snapchat

Learning something like math or science is comparable to the first time you used Snapchat. At first, it seemed like everybody got it except you. Snapchat was trendy, cool and all your friends liked it, so you pushed yourself to understand how it worked. So ask yourself, what were the things you did to understand Snapchat or any other app, that you can apply to your studies.

Accept The Fact It’s Not User-Friendly

Snapchat-MathWhen you first used Snapchat you clearly understood that this app was different than all the others. You could only view photos for a few seconds. To see a picture, you had to keep your thumb on the screen. To text, you would swipe left, etc.

Well, it’s the same for math. Just accept that it’s not user-friendly. First, try to understand how it works. Give yourself the time you need to start understanding what you were thought in the classroom. The same way you give any app the time to familiarize yourself with, you should do it with whatever you are learning whether it’s Math, Spanish or Science.

Try All Sorts Of Things

Once you begin to understand all the swiping-holding-your-thumb-on-the-screen things, you just start doing whatever. You swipe twice left, once right, up, down, you click anywhere possible, you take all sorts of pictures. You send pics and you’re not even sure if it worked, it seems like it worked, because there is a notification, but how do you get there again? See, you are not scared of trying stuff and making mistakes.

The same concept applies to Math. We are often thought that making mistakes is a bad thing. Making mistakes is normal when it comes to learning. It’s part of the process. Try stuff, be creative, there is no need to get disappointed. There will be a point where you will get it right. Trust it will happen and it will. You knew this when you were learning that new app, do the same for your studies.

Use it even If It Feels Useless At First

Once you got how the app worked. You probably didn’t understand why it was useful. Why would I have a picture with cookie crumbs falling from my mouth? Why would I put a smiley directly on my face? Once you started using it with your friends it suddenly started to make more sense. Now, not only does it make sense, but you might not even remember why you didn’t get it at first.

The same is true for math. When you don’t understand it seems horribly useless. But if you give it a chance and you start getting it, it doesn’t seem as useless anymore. You might still not know why you are doing it, but at least you won’t have that feeling of uselessness. It becomes natural to just enjoy learning something new.

Share It With Others

So now you understand all the features of Snapchat. You use it all the time even to send questions to your friends while you’re studying. You found a way to make it fun and useful. What do you do? You share it with the people around who still think it’s useless and hard to grasp. You try to convince them, and by convincing them you become even better at using the app, because you are discovering new ways to make better use of it.

Do the same for math. Once you start getting it, you can help others that have a hard time. People who are still at step one who might not accept that it’s ok to not understand something at first. By helping them, you will also refresh your memory and discover new ways to do things.

Remember, that this process applies to many things you might want to learn. It is just that when you are very motivated at learning something, you go through it without even realizing it. So next time you’re fed up because you don’t understand something, try to learn it like you would learn while using your favorite apps.