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Back to Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects by Deep Teaching Solutions

4.8
stars
88,646 ratings

About the Course

This course gives you easy access to the invaluable learning techniques used by experts in art, music, literature, math, science, sports, and many other disciplines. We’ll learn about how the brain uses two very different learning modes and how it encapsulates (“chunks”) information. We’ll also cover illusions of learning, memory techniques, dealing with procrastination, and best practices shown by research to be most effective in helping you master tough subjects. Using these approaches, no matter what your skill levels in topics you would like to master, you can change your thinking and change your life. If you’re already an expert, this peep under the mental hood will give you ideas for turbocharging successful learning, including counter-intuitive test-taking tips and insights that will help you make the best use of your time on homework and problem sets. If you’re struggling, you’ll see a structured treasure trove of practical techniques that walk you through what you need to do to get on track. If you’ve ever wanted to become better at anything, this course will help serve as your guide. This course can be taken independent of, concurrent with, or prior to, its companion course, Mindshift. (Learning How to Learn is more learning-focused, and Mindshift is more career-focused.) A related course by the same instructors is Uncommon Sense Teaching. To join the fully translated Portuguese version of the course, visit: https://www.coursera.org/learn/aprender To join the fully translated Spanish version of the course, visit: https://www.coursera.org/learn/aprendiendo-a-aprender To join the fully translated Chinese version of the course, visit: https://www.coursera.org/learn/ruhe-xuexi To join the fully translated French version of the course, visit : http://www.coursera.org/learn/apprendre-comment-apprendre...

Top reviews

MC

Oct 28, 2019

I enjoyed this course so much. I learned a lot about how I can become a better learner. This course was very interesting and useful. I have some tools that I can use to optimize my learning potential.

ZL

Nov 22, 2015

First MOOC that I can accomplish, even in my busiest days, because I'm motivated to learn the lessons taught in it and I like the teacher and class format (small videos and always repeating concepts).

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476 - 500 of 10,000 Reviews for Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects

By Dr. J L

Mar 10, 2019

This course was quite interesting and had a lot of useful ideas. I believe that the techiques taught here would definitely be beneficial for many subjects. I am a physicican and recognize that many of the areas of medicine may require pure memory and often "understanding" is not really part of the learning. But the ideas behind making up crazy sentences to help jog your memory of lists is definitely something that I have used and have found very useful. Although I completed school many years ago, I still refer to some of those "crazy sentences" to jog my memory when necessary. I enjoyed taking this course and I thought the instructors were very good. I wish I could have taken this course many years ago when it could have made medical school a bit easier.

By Ruslan

Feb 13, 2019

This course should be compulsory in all areas of education from school to universities. Barbaba Oakley is a gifted teacher, mentor and a great motivator. I always had a trap of "talent and passion" stereotype and now(thanks to this course) it changed. Now i know that there is such thing as neuroplasticity and giving a time to hard work and practice we can change our "talents" and "passions". I always hated this fancy "find your passion" credo and thanks to this course the scientific research proved that it it's a wrong approach. If you are not good at math, logic, or drawing - maybe you will not become Einstein, Bill Gates or Leonardado Da Vinci. But you definitely can master the foundation of this sciences(and far more) even without having a natural talent.

By Morgen C

Feb 22, 2018

Not only did this course give me very practical strategies to more effectively learn as an adult (rather than beating my head against a wall), but it gave me new insights into brain development and learning strategies for my classrooms of younger students.

Barbara is an incredibly engaging speaker who breaks down concepts into easily processed segments...of course, for a scholar who dedicates herself to learning about learning, she is very easy to learn from! Terry is one of the most renowned neuroscientists in the world but surprisingly manages to translate his research into layman's terms without losing his enthusiasm.

I wouldn't mind retaking this course annually to brush up on the scientific research and dig more thoroughly into the supplemental materials!

By Arda B

Jun 5, 2017

This course was my first course on Coursera and a fantastic way to start my new learning journey. As someone who recently finished my undergrad I wish I had taken this class earlier in my academic career. The clear connection between brain science and learning techniques truly illuminated for myself the flaws in my learning practices. However, the information also confirmed for me the strategies I was doing right in my learning and helped grow confidence in my learning style. I know the strategies i've learned in this course will help me learn the new skills I need to achieve personal growth and advance my career. Thank you Barbara Oakley for your enthusiasm and wonderful lectures, I looking forward to utilizing this knowledge for life-long learning.

