I never learned how to study anything.

I somehow managed to make it all the way through high school and college with no study skills whatsoever. I’m learning all this since I started taking some training classes in the past year or so that end with a pretty intense exam. The exam doesn’t intimidate me, but I also want to make sure I am as prepared as possible to take it. This is not proving successful.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve haven’t failed any of these, but the anticipation of having to take the test is killing me. I’ve never been able to actually glean anything from reading study guides or materials. Yeah, I can memorize the bold words and the definitions, but I rarely come out of these things with a true thorough understanding of the concepts. Or at least I think I don’t. I have no idea how people lay around and read their materials until they have the concept figured out. Maybe I’m lucky that I don’t really have to do that, but it also sucks. I can’t learn stuff from a book nearly as well as I can learn it from a teacher in a classroom.

I’ve always picked up most of what I’ve learned from class. We HAVE books, yes, but I never really get a lot out of them. If I didn’t pick up on what the teacher was saying and equate that with some visual cue, then I didn’t learn it. I still learn the same way now, and it can be a little frustrating.

Anyway, that’s it for this rant. I have to go back to my book and continue cramming bold words, mind maps, and random definitions into my brain for my test tomorrow. I’m glad I’m a fast typist, or this blog post would have been a crazy waste of time. RANT OVER.