(
memory, concentration, reading & listening, exams, time use )
These “power tool” ideas for
studying really work, and
your
improved learning skills will help you immediately
and
will continue paying dividends for a long time.
You
can read the following sections (*) in any order:
*
written in 1989 for my book,
Copyright © 1989 by Craig Rusbult (for the entire book, including the original Sections 20.3-20.96)
Copyright
© 1989-2011 by Craig Rusbult (for this page, which is being
revised-and-expanded in 2011)
Using Metacognition in Learning
Strategies (
an update in 2011 )
I've known about metacognition for decades, and recently (since May 2011) I've been examining
the mutual relationships between metacognition, strategies for learning more
effectively, and the process of design that is described in my model of Design
Method.
What is metacognition? When you ask “how can I think and learn more effectively?”
and you think
about thinking with the goal of
improving the quality of your thinking-and-learning, this is metacognition.
In the context of this page about Effective Learning
Skills, the most valuable educational application of
metacognition is "a Cognitive-and-Metacognitive Strategy for Learning that use an
observing-and-improving process of design, with evaluative Quality Checks
(for learning strategies) and Quality Controls (for applications of learning
strategies)
that help you improve the quality of your learning, thinking, and
performance. Learning Strategies are a major part of an overall Strategy
for Self-Education."
A Learning Strategy is described near the end of my Overview
of Design Method, using a framework
that "views metacognition as a person's use
of metacognitive knowledge for the purpose
of metacognitive regulation." After you have defined an objective (such as
wanting to learn more effectively in lectures) and goals (for understanding
more accurately-and-completely, and remembering what you have learned,...), the
next step in developing-and-using a Learning Strategy is to "PREPARE by searching
for strategies about ‘how to learn more in lecture’ from other people (what do
they recommend, and why?)" and
that's the purpose of this page! In fact, I refer to this page:
Here is an example of the metacognitive knowledge you can learn for Preparation: In my page for
Effective Learning Skills [the page you're now reading] the section for Active Listening (which
is part of a section about Active Learning) begins with a brief description of
the similarities and differences between actively reading &
listening; this is followed by an in-depth examination of a strategy for
learning from lectures in 3 phases (by what you do before, during, and after
lectures), including the differences between pre-lecture preparation by using
lecture notes (definitely do this) & textbook reading (maybe do this), and
during lecture the time-sharing & time-shifting (for activities of
listening & seeing, thinking and writing, plus metacognitive observing)
that can help you learn-and-remember more effectively, and how to minimize
distractions that begin externally or internally. [ This
is a summary of what you'll find later in the page if you click the italicized inside-the-page link for Active Listening. ]
If
you want to explore these ideas more thoroughly, here are two options:
• the Cognitive-and-Metacognitive
Strategy for Learning outlined above, which
is preceded by "Combining
Cognition with Metacognition in the Process of Coordinating Design" and a description of five strategies, including
Educational Strategies for Learners and Teachers.
• Active-Learning
Theories and Teaching Strategies which
explains the basic principles of metacognition in a major
section with 3 subsections: What is metacognition, and how is it
useful? Metacognition as a Problem-Solving Approach to Personal
Education & Metacognition and Formative Evaluation.
I.O.U. on
September 8 — Tomorrow afternoon I'll return to revising this page, and
hopefully the revision will be finished by mid-September 2011. Currently
only the section for Active Learning has
been recently revised.
20.3 Memory as a Problem-Solving Tool
Good problem solving requires an “active memory” that
gives you quick, reliable access to essential thinking tools. A good
memory isn't sufficient to
make you an expert problem solver (you also need an effective blending of
creativity with logic) but it is necessary.
To improve your memory, take advantage of original awareness with intention to remember, organization, and review.
STORAGE: ORIGINAL AWARENESS with
INTENTION TO REMEMBER
It is useful to consider memory as a two-step process:
storage and retrieval. If you want to remember something, it must be
“stored” in your memory.
After being introduced to someone, have you ever forgotten
the name? When this happens you typically haven't forgotten the name,
because you never really “had it." But if you listen carefully
(original awareness) and then silently review the name (intention to remember),
the name is now stored in your memory so you can remember it later. When
you find something worth remembering in your reading or problem-solving
practice, stop for a few seconds and review
it before you lose it!
RETRIEVAL: the importance of ORGANIZATION
It's easy to find page 86 of a book, the word “grace” in a
dictionary, or a book in a library, due to organization. Book pages are
in numerical order, dictionary words are alphabetical, and library books are
arranged according to a system (Library of Congress, Dewey Decimal,...).
Logical organization also makes it easier to retrieve information from your
memory. Here is an example.
Quiz #1: For a few seconds, look at these 22
letters: t s e k h a u o e n d y g c a l h t e y n m
Then close your eyes and try to remember all of
them; don't leave any letters out, and don't put any extras in.
If you were given enough time and incentive, you could
memorize these letters. But there is a better way to do it — by using
organization!
Quiz #2: Try to remember these letters after a few
seconds of study: sneaky the lunch dog my ate
Each quiz contains the same 22 letters. So why is
Quiz #2 easier to remember?
1) QUANTITY: It's easier to remember 6 things (in
#2) than 22 things (in #1).
