How students can learn any skill effectively through self-study, without wasting months.
Learning a skill on your own is entirely possible today, but most people go about it inefficiently, spending months consuming tutorials without ever becoming competent. The difference between effective and ineffective self learning comes down to a few principles, chiefly that skills are built by doing, not by watching.
Start by getting clear on what exactly you want to be able to do, because a specific goal like build a simple website or edit a short video is far more useful than a vague aim to learn coding or learn editing. A clear target tells you what to learn and what to skip, which matters because most fields contain far more material than you need at the start. Then find one good resource and follow it rather than collecting many, since jumping between courses creates the illusion of progress without depth.
The most important principle is to practise from the very beginning. Apply what you learn immediately, build small things, and accept that your early attempts will be poor, because producing bad work is how skill develops. A powerful approach is to learn just enough to start a small real project, then learn the rest as the project demands it, since learning driven by an actual need sticks far better than learning in the abstract. Seek feedback on your work, from communities, mentors, or people already skilled, because feedback reveals blind spots and accelerates improvement dramatically.
Finally, be consistent and patient. Regular practice, even short daily sessions, beats occasional long ones, and real competence takes months rather than days, so expect a phase where you feel slow and incompetent, because everyone passes through it. Track your progress with things you have actually made, since a growing body of work is the truest measure of learning.
Example: Someone learning video editing progresses far faster by editing five short real videos than by watching twenty hours of tutorials without ever opening the software.
One practical tip: Learn just enough to start a real project, then learn the rest as the project demands. Doing the work builds skill, while endlessly consuming tutorials does not.