Education can be enriching and transformative. It can also be downright excruciating—even demoralizing. When it comes to learning, why are some of us lovers and some of us haters?

Welcome to the world of educational psychology, which uses science to explore what causes people to engage and learn, and what we can do to make learning opportunities more enjoyable and impactful. Spoiler alert: Teachers can only do so much. Students, too, must take control of their learning. Unfortunately, many of us never, ahem, learned the skills to do just that.

Enter Tesia Marshik, a specialist in educational and developmental psychology. Her eye-opening Audible Original, Learning How to Learn, teaches you how to apply research-based tactics to improve your learning in any context, whether you’re in a typical classroom setting, pursuing a professional development opportunity, or working your way toward accomplishing almost any personal goal imaginable. By challenging basic assumptions about learning, you’ll develop effective strategies for studying smarter, staying focused, taking notes, learning online, and dodging the common pitfalls that keep so many of us from growing into our full potential.

Think you’re not a math person, or no good at photography, or too old to learn a new language, or that you simply can’t bake to save your life? Think again.