Tips for Learning Complex Subjects

Recently I have been working on teaching myself advanced calculus as well as additional concepts in electrical engineering. I have also been doing my best to catch up with all of the recent papers written for robot localization and signal propagation. I by no means have an expert memory. I routinely have trouble remembering names and normally have to cover material multiple times. There are a four techniques that I have started to use routinely which reduce the amount of time I have to spend covering material. I wanted to share them, because this methodology may be helpful to others.

1. When trying to learn a subject you know nothing about, pick material that is most relevant to what you are working on and attempt to read and comprehend it. If there are sections you don't understand just skim them for now. For example, I can understand many of the papers on robotics that I read, but there are certain cases where I can't comprehend the mathematical equations listed. I can skip the equations and still understand the concepts of the article.

2. Write down concepts and terms you don't understand and keep reading if they aren't critical to understanding the subject. If the terms are critical, stop reading and look those up. When I originally started working with microcontrollers I didn't have a clue what some of the terms meant while reading the manual. By looking them up as I was reading, the subject became much more clear. Even while I am working on math, if I run into a symbol I don't know, or a term; I just look it up. Doing this is quite trivial due to the ease of searching on line.

3. Work on the complex material at your peak time of the day. For me; I have noticed that I can comprehend and do my best work in the morning while drinking coffee. This is also the time that I am the most motivated to work on extra material. It will be different for everyone, but I am sure that there is a peak time for each individual.

4. Later in the day, review the material you covered for repetition. I try my best to go over the concepts I have learned each day in my mind before bed, while driving, or just during down time. Repetition is always something that will help get the new concepts into your long term memory.

I hope these four tips help you increase your learning arsenal. They have repeatedly proved to be the most valuable part of my tool box.