Reading
Read a book. Reading is the foundation for gaining any type of general knowledge. There are no specific requirements on what books to read or on what subjects since the acquisition of general knowledge incorporates a wide-range of topics. The most important quality of reading is to make it a daily and routine part of your day. Get a membership at the local public library. Memberships are often free or inexpensive, giving you access to thousands of books with friendly return dates. Go to a yard or garage sale. You can stock up on cheap books on a range of topics that you might not otherwise spend money on. Purchase an e-reader to download reasonably priced books and articles from a variety of websites. This will give you instant gratification and more knowledge. EXPERT TIP Bryce Warwick, JD Bryce Warwick, JD Academic Tutor Bryce Warwick is currently the President of Warwick Strategies, an organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area offering premium, personalized private tutoring for the GMAT, LSAT and GRE. Bryce has a JD from the George Washington University Law School. Bryce Warwick, JD Bryce Warwick, JD Academic Tutor Increase your general knowledge on a subject by first self-evaluating. If you want better general math knowledge, read a math foundation book. Self-evaluate yourself on what you already did or did not know and then start building from there.
Subscribe to a newspaper. Newspapers are great sources of local, regional, national, and worldly news. Some are better than others, but newspapers offer reasonably updated information on politics, sports, fashion, food, and a diversity of other interests. Try to make reading the newspaper one of your morning habits. A newspaper can be delivered to your doorstep before you even wake up, giving you few excuses to use it as a valuable resource in your pursuit of knowledge. Most newspaper publishers offer online subscriptions at a lower cost. If you prefer to receive your information digitally, then you should consider one of the many newspapers available to you at a click of a button. If you work for a company, they usually subscribe to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, or the Washington Post. Take advantage of this freebie and gain knowledge while at work.
Browse through a magazine. Go to a bookstore and you will find several rows of unending magazines lined up for your perusal. Magazines are everywhere and cover every topic. Although you might not want to subscribe to a magazine service like Publisher’s Clearing House, there are numerous other options available. Pick up a magazine at the local grocery store while your family shops for food. Nobody ever got escorted out of a supermarket for standing in front of the magazine rack for thirty minutes. When you are at a doctor, dentist, or automobile appointment, take advantage of all the popular magazines available to you in their waiting rooms. Usually they have Time, Newsweek, and some entertainment magazines for you to read while you wait.
Sit down and peruse a journal. Journals typically provide academic research that are longer than magazine articles and use extensive citations. A journal contains very specific information about one particular discipline. Compared to books, newspapers, and magazines, journals are more difficult to access and are more expensive, but provide more detailed and proven information. If you prefer the academic nature of a journal, then join a society that you are interested in like history, biology, or sociology. These societies fund journals and send them to members who are interested in the same fields of knowledge. Go to a university library where you can access hundreds of different journal titles on nearly any academic topic.
Listening
Socialize with friends, colleagues, and professionals. The more people you come into contact with, the higher possibility to engage in intelligent and informative conversations where you can gain additional knowledge. Since people enjoy informative yet casual conversations on interesting topics, we tend to retain this knowledge better. Cultivate friendships with intelligent, educated, and experienced people. These friendships will produce stimulating conversations on a variety of topics exposing you to new ideas, perspectives, and understandings. Try to meet up for coffee or tea once a week and discuss anything new you learned or talk about current affairs.
Purchase audiobooks. Although audiobooks are no substitution for reading, they do permit the listener to gain access to a wealth of general knowledge while performing other tasks like commuting to work or exercising. Audiobooks will also help to increase your vocabulary, a different way to process information, and the ability to achieve a higher level of understanding. Audiobooks often include commentary by the author, providing you with additional insight to how ideas formed for the book or reasoning behind certain scenes. This information will not only expand your general knowledge on the content of the book but also the writing process and author’s thoughts. You can buy, rent, or borrow audiobooks from a host of places. Instead of listening to music everywhere you go, try to substitute a good audiobook from time to time in your daily commute or exercise time.
Attend a seminar or conference. Listening to professionals conducting the seminar or conference will provide you the general knowledge presented a topic. This is important because the presenter is speaking professionally about the methods, approaches, and experiences they encountered while formulating an analysis that took several years to conduct and yield results. Although you attend a seminar or conference to listen to professional individuals, make sure you take notes. Listening will help you grasp the information while writing it down will help you to retain it. Listen for the main ideas of the presentation. All the details are fascinating, but for the sake of general knowledge, it is more important to understand the larger concepts and ideas being presented.
