Need help improving recall and concentration

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OK this isn't exactly a school or college thing but it does have to do with learning so I posted it on the school and college board. At work they want me to watch all these tutorial videos on test analyses and I'm just having trouble concentrating on them. I here the monotonous voice and sort of glaze over and start thinking about other things. Then I get to the questions and I can't answer them.

When I listen, I hear them talk about stuff that requires prerequisite knowledge from some earlier section I couldn't concentrate on. I'm not trying to slack off on purpose it's just that I'm struggling to concentrate, recall and understand this massive info dump.

So what study techniques can help me with my problem?

Just think that one of those girls whose tests you're analyzing is naked!

Ach! You've discovered my secret! You've discovered the reason I got a job in the first place was to impress girls!

Yeah...those videos are boring.

Just get it over with. That's all you could do. Just think of it as a painful "rite of passage," which will lead to better things.

When I have this sort of assignment, I just take from it what I need. I don't listen to 3/4's of the things these sorts of videos tell me. I just listen to what's relevant to my job. I'm an on-the-job learner, really.

It's not that they're boring that worries me. It's not getting them over with that worries me. I've started on them again because I couldn't remember or understand them very well. I wasn't expecting them to be fun but what worries me is my level of recall and comprehension. I need a way to improve those things.

If you know what's causing you to have difficulty concentrating, I would identify it, and get rid of it for the time when you look at the videos.

I really get the impression that you don't find these videos interesting---the bland, monotonous voice might have something to do with it.

When you say "analyzing tests," what do you mean?

But I can't get rid of my brain. I am distracted by irrelevant thoughts such as things I want to buy or things I read in the news.Well they're not supposed to be fun right? I'm not watching them out of personal interest.Well it's not great I guess. I usually have better recall when I'm listening to a lecture in person. I also have better recall from reading instead of listening. I may have to reread the same paragraph three or four times but I still have better recall.Test Analyst is my job title. Essentially the videos are about software testing.

From what you wrote, it just sounds like you have to make a conscious effort to drown out those thoughts, and defer them until later. I hate to use this term--but you have to "compartmentalize" when you watch the videos. You have to focus on the videos, and the videos alone.

I'm a pretty hyper person. I KNOW how you feel. Trust me...if you knew me, you'd think I'm hyper as well. I can't get extraneous things out of my mind. When I'm on the train, I talk to myself about crap. I laugh to myself about events which occurred 30 or more years ago. People think I'm nuts! So I understand extraneous thoughts very well.

Obviously, I don't know you from Adam--but it seems to me, based upon previous threads, that you're not quite "disordered" enough not to be able to focus. And to be able to make a conscious effort to do so (despite the fact that it's counterintuitive).

You like software testing, I would assume. Perhaps use that "like" to motivate you--to get you through all your struggles.

The other day, I wanted to sleep, sleep, sleep....I made all kinds of excuses that would have let me do so....but I knew I had to stay up to meet some people when they go home. If you were in my mind, you would have KNOWN how difficult that was!! !! !

Hmmm. I'm not saying I can never focus. Sometimes I have trouble though. Maybe my problem isn't just focus but comprehension. I can't be sure I suspect these videos were designed with the assumption that I would have a bachelor of software engineering as a bare minimum. They use a lot of technical terms I don't understand.

As a longer term plan I was thinking of taking a night class. Last year I applied to a community college as a back up plan incase I didn't get the job. They accepted me but I was going to ask me if they could transfer me to part time, night only (they rotate their subjects so I'd just do whatever one subject is a night class at the time. It's a slower process but since I'm already in work I don't see getting a diploma as urgent. Some knowledge of code might help me if I ever have to do white box testing and it would bring me up to speed with the rest of the team I'm on.No I don't like any form of work but I being in work. I like having a job. It helps to reduce those feelings of self-loathing and worthlessness. It helps me feel more like a participant in society rather than an observer.With me it's usually the other way around. No matter how tired I am I usually find excuses to stay up.

