What are some good ways to study in college?

What are good ways to study a new subject systematically?

• I mean,if one who is not in college but want to study a new subject systematically,what are the good ways to follow?

• Answer:

  A rough top three elements of an effective learning source are its a) relevance and accuracy of the information, b) how the information is represented for learning, c) how the information can be put into deliberate practice with feedback. Probably the most reliable way of hitting a, b, and c for many disciplines is by finding a textbook and reading it and doing the exercises. MOOCs are emerging as an alternative for some disciplines, see http://www.class-central.com/ as an aggregator. Beyond that, I don't think there's a general answer. The three factors run very deep. For example, one method for learning Japanese is http://alljapaneseallthetime.com/ which, put bluntly, is to watch Japanese TV and read Japanese comics and then review with SRS flashcards at the sentence level. So it hits the various factors: a: native speakers produce pretty accurate info and popular culture uses relevant language b: it's how kids learn, ain't it? c: reviewing the flashcards covers deliberate practice with feedback