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Set aside a few minutes every day to think about how you learn. Ask yourself, “Do I understand more with notes or highlighting?” Write down a list of what you consider to be your strengths and weaknesses when learning something new. For example, do you quit easily when you are frustrated? Don't wait until the formal exam date to see how you perform under pressure. Set up rounds of practice testing well beforehand. Give yourself a prep exam or ask a friend to give you a pop quiz. If you use flashcards, do not remove cards as you feel comfortable with them. It is best to keep all cards in play and to practice frequently until the date of an exam. Brains can get lazy, especially when they are good at certain tasks. Once you reach mastery at a certain task, you need to move on to a new one. For example, if you can easily play poker, push yourself to learn blackjack. You want your mind to be constantly challenged. Set a high bar for new learning tasks. Try to make a difficult recipe or change your own oil. Keep it challenging, but not impossible. This will help you to remember how to learn quickly by improving how your mind performs under stress.  For maximum benefit, try setting aside your technology, such as the spell checker on computers, and going manual for a bit. Playing fast-paced action video games creates a high level of difficulty that pushes users to adapt to new physical skills. This can result in gamers having an advantage when learning to ride a bike, for example. Before you start a task, ask yourself, “Why am I doing this?” The more passionate that you are about a task, the better. Your excitement will let your brain know that it is time to learn. Focus all of your attention on one task before moving on to another. Finish your game of chess before moving on to checkers. If you switch actions mid-stream you lose valuable time. You also have to get your mind 'back in the game' every time you switch jobs. The exception is if you are completely stuck on a task. If so, leave that math problem behind and work on writing for a bit before coming back to it.
Be aware of your strengths. Test yourself. Keep it different and new. Seek out difficulty. Check your motivation. Stay single-minded.