Yep...the night school thing sounds pretty good. Make sure you get enough sleep, though. If you commute, you could study on the train. If you don't get carsick, you could study on the bus, too (I can't read on the bus AT ALL).

I wonder what would happen if you Google those terms which you don't know. Maybe you DO know them--but in different contexts. Or you could buy those "....for Dummies" type books. Like......"C+++ for Dummies."

I wouldn't be surprised if you could learn from some people right here on WrongPlanet. Maybe start a thread in the Computer subforum. You have people there who will be glad to answer your question for the sake of their own ego. Or perhaps even because they feel a desire to help.

Why not? I already make some of my posts on the train.Good idea.Now you're onto something!

I have a hard time with these, too, and not just because I'm in the middle of the cube farm and have trouble concentrating on everything.

I don't know if this will work for you, but, I take screencaps of the the text in the videos and paste them into a PPT file. It means I ate least have to keep the videos up and kind of focused on them. I have a textbox in the ppt as well, and write down words I don't know or feel I don't understand fully. After the video is over, I scroll through as a review, then copy in to the same file, definitions or contextual explanations of the terms I noted.
It's kind of exhausting, but, it's the only way I can pass the occasional review quiz that pops up.

Ah, online learning - I'm pretty sure that everyone understands that it's a completely ineffective way to learn material, and yet companies everywhere still use it. I have a very good memory, and I can give a few pointers that I use. The major one is to memorize the page that you are on, and then close your eyes and repeat all the important points on it 10 times in your head. Repeating things over in your mind helps to move them from short-term to long-term memory, so that you can recall them when you need them. Also, as I progress, I continuously try to recall past information. For example, once I've done this for the first 3-4 pages, I'll see if I can still remember the important points from the first page. Doing that keeps the information fresh in my mind and helps to further commit it to memory.

Basically, it involves repeating the major points in your mind as often as you can, and then recalling it again as often as you can after you've stopped looking at the material. It depends on what exactly you're trying to learn, but in college I generally found that I'd need at least one night of studying (1-2 hrs - it's useless to go beyond that since you will overtax your memory and start forgetting things) to memorize 3-4 full pages of notes.

Do you have an option to read a text instead? Maybe you're not an audio learner. Maybe you have audio filtration issues.

Can you watch the video multiple times or watch it at home? I had to do that in college because I had the same issues you're describing.

Apart from trying some new note taking techniques, I can't think of anything that would help if you can't read it or watch it multiple times. Since I can't see whatever techniques you currently use to take notes, I'm inclined to direct you to youtube for that.

Yeah, I think I have some audio problems. I'm better with a live speaker but it can still be problematic.

Even when I'm reading a book I sometimes have to reread paragraphs. The problem with these videos is that the text on screen is only a bullet point summery of the narration. It doesn't explain everything.

Yep, that's the only way I can do it. Last week I watched the videos in the office because I wanted to look like I was making good use of company time but I knew I would have to watch them at home anyway. I can understand them a bit better at home. There's more comfortable seating at home and it's much quieter. It's harder to concentrate when I'm seated in an office chair and I can hear people talking through my headphones.

Maybe I should be taking notes but I don't. Somehow I feel like when I take notes I don't commit facts to memory. I feel like if I have to read something from my notes I haven't succeeded in learning it.

Maybe I'll have a better understanding of their software when I'm actually using it. It's hard for me to memorize how to use a program from a video when I'm not using it yet. I think I remember they said the program is available for download but I simply haven't had the time when I've been spending most of my time hearing lectures about corporate culture and then going home and watching the videos. Maybe I'll play around with it a bit tonight but it still but it's still not idea when I don't have a real task to do in it.

I might have been able to learn the program better by using it in the field yet I was required to watch the videos so I did.

That sounds like a good idea

I don't have the luxury of that much time.

That might work for me but with hours of videos i have to go through in a few days, I don't have time for that. I'm surprised how quickly most of my colleagues went through the videos. They watched them in office, they completed week 2's videos inside of week 1 with time to spare. I noticed on the week 2 schedule there was no time allotted to watching the videos marked week 2. Probably for the best since I couldn't concentrate on them in office anyway.