2) MEANING: Simply forming letter-groups isn't
enough. Is it easy to remember letter-groups like “temuy acnh gnte ysol
aek dh"? No, because they are not organized into words that
have meaning. A meaningful
"lunch” is easy to remember, but not nonsensical letter-groups like
“temuy”.
3) STRUCTURE: Can you organize the words of Quiz #2
into a sentence? What does the dog do?
RETRIEVAL: the importance of REVIEW
If you want to remember something (concepts, equations,
problem-solving strategies,...), review it. A balanced combination — with
review distributed throughout
the course, plus a massed cramming
session before the exam — is better than either one alone.
Various types of review offer advantages. For
example, Flash Cards require activity,
Summary Notes provide organization,
and both let you make quick reviews of the entire chapter. Generally,
review is more effective when you are active.
SUMMARY NOTES
One powerful organizing technique is SUMMARY NOTES. To make them, choose the most important ideas from your
textbook, lecture notes and problem-solving practice, then organize these ideas into a unified
summary. Be creative.
If you're writing with a computer, use its advantages: it's
easier for you to revise-and-supplement your notes, and you can make tables (to
show relationships horizontally & vertically), plus other benefits.
Or if you want to make some summaries by hand-writing, you can divide
information into idea-clusters, spread these all over the page, and use spatial
cues to show their relationships; use flowcharts, hierarchy structure,
outlines, tables, or free-form chaos.
Experiment with different kinds of organization.
Personalize your summary. For example, an author may use several pages to
explain a new concept, but you can use a small phrase (that wouldn't make sense
to anyone else) to quickly remind yourself about the main concepts.
Invent and use your own system of symbols ( + - vs !
? / * x arrows linklines ... ), underlining and
circling (of various types), brackets { [ ( , differing print size, and
(one of my favorites) colors.
You can make your summary “from
scratch." Or use a chapter summary in this book [Physics: Power Tools for
Problem Solving] as your starting point, and then
change it in any way you want. Make photocopies of my summary and you'll
feel more free to experiment creatively; if you don't like the changes
you've made, just try it again on another copy by keeping the changes you like,
discarding those you don't, and revising in other ways.
Make a “rough-draft summary” early. Then as you use
these notes for problem-solving, think about how you can change them to make a
new improved version. You may find it freeing to use a pencil for the
rough draft. This encourages creativity because you'll feel more
spontaneous if you know it will be easy to revise the summary later.
In your early summary, include everything you think might
be useful. Then notice which tools are used most often when you solve
problems, and edit the summary accordingly. Eventually, you'll want to travel lightly so your summary
includes only the tools you really need: no more and no less. When you
eliminate “excess clutter” the important ideas stand out more clearly.
You'll learn a lot during the “choose and organize”
process of making summary notes. And when you study it, a summary is
useful in many ways. It will help you to:
1) memorize.
When information is condensed in a small area you can literally see the visual and logical
interconnections, and it is easier to understand relationships. Because
the information is organized on paper, it is easier to organize in your mind,
which makes it easier to remember! And summary notes are short, so you
can do many quick yet thorough reviews.
2) develop
problem-solving strategies. Most of the tools you need are
available in clear view, so you can focus your attention on how to use them.
3) acquire more
knowledge. New information is easier to understand when it is
related to what you already know, if it is a variation on a familiar theme, or
is a logical consequence of a principle you understand. Summary notes
organize the essential ideas into a framework, providing a structure where you
can insert details and new ideas.
a Section Summary: The best way to insure good
recall is good preparation, to achieve storage. The final step of
“retrieval” is usually easy if you've done a good job with the earlier
stages: 1) learn with
intention-to-remember, 2) organize the
information (with intrinsic logic or an external system), 3) review actively and often, using
appropriate cues.
Other memory-improving tips are
given in Sections 20.4 (the
effects of interest and motivation), 20.5 (remembering
ideas from reading and lectures), and 20.93 (principles
for customizing & minimizing this book's flashcard cues, using sensory
cues, plus memory tricks & systems).
20.4 Concentration
According to the Random House Dictionary, concentration is “exclusive attention to
one object” and to concentrate is
“to bring all efforts, faculties, etc., to bear on one thing or
activity." Good concentration is an extremely valuable thinking
tool.
Interest and Activity
Do you have to “try to concentrate” when you watch the
climax of an exciting movie, or when you're in the middle of a fascinating
conversation? No; if you are truly interested in an activity, good
concentration is natural and effortless.
In her excellent book “On Becoming an Educated Person,”
Virginia Voeks describes how interest-and-activity helps you learn more -- and
have more fun -- when you read: “Start with an intent to make the very
most you can from whatever you read. Treat the author as you do your
friends. When talking with a friend, you listen attentively and
eagerly. You watch for contributions of value and are sensitive to
them. You actively respond to his ideas with ones of your own.
Together you build new syntheses."
You can read with similar expectations and results.
Expect the author to present facts you had not known before, to offer new
ideas, to give new slants on old problems and to formulate new problems.
When alert to these things, you will see them. Reading becomes
refreshingly stimulating fun. Of course, you can use this positive
attitude for all of your studying. Listening to a lecture becomes an
exciting conversation, reviewing flashcards is a self-testing game, making a
summary is a chance to be logical-and-creative with no grading pressure, and
solving problems is a fun, idea-stimulating challenge.
