How to learn….
Jun 17, 2022
Everyone knows how to learn, right? Right. Well, no, not really. Some people, myself included, found school difficult at times. Some things were easy, others difficult, and there were things I knew or thought I knew and paid little attention to instructors (all the way from kindergarten through the many years of college I sat in courses).
The fact is, we all have slight different methods of learning, and our “formative years” dictate some of what we might retain now. In truth, and for our purposes, learning is a process of gathering (or being presented with) new information, and essentially committing it to memory, examining the new concepts and perhaps even experimenting with the information in a hands-on environment to help to give your brain a more tactile “feel” for data.
What this means is, you will be presented with a concept that is new to you. You will hear or read about the concept. You will then, in your mind think about the things you were given, and then perhaps do a practice exercise.
Ideally, you want to see, hear, read and then test something. Each person, as I stated before learns differently. I like to sit in on lectures because an instructor talking keeps my attention better than reading a new and perhaps complex idea. I tend to learn by “hearing” better than “reading” (or seeing actually).
Questions about the material from the instructor are meant to give you a moment to consider the material and speak back on the part you were learning.
Since we are about to learn some scientific concepts about electrical theory, it would benefit you to 1) take the time to prepare to learn. 2) listen to the lecture (if one is given) and 3) ask questions afterward if something was unclear.
During a lecture, do something I rarely did. Write notes.
Notes are NOT complete, verbatim sentences normally. Rather the instructor makes a statement, then you write a keyword or a short phrase on the paper to help you recall the statement. If you’re in a chapter in a book, you might add the page number, paragraph number or some other identifying information to assist in finding that page again. Later you can add a sentence explaining the word or short phrase that will help you to “set the concept in your mind”; so it ends up going to long term memory.
(Note: I never took notes in school, except when forced to do so by an instructor. It was probably a bad idea, but I had a different way of learning. I made mental notes of words, and looked them up later in the text book, read the material and that was my form of “note taking”. Not everyone can do this, nor should they try!)
Many people put themselves in a bad position from the very beginning by thinking negatively about a subject. If you “hated math” or “hated science” or “hated history” then those are things that you, yourself have placed in your mind as roadblocks to learning. “Hating a subject” in High School was a lame way to pretend it was too difficult for you to learn, because you were too lazy to sit and learn it. Your mind was on other, at-the-time, “more important things” like the girl in the front row, the guy over in the corner, lunch, dinner, meeting friends after school and so on. Don’t lie to yourself, you know this is true!
Now you are about to learn Physics. Yep. Radio Science is a branch of physics, because radio waves are a form of electromagnetic (EM) radiation, which travel across space and can be intercepted by a wire suspended in space (an Antenna) and the EM will induce current into a wire. That current can then be used to do something, for instance “demodulate” the information on the “carrier wave” (more on that later). Basically, and in layman’s terms, “detect the information on the signal”.
The sun, Jupiter, stars, galaxies, black holes and other objects in space put out radio waves. There’s an entire science dedicated to Radio Astronomy. Some hams actually get involved in that field. Or perhaps many radio astronomers become Hams.
Electronics is a subsection of several fields of study, including physics, chemistry, electrical theory and other subjects. In our studies here and probably well beyond what you read on my pages, you will eventually come into contact with many sciences when dealing with electronics, and radio theory.
Your job from here on out is to keep an open mind, and a positive attitude toward learning. It might sound difficult or even daunting, but everyone starts somewhere and you will find that learning radio theory is no more complex than going grocery shopping, driving a car, riding a bicycle or picking up a tablet and doing a search on a search engine. Retention of information is usually the difficult part, followed by “grasping a complex topic”.
Always keep in mind you have a goal, and that is to get your Amateur Radio License, so when you start learning, everything you learn will push you a little further along that path. Don’t give up, and take time to sit down and review concepts that you learned, and also to re-visit those which gave you trouble. At some point, the “light will come on” and you will understand that one thing that eluded you the last few days.
Also, always, ALWAYS use multiple resources for study. One study guide is great. Two is better, but if you have several to choose from, written from different perspectives, one of them will likely tell you what you need to know.
Last thing today:
- Set aside time to read
- Set aside a time to review
- If in a lecture, take notes and then do your review
- If in a lecture, ask questions that were bothering you
- If there is a practice quiz, TAKE IT
- If there are formulas, then do them several times, with different variables
- Finally, relax – it’s not going to be horrible if you don’t get it at first, keep trying
Until next time,
73!
Rick, N0NJY
