I have had an open offer to my students, friends, and coworkers for many years: I can help you pass any test. Out of dozens of people who took me up on my offer, I've known three people who could not do it.
The first was a middle aged woman who I met while I was teaching at a community college in a bad part of town. She had been a drug addict and worse. She could not understand math. Her brain was too fried to get it. She got her GED after 4 years of trying and quit. She said school was not for her. I really felt sorry for her. She had a miserable life.
The second is my best friend. He has dyslexia that is between severe and profound. He wanted to pass the Texas exam to become a high school math teacher. (He's already a science teacher.) He has to work 10x harder than most people to "get" what they are asking on a multiple choice test because of his dyslexia. He "gets" the first main point of a tutorial and stops there. He does not realize that half the test is the complicated stuff that comes at the end of the tutorial. His habit of giving up after learning one thing from a tutorial is why he will never pass the exam. He works so hard, but then stops when it gets too difficult to keep everything in his head. Imagine if you only saw one word at a time on a certification exam. That's his world with dyslexia.
The third person is a computer teacher I used to work with. He would regurgitate the simplest of facts about a topic, then claim he knew it, and refuse to look into it any deeper. He had a bad attitude, and will never get certified on the software he teaches.
My gut tells me the poor guy that is the subject of the article never digs deeply enough into the subject matter. I recommend anyone in his position find a practical use of the material they are studying and try to use it in the real world. I do not mean an example from a text book. I mean an example where they can touch what they are learning. Go outside with a tape measure and a protractor. Based on the shadow from a building, find the height of the building. The first thing you will learn is how to measure (sight?) an angle with a protractor, string, weight, tape and a straw while laying on the ground.
If you can not walk outside and use what you are learning, you don't know it.
They need to apply everything in the objectives in a real-world situation.
If you can not apply something, start by learning what the terms (vocabulary) means. If you can not find definitions, ask ChatGPT.
Then try applying the knowledge in a trivial use case - copy the example from a YouTube video. This will often mean spending hours setting up a scenario where you can use that thing. An example of this is setting up a virtual network of VMs to trace some packets for a CompTIA Security+ certification.
After you copy that example, devise your own example. For example, when studying for an Adobe Certified Professional cert in Premiere Pro, I enhanced / fixed some nearly 40-year-old home movies ripped from VHS.
The system takes a lot of time, but if you can understand the terms on the objectives, then copy simple examples, then do your own projects, you will always pass the certification exam.
That's the secret sauce right there. A lot of people have been short changed by mass education where memorizing facts passes for learning. Much like taking notes by hand is better for you because it forces you to slow down to your hand's speed.
There's no way to learn something other then spending significant amounts of time busy with it, using tools, building or fixing stuff, collecting data and drawing conclusions etc.
After you have the objectives, cross out everything you did in the last year. (Not in a class; something you did organically in your daily life or work life.)
My best, most practical, learning experiences were at the equivalent of a community college. So, seeing someone so obsessed about getting into a top university at the detriment of making the progress in education that is available to them otherwise, leaves a bad feeling.
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 27.8 ms ] threadThe first was a middle aged woman who I met while I was teaching at a community college in a bad part of town. She had been a drug addict and worse. She could not understand math. Her brain was too fried to get it. She got her GED after 4 years of trying and quit. She said school was not for her. I really felt sorry for her. She had a miserable life.
The second is my best friend. He has dyslexia that is between severe and profound. He wanted to pass the Texas exam to become a high school math teacher. (He's already a science teacher.) He has to work 10x harder than most people to "get" what they are asking on a multiple choice test because of his dyslexia. He "gets" the first main point of a tutorial and stops there. He does not realize that half the test is the complicated stuff that comes at the end of the tutorial. His habit of giving up after learning one thing from a tutorial is why he will never pass the exam. He works so hard, but then stops when it gets too difficult to keep everything in his head. Imagine if you only saw one word at a time on a certification exam. That's his world with dyslexia.
The third person is a computer teacher I used to work with. He would regurgitate the simplest of facts about a topic, then claim he knew it, and refuse to look into it any deeper. He had a bad attitude, and will never get certified on the software he teaches.
My gut tells me the poor guy that is the subject of the article never digs deeply enough into the subject matter. I recommend anyone in his position find a practical use of the material they are studying and try to use it in the real world. I do not mean an example from a text book. I mean an example where they can touch what they are learning. Go outside with a tape measure and a protractor. Based on the shadow from a building, find the height of the building. The first thing you will learn is how to measure (sight?) an angle with a protractor, string, weight, tape and a straw while laying on the ground.
If you can not walk outside and use what you are learning, you don't know it.
They need to apply everything in the objectives in a real-world situation.
If you can not apply something, start by learning what the terms (vocabulary) means. If you can not find definitions, ask ChatGPT.
Then try applying the knowledge in a trivial use case - copy the example from a YouTube video. This will often mean spending hours setting up a scenario where you can use that thing. An example of this is setting up a virtual network of VMs to trace some packets for a CompTIA Security+ certification.
After you copy that example, devise your own example. For example, when studying for an Adobe Certified Professional cert in Premiere Pro, I enhanced / fixed some nearly 40-year-old home movies ripped from VHS.
The system takes a lot of time, but if you can understand the terms on the objectives, then copy simple examples, then do your own projects, you will always pass the certification exam.
That's the secret sauce right there. A lot of people have been short changed by mass education where memorizing facts passes for learning. Much like taking notes by hand is better for you because it forces you to slow down to your hand's speed.
There's no way to learn something other then spending significant amounts of time busy with it, using tools, building or fixing stuff, collecting data and drawing conclusions etc.
Do you have the objectives yet?
After you have the objectives, cross out everything you did in the last year. (Not in a class; something you did organically in your daily life or work life.)
Then you will have a starting place.
Please message me when you get this far.