~How to Actually Proceed with Studying~ [Taiga's Study Method That Will Definitely Stick]

Hello!! Thank you for your hard work.
Thank you so much for all the likes on my post (ﾉ≧∀≦)ﾉ
I'm incredibly happy ヽ(〃´∀｀〃)ﾉ

I've started to enjoy posting on note, so I'll do my best!!

It's humble content, but I hope it helps everyone even a little.

By the way, feel free to ask me anything in the comments—even things completely unrelated to the post, like my hobbies, who I am, my background, or talk about manga (*ノﾟДﾟ)八(*ﾟДﾟ*)八(ﾟДﾟ*)ﾉｨｪｰｨ！

Self-introduction

Getting to the main topic,
this time I'd like to write about how you should actually go about studying.

Previous article

How to actually proceed with studying

For now, once you have your textbooks, reference books, and problem sets ready and you're set to start studying,
the first thing you should do ischeck the table of contents.

What you must not do is try to read the textbook from the very beginning.

The reason is that textbooks are not necessarilywritten in an order that is easy to understand.
This is unavoidable as long as people are trying to convey information to others.

For example, the scope of an actual IT exam might include the following:
・Management
・Corporate accounting
・Computer components
・Basic mathematical knowledge
・Networks

And a certain textbook might be written with the following chapters:

Chapter 1: Management
Chapter 2: Corporate accounting
Chapter 3: Basic mathematical knowledge
Chapter 4: Computer components
Chapter 5: Networks

What happens if you seriously try to study IT with this textbook by reading from the beginning?

You start by studying management and accounting knowledge. Financial statements? Balance sheets?
Wait? I wanted to study IT...
I don't really get this.

Eventually, you certainly will need to study IT management and finance-related topics. But do you need to learn them first? If I were told, 'I'm going to study computers!!' and was suddenly made to study accounting, I would give up.

However, the author of this textbook is not at all to blame; for the author, this order was the easiest to understand.
It just didn't match the reader's order of understanding. That's all.

So, what should you do? It's extremely simple: just skip what you read.

Who decided that you can't read from Chapter 4? If you think about it normally, you'd want to start reading from the computer section in Chapter 4. You should just start from there.
If you read it and it starts talking about something explained in Chapter 3, then you can just go back.

Many Japanese people are diligent, so they try to read through things honestly and seriously from the very beginning.
And they try to proceed only after seriously understanding every detail of the chapter.

I used to follow this flow too, thinking that this was the optimal way and that studying diligently and steadily was best, but now I've realized that, on the contrary, you actually make more progress in your studies by being a bit casual and not being too serious about it, haha.

My specific flow when studying

First, I check the table of contents of the textbook.

There was a table of contents like the following:
Chapter 1: Basic Theory
Chapter 2: Algorithms and Programming
Chapter 3: Hardware
Chapter 4: System Components
Chapter 5: Software
Chapter 6: Networks
Chapter 7: Management
Chapter 8: Strategy

For now, I'll take a quick peek at Chapter 1.
What's this? Binary numbers? Logical operations? Automata?
Wow!! I have no idea what this means.
Let's acknowledge that at this point, we are already lost. We are lost regarding what we are studying and why. As I wrote in the jigsaw puzzle article,
it's like looking for puzzle pieces without even knowing the theme.

Let's skip this chapter for now.
Next, I'll try reading Chapter 2.
What's this? Stacks? Queues? Lists?
Ugh, I don't get it lol.
Let's skip it.

Chapter 3
Hardware
Hmm, it seems to be writing about computer parts. CPU, mouse, keyboard.
Yeah, yeah, I can visualize this, it's easy to understand ☺️
I see, it's writing about computer configuration, okay.

Chapter 4: System Components
I guess this is about how things move when you connect two or more computers together. I see.
They increased the number of computers from Chapter 3.
If you increase the number of units, the rules naturally increase too.
I see, that's what they want to say here.

Chapter 5: Software
It seems to be talking about programs inside the computer. It's writing about how the computer controls them.
In Chapter 3, it was about computer parts, but this is focused on programs, okay.
Wait!! Stacks and queues appeared!!
This is the topic from Chapter 2.

Huh? In short, stacks and queues are containers for holding data?
I see. They wanted me to learn that in Chapter 2 beforehand for the sake of Chapter 5.

Chapter 6: Networks
In short, Chapter 3 was about one computer.
Chapter 4 was about how it moves when there is a combination of multiple units.
It seems like the network chapter is writing about how it moves when computers are connected to each other all over the world.
Oh!! Binary numbers and such appeared.
I see, the basic theory in Chapter 1 was for use here.

Like this, I first skim through the whole thing to grasp the overall flow. You couldn't understand the meaning of Chapter 1 or 2 without seeing the whole picture, right?
Only by returning to Chapter 2 from Chapter 5 can you finally create the frame and prepare to fit the pieces in.

This is how you start from the big picture,
and then gradually deepen your understanding of the details.
The important thing is to always be conscious of what you are studying and where you are so that you don't get lost.
The more you go into the details, the more lost you will get.

Even so...

I understand. Even if you are told to understand the big picture, you end up wondering how to understand the big picture in the first place. Like, I don't even get that part.

So, in the next article, I will introduce the strongest study companion!! Its name isCopilot

If you use this for studying, your world will truly change.

It will cause a revolution not just in studying, but in everything including work, so I really want you to read the next article.

Content planned for the next post

・Your greatest ally, Copilot!!!