-Arda

By Nicholas W

Dec 22, 2022

This was an excellent course to take during the pandemic. I wish this course was available during my high school or even in my post secondary education days for me to learn and study effectively. I highly recommend this course to everyone. This isn't just for people going to school but this will help everyone with their every day life because this teaches you how to learn effectively and improve on retaining information. Most people, myself included, struggle with procrastination and their techniques and suggestions on how to overcome it are simple, effective and applicable with some discipline. Don't expect fast results but be disciplined in applying some techniques with a little bit of time everyday for gradual improvements in whatever you're learning.

By Маснавиев Р Р

Jul 22, 2022

It was a lot of help for me, even though I started it multiple times and abandoned it during the second and third week, since at that time the language was quite challenging for me and I spent twice as much on one video or test, trying to get it in the language it was filmed and written in. Now that I've completed it and will then try to finally go through "Mind for numbers", recalling information and creating notes as I did for this course (I've spent almost double the time, but it's worth it).

Learn how to learn to spend less time studying and get more hours on your hobbies and self-improvement. Learn mnemonics and be even more productive. Don't get productivity guru's advices close to heart, just use them as an advice. Be save, love each other, bye!

By Petar S M

Feb 10, 2018

I though at first that the 1st week sounded a tad bit too logical to even bother explaining in the first place but I realised later that it was more than necessary in order to understand the material of the upcoming weeks. The only real, but minor issue I had with with this course was the static noise from the speaker's microphone and at some other times it either popped or it was a tad quiet, forcing me to max out the volume slider to 100% so I can hear what she is talking about.

Other than that, this was an amazing course and I highly recommend it to people who want to change their perception of learning as a whole but they lack the foundations or people to fill them in. This course did exactly in a very nice and friendly way, especially with the tests.

By Tony S

Dec 27, 2016

This is one of the best online-course ever!!!! Why? The learning process is something that nobody can escapes: from passing school exams, driving lesson, learn to cook for your family, evolve in your career, ... in this fast world, the on-going learning process is a must have skills to succeed in this high competitive and ever changing society. This wonderful and motivating course, help me to gain in confidence regarding my learning process and it helps me a lot to win time by finding the right system = to improve my learning. Their awesome sharing technics, priceless advices and real life situation (interviews) turn this course into a must have class to follow. Thank you a million for helping me to improve my journey and knowledge!!!! Flawless 5 Star!!!

By Erica E

Sep 11, 2022

This course was recommended to me by my 100 Devs instructor, Leon Noel! This course has been and will continue to be a fundamental foundation in my learning, not only for 100 Devs, but in my many other interests! This course needs to be apart of the educational systems curriculum for students, through every education level. Barbara Oakley is a phenomenal professor and explains complex brain functions in a way that supports real results towards our success in learning, but also understanding more about how incredible our brains really are. That being said, I enjoyed videos that mentioned Neurodiversity. This was especially helpful for me being neurodivergent myself, and allowed me to find more joy and confidence in learning new and challenging subjects!

By Dana S

Aug 23, 2015

This course rocks!

You are thought many different learning techniques and get to know how your brain works in a simple way without too much background information. It's just the right amount of input to get a feeling for it. You can apply this knowledge to every kind of subject. The short videos are easy to persuade yourself to get started. Once started you want to see another one! The lecturers have prepared their videos perfectly and after some videos you feel a little bit connected to them. They are able to do the seemingly unmakeable: Keep you motivated! If I feel myself unmotivated to study for my exam, first of all I watch one of these video sequences and promptly I am motivated again.

Thanks a lot for putting this course online!

I love your work.

By bea b

Sep 22, 2019

I entirely enjoyed 'Learning how to learn'. It has given me insights and skills I had not imagined helpful. It has also shown me that in life we all face hardships of not dissimilar challenges and it depends on us to decipher the do's and don'ts for us to move on and do better the next time or get something going for good or even change something profoundly important in our lives.

I loved the short lessons that I could listen to or read in my own time and I loved Barbara Oakley's soft voice explaining the subject in such detail and very often with metaphors. The quizzes after each lesson were set with a sense of humour and this made the whole thing actual fun.

I would thoroughly recommend this course to anyone. Thank you 'Learning How to Learn'!

