Difficulties can be found in any school subject, whether it is physics, mathematics, literature, or social studies. It can be difficult to perceive the logic of a discipline or the cause-and-effect connections within it. Because of this, it is not possible to memorize the theory and do practical assignments. Explanations of the teacher in the classroom or reading the textbook do not help, grades are getting worse and self-esteem is decreasing. We tell you how to solve this problem.
Practice more
To learn how to solve math problems, write essays, or master a foreign language, you have to do it all the time. It won’t take long before you get results. For instance, a great way to learn foreign language is to practice using a text to speech tool by converting a large amount of text to audio.
It has been scientifically proven that the brain has amazing plasticity, and if you train it in a certain way, it “grows” exactly the neural connections that are necessary for learning a particular subject. Neurobiologist Sandrine Touré, based on her research, claims that a person can form neurons of the right kind and quality in his brain with regular practice.
It turns out that the division into humanitarians and technicians does not work. To learn a foreign language, a humanist needs the ability to think logically and analyze information. If you can easily handle grammar, then you are quite capable of understanding mathematics, because it is built on logic and has a structured system. The same situation is with technical people. If you can easily understand physical and chemical formulas or programming theory, then you should have no problem with literacy or essay writing, because both are just skills to use a certain language to describe the world. All you have to do is master that other language. To do this, you don’t have to give up studying a difficult subject because you don’t have the aptitude for it, but instead, you have to study it all the time.
Finding usefulness and connections
Once we decide that we don’t need information, skills, or abilities, our brain stops processing and assimilating that extra information so that we don’t waste energy. To assimilate a subject that is difficult to understand, you have to do the opposite – find as many reasons as possible why you need it. This is not as difficult as it seems.
For example, math, which seems useless in practice because you’re studying to be a lawyer, trains logic and systems thinking, essential in any profession. If you want to become a historian, however, understanding mathematical models, analyzing statistics, and graphing will also come in handy.
Literature helps you broaden your horizons, understand yourself and others, and form moral and ethical principles. Literate speech is necessary for any profession to articulate your ideas and interact with people.
Biology, physics, and chemistry teach you to understand interrelationships and acquaint you with the structure of the world, form critical thinking, which is necessary for a modern person.
A few tips to get you interested in one discipline or another:
- Read books about famous people who have been successful in the field;
- watch feature films on the desired subject;
- watch documentaries and popular science films;
- Listen to entertaining lectures by experts in the various sciences.
Understand the causes
Once you understand the causes, you’ll find a quicker way to solve the problem that suits your situation.
Missing topics that are important to understand
In this case, you need to fill in the gaps. To determine the “problem area,” you can take tests or ask for help from a tutor.
No confidence
If you feel that it is not for you, you will never understand it, you need to overcome doubts about your abilities and increase self-esteem.
What will help:
- Constant practice: practicing a difficult subject a little at a time, but every day, moving from simple to complex.
- Communicating with people who had a similar problem and successfully overcame it. You can find inspiring stories online and write to their authors.
- Support from parents and friends: it is very important to have someone telling you that everything will work out.
- Classes with a tutor. A pedagogue will help you understand the subject step by step and feel the first successes.
- Consultation of a psychologist. A specialist will recommend techniques to strengthen your self-esteem, help you understand yourself, and become more confident.
Poor explanation
Sometimes it can be difficult to understand a topic or subject because of poor explanation. The reasons can range from a poorly written textbook to an overly complicated explanation by the teacher.
Sometimes the explanation doesn’t work for you because of the way you perceive things. For example, people who have a better visual perception can absorb information in diagrams or charts more quickly. If the auditory channel is weak, it is better to read the material rather than listen to the lecture. All this leads to poor absorption of the material and makes students get essay help.
What to do:
- Look for alternative explanations: other textbooks, lectures with a different presentation, or with clear examples.
- Find a tutor you are interested in listening to.
- Try different ways to study: with lectures, funny videos on the Internet, apps for your smartphone, quizzes, infographics – and see what works for you and how you understand the material better.
- Write outlines and cheat sheets, draw diagrams on your own, make mind maps.
- Learn the topic with friends and classmates; ask them to explain things you don’t understand.
- Retelling the topic: when you try to explain it to someone else, you begin to understand it better.
What you should remember:
- Any subject can be difficult to master: no discipline is easy for everyone, or the opposite.
- The division into humanities and technology is not scientifically valid. By training our brains and engaging in certain activities, we can form new types of neural connections. To understand a subject, we need to spend more time on it and train more often.
- If we decide we don’t need the information, the brain stops absorbing it. If there are difficulties in understanding a subject, create and maintain the motivation to learn it.
- Find the reasons why the subject is difficult for you. If it’s about missing topics that are important to understand, make an effort to close the gaps. If you feel that you have no abilities and aptitude for the discipline, work with self-confidence and self-esteem – with the help of parents, friends, a psychologist, or yourself.
- If the problem is due to poor explanation, figure out what exactly you are not satisfied with within the presentation of the material, use alternative ways of learning and new sources of information.
