Learning to apply theories / concepts

As a grad student, my learning goal is to understand the underlying concept behind a technique so that it can be applied or improvised to solve a problem. Most assignments, tests and exams are heavy on problems and as any grad student knows, never straight forward. Apart from being motivated by the desire to do well in exams, I am always driven by the fear that I will have no clue on how to apply this in a real world scenario. A concept can't be applied unless it is well understood, and as a grad student, time is precious - so learning quickly is just as important. I recently came across a blog by Cal Newport that has tips on achieving just this.