Ignoring Distractions
The human mind responds to sensory input (sight, sound,...) and
also constantly generates its own ideas. When these mental activities
interfere with what you are trying to think about, it causes external distraction (due to sensory input) or internal distraction (due to your thinking),
respectively. By using metacognition (being aware of your thinking, and thinking about it) you
can more accurately understand why you're being distracted, and how you can
maximize your concentration where you want to focus.
The best way to cope with either kind of distraction is to
provide competition, with interest and activity. During an interesting
conversation it is easy to totally ignore distractions (or tell them to “go
away, don't bother me now, I'm busy") and keep good concentration.
When you develop an interest in what you're studying, distractions won't have a
chance. And if you are extremely active (reading, listening, thinking,
reviewing, note-taking, ...) your mind is so filled with thoughts about
physics that there is “no room” left for a distraction to squeeze into.
If you have a valuable thought about a non-physics topic,
quickly write it down. The thought is on paper as a reminder, so you
don't have to worry about forgetting it and you can return to studying with
full concentration. Later, look at the paper and give the thought your
undivided attention.
Taking notes during a lecture
requires a combination of externally and externally directed
concentration. You must receive information (listen), process it (think)
and preserve it (write). Section 20.5 discusses
ways to improve your note-making skill: prepare before the lecture,
concentrate during it, and review afterward.
If possible, study in a quiet place. But when noise
occurs, ignore it and remember that your own response (of interest or
irritation) is often the main distraction, not the noise itself. If you
learn to concentrate despite noise, you increase your own freedom because you
can study in a wider variety of situations, independent of other people's
actions. This will also increase the freedom of others, since you can
give them your “permission” to do what they want.
BUILDING UP GOOD CONCENTRATION: First, practice
high-quality concentration under ideal conditions, like an easy interesting
subject for a short time in a quiet place. Then practice keeping good
concentration when you're in non-ideal situations, until you can study a
difficult boring subject for a long time in a noisy place. { A
similar “building up” strategy can be used to improve many other skills.}
Fully
Alive!
Do you ever think “when I'm not studying I feel like I should be,
and when I am studying I wish I wasn't"? If there is conflict
between your perceptions of what you “should” do and what you want to do, it
will cause a waste of mental and emotional effort, like two tug-of-war teams
pulling in opposite directions.
The key to resolving this conflict is balance. All work and no play (or
vice versa) does not lead to a happy, productive, full life. Don't make
yourself choose between work and play. Do both with enthusiasm!
Studying is a two-step, two-level process: 1) just
do it, 2) do it with gusto!
You can make yourself study with willpower and the
procrastination-avoiding techniques of Section 20.7. To reach the gusto
level, which is more efficient and more fun, generate interest with the
“positive attitude” that was discussed earlier, and generate motivation with a
“piecework incentive” attitude.
When you are paid by the hour, you earn the same amount of
money no matter how slow or fast you work. But with a piecework salary
the more you produce the more you earn, so you get to harvest the rewards of
your own efficiency.
Studying is a piecework activity. If you are
efficient, you automatically receive a higher “learning per hour” salary --
you'll learn a lot quickly, and will feel a real satisfaction about
studying. Later, when you “play” you can relax and enjoy it because you
won't be nagged by worries about unfinished schoolwork.
Be fully alive! Wherever you are, be all
there. Whatever you're doing, do it fully.
Factors
that contribute to Success in Physics
Motivation is important, but just wanting something
doesn't make it happen.
This diagram shows some of the factors that contribute to
success in physics:
Many arrows point toward the first box because many
factors, including success in physics, affect your self image, values and
goals. These in turn influence your decisions about the time you'll spend
studying physics, and what your attitude is during this time. The
quantity and quality of your studying (plus natural ability and previous
background) determine your knowledge of physics and problem solving skill, and
(along with exam-taking skill) your performance on exams.
Try to learn from each exam so the next time you will do
better in any part of the cycle ( self image, time & attitude, tools,
exam skill) that needs improving. Physics tools are interdependent, so an
improvement in one part of the cycle also improves other parts of it and your
overall skill can improve rapidly.
For example, if you're good at doing something you'll
probably like it (this is the opposite of “sour grapes"), and if you like
it you'll usually become better at doing it. When you break into this
cycle by improving your “attitude while studying” your exam scores will also
improve, which makes it easier to be enthusiastic about studying for the next
exam, and you're into a very nice cycle.
It helps when you have hope, when can see progress toward
“knowing your stuff,” because you have a reason for realistic confidence and
hope, and enthusiasm.
Factors that contribute to
Concentration
Concentration is a “master skill” that affects everything you do. If you
have good concentration (represented by *'s on the diagram above) you will learn more during study and
perform better on exams. But what is good concentration? You don't
get it by “trying to concentrate", but by focusing on what you are
doing, as you search for insight and use problem solving tools effectively and study actively (20.5) with the goal of increasing your
knowledge and skill.
As emphasized earlier in “Fully Alive,” motivation is important.
A confident “lack of worrying” usually helps, but it isn't
necessary. You can learn and perform well in spite of anxiety, if you
have a positive action focus.
Instead of worrying about negatives (what you fear, dislike, or want to avoid),
focus your full attention on the “positive” of what you want to accomplish and
the action you're taking to reach that goal.
