How to Become Smart (Smarter)

One thing that most seem to agree on is that reading is near the core of how to be smart. At one point, speed reading was the hot deal. The idea was to absorb more information from the world by getting through all of it faster. The problem is you are likely to leave with a shallow and temporary grasp of what you just read.

There’s certainly nothing wrong with skimming passages. Surveying material to get the big picture or find the most relevant parts can be quite useful.

If you want to be smart on a topic, do allow yourself to read more slowly. Get more out of each passage that you take in. As related ideas spring to mind, pause and reflect on them before continuing. Look out of the window from time to time. Think through it more deeply.

You’ve practiced on your own, now you are ready for the spotlight. A routine to build in to your “how to be smart” program is to tell others about what you’ve learned. Explain your new understanding in different contexts….at dinner with the family, or with friends at a bar, or in chats and comments on the web.

Try to explain in a way that’s simple, clear and interesting for the different audiences you engage. In addition to more of the same “self-explanation” benefits above, you’ll also have a chance to get outside feedback on what you’re saying.

Your kids may need the simpler story. Teaching them can force you to rephrase and rethink your understanding again. Your coworkers may challenge your explanation, bringing in other perspectives or facts you were unaware of. It may well happen the other way around, too.

Just forget about your ego here. The point is not to show off how smart you are. It’s to learn more by engaging others, share some of your interests with them, and occasionally help the people you interact with learn something new.

If you get surprised that your friend contradicts you, or your kid shares an important fact you didn’t know, don’t get upset. Try to listen carefully, embrace the surprise and ask them questions to learn more. Healthy discussion and debate will only deepen your knowledge, as long as you don’t take it too personally.

When it comes to confidence, if you have a healthy self-esteem, you will be more accepting of yourself. Other people will be able to see this confidence, and will give you more credibility when you are talking about any given subject.

Come to think about it, one way or the other we’ve been called smart; but what does it really mean to be smart? The dictionary describes a smart person as one who possesses a quick-witted intelligence. This type of intelligence comes naturally most times, but it’s also good to note that it can be developed even if it is not there at all from the start.

Being smart develops an individual to maneuver challenges, even using it for added advantage. Aside solving the present individual and natural problems, it goes a long way to determine how a business will excel even among its contemporaries, how to be successful etc. and so determines the employer’s choice of the employees into a business firm.

You will agree with me that students love to learn practically than theoretically. The reason for this is because they tend to understand better when they are taught practically. Again, practical teaching tends to be more fascinating and actual. Thus, students find it easy to remember and relate what they have learned to other areas of their study. The things you remember easily during examinations are usually those things you tried to envisage and make practical when reading for the examination.

The point here is that learning practically will help to make you understand a topic better and also help to make you more intelligent. Trust me; this is one of the tentative ways to become an intelligent student in school.