What people tend to forget is that most of us can only recall about 20% of what we learn passively. What do we learn passively? Well pretty much everything, from trying to study to trying to analyze data at work. How does this relate to tutorials? By the time you are done watching or reading a tutorial, you are only 100% ready to do step one, and that probably doesn\'t help most of us as step one is usually opening a new document.
http://lightwyrm.com/index.php?option=c … atid=12:cc
The 1,2,3 on how to use Tutorials
Written by Boris Kourtoukov
What people tend to forget is that most of us can only recall about 20% of what we learn passively. What do we learn passively? Well pretty much everything, from trying to study to trying to analyze data at work. How does this relate to tutorials? By the time you are done watching or reading a tutorial, you are only 100% ready to do step one, and that probably doesn't help most of us as step one is usually opening a new document.
Not very effective is it? I certainly think so. Here are three ways you can maximize the amount you get out of tutorials.
The first step is probably the most basic one - the majority of people who read tutorials make no attempt at trying them! You absolutely must at least attempt it after you read it. It is not a magical item that will make you learn a new skill! If you don't try to do it you have just wasted time reading it..or at least 4/5th of the time. Now you don't have to watch a three hour tutorial and then sit down for 8 hours straight and paint an image just like it. That doesn't sound like something everyone would have time for. What you can do is take the ideas presented in some of the tutorials and sketch them out; if they at some point tell you how to paint trees on a cliff-side, you should paint a tree on a small rocky area taking all their points into consideration. Break it down is what I am saying, get it into bite size chunks - there are only ever a few skills or techniques that get discussed.
Don't just read or listen. Artists usually have very little teaching ability or writing ability. Yes that is not always the case, and as most of us know you always get a few gems in the teaching world, but for the most part that statement stays true. Thus you need to make sure you understand what they are saying: look at the visuals provided and outline a work flow that they might not have explained. Yes, that means you should take notes. Writing things down is being active - don't be afraid to pause a video or stop reading, you will retain more later if you do. Writing also helps you take out the gems from the rest of the information and keep them somewhere you can get to them quickly.
My favourite method can be done by anyone: sketch along. Take a look at the length of the video and separate it into 20% chunks. Watch the first chunk and do a quick sketch while it's paused. Try to get a rough visual down of where they are at, then take a bit more time and try to anticipate what they do next. You can do the same with text and image based tutorials - go to step one and sketch step two. Then correct any mistakes you might have made. This challenges your brain to stay active and thus stay open to new information. Yes this takes more time, but in the end you will waste less of it.
Problem is, you have just finished passively reading, so:
Else you'll just forget!
If you have your own tips, feel free to post them below. People do read comments you know! [Register to see form]
The Menu
Things we Run