It is usually good to study enthusiastically with high intensity, trying to learn a lot in
a short time. Use piecework incentive! I've noticed that many of my
best ideas and exam performances come when I'm “trying really hard."
But creative ideas and good performance also occur during
times of relaxation. One
colorful example involves the great scientist Archimedes. Over 2000 years
ago he was appointed to test a king's crown, to find out if it made of pure
gold, as ordered, or if less costly (and lighter-weight) silver had been mixed
in. To complete his analysis, Archimedes needed a way to find the volume
of the crown. For awhile, the answer eluded him. But one day as he
stepped into the bath he saw the water level rise, and suddenly he knew how to
find the crown's volume! Archimedes was so delighted that he jumped from
the water and ran naked into the street gleefully shouting “I found it! I
found it!"
In many situations a mixture of freedom-from-worry and
high intensity, a sort of “relaxed alertness,”
will help you to think more effectively.
physical fitness and mental fitness: There is an
intimate connection between mind and body. Each affects the other.
If you take better care of your body with “whole-person living” that includes
good nutrition, exercise and (of course) getting enough rest, your
concentration and thinking quality will improve.
It isn't easy to know what produces good concentration
because many factors are involved, their effect varies from one person to
another, and the goal of thinking depends on the situation. For example,
the concentration needed for early exam-preparation (reading,
lecture-listening, making summary notes, problem-solving while searching for
insight, ...) is a little different than the concentration you need during
an exam when you must work very fast. This is why Section 20.6 urges you
to do “realistic practice” during late exam-preparation.
There is also a difference between converging thinking, when your thought is focused on a
single well-defined goal, and divergent
thinking, when you search for creative ideas but aren't sure what the
ideas will be until you actually get them. And some types of mental
organization, especially for big projects that synthesize a variety of ideas,
require a special kind of logic that works best when you think clearly but in a
“diffuse” way, with your attention spread over a large area so you see “the big
picture,” the overall patterns and links-between-ideas, how pieces of the
puzzle fit together to form a unified and coherent whole.
As with most skills, a good way to develop concentration
is to search for insights.
Notice what works best for you in different situations, and practice until
fast, clever, reliable thinking becomes a natural and easy habit.
20.5 Active Reading and Listening
Activity makes studying more fun and more efficient.
Other parts of this book discuss the activities of making summary notes, using flash cards, and solving problems. This section
focuses on two important active-learning skills: reading and listening.
Even though some educators
sometimes imply that active learning requires physical activity — that students
must “do” something (by discussing issues, solving problems,...) to learn in an
active way — a major theme of my page about Active Learning is that "cognitive activity
does not requirephysical activity."
Active Reading
FLEXIBILITY: Decide what your purpose is, and adjust your
reading accordingly. You may want to aim for maximum understanding, to
get out of a book everything the author put into it. Often, however, your
goal is more specific: you want to learn the book's main ideas, or look for
a specific fact, gather ideas for a term paper,...
Each goal requires a different approach, but here is a
basic principle: Unless you really need total comprehension, you should
resist the compulsion to read every word in a chapter or every page in a
book. For example, most experts suggest that you preview a textbook chapter to discover its overall
content and structure, before you read the chapter. To do a quick
preview, read the introduction and summary, look at section titles, things in
special print (large, or in bold, italic, underline) and perhaps diagrams,
whatever seems important. This quick preview usually is a pre-reading,
intended to be followed by a reading that is more thorough, although probably
not aiming for total comprehension. Or it could be followed by reading
only some parts of the chapter, or even none of it.
At a broader level, for an entire book you can do a quick survey (similar to a preview) by
looking at the chapter and section titles in the table of contents, plus
reading the back dust-cover and perhaps parts of the introduction or
foreword. Then you can decide whether or not you want to read some parts
(those that seem interesting or useful) or the entire book, and either way you
have the “big picture overview” understanding that you gained from the survey.
To find the places where a book discusses a specific idea,
check the index. Or use the table of contents to find likely chapters,
then check its section headings. To search through text for a specific
idea, form a mental image of the idea and use this as a “search target” when
you scan pages while comparing your search-image with what you're seeing on the
pages, searching for a match.
a summary: When you read with flexibility, you want
to read for a purpose, in a goal-directed
mission that is guided by an appopriate reading strategy.
SPEED:
One simple, effective speed technique is effort — just try to read faster. Another, as described above, is to be flexible so you don't waste time
by reading more closely (and slowly) than is necessary.
You should read groups of words, not one word at a time. This is easier if you focus
your eyes slightly above the tops of the letters; as an experiment, try
reading a line with only the top half of the letters visible, with the bottom
half visible, and compare the results. Or practice making fewer eye fixations per line (your eyes see clearly only when they temporarily
stop) and decreasing the
time-per-stop. Move only your eyes (not your head), don't “lip sync” the words by mentally pronouncing them, and minimize unnecessary backtracking — by contrast with the productive backtracking you use after you realize (due to your metacognitive awareness) that you don't understood what you just read. Most
important, practice
reading faster, to discover effective reading
techniques (this is a cognitive-and-metacognitive Learning Strategy) and to develop good habits. If your college offers
a reading improvement course, it might be a wise use of your time to take it
and get some expert advice.