Join a book club or social group. Try to expand your experiences and friendships with people who are interested in doing the same thing. Discussing books, current events, history, or politics with others will force you to rely on your general knowledge and to synthesize new information. You can locate these clubs and organizations in many places such as online, the classified section of the newspaper, or through friends and family members. Joining new clubs and organizations allows you to meet and widen your circle of acquaintances, which will give you more opportunities to learn from people different from yourself. People tend to read and write about things they enjoy. Joining a book club, for instance, encourages you to engage in something you normally wouldn’t, like reading a book that is outside of your interests.
Using Technology
Watch television. By now, television is one of the most widely used sources to gain general knowledge. Although there is plenty of questionable viewing content on television, there is still plenty of newsworthy and entertaining programming available as a rich resource for information. Try to stay diverse in watching television by watching news programs such as CNN, public broadcasting (PBS), game shows (Jeopardy), and educational programming (National Geographic) with documentaries, films based on facts, and instructional programming (Food Network) to expand your general knowledge. Watching television is largely a passive exercise that does not require a lot of thinking. So, try to limit the number of hours sitting in front of the television.
Utilize search engines. Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing enable you to find any answer to any question within seconds. Routinely use these internet sites to discover current news, trends, and topics of interests. Many of these search engines are one-stop shops for information. Not only can you search for current affairs with up-to-date information, you can also find out about entertainment, fashion, sports, and what is popularly trending on the internet. Reader Poll: We asked 227 wikiHow readers, and 66% of them agreed that the best way to seek out information is by searching online or using search engines. [Take Poll]
Sign up for news alerts. Several news outlets that post updated information regularly often have a special notification system that you can subscribe to. Anytime news appears under a category that interests you, the alert will notify you on an electronic device like a cell phone, keeping you updated with current information. Some of the more popular news alert sites are Google and Fox News, along with BBC and AP News.
Play online games or programs that challenge your knowledge. Choose a game or program that involves learning new information, rules, or strategies. There are many online sites that offer crossword puzzles, trivia, and other games that will test your general knowledge. There are several websites that provide quizzes on general knowledge, current events, and history. Try taking one of these quizzes on a daily basis to test your general knowledge.
Register for an online class. Nowadays with the free flow of information, you can join a full-fledged university class online with little or no cost to you. Several top universities like MIT, Harvard, and Stanford provide top-of-the line courses in everything from philosophy to politics in MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) platforms. There are currently more than ten million people taking online MOOC classes. By joining, you will be able to communicate with people from all over the world. Taking a MOOC course will give you updated information on various specializations and the possibility of discovering new interests. MOOC’s provide an opportunity for you learn alongside a group of diverse professions and professionals for every corner of the globe.
Attending a University
Decide on a general education program. Nearly all universities and colleges offer a general education program or classes outside of an area of expertise that cover a broad range of topics and approaches. The material taught in general education courses focuses on interdisciplinary information so that you can gain knowledge and apply it to real life situations. If you decide to attend university, make sure you take classes in a variety of subjects to broaden your general knowledge. Taking a diversity of classes has shown to make an impact in job interviews, collaborating with colleagues, and contributing to a community.
Join clubs, organizations, and honoraries. College campuses offer many opportunities to join one or several different clubs in whatever you are interested in. Surrounding yourself with people of different backgrounds, ethnicities, and interests will only help you to gain more general knowledge. Extracurricular activities enhance and refresh your mind and body which, in turn, will increase your ability to immerse yourself with new knowledge. Search for other ways to expand your general knowledge by looking out for service projects, event planning, or writing a newsletter. These activities will help you to stay up to date on relevant information.
Interact with faculty and staff. Faculty knows how people learn, or at least they know more than most. It is not uncommon to find students in faculty offices during meeting hours to discuss lecture, assignments, or just about anything else. Make yourself one of those students who visit faculty during office hours. You will learn more than you ever imagined. Check your syllabus. That is where professors post their office hours for that semester. Or, you can usually find a schedule posted to their door or at the department assistant’s office. If you cannot meet during the assigned hours, call or email your professor to make an appointment during a different time.
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