Traditional education has been there since ancient times. And all those techniques that students know today have appeared, improved, and transformed over many centuries. Distance learning came to us only recently, and students have already faced a mountain of problems and difficulties.
If you do not want to learn from your mistakes and seek to facilitate distance learning, read our tips and best practices collected from the world wide web from students around the world.
Secrets and tricks for comfortable distance learning
Distance learning has its advantages: no public transportation and the need to get up early, convenient class and rest time, the usual meal time. However, the student in distance learning faces new “enemies” in the form of procrastination, disorganization, lack of skills of independent work and much more. And if you can’t cope with all the difficulties at once, you might not be able to absorb the study material completely and you’ll have to use essay writing help.
Below we give useful tips on how not to get confused at webinars and on time to complete all homework.
Lifehack 1: Get rid of information garbage
Information garbage or noise is a huge flow of information, where the usefulness becomes less and less with each new gigabyte of data.
Information garbage includes everything that can distract from your studies:
- social media,
- messengers,
- television,
- email,
- games, etc.
Don’t rely on your ability to multitask. Scientists have found that multitasking lowers your IQ by 10 points at the time of the task.
Lifehack 2: Learn to push yourself
If in the morning you cannot make yourself get up and find the motivation to start the study, do not blame yourself for this. It happens to those who still cannot get down to business, and in the evening suffering remorse because of the unfulfilled plan. This is what is called procrastination.
The main enemy of procrastination – an initiative
Practice shows that you just need to start – and the study will start to run itself. Scientists agree that the phenomenon of procrastination arises from a subconscious fear (to get a bad mark) or conflict (the teacher or parents will scold).
An effective method of coping: promise yourself to do something you do not like only 5 minutes, after which you can return to doing nothing if you wish. You will be surprised how after 5 minutes your studies will absorb you, and you will try to finish everything to the end.
Lifehack 3: Do your homework as fast as possible
It’s a familiar situation: if the class is once a week, you’ll put off homework until the last minute, because there’s still plenty of time (as you think). And that means you’re going to get a lot of homework on all subjects at once because you’ll be putting each one-off.
Set yourself a limit on homework, even if your teacher doesn’t set it for you. 48 hours is the best time. And this is due to the properties of memory: the more you repeat, the better it is put off in the memory.
Here is an effective scheme for remembering information:
- the first time to repeat 20 minutes after the lesson;
- repeat for the second time two hours after the lesson;
- repeat for the third time before going to bed on the day of the lesson;
- the fourth time, repeat it the morning after the lesson;
- repeat the fifth time in the afternoon or evening of the day after the class.
Lifehack 4: Study with friends
When you study at home, especially alone, concentration on the subject suffers. To avoid getting “stuck” in social networks, team up and create your interest group. You can invite like-minded people to your home or study via Skype. That way you and other students can monitor your studies and tell each other off if someone is doing the wrong thing.
Lifehack 5: Buy a voice recorder
or use the function on your phone. A voice recorder will prove invaluable when you need it:
To learn by heart. When you read something and nothing sticks in your head, it’s a good idea to record it on your phone. Listen to it whenever you want: while walking, going to the store, or taking the subway. It’s like with a song: the more often you listen, the faster you memorize words that you don’t want to put off when you try to learn them purposefully.
Prepare for a quiz. An improvisation sounds completely different in your head than it does in life. Try mimicking the situation of answering a quiz and reading your oral answer on a tape recorder. When you re-listen, find the places where you get confused or speak unnecessarily.
Prepare to speak in public. Recording your speech on a tape recorder will help you identify weaknesses, set the right pauses, choose the best speaking tempo, and even find the best place to make a joke. Yes, at first your voice will sound very strange. But in time you will learn to perceive yourself positively.
Lifehack 6: Visualize
Scientists have proven that visual information (or more simply – pictures) is perceived by the brain faster and better than any other way of presenting data.
But not everyone can and like to draw. Lectures, notes, and homework answers can be visualized by the following means:
- colored stickers and markers: will help you remember new foreign vocabulary, formulas, terms faster (especially if you stick) around the house;
- sketching: illustrated notes with characters, quotes, effects (e.g., comic strips);
- other methods of remembering information.
Lifehack 7: Write Notes
Even if the teacher had mercy and put all the lecture and methodological materials in the public domain, write notes.
This will help you put the information in memory because it also involves the work of the muscles. And muscle (mechanical) memory is strong.