Study Skills and Learning Strategies

Whatever career or college pathway you choose, you must study as part of the learning process. However, “studying” and “learning” are different. Yet, doing both well is essential to whatever your chosen career or college pathway.

What is Studying?

Studying means “to read, memorize facts, attend school, etc., as part of the process of engaging in intentional efforts to acquire knowledge.”

What is Learning?

Learning means “to develop the ability to recall information from memory and apply
to new situations.”

Like pursuing a career, learning how to study and learning how to learn will require work. Whether you aspire to become an auto mechanic or a heart surgeon, both require that you develop successful study routines and learning strategies. The same is true of whether you plan to enter the workforce, enlist in the military, or enroll in college after high school. This book can help you develop a planned approach to studying that will help you to become a better learner.

If you are not interested in learning about the research supporting the study skills and learning strategies being presented, then choose whatever study routines and learning strategies you believe will work best for you and begin experimenting. Whether you want to become a better student in a class, learn how to achieve a higher ACT or ASVAB score, or learn how to repair an engine or fly a drone, studying and learning are essential to your success.

You must commit. Pursuing a career or college pathway requires that you make a commitment to studying and learning. Whatever your current grades or test scores, every student can benefit by becoming a better learner. Even medical school students discover that both, making it into and through medical school, requires that they become better learners.

If you are an athlete, consider this as your playbook. If you are a chef, consider this as your recipe book. If you are an automotive or diesel mechanic, consider this as the manufacturer’s repair manual. Whatever career or college pathway you are pursuing, you will need to study and learn—this book can help you to do both better. Throughout the book are links to videos to further assist in identifying, understanding, and implementing the study skills and learning strategies that work best for you.

There are 3 components of learning (illustrated on the following page):

1. Encoding: how you receive information.
2. Retention: how you retain or store information.
3. Retrieval: how you retrieve or recall information from memory to apply to a situation such as solving a problem, demonstrating a skill, or answering questions on a test.

There are 3 times in which learning occurs:

1. In the moment: when a teacher, parent, or career instructor is talking.
2. In your own time: when you are studying a subject or practicing a skill.
3. When demonstrating what you know: when baking a cake, repairing an engine, driving a truck, flying a drone, playing an instrument, making a presentation, or taking a test. 

Your actions during the times in which learning occurs determines how easily information is received (encoded), retained (retention), and will later be recalled (retrieval) from memory. The strategies provided in this book will require effort and are intended to be difficult. University of Pennsylvania Professor Angela Duckworth, developer of the grit scale, describes this process as “Effortful Learning.” UCLA Professor and cognitive researcher, Robert Bjork, describes this process as “Desirable Difficulties.” These two processes relate to all learning, whether in a classroom, computer lab, music studio, or truck driving course. Strenuous athletic workouts develop skills, increase endurance, and build stronger muscles. In the case of learning, effort and difficulty build stronger memory pathways through each of the 3 stages of encoding, retention, and retrieval resulting in deep levels of learning and fast retrieval of information.