To QUICKLY LEARN (reading speed plus mental
comprehension-and-remembering) you must gather information quickly with your
eyes by using the “mechanics” suggestions in the previous paragraph, and
process it quickly using the “thinking skills” discussed throughout this
section.
COMPREHENSION:
Accurately interpret the author's ideas. Read carefully, think about
sentence structure and word meaning [use the scientific “technical” definition
of words like velocity, acceleration, force, work, energy and heat, not
“everyday meanings”], study the diagrams, work out the examples &
derivations, and answer the questions that are asked because they are designed
to stimulate your thinking and this will help you learn.
As described in Section 20.95,
at a certain stage of the writing process a writer can make an outline that
is organized in a “visual form” to show relationships (logical, historical,
cause-effect, application, flowchart, hierarchy,...) between ideas. A
writer translates these ideas into a logical sequence so they can be printed in
the linear-format sequence that you read in linear order, one word after
another. If you are a good reader you will try to translate ideas in the
reverse direction, from linear to visual, so you can understand the relationships that the writer is communicating:
VISUAL OUTLINE,
with
relationships
clearly organized
|
—(writer)→
←(reader)—
|
LINEAR WRITING
(so you must find
the
relationships)
|
This ↔ translation is sort of
like “freeze dried” food where water is removed and then (when you want to eat
the food) is restored. When a book is printed in linear form, the
writer's “visual organization” is removed, but it can be restored by a skilled
reader who does linear-to-relational translation, with a logical organization
that often can be represented visually. A good way to do this is by using
“visual thinking” to make summary notes,
as discussed in Section 20.3. { Occasionally a book has
helpful diagrams that show logical structure. }
If you study many levels of geographical mapping (campus,
neighborhood, city, state, region, country, world, solar system, galaxy,
universe) you will discover relationships that are impossible to see when you
only look at one level. Similarly, it is useful to study the organization
of ideas at different levels of detail: sentence, paragraph, subsection,
section, chapter and book.
CRITICAL THINKING:
Don't believe everything you read, but do be ready and eager to learn from your
reading. When a book discusses ideas about politics, philosophy or
religion, use evaluative thinking. This is usually called critical
thinking, but it's important to remember that "critical thinking is not necessarily being ‘critical’ and
negative. In fact, a more accurate term would be evaluative thinking. The result of
evaluation can range from positive to negative, from acceptance to rejection or
anything in-between; critical evaluation can produce a glowing
recommendation." Keep an open mind in trying to understand ideas, think carefully about
facts and their interpretation, consider the author's bias, then think for
yourself and decide what you do and don't want to “accept” as an accurate
description of the way things are in the world.
When a physics book describes how nature behaves, you can
usually be confident the author isn't trying to mislead you. But what can
you do when a textbook theory disagrees with your “common sense
intuition”? After you realize there is a conflict, you can use the same
strategy that a scientist uses to evaluate competing theories: you ask
“Which theory gives a better explanation of the facts?” If you decide to
change one of your previous theories about “the way things are and the way
things behave,” try to apply your new understanding of nature to physics
problems and also to real-life situations outside the classroom.
Also consider different levels
of understanding. Do you understand how a television set
works? If this means a knowledge of how to design or repair it, you'll
probably say NO. But on a practical level, you can say YES if you know
how to plug it in, turn it on, flip the dial, and watch. There are
levels-of-understanding in every area of life. Sometimes it is important
to learn all you can about an idea and try to understand it fully, including
many of the details. At other times it's better to just use what you know and don't worry
about any loose ends and unanswered questions. Knowing what should be put
into each category is an important part of wisdom.
CREATIVE THINKING:
Often you'll want to use a book for inspiration, to help you generate your own
creative ideas. Look for ways to combine your new and old
knowledge. Ask “How does this fit into the structure of what I already
know?”
But remember which ideas are yours, and which are the
author's. Don't "put ideas on her page” that she didn't intend to be
there. And don't plagiarize by claiming that you discovered ideas when
you actually read them in her book.
Creativity and critical
thinking are discussed more fully in my link-pages for Creative Thinking and Critical Thinking.
STOP-AND-GO READING:
A good way to understand & remember ideas is to read for awhile, stop and
think, read more, stop and think, read, stop, and so on. What should you
do when you stop? Think, recite, write.
Think
— Read for awhile, then do one or more of the thinking activities
described throughout this subsection: try to comprehend what the book is
saying, do critical thinking, and let the author's ideas inspire your own
ideas.
Recite
— When you find something worth remembering, look away from the book and
say the idea to yourself, either mentally or aloud. This activity helps
move the idea from temporary short-term
memory where, like the “vanished
name-introduction” of Section 20.3, it
can be easily lost, into permanent long-term
memory. Recitation provides original awareness with intention to
remember and makes you practice the active recall you'll need for answering questions, and solving
problems on exams or in life. Timing is important, because you must
capture ideas while they're still in your short-term memory. Don't wait
until the end of the chapter to do reviews; recite often, during
stop-and-go breaks, while you're reading.
