4 Easy Ways to Get Study Materials on Any Subject

When you’ve been given an assignment on any subject, the first hurdle you’ll have to cross on your way to submitting an excellent report that’ll earn you high grades is to find sufficient information on the subject. Even though the internet has made the process much more convenient than it was a few years ago, it can still be pretty hectic, especially if the subject is not one that’s very popular.

There’s nothing to worry about though, since you can find enough study materials on even the most obscure subjects if you know your way around. Here are a few tips to help you get all the materials you need and more:

1. Google Advanced Search Commands

Instead of just putting in your keywords and banging the “enter” key, there are some advanced commands with which you can streamline your search to get the most relevant results. The first one you’ll likely be using the most is narrowing down the results by file format, of which PDF is going to be the most common format for academic materials. Simply by adding “filetype:pdf” to your search query, you’ll only get results that link directly to PDF files. You can use the same to find files of other formats, or learn all the other advanced commands for even better filtering capabilities.

2. Open Courseware

Many universities and other higher education institutions offer free, open-access courseware on their websites, and that’s usually a good place to start when you can’t find documents via the usual Google search. You can use Google search to target those institutions or you can go directly to the websites of those institutions (MIT is a popular one) and search for a course that would likely cover the subject you have in mind, then download the materials you find and read through them.

3. Google Scholar

This is very popular among academics, and for good reason. It’s a massive archive of academic publications (books, journals, presentations etc.) and there’s unlikely to be any topic you’re searching for which you won’t find publications on by using Google Scholar. It’s the first place to go if you’re looking for economics homework help, for instance. There are myriad functions, but the key ones to keep in mind are that you can filter your searches by type of publication, date of publication and other parameters. In addition, you can add articles and books to a virtual library and also set up alerts for new publications to help you keep up with any new discoveries and innovations in your topics of interest.

4. YouTube

This might not be the most intuitive place to go to when you need academic info, but there’s actually a ton of channels devoted to publishing academic content on every topic from medicine and accounting to law and space science. You can find channels run by academic institutions, government agencies and private companies or individuals, then subscribe to them for regular updates on the topics they cover. By using your search queries creatively, the way you would with a regular Google search, you’ll also be able to narrow your results significantly, to the most relevant.