Want to learn? Explain to yourself!

Julio is a student who is preparing for several tests. His method of study consists of reviewing his class notes and memorizing, for hours, what he wrote.

Most of the time, Julius performs satisfactorily. But a few weeks later he can no longer remember what he learned.

When Julius needs to take a new test or apply new knowledge, he needs to study the entire content again. And that takes a long time.

The mistake made by Julio and by most of the students is the use of memorize when studying new content. This might seem useful in the short term. However, this will not result in a deep understanding of the discipline and it will soon be forgotten.

You must be wondering how you can understand a new subject in a lasting way, right? There are actually several ways to optimize your studies, and one of them is to use self-explanation during the reading process.

It consists in explaining what is read to you as the reading of the course progresses in the simplest and most objective way possible. It is important that you do not repeat the PortugueseTexto excerpts, but use your own words.

It is true that you have already explained a subject to a friend and realized that you really knew the subject and that you could remember it easily. In self-explanation, you are your friend.

Self-explanation optimizes your learning because, by using it, you will transform passive reading into an active process. Remember that you only teach what you understand. Although more labor intensive, the content does not need to be studied again. In the end, there is a time savings.

You can practice self-explanation by writing content-specific questions and answers. Think about the questions a friend might ask you and how you would answer them. This can help with the process.

Our platform has a section where you can create question and answer cards as you progress through the study. With this, your explanations will be stored for later consultation and also for applying an intelligent review. But that's a topic for an upcoming lesson!