Kenneth Higbee, author of the
excellent book, Your Memory: How It Works and How to Improve It, summarizes the scientific research
on recitation: "The
effectiveness of recitation does not depend on whether the learners are dull or
bright, whether the material is long or short, whether the material is
meaningful or not — in virtually every case it is more efficient to read and
recite than to just read. A recent introductory psychology textbook
discussing learning strategies concluded that ‘recitation is the most powerful
tool in all learning.’ "
Write —
Use a pen or pencil to underline, circle or bracket the most important parts,
or highlight them with a translucent marker. You can also write your own
notes (comments or summaries) in the book's margin or on a separate piece of
paper. If you have good book-marking or notes, it preserves much of the
thinking you've done while reading; this will help when you review or
re-read the chapter.
Will stop-and-go reading slow you down? Yes, but
that can be good. If original awareness is minimal and you don't
understand-and-remember what you read, it would be more appropriate to call it
“wasting time” than “reading”. Activity breaks will help you understand
and remember; because of this increased efficiency of learning, frequent
brief stops can save you time in the long run.
RE-READING:
Use “successive approximations” to get an increasingly accurate and complete
understanding. It is often useful to do three readings: a quick
survey, careful reading, and re-reading. Depending on your time, purpose
and motivation, re-reading can be done carefully, or a quick review of the
important points (use your notes and book-marking as a guide), or just read
what you need for doing problems.
Use a Learning Strategy in
which (like the welder or
skier in my own experiences) you “search for
insight” so you can develop an effective way to combine your reading
(surveying, careful reading, re-reading) with other important activities:
listening to lectures, making a summary, problem-solving practice, and
reviewing for an exam.
Active Listening
This is like active reading, but with two major differences.
During a lecture you can learn from what is said (the content), and
also how it is said (the
style) by paying attention to inflection and rhythm, emphasis, voice pitch,
posture, facial expressions and hand gestures.
You control the pace of your
reading, but a speaker talks as fast as they want. Unless a lecture is
recorded, stop-and-go listening is not practical. Instead you must do
five (or more) things almost-simultaneously — listen, see (for facial
expressions,... and to get information on a blackboard, powerpoint slides,...),
mentally process ideas, and write notes, plus metacognitive observing. Here are three ways to improve your skill in
listening-seeing-processing-writing-observing.
PREPARE BEFORE
THE LECTURE
How? Review your
notes from previous lectures. If the teacher's lecture notes from a
previous semester are available, read them for a preview.
Why? Because the more you know about a subject
already, the easier it will be to learn more. In physics and most other
subjects, with almost all skilled teachers the lectures are cumulative, so the
next lecture will build on previous lectures. If you understand the
knowledge (the ideas-and-skills) in previous lectures, this solid foundation
will help you learn new knowledge in the next lecture, and solidify what you
already know. You can probably write less in your notes because you
already know many of the ideas-and-skills, so only a quick reminder that today
“this idea/skill was explained” is sufficient. You can do more
thinking-while-listening, and it will be easier to make quick decisions about
what is important enough to put in your notes.
Should you read the textbook
before lecture? The answer is not simple (so this paragraph is long and
is split into several parts) because there are two factors, based on two
principles: 1) For the same reasons that reviewing lecture
notes is useful, reading relevant parts of the book will help you understand
the lecture. 2) But hearing the lecture will help you
understand the book. Which is more important, 1 or 2? /
Although this depends on your situation, often it's best to read the relevant
parts of your textbook before lecture. But don't waste time by getting
bogged down in reading when you don't understand, especially if help is
available from the instructor, TAs, or fellow students who are your study partners in
study groups; usually your instructor has selected a textbook that is
well written, and if you think logically the ideas-and-skills will make sense,
so “give it your best shot” and maybe it will all fit together. But if it
still doesn't make sense after a reasonable investment of your time, you can
move on temporarily and make a note that you'll want to re-read this part
later. Hopefully when you re-read it you'll know more because in lecture
the teacher has explained it clearly in a way that will help you understand,
especially if you have prepared by trying to learn it from the book. Or
you can ask fellow students, or a TA during class or in office hours. And
then you can re-read the book to get a fuller understanding.
/ But maybe your best strategy is to read the book after lecture,
especially if your instructor's lectures are designed & performed — and are
used by you — in a way that is highly effective in helping you learn. Also,
after lecture you may have a better idea of what the teacher thinks is and
isn't most important in the book; this perspective can help you develop
an effective strategy for reading with a flexible goal-directed strategy. / Either way, whether you read
before or after lecture, or both, here are some useful ideas: If
you compare the treatment of material by the textbook and teacher, you will
learn something about the teacher's emphasis; and, of course, the
assigned problems are clues about emphasis. Try to master each
sub-area (by learning from lecture & book, doing problems,...) before you
must move on to the next sub-area, especially when (as is typically the case in
physics & most other subjects) many of the ideas-and-skills are cumulative
so understanding this week will help you understand next week.
a summary: Definitely review previous
lectures. Probably read the textbook before lecture (and after), but
maybe read it mainly afterward. Definitely master each sub-area (by
learning from lecture & textbook & discussions, working problems,...)
before you must move onward.
CONCENTRATE DURING
THE LECTURE
If you do high-quality
practice, if you consistently listen with quality — relaxed yet
alert, focused, motivated, confident — you can improve your skill in active
listening with productive concentration.
