How to make more of Pluralsight

Pluralsight subscriptions are “all you can eat” type of deals, so in order to get value for money you need to use it regularly, much like a gym membership.

Study Tips

The most important feature for effective studying and use of your time is the variable playback speed. The software includes time stretching so that the pitch remains the same even at double speed. Play around with different speeds until you find the quickest speed that you are comfortable with. Don’t play it so fast that you have trouble understanding the author, but do play it a step faster if you have no difficulty understanding.

The best playback speed will vary from course to course, depending not just on the speed at which the author speaks, but the strength of their accent and the complexity of the topic that they are teaching.

For some easy courses x2.0 is fine, and for others I watched at x0.9 and still needed to sometimes pause and even rewind.

Increasing the playback speed just a little can add up to a big time saving. For example, if you watch “Mastering C# 4.0″ at x1.3 instead of x1, you’ll save yourself almost 3 hours!

Many Pluralsight courses include captions. I find that being able to read the information at the same time as hearing it reinforces the message. If English is not your first language, you can display it in any language that Google translate supports.

Which Courses Should I Watch?

There are so many courses that it is impossible to watch them all and you will need to be selective about what courses to invest your time in. I think it is important to be mostly watching courses that you have a natural interest in. Not only will it be more fun, you will find it easier to learn and have more enthusiasm to keep learning more.

Don’t pay too much attention to level attributed to the course. This is very subjective and what one person considers beginner another will consider intermediate or even advanced. However the learning paths are useful informing you which courses to watch before the more advanced ones.

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http://www.outlierdeveloper.com/making-the-most-of-pluralsight/