By rekha u n

Jan 22, 2017

I am Rekha from Indonesia. During this session I learnt so many things which I was not aware of. For example our brain has two modes of learning focus and diffuse modes, about procrastinating, that it is when we skip some problems when we feel it hard , about rereading, that it is not the correct way of learning. Recall the understangs, deliberatly practicing and repetitions are the correct way to learn and memorize. Chunking was so new to me. I never heard about it. The course was little difficult for me. However, I finished it successfully. I am happy that I got opportunity to improve and enhance my knowledge regarding how to learn. Thank you so much.

By Thoi M

Jan 10, 2020

When completing this course, I've realized how procrastinated I am.

My friend had recommended this course for me since my 1st college year, but I've actually accomplished this course at MY LAST YEAR COLLEGE by using the tactics and techniques, which I've learned along the way this course, to keep myself engaged and interested in learning how to learn, and it eventually worked.

The solid evidence more than anything here is the completed informs from Coursera and I decide to write the review for this course to inform people, who are trying to find out the techniques to learn more effectively and productively, this course is definitely the great start.

Using 1 POMODORO (25 MINUTES TIMMER) to start learning the very first lessons.

STOP PROCRASTINATING.

By Eleni P

May 1, 2018

I never forgot this course! I first enrolled in 2014, got halfway through and did not complete it. I returned to finish it up – to review what I learned and to "learn the rest" – in early April 2018. I had purchased the book "A Mind for Numbers" and read it back in 2014. The book is awesome but taking the class and doing the exercises online plus submitting the assignments really reinforced my learning of the key concepts and gave me a start for where to dig deeper. Redoing this class from start to finish (and not simply picking up where I left off) has armed me to face my new challenges. The class is set up in such a way that you can follow it from most anywhere and can do the assignments at your convenience. It is well worth the time spent on it.

By Kristina C

Aug 26, 2020

There was not a moment where I would find myself bored or uninterested.

This course is comprehensive and very well put together. Easy to follow and most importantly the repetition of learned topics were reoccuring throughout the course in different chapters, as well as the tests which really helped the information to sink in without even trying to do anything extra after completing each chapter and taking the test.

In addition, this course has great references and sources throughout the course that I could not ignore by not writing some of the authors names down in my personal list for future reading material.

Just overall very informative, engaging course that kept my interest until the very end. Thank You so much for putting this course together!

By Valerio C

Dec 17, 2018

This is a very interesting course. I've gained a better understanding on the the learning process, how the brain works on keeping the information, what are the most common errors or obstacle on learning something new and some useful habit or tricks to learn in a more fruitful fashion. I've really appreciate the competence and teach style of the two teachers which I'd like to thank for their work. I strongly recommend this course, especially for students in high school and University because it contains helpful information on how to be more proficient in text or exams. The course could seem less apt for workers and employees, but for someone who wants to get better in what he does and fails on regular basis, this should be a great starting point.

By Emily A B

Feb 4, 2018

Learn to learn has-been the best course I've ever taken ! I want to thank Dr. Barbara for her warm delivery. She made the atmosphere safe for me to learn although she was on my computer. I found myself looking forward to coming home from work so I could be with my new friend, Dr. Oakley. I've been using both Pomodoros: one at work and one at home. My Memory Palace is set with 63 places in which I can place something I want to remember. I'm so excited to use this daily. Although, I haven't mastered everything, I remind myself that I'm forming a habit and there will be days like this and I shouldn't beat myself up when I don't do this well. I'm much kinder to myself as I focus on the process. It's been quite a learning experience. Thank you!!!!!

By Zafeer

Jan 15, 2023

I have to say, it was a game changer for me. Before taking this course, I struggled with staying focused and retaining information. But after completing the course, I feel much more confident in my ability to learn effectively.

One of the things I appreciated most about the course was that it was very practical and applicable to my everyday life. The concepts and strategies taught in the course can be easily integrated into my studies and work, and I've already noticed a difference in my ability to focus and retain information.

Overall, I highly recommend the "Learning How to Learn" course to anyone looking to improve their learning skills. It's a valuable investment in your personal development and will pay dividends in your studies and career.