When you develop a strategy for learning from lecture by
actively listening, an important decision (in your overall strategy and at each
moment during a lecture) is how much of your limited mental resources you will
devote to each aspect of the learning process, by listening & seeing,
thinking and writing, plus metacognitive observing. Sometimes some of
these activities can overlap to produce simultaneous time-sharing, but often you will do time-shifting by quickly shifting from
one to another. You can try to improve each skill, and your strategy for
blending them together in a productive way.
Try to minimize distractions
- both external and internal – by totally focusing on the lecture. You can
also use metacognitive awareness to observe your skill in focusing despite
distractions of different types, so you can develop better strategies for
improving your focus.
Practice writing as fast as you can. Push your
limits! Develop your own system of abbreviations, especially for words
that you use often: w = with, fex = for example, and so on. Try leaving
out vowels, as in “rdng, wrtng, rthmtc."
If the speaker is dull, use willpower to motivate
yourself. With a skilled speaker, don't think that you will automatically
remember the lecture just because it is presented clearly; you should
take useful notes anyway.
REVIEW SOON
AFTER THE LECTURE
Even though you won't be able to capture the whole content
of a lecture in your notes, part of what's missing (in your notes) is preserved
by your memory (in your mind), but only temporarily. If you review your
notes soon after the lecture while your memory is fresh, you can use the notes
to remind you of weakly remembered ideas that will fade and vanish unless they
are reinforced during an after-the-lecture review. You can add these
ideas to your notes. And it is easier to interpret your abbreviations and
condensations at this time than it will be later. Don't rewrite your
notes; just fill the gaps, make comments in the margins (leave some space
while writing), and do whatever is required to give your notes the logical
structure of a coherent overview-summary. Do you see why a well-timed
review can improve your memory and also your notes?
Overlap of Phases:
Of course, two of these time-phases (REVIEW and PREPARE) overlap because
Reviewing After one lecture is Preparing Before the next lecture.
Other Activities: For a wider range of productive activities (before,
during, and after lectures) you can use Cognitive-and-Metacognitive Strategies for Learning.
For example, you can experiment with different ways to “pay attention” and
distribute your limited mental resources among the five aspects of active
listening (listen/see, think & write, observe); for each
experiment-with-aspects you can observe the results and this will help you
understand the effects of different combinations, so you can decide what works
best for achieving different goals. You can also run these experiments
(and others) in different situations — for example, with lecturers in two
physics courses, or in physics & biology & psychology & history —
to learn more about the effects of attention-distributing factors in different
contexts.
TRANSFER OF SKILLS:
The focus of this subsection is learning from a lecture, but similar strategies
& skills (appropriately modified for context) can be used in a wide range
of situations, such as a conversation or group discussion, when you watch a
movie or basketball game,...
a related topic: A few ideas about Active Writing are in Section 20.95.
20.6 Exam Preparation and
Performance
You probably have two learning goals for every college
course: 1) to learn things that will be useful in your future courses, in
a career and in life, and 2) to do well on exams so you'll get a good
grade and “GPA credit” for what you know.
This section will focus on the more urgent second goal, but the principles are
just as useful for reaching the more important first
goal.
1) Gather Information
Read the professor's course syllabus carefully. If you miss the start of
a lecture, when exam announcements are often made, check with other students to
find out what you missed. During lectures, listen for subtle clues (or
obvious statements) about what the teacher thinks is interesting and
important. Try to “get oriented” and find out, as soon as possible:
What are you expected to KNOW and be able to DO?
Will you be asked to solve problems, analyze statements about theory, or
remember specific details? If there are problems, will they be like those
in the assigned homework? Will the exam emphasize material from the text
or lectures?
What is the grading policy? How much of the course
grade is determined by midterms? by the final exam? by extras like
quizzes, homework, labs, projects, papers, class discussion,...? Will
students be graded “on a curve"?
What is the exam format? Open book or closed
book? Will you do problems and show your work? do machine graded multiple
choice? true-false? fill in the blanks? Will there be “qualitative”
questions? Will the exam reward speed in doing many easy problems, or in
figuring out a few difficult ones? If possible, try to get one of the
teacher's old exams; this will give you a better idea of what to expect.
Selectivity is
important. You have a limited amount of time to invest in each
class. You'll want to use this time wisely, and this requires making
choices.
2) Early Exam Preparation
Use the study suggestions from Sections 20.1, 20.3 & 20.5: learn from
problem-solving practice, make summary notes, read and listen actively.
Do most of your studying early, so you can “cram” effectively later.
3) Late Exam Preparation
Cramming will help you get better grades. When you practice
fact-recalling and problem-solving in the days before an exam, very little
“fading” occurs between studying and the exam, so your memory and skill levels
remain high. But if you use the time before an exam for “original
learning” that could have been done earlier, you're wasting time that is
extremely valuable for memory and skill practice. To be effective, cramming should be a supplement to earlier study, not a replacement.
It should be mainly consolidation (review
& practice) of knowledge and skill that have been built on a solid
foundation over a long period of time.
If the exam is CLOSED BOOK, memorize everything you'll
need to know. { If you find out what information will be “given” on the
exam, it decreases the amount you have to memorize.} Practice solving
problems without your summary notes, using only the information that you'll be
able to use during the exam.
