The Number One Thing I Learned in College: How to Learn on Your Own

 Quick Summary

• College is not just about memorizing theories or facts; it is about learning how to learn.

• Teaching yourself difficult material builds confidence, problem-solving skills, and independence.

• The biggest lesson from college is understanding your personal learning process and refining it over time.

• Learning how to learn is a college skill that continues to help in work, life, and new challenges after graduation.

  
  

Why College Is About More Than Facts and Theory

When going to college, you may think the number one thing you learn would be some kind of theory or topic that you can apply in the workforce. However, in my opinion, this is not the case, nor is it what you should be looking to get out of college. Yes, you will learn facts and theory that you can apply in the real world. But this is not the main goal.

Learning How to Learn Is the Real Value of College

In my opinion, college should be a lot more like the old saying: give a man a fish, and he eats for a day; teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime. This relates to college because you can learn how to learn if you apply yourself. Learning how to learn is so much more valuable than any one theory or topic because it unlocks your ability to learn new topics more easily and more quickly, which you can use with anything new you are trying to understand.

College Taught Me Through Struggle

I never had anyone tell me that this was the point of college. I had to understand it on my own. It is also likely that when I first started college, I would have laughed in their face if someone tried to tell me this. I simply had to struggle and start to understand it on my own. The way college did this was by pushing me to understand a good amount of semi-complex material in a limited amount of time.

The Difference Between High School Learning and College Learning

This is not crazy, and you kind of know you are getting into this when you start college. Personally, I did not think it would have this kind of effect on my learning. I was only used to the way I learned in high school, and I thought this was the only way to learn, which is not the case. In high school, it felt like the teacher was doing much of the work to help you learn. In college, the professor helped some in lectures, but from there, you were on your own to teach yourself the topics and understand them.

Teaching Yourself Builds Confidence and Problem-Solving Skills

This was very good because it taught me how to literally teach myself, which is something you can use daily. Additionally, after some time in college, because of the number of times I had to teach myself, it gave me the confidence to attack separate problems outside of classwork. That was really empowering once I solved problems using my own learning and problem-solving skills.

Independent Learning Helps After College Too

It is a skill that allowed me to find answers on my own and learn on my own without the aid of other people or college. This allowed for a deeper understanding of topics that I originally was not studying or actively learning, but then got into after college.

Do Not Take Your College Learning Process for Granted

I really do use what I learned about how I learn in college daily. It is at least five to ten percent of my day simply applying this skill, learning more, and understanding things more completely. If I had not struggled and refined what works for me and my learning, then I would not be as skilled as I am in many topics. The lesson I learned is to not take for granted the time and effort it takes to understand what works best for you while in college. College creates the right learning opportunities to understand your learning process because you are away from home and need to figure many things out on your own, one of which is learning how to learn.

Final Notes and Extra Resources

Lastly, I have a book for sale and a planner as well, if you are interested. I will link them below!

If you enjoyed my work and want to get better at math, please consider buying my calculus one book called Calculus One Made Simple. I will link it here! Additionally, if you want to be more effective with your time, please consider buying my planner here! Finally, if you want to follow what I am doing, visit my YouTube channel, Alpine Digest.

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