Do you believe in learning on your own?

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My family tosses the idea around of buy books and learn on my own and then take the TEST (I guess to become whatever) IMO it's NOT that easy! You NEED a teacher to show you and teach you stuff and surely there's not an end all be all TEST to become a doctor or lawyer or my field of interest Psychology (not to mention learning how to do research and such and what type of Psychologist I want to become I still haven't figured that part out I liked doing the research in College when I look back at it that was something I enjoyed.

I'm studying at the Open University in the UK, which is a government-run home learning programme... like a correspondence degree course, but with occasional tutorials, and internet interaction. They are good at supporting people with AS, and I've found it really works for me.... no need to socialize, no need to afford all the living expenses of being at university. I like it personally, but I think it's something I'm ready to do now, whereas I didn't really know what I wanted to pursue in my 20s. I'm studying psychology also, by the way.

I have to admit, I question your interest in your subject if you aren't curious enough to pursue reading about it on your own. It sounds like what you were really interested in was your college teacher, not psychology as a subject. Having ideas for experiments is what you talk about a lot, but you never seem to do even rudimentary research (like Googling) to find out if that research has already been done and what the results were.

I read the textbook for Psych 101 when I was an undergraduate and "tested out" of it (took a multiple choice test and got credit as if I had taken the whole class.) To do that you have to be a student enrolled in a university that allows placement testing, though--you are correct that there is no test to become a psychologist.

I also have to admit that I feel dubious about the possibility of you becoming a clinical psychologist in the future. I was the secretary for a clinical psych department for a while, and it was a very competitive program to get into (and this was at a regular state university, not the Ivy League.) Only applicants with perfect grades and impressive extracurricular activities were admitted, and they had a very stressful and demanding schedule of classes and practicums. To get permission to work with human subjects you have to be a very responsible person, and to counsel others you need to be very socially adept.

I personally need a structured setting to learn because of my executive dysfunction. That doesn't necessarily mean a classroom, but I need someone to direct me.

I don't know about you, but teachers slow my learning down. I learn much more when left alone.

Psychology is one of the many subjects you can learn much more quickly and effectively on your own than you can in school. Go to the library and pick up some famous psychology books, and start reading them in your spare time. That's what I do with Economics, and though I haven't gotten through much, I've learned more than I have in school.

Thanks Cyanide.

I´m not good at doing work at home, I have a bit of an forced separation between home and school. There for I like to do the most at the university (studying applied maths). To be able to learn on your own I think you need to have at least the following:
A good drive, your not going to learn it without wanting it or liking it.
Discipline, (the thing that is hard for me) You need to learn and you have to do it yourself, nobody to tell you you have to. Though it might be possible to do it somewhere else (e.g. library) if that helps you (of course you also need the discipline to go to there then).

I do not agree in a y/n sense but I do think that self-education is valuable.

I personally would like to be able to learn on my own.

Mostly to appease my desire for more money As well as my achievement desires.
But I can't seem to accomplish this.

When learning I find it best one with one, like a Tutor. just to tell me what to do and all.
then just learn at home on my own.

Professions tend to come with their own cultures. Learning on your own is not a bad idea, but by isolating yourself entirely from other professionals, you miss out on the opportunity to learn from them. So much of learning is about process, and this is difficult to convey by reading a book. This is one reason why earning a doctorate is such a long, drawn out process.

my math teacher looks at me funny. I think it's because I don't take notes. lol


Technically you don't need to go to law school to be a lawyer. You just gotta pass the bar.

I actually do most of my learning on my own even though I attend classes...a lot of the things said in class I write down just because I am supposed to but they make no sense to me, so I come home and take the notes I wrote and go from there and get more information from books or the internet until I feel secure that I know enough about the subject.

Math, my worse subject, is a foreign language, and I spend many hours crying over my math book trying to make sense of it all.