First year · Learn2Learn
4 steps and it
gets smaller.
Every time you come back to something there is less of it left to learn. Same topic, forty minutes down to two.
- 40min
Step 1
Meet it
In class
Your teacher opens the topic. You're not meant to get it yet.
- 20min
Step 2
Crack it
At home, your time
Read it. Work it out. Write down what still doesn't make sense.
- 5min
Step 3
Come back
A few days later
You already did the hard bit. This time it's quicker.
- 2min
Step 4
Keep it
Any time
One flash card. Now it's something you just know.
Pick a subject — it works the same on all of them.
Say it’s photosynthesis.
- MonYour teacher explains it in class. You write the title down. That’s all step 1 is.
- Mon nightYou read the two pages. Close the book. Write what you remember, then the bit you couldn’t. Plants need light — but why water?
- TueYou ask. Takes ten seconds. Now you know.
- ThuYou look at your own question again. You can answer it. Five minutes.
- Next weekOne flash card. Two minutes, done.
That’s it. That’s the whole thing, on one topic.
Big word? Break it up.
Photosynthesis
say it like foh-toh-SIN-thuh-sis
It just means: how a plant makes its own food out of sunlight. That’s the whole thing. The word is longer than the idea.
Most scary words are like this. Say it out loud in bits, find out what it actually means, and it stops being scary. That’s step 2 in one move.
What even is a flash card?
A question on one side. The answer on the other. That’s it — there is nothing else to it.
- 1Cut a page into eight bits. Or use the backs of old cards. Anything.
- 2Question on the front. Answer on the back. One idea per card, not ten.
- 3Say the answer out loud before you flip it. That bit is the whole point — guessing is what makes it stick.
- 4Got it right? Put it at the back of the pile. Got it wrong? Keep it near the front.
Stuck is not behind.
Finding the bit you don’t get is step 2 working. Write it down, ask it next class.