The questions people actually ask
Including the ones that are inconvenient for us. A course about learning that cannot stand a direct question is not worth taking.
One thing to know before you read
LEARNIS Mind is a method, not a promise. Everything below describes instruments, structure and rules — what happens, who does it, how it can be checked. None of it says how far any particular person will get, because that depends on what that person does with the instruments. The answers below are the ones the whole network works from.
What a page like this cannot answer
- What the path costs where you live, and what the figure includes.
- How long each phase takes against your own calendar.
- Whether the nearest centre has dates that fit your school or working year.
- What to do in your specific situation — a certified specific learning difficulty, an examination in six weeks, a teenager who is not convinced.
- Anything you would rather ask a person than read on a page.
What exactly is LEARNIS Mind?
It is the Learning Skills path of the Learnis network. It brings together two bodies of work: the strategic learning method developed over twenty years of courses, and C1, the module built on the Fondamentali dell'Apprendimento® with CNR-IRPI researchers together with the SaperCapire team. The two are integrated, not stacked one after the other — the fundamentals become the base on which the rest is built.
Is this a memory course?
No, although memory techniques are part of it and they are the part people remember from the presentation. Memorising is one step of seven. The object of the path is comprehension and the ownership of your own method: being able to decide how to approach a text, and to know why you decided that. A person who only takes away the memory techniques has taken away the smallest piece.
What does ALCUORE mean, and why is it not translated?
ALCUORE is the sequence that organises the whole act of studying: Attenzione e Atteggiamento, Lettura, Comprensione, Unificazione, Organizzazione, Ricordo, Espressione — attention and attitude, reading, comprehension, unification, organisation, recall, expression. It stays in Italian in every country because it is the label used in the teaching material and in every classroom of the network. An invented English acronym would look tidier on a website and would break the correspondence with what you are actually taught.
What is AMOS?
AMOS — Abilità e Motivazione allo Studio — is a profiling battery published by Erickson and developed by Cornoldi, De Beni and Meneghetti. It describes study habits in depth, analysing a person's prevailing cognitive styles: the strategies they actually use, how coherent their method is, how they organise themselves, what they believe about their own ability and how they handle anxiety.
Is the tutoring just private lessons?
No, and this is the most common misunderstanding. The tutor does not go through the subject with you and does not do the homework alongside you. The tutor works on how you approach that material — the strategy, not the syllabus. If you also need help with the subject itself, that can be arranged, but it is a different service and it is agreed as such. The two things being confused is how a method course quietly turns into paid repetition.
How is the path organised?
In four phases. A free presentation, where you try the thing before deciding anything. An individual phase of profiling and preparation, with the AMOS battery, a read-back of your results and a first one-to-one session. An immersive weekend — the part everyone has heard about — inside a classroom structure of about 48 hours in total, and not the finish line. And then the months that follow, starting with a first package of seven hours of one-to-one tutoring on your own material, to be used within ninety days: the phase that decides whether the rest was worth doing. For twelve months from your first participation you can also re-attend the course.
Is it only for students?
No. Learning is the ability that sits underneath the others, and the people who come to us include adults preparing for a professional examination or a public competition, people going back to studying after years away, and professionals who have to absorb technical material quickly. The method does not change according to age; the material you apply it to does.
My child does not want to do it. Should I enrol them anyway?
No. This is the one question on which we will argue against our own commercial interest. A method is a set of instruments: it changes what is possible, not what someone decides to do. A young person who has been signed up as a punishment, or to fix a situation they have not agreed is a problem, will sit through the weekend and change nothing. Bring them to the free presentation and let them decide. If they say no, that is a real answer and it should be respected.
Do I have to buy anything to attend the presentation?
No. The presentation is free and carries no obligation. Enrolment only ever happens through a written contract, and you are entitled to read it before signing it.
What if I change my mind after enrolling?
The withdrawal rights provided by the law of your country apply, and the conditions specific to the course are set out in the enrolment contract. Ask for the contract before you sign it and read the section on withdrawal: any organisation that is reluctant to hand it over has told you something important.
Who teaches the course, and how are they trained?
Instructors and tutors go through a structured path — theory, practical exercises, work alongside more experienced colleagues, written tests and simulations — and a period of supervision before they work on their own. The network runs its own schools for both roles, today the LEARNIS Master and the LEARNIS Tutor School, precisely so that the standard does not depend on which centre you walk into. Continuing training is part of the role and is paid for by the company, not by the trainer.
Is it true that you work with CNR researchers?
The relationship with CNR-IRPI began in 2018 and takes the form of a licence to use the material and to train the trainers. The material concerns the Fondamentali dell'Apprendimento® and was developed by CNR-IRPI researchers together with the SaperCapire team. We are careful with the wording because the distinction matters: it is an authorisation to use and to teach, not a validation of our courses.
Does it work? Where can I see the evidence?
The Research page lists what exists, with dates and institutions: the CNR-IRPI collaboration, an observational study on 1,007 young adults presented at the AIRIPA congress in 2020, the academic recognition granted by the online university IUL, and the instruments we use. The same page states what each of those does and does not establish.
Who is behind the course, and how do I check them?
Learnis is an international network of companies working in education, active on three markets. Its history, including the difficult parts, is set out on the Our History page. The code of ethics that binds every centre is published, each country has an independent ethical guarantor and an external Ethics Committee sits above the national structures. Participants' accounts are published in full and the process by which they are collected has been examined by a third party. None of this requires you to take our word for anything.
Is there a guarantee?
There are protections, and they are listed on the Guarantee page: what you can see before paying, how participants' accounts are handled, which rules exist and who enforces them.
Ask the rest in person
The presentation is free and there is nothing to sign. It is also the easiest place to ask the questions we have not managed to answer here.
