’t like them and still I performed well. The reason behind that is simple; learning is what you do to yourself. You learn best what you want to learn. Then it doesn’t matter whose teaching.
To learn the most you’ve to use all your senses. With each sense a different memory is associated. When you are writing a different part of your brain is active. When you will be saying out loud the material different areas of the brain will be activated. The same goes for drawing. Thus when you are acting you’re using you full body, you’re brain naturally will in turn become all the more active. A more active brain learns quicker. Use all your senses.


Hope this helps.