Work in shorter time blocks of say 30 to a max of 45 minutes and take a break after that.
In the last 5 minutes review the work you've just done and in the beginning of th e next 5 minutes review again. This helps with refreshing the mind and helps with incubation.
Also rotate the subjects the one you are having trouble with probably needs more incubation time. Create a time table where you spend a specific amount of time on each subject.
Things have a habit of growing into the amount of time you think you have for it. By being more specific with your personal daily deadline, e.g. I'm going to study 'this; for the next 45 minutes and at the end of 45 minutes I'm going to stop whether I'm finished or not. Will ultimately pull you back to your intention of getting to know the subject in a reasonable amount of time.
From the sounds of it you're learning everything for the first time. Remember that learning builds in layers and unless you take regular breaks the mind becomes overwhelmed. And a point to learning the mind remembers best the first thing that it learnt during a study session and the last. So it stands to reason to have more starts and finishes than one long winded study period.
Research also shows studying one thing longer than 4 hours (even with breaks) has an unlearning effect. You crush what you've already learnt so make sure you have an effective study time table.
Avoid overworking your mind map. Remember it's purpose is to help you to recall the information if you're too busy being creative you forget the relevance of why you put it on the mind map, use the first thing that comes to mind and save the creative parts for the review when you add links to reinforce the information that hasn't taken hold.
As for activation seeming to take as long as regular reading... since most people fail to actually read their textbooks using a fingers crossed I hope I learnt it in class method... how can you tell it's taking almost as long.
The value of the information and how you resonate with it (it's making more sense) is definately worth the time and with more actual experience in activation your time will be shorter too.
Make a time table and slot all your subjects for action. Aim for your best passing grade in each so don't favour one over the others and working with all the subjects gives you unimagined connectors that may help the subject you're having difficulty with.
Alex
