If you can’t understand a topic you are studying and you don’t know what to do about it, this is an article that will help you out.
This can be the topic that a teacher is teaching in class or you are studying by yourself. It doesn’t matter at all.
The tips I will share in this article will help you to tackle any of these problems.
Without wasting time, let me share what you should do when you can’t understand a topic.
This is what to do when you can’t understand a topic;
1. Develop a positive mindset about the topic you are studying.
If you can’t understand a topic at all no matter how harder you try, the first thing you have to check on is your attitude towards this topic.
I remember I used to perform poorly in Physics when I was in high school, to the point I got an E.
When I studied physics, everything from the textbook seemed so confusing.
I ended up hating physics because of the so many laws I had to cram. I concluded that I will never perform well in physics no matter how harder I tried.
When I concluded that I couldn’t understand physics or pass, that is when I never captured anything when I was in class or studying on my own.
The main topic that used to give me a headache was the “Mirror and types of mirrors.”
The moment I realized that the negative mindset I had about the topic is what prevented me from understanding it, I made a change.
I started developing a positive mindset about the topic. The change of mindset didn’t suddenly increase my chances of understanding the topic but gave me a fighting chance.
It helped me be motivated to keep on studying the topic no matter how hard I thought it was.
I was positive that if the top student in my class could understand such a topic perfectly, so could I.
Changing the mindset is what gave me the energy to keep searching for ways to grasp the topic no matter how hectic it was.
So, you should do the same if you can’t understand a topic. You may be having a negative mindset about the topic and that is why you can’t understand it at all.
You concluded that the topic is hard for you to understand and that is what locked your brain.
If you change your theory about the topic that you think is hard, and just tackle it as you do with the other topics or subjects, this is going to give you a fighting chance to understand and learn so much from this topic.
This topic is not hard at all, you had a wrong start.
2. Find out why you can’t understand the topic.
Changing your mindset about the topic you can’t understand doesn’t mean that you will immediately start to sink things in.
You still need to find out the main issue in that topic so that you can tackle it strategically.
You need to find out why you can’t understand that topic.
Is it because of the terms that are used in the topic?
Are the methods used to derive the equations that you don’t understand?
Is it the theory part that you don’t understand?
Do you think it’s the order of the topic that you don’t understand?
These are some of the questions you should ask yourself if you can’t understand a topic.
Some of the answers to these questions might give you a clue of where you can’t understand the topic.
When you manage to find out why you don’t understand the topic, then that is where you should start working.
For instance, if you can’t understand the topic because the terms used are all new to you, then you should start getting familiar with them.
This means you skipped the introductory part of the topic or you lack the main background information of the topic.
Going back to that part will help you get to understand what the topic is all about.
3. Find out which part you don’t understand.
If you don’t understand a topic, this is something else you can do to change that.
You need to find out which part of the topic you don’t understand. It can be that you don’t understand the topic simply because there is a single part you haven’t grasped.
That part that you didn’t capture might have been the backbone of the entire topic.
For instance, when you can’t understand bonding and valence in chemistry, it’s going to be hard for you to form chemical equations.
So, you should go back to the topic and find out which part you don’t understand, and start working your way from there.
That is what might make it easier for you to understand the topic.
The moment you manage to find out which part you don’t understand, that is where you should start working.
Try your best to have all the resources you need to learn about that part that you don’t understand.
Read different versions of information from different sources on the same part, this might give you some clarity.
You should mainly focus on parts of the topic that you can’t understand. This is what will enable you to grasp something that will make it easier for you to understand the rest of the topic.
When you get the breakthrough on the part of the topic that you can’t understand, that will make it easier for you to handle the rest of the topic easily.
That is what I used to do in college and high school, it helped me a lot.
4. Study using the objectives of the topic.
When you start studying any topic, there are usually objectives that you have to follow.
These objectives are what will guide you throughout the entire topic, you will know which parts you should focus on.
So, if you can’t understand a topic after you are deeper into it, take a step back and go back to the objectives.
Take your time to read the objectives of the topic, get to know what is expected of you as a student, and then go back to the topic again.
It can be that you have no idea which part of the topic you should grasp, you have no idea what you should get from the topic and that is why you are floating.
Get the objectives of the topic right and focus on answering them instead of trying to get the entire topic at once.
By the time you complete all the objectives, you will realize that you have covered the entire topic with ease.
The objectives of the topic will help you tackle a single part of the topic at a moment.
The chances of your understanding are going to be higher since you will focus on a single part of the topic before you move on to another.
But when you don’t know what is expected of you from the topic you are studying it can be hard to understand anything.
When it comes to studying, it’s all about retaining the main information that you are going to use to tackle different problems in your exams.
With the objectives of the topic, you will be able to understand what you should focus on and this is what will make it easier for you to understand the rest of the topic.
5. Get the background information about the topic.
Some of the topics you might be studying are usually a continuation of other topics.
It can be that you are busy studying a topic but you can’t understand a thing, it’s because you skipped the first part.
Have you ever watched a Netflix series from season two episode 3? You will hardly understand what is going on in that show.
You won’t understand what the show is all about until you get a recap of what has happened in the previous seasons and episodes.
This is the same case when it comes to studying. If you started studying the topic without getting the background information, this could be the main reason why you can’t grasp a thing.
You need to go back to the previous topic that is connected to the current topic and read to know what it’s all about and how it’s connected to the topic you are studying now.
This is what will make it easier for you to understand what is going on in the topic you can’t understand.
If you missed the introductory part of the topic, you have to go back and study that part before you get back to the main part of the topic.
That is how you will be able to understand what you are studying.
6. Ask for help from your teacher or friends.
If you have tried everything I have shared in this article but you can’t still understand that topic, this is what you should do.
You should ask for help from your teacher or friends. There is no shame in asking for help.
If you don’t understand a topic yet your friend understands it perfectly, talk to him or her.
Ask him/her to explain to you how the theory works, the working principle, and the backbone of the entire topic.
The way your friend might explain it to you, he or she might give you a version that you can easily understand.
So, don’t be afraid to ask for help if you have people around who can help you.
Let your teacher know that you don’t understand a thing from the topic you are studying.
Your teacher will be kind enough to help you understand and he might even give you a direction that you should use when studying that topic.
7. Don’t give up yet, you can still crack up on this topic.
Don’t give up if you can’t understand a topic, giving up will never allow you to capture anything.
If you give up on that topic simply because you don’t understand it, you will never get anything from it.
And when you see questions from that topic when sit for your exams you will fail.
So, don’t give up if you can’t understand a topic, try your best to understand it by going the extra mile.
Don’t just rely on the information you got from your teacher or the one resource you are using.
Try to find other books and read the same topic. You might end up understanding it easily from other books.
You should also watch some videos on youtube about the same topic and see how other people explain it.
This might also help you so much when it comes to understanding that topic.
I used to watch so many youtube videos when I couldn’t understand the topics I was studying.
So, don’t give up yet, you can still get something from the topic you can’t understand.
This is what it means being a student.
Lastly…
If you can’t understand a topic, sit down and figure out what’s wrong before you start discouraging yourself.
Don’t just conclude that the topic is hard and there is nothing you can grasp from it.
If your fellow student can tackle the questions from that topic so can you.
Try to come up with different ways to tackle the questions in that topic, change how you approach it and finally ask for help if you can’t grasp anything from it.
Don’t give up on it yet, there is nothing that you can’t comprehend, take it easy and give it time. You will eventually understand it.
Thanks for reading, if you have any questions you should leave your comment, see you in my next article.
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