My approach, which I don't claim to be necessarily the fastest, somewhat resembles what you first mentioned (going slowly, looking up every word etc.). I recomm

My approach, which I don't claim to be necessarily the fastest, somewhat resembles what you first mentioned (going slowly, looking up every word etc.). I recommend the following: 1. Give yourself time and accept that there will be things where you will get terribly stuck. 2. Ideally work with other people, or find other people trying to learn the same thing that you can exchange meaningful questions and comments with. 3. Allocate chunks of uninterrupted study time every day, but don't force yourself to hit rigid targets (e.g. I need to do 1 chapter a day etc.). 4. Go through the material slowly and never gloss over smth that you didn't understand. How do you know you understood it? Try to explain it to somebody else, try to explain it to yourself in the simplest way possible, ask yourself any question no matter how dumb, no matter how absurd regarding that thing. 5. When you're stuck on something try to ask other people, use the internet etc. If you're still stuck make a note of the thing and come back to it not too far in the future. 6. Make sure that you don't let too much time pass without actually applying the knowledge. If you're reading a textbook try to do the exercises, even the weird looking ones. Once you know enough, make a little project, re-implement something yourself, prove things on your own without looking at the textbook etc. 7. Try to review things later on, even if you understood them well. You will often see them in a new light. 8. Use multiple reference texts for the same kind of material, but try to have one main one that you're following closely. I hope you will find some of these ideas useful.