The one self knowledge worth having is to know one’s own mind”

–F.H Bradley

I was one of those seemingly smart students who went through junior secondary school without having to revise, not for tests or exams, my brain was very much bigger than what I was being taught and I was able to recall what I was taught as much as I was able to comprehend it, as you might have guessed this super power didn’t last very long as I moved on to the science option of the senior classes I had to pay more attention in class as well as do some passive study but I didn’t revise much either when you compare my effort to the required.

I launched into university as a superstar, my high school grades weren’t top notch but with the amount of effort I had invested it wasn’t bad at all, but alas then came the baptism of fire, I finished the first year of my undergraduate studies with a GPA that was beyond sad, a few points more and I would have been put on the probation list, it was then I realized that as much as I loved to learn, I really hated to read, but I forced myself through the arduous process of staring at a book and graduated with an above average grade and on time.

My first contact with audio-books was with the Robert Kiyosaki best seller rich dad poor dad, I listened to the whole book on my laptop and didn’t feel bored or distracted for one second, then came technology tutorials I copied from a friend and for the first time in my life I knew how I wanted to learn, I wished all books were either audio-books or have been converted to Lynda type courses. The world we know is not fair and so I had to return to books during my postgraduate study and struggled once again.

I learnt before I knew there was a model for it that I needed to read a book 5 times to pass an undergraduate exam with a grade A , so I must only be comprehending about 15 percent on each read, for audios it was about 20 percent so four listens and I am good to go, for videos it was 25 percent, I learnt the value of spaced repetition and studying using multiple sources, I believe I owe much of my achievement to luck, the truth about all these is that I am regarded as a smart person only because I was lucky enough to be born in an era where technology has enabled my learning, I was also born in a place where I had access to this technology.

I passed a valuable certification exam watching 4 video sets twice each not one book, just videos. One can argue that if my situation had been different, I would have had to cope with the books and if my preference had been discovered earlier and I had access I would have achieved more. I believe that Technology has allowed me to be productive and achieve a lot more, I am still training my mind to learn to read I know my video and audio-books trick won’t last forever I have plans for a DBA and know I will require a strong hard copy book reading habit to achieve these feats.

I still look at myself as work in progress I don’t know what I am fully capable of yet. I encourage you to experiment and see what works for you and how it works, you might just end up being regarded as smart with minimal effort.