Whether you’re trying to learn how to play guitar or write the best essay ever, YouTube will have a tutorial for you to follow. But how reliable are YouTube tutorials? This article will show you how to figure out if the video you’re watching will teach you what you need to know.
Signs of a Bad Tutorial
Now let’s say you want to learn how to write the best essay of your life. This is harder to learn through video, and what you find on YouTube might not be the best advice to follow. Make sure to look for these three things that will tell you if a tutorial isn’t worth following.
The comments section is full of complaints
In a YouTube comment section, you’ll find two groups: people who loved the video, and people who hated it. A quick scroll through will tell you if the tutorial is helpful or not- you want to see people thanking the uploader, not insulting them.
The teacher isn’t really a teacher
You’re a student who needs help- would you really want another student to teach you? What works for them won’t necessarily work for you. With something as important as school work, a professional is the best way to go. Instead of YouTube, remember that university campuses offer on-site tutoring or if you are short on time you can opt for using an online academic coach.
You need something specific
YouTube tutorials are great for general things, but the more specific you get, the less likely you are to find something helpful. Imagine you need to write an essay about the Industrial Revolution: you find five good essay-writing videos, two of which discuss history, and none of them mention the Industrial Revolution. YouTube can help if you need to learn the basics, but for more complicated stuff, you’ll get the best essay from a service like Essaypro.com.
Some things can be learned really well through YouTube, and some things need a more professional touch. Next time you don’t know where to turn, use this quick and handy guide to decide what will help you most.
Signs of a Good Tutorial
Let’s say you want to play guitar- YouTube has thousands of videos that can teach you the basics. So many options can be overwhelming, so look out for these three signs that the tutorial you’re watching is a good one.
The teacher is experienced
There are lots of professionals who make YouTube tutorials or put their classes online for free. Try to find a video by someone who has made multiple tutorials and has a lot of views. These two things mean that they’ve established themselves on YouTube as a good teacher.
Other people say the same thing
If someone in a tutorial says something that doesn’t sound quite right to you, Google it. One of two things are going to happen; other websites will have the same advice, or they’ll warn you to not do what the YouTuber just said to do. If you can find the same point in multiple places, it’s probably legit.
You can learn visually
When you learn how to play guitar, you want to be able to see things like where to put your fingers for different chord formations. This is the kind of thing that take ages to understand when you read them, but only take a second to click when you see someone else doing it. A good YouTube tutorial won’t just tell you how to do something, it’ll show you.