What to Do When You Don't Understand the Material
You've read the same paragraph four times. The words are all familiar, but the concept just isn't clicking. You highlight it, move on, and hope it makes sense later. It usually doesn't.
Getting stuck is one of the most frustrating parts of studying, and most people handle it in the worst possible way - they either skip the material and hope it won't show up on the test, or they re-read it over and over until the words blur together. Neither approach works.
Being stuck isn't a sign that you're not smart enough. It's a signal that you need a different approach. Here's what actually works when the material won't cooperate.
Step 1: Identify Exactly What You Don't Understand
"I don't understand this chapter" is too vague to fix. You need to find the specific point where your understanding breaks down.
Try explaining the concept out loud, starting from the beginning. At some point, you'll hit a wall - a step in the logic where you can't explain what happens next or why. That wall is your actual problem. Everything before it is probably fine. Everything after it is probably only confusing because this piece is missing.
This technique leverages what's known as the "Feynman method" - explaining a concept in plain language to expose gaps in your understanding. Chi et al. (1989) found that students who self-explained material while studying learned significantly more than those who simply read it. The act of articulating your understanding - and discovering where it breaks - is itself a powerful learning strategy.
Step 2: Check for Missing Prerequisites
Most comprehension failures aren't actually about the current material. They're about something you were supposed to learn earlier that didn't stick.
If you're struggling with drug interactions, the real gap might be in basic pharmacokinetics. If cardiac pathophysiology isn't making sense, you might need to revisit normal cardiac physiology. If statistics formulas seem random, you may be missing the conceptual framework that gives them meaning.
Ask yourself: "What do I need to already know for this to make sense?" Then honestly assess whether you actually know those things. Often, spending thirty minutes shoring up a prerequisite concept will make the current material click immediately.
This is a common finding in educational research. Ambrose et al. (2010) documented that insufficient prior knowledge is one of the most frequent - and most overlooked - barriers to learning. Students and instructors often assume the prerequisite knowledge is in place when it's full of holes.
Step 3: Find a Different Explanation
If you've read the textbook explanation three times and it still doesn't click, reading it a fourth time won't help. You need a different angle.
This doesn't mean finding an easier explanation - it means finding one that frames the concept differently. Different explanations emphasize different aspects of a concept, use different analogies, and connect to different things you already know. The explanation that works for you might not be the one your textbook chose.
Here's where to look:
- Another textbook. Different authors present concepts in genuinely different ways. Your library or a quick search can surface alternative treatments of the same topic.
- Video explanations. Seeing a concept demonstrated visually and talked through step-by-step can fill gaps that text alone can't. Look for instructors who explain the reasoning behind each step, not just the steps themselves.
- Study groups or forums. Sometimes a peer's casual explanation hits differently than a textbook's formal one. They might use an analogy or frame the concept in a way that matches your existing knowledge structure.
- Work through an example first. Instead of trying to understand the abstract principle, find a concrete worked example and trace through it step by step. Sweller et al. (1998) demonstrated that studying worked examples is often more effective than trying to solve problems independently when you're still building understanding.
Step 4: Break It Into Smaller Pieces
Complex concepts are usually built from simpler components. If the whole concept isn't making sense, take it apart.
Identify the individual components and make sure you understand each one in isolation before trying to put them back together. If you're struggling with the cardiac conduction system, make sure you understand each node and pathway individually before trying to trace the full sequence. If a multi-step calculation confuses you, verify that you can do each individual step before chaining them together.
Cognitive load theory (Sweller, 1988) explains why this works. Your working memory can only handle a limited amount of new information at once. When you try to learn a complex concept as a single unit, you overload your working memory and nothing sticks. Breaking it into manageable pieces keeps each learning task within your cognitive capacity.
Step 5: Use Concrete Examples and Analogies
Abstract concepts become clearer when you anchor them to something concrete. If you're studying a new principle, find or create a real-world analogy.
For instance, if you're struggling with the concept of osmotic pressure, think about what happens when you put a dried sponge in water. If receptor binding is confusing, think of a lock and key - the receptor is the lock, the ligand is the key, and different keys fit different locks.
Research on analogical reasoning (Gentner & Smith, 2012) shows that analogies don't just make concepts easier to remember - they help you understand the underlying structure. A good analogy maps the relationships between elements, not just the elements themselves, giving you a framework for thinking about the concept.
The best analogies are ones you create yourself, because the process of finding a good parallel forces you to deeply understand the structure of what you're studying.
Step 6: Test Yourself on What You Do Understand
When you're stuck on one concept, it's tempting to stop studying altogether. Don't. Instead, shift your focus to testing yourself on the material you have understood.
This serves two purposes. First, it's productive - you're strengthening your knowledge of other material instead of wasting time re-reading something that isn't working. Second, it often indirectly helps with the concept you're stuck on. Testing yourself on related material activates relevant knowledge networks in your brain, and sometimes the stuck concept clicks into place once the surrounding knowledge is stronger.
Karpicke and Blunt (2011) showed that retrieval practice improves learning not just for the specific facts retrieved, but for related concepts as well. Building strength in adjacent areas can provide the scaffolding you need for the difficult concept.
Step 7: Sleep On It (Literally)
If you've tried multiple approaches and the concept still isn't clicking, step away. Take a break, study something else, and come back to it tomorrow.
This isn't a motivational platitude - it's neuroscience. During sleep, your brain consolidates memories and integrates new information with existing knowledge (Walker & Stickgold, 2010). Concepts that felt impossible before sleep often feel clearer after it. The brain continues processing information offline, making connections and strengthening neural pathways even when you're not actively studying.
The same principle applies to shorter breaks. Even stepping away for thirty minutes and doing something unrelated can help. Your subconscious mind continues working on the problem while your conscious attention is elsewhere.
When to Move On (And When Not To)
Not every concept you encounter will be equally important for your exam. If you've spent significant time on something and it's still not clicking, make a strategic decision:
- Is this concept foundational? If other topics build on it, you need to keep working at it - try the strategies above, seek help from an instructor or tutor, and don't move forward until you've got it.
- Is this concept isolated? If it's a standalone topic that doesn't affect your understanding of other material, flag it for later review and move on to more productive study. Come back to it after you've built more surrounding knowledge.
- Will it likely appear on the exam? Be honest about the probability. Spending four hours on a topic worth one question while neglecting topics worth twenty questions is poor time management, even if the difficult topic bothers you.
The Bottom Line
Getting stuck doesn't mean you can't learn the material. It means your current approach to that material isn't working, and you need to change your angle of attack. Identify the specific gap, check for missing prerequisites, find alternative explanations, break the concept into pieces, and give your brain time to process.
The students who succeed aren't the ones who never get stuck. They're the ones who know what to do when they are.