Rav Nahman of Uman brings a midrash that says after the event of the Golden Calf God says to Israel, "You have lost the 'we will do,' so now at least hold onto 'we will hear.'" אבדתם את הנעשה עכשיו תאחזו בנשמע [note 1] And he brings a proof from that that hearing is even more important than self learning--
I have not mentioned this in this blog before because it is hard to get to hear a true Torah scholar give over Torah lessons. But I know that it was by listening to the son in law of Rav Friefeld in Shar Yashuv, and Rav Shmuel Berenbaum (Mir) and David Bronson in Uman that opened the door for me to any degree of understanding of Torah-- what so ever.
And in fact I found the same thing in my STEM studies. Listening does a lot more than reading the text yourself, even you learn by saying the words and going on for the fast session --or doing lots of review. Listening to is better.
[note 1]At Mount Sinai, Israel had said, "We will do and hear all the words of the Covenant."