By Maxim M

Jun 17, 2018

It's a skill for life and if you think it's a little late in your game of study, you can always recommend it to your friends, kids, or even your grandma. BTW am 43 y.o. and excited that I have came across this course. To set the right expectations for this class or any other classes, you don't count on the results of getting 100% of new and essential knowledge every single time. Depending on your background it will be a ratio what you already know and what you don't know. You just have to take with you what fits you and filter out the rest if you want. Thank you Dr. Oakley and Dr. Sejnowski for this course! I already register for the next one with Dr. Oakley "Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential"Max

By Stanly C

Oct 27, 2017

Upto my secondary education, I was totally blind this subject "How to learn". In my college, through reading psychological books, i used many of the tactics explained in this course. Since I'm an enthusiast in almost any subject, this fantastic, systematic and result oriented course "Learning How to Learn" reveal new horizons to learn more and more to me.

The day one I joined this course, I ordered "A Mind for Numbers - How to Excel at Math and Science" in Amazon.in, received it on last week. I started reading eager to finish within this week.

Special thanks to both brains worked behind this course - Dr. Barbara Oakley & Dr. Terrence Sejnowski.

Personally recommends to every person who wish to learn new things and achieve new goals in life.

By Adriana R

Mar 21, 2016

¡¡¡Me encantó el curso!!!

El contenido es claro, actual y pertinente; y la calidad de los videos es muy buena. Las exposiciones de la Doctora Bárbara son excelentes y divertidas, lo cual favorece el aprendizaje. Lo más relevante para mí fue entender el por qué de la procrastinación y cómo evitarla, ya que por años había estado postergando el estudio del inglés y no entendía el por qué de mi rechazo a este idioma. Desde que inicié el curso estoy aplicando la técnica del Pomodoro y estoy feliz porque la sensación de frustración que sentía cada vez que pensaba en que tenía "una tarea pendiente" se ha ido diluyendo conforme pasan los días.

Muchas gracias a los Doctores por compartir tan preciado tesoro y "Gracias Totales" al equipo de COURSERA.

By Maxim K

Sep 5, 2020

Hello,

Thanks authors for creating this course, which both encourages to start learning more on how memory works and equips with powerful knowledge on how to learn. Learning how to learn helped me realize that this is not the product that keep me at my job, but the process—doing my job in English, my second language lifelong mastering I enjoy. What really struck me was that I realised why I was bad at math in school, as Ms. Oakley said, I was "one of those people who can't hold a lot in mind at once, you lose focus and start daydreaming in lectures and have to get to some place quiet to focus so you can use your working memory to its maximum, well welcome to the clan of the creative."

It's really worth spending your time on. Thanks again.

By AHMED D

Jul 22, 2020

Before the review, I would like to point out that I am a teacher and doctoral student, and I have always been making a double effort to learn new things, and this is what motivated me to follow this course.

I also always asked myself questions about what thinking and how my brain works, especially as I try to reflect on my practice and analyze my own way of learning.

This course answered all of these questions and more. She introduced me to the wonderful world of the brain and the latest discoveries in neuroscience, and the wonderful Dr. Barbara Wakley and Dr. Lawrence Signovsky provided me with a set of advice and guidance to make my learning improve dramatically.

If you are ever considering taking this course, do so. It's totally worth it.

By Donna T

Oct 2, 2016

A must for anyone wanting to tweak their learning strategies and understand what really works. Valuable regardless of what you are studying - and fascinating too.

You really feel how much Barb (the main presenter and course creator) cares both about learning and the students! I think it is quite impressive for that to come across in a MOOC.

I have been recommending this course and sharing information from it to many colleagues and also using it to help support my daughter with her studies (I can't guarantee all teens will respond so well to saying 'it is scientifically proven that this is the best way to do it' as a way to change their study approach, but it works for her!). Thank you to everyone involved in putting together this course.

By Jesse

Nov 30, 2023

I finished the course just today, and I want to thank both my instructors for the wealth of knowledge they shared! Initially, I was hesitant to take the course, as I thought it was just another online ruse course. However, after enrolling and finishing the course, I cannot express enough gratitude for the experience. I am genuinely proud of myself for completing the course. For anyone looking to acquire a skill in a particular area, I would highly recommend taking this course first. It will provide a solid foundation that will make learning the specific skill you are interested in much easier and more effective. Thankfully, I had the time to finish the course in 8 days, and I am proud of my accomplishment. Thank you very much again!