If the exam is SEMI-OPEN (when you can use a limited
amount of your own notes), make a rough-draft summary early, practice using it
for homework problems and revise it to make an improved exam version. If
your summary is over the size limit, make a photocopy reduction; at 64%, two
pages condense into one.
If the exam is OPEN BOOK, it still helps to prepare.
Make a summary so you can quickly find things (on the summary or in the book)
during the exam. If you'll need to use textbook data-tables, know where
they're located.
When you study for a FINAL EXAM, review your
midterms. They are an example of what the teacher thinks is
important. Sometimes teachers put midterm questions, either as-is or
slightly modified, on the final exam.
Realistic Practice
RELEVANCE. When you seek out and solve problems similar to those you
expect to encounter later, on an exam or in real-life situations, this
realistic practice makes it more likely that in the future the information
within a problem will trigger your memory of useful problem-solving strategies.
SPEED. If you always do homework problems slowly
you'll get accustomed to “thinking slowly." If you work at a
comfortable slow pace you may not finish a typical exam, but if you suddenly
change to “fast thinking” it may be difficult to avoid the rushed, frantic
feeling that can lead to mistakes. If you practice solving problems
quickly before the exam, your ability to do fast-yet-clear thinking will
improve, and so will your exam score. { By doing homework quickly you
also get to practice a wider variety of problems in the same amount of study
time; this extra experience will help during the exam. You may find it
useful to try this stop-and-go combination: mix fast-thinking solutions with pauses
to “search for insight” like the skier and welder. }
Here is some excellent advice (for musicians or test
takers) paraphrased from The Art of
Trombone Playing by Edward Kleinhammer: When you practice at
home pretend you're in the concert hall, and when you're in the concert hall
pretend you're at home. Let's examine these suggestions. First,
practice "quality” playing -- with good tone, accurate rhythm and melodic
feeling, just like you'll want to play during the performance. Later,
instead of being nervous you can play with the same un-selfconscious relaxed
concentration you had in your living room. And because you've practiced
playing with good quality until it feels natural and comfortable, it will be
easier for you to play with this same good quality during the performance.
You can use this “practice --> performance” strategy to
improve your exam scores. During late exam preparation, practice doing
problems quickly and confidently. Then work quickly and confidently
during the exam, just like you did in practice.
4) Exam Performance
The most reliable way to do well on exams is good preparation, as described above in 1-3. But the quality of
your thinking during the exam is also important.
Some exam excitement is
normal and — if you use it wisely — is helpful. Instead of interpreting
this as harmful "anxiety” you should choose to think of it as helpful
“energetic alertness." You can use
your nervous energy for constructive action, and/or try to get more relaxed, physically and
mentally, by breathing slow, deep, and natural. However you feel, it's OK
because, whether you feel excited
or relaxed, it's what you do that
counts, so concentrate on the here-and-now
action of answering the exam questions. { In most
situations, experienced speakers, stage performers and athletes get excited
before their event. But once the action begins, their focus quickly
shifts to doing whatever they have to do, and they perform well. And so
can you. }
KNOW YOURSELF: Do you perform better in some
situations than in others? If you can figure out what causes this
difference in response, maybe you can learn to “focus your excitement” and
perform well in a wider range of situations.
MOTIVATION: Avoid extremes of apathy or
anxiety. An effective combination is a strong desire to do well coupled
with a lack of excessive worry about the outcome. { Attitude,
self image and concentration are discussed more fully in Section 20.4. }
PRACTICE: Use each exam as a chance to “practice
doing your best", to perform as well as your abilities and preparation
allow. The accumulated effect of this practice will improve your skill at
facing high pressure situations, in or out of school, with confidence and
self-control. This is a valuable skill to learn.
{ Different aspects of school let you practice thinking
that is “deep” and “quick”. In many life situations you work as a member
of a group, are given a relatively large amount of time to solve problems (much
longer than in an exam), are asked to do analysis that is deep, creative,
complete, detailed and correct, and to make wise decisions. In other
situations, as an individual you must do quick evaluation-and-decision: for
example, when you listen to a lecture, participate in a conversation or debate,
give first aid or respond to other emergencies, play sports or drive a
car. Quick thinking is also useful for long-term projects because, as
discussed in the “Efficiency” part of Section 20.7, “total time = sum of
parts." You practice deep thinking when you make summary notes,
write a term paper, or do a research project. You practice quick thinking
when you listen to lectures, and solve problems quickly in homework or
exams. }
POINT STRATEGY: In case you don't finish the entire
exam, try to get maximum points by deciding which questions to answer
first. Consider these factors:
How many points is a particular question worth?
How certain are you of getting it correct?
How much time will doing it require?
PACING: Start the exam working at “optimal pace” --
at a speed that you think is the best combination of maximum speed with minimum
error. After awhile, compare your progress with the time remaining and
ask, “Working at the present pace, will I be able to finish the exam?”;
If necessary, adjust your speed.
If you have a question, suspect an exam error, or if
formulas are supplied on the exam and you need one that isn't there, ask the
teacher about it.
If you're not sure about the answer for a question, record
your thoughts (cross off multiple choice options you've eliminated, write short
comments,...) and go on to the next question. Take advantage of
“incubation” and when you return to the question later in the exam, you may
know the answer.
Should you guess?
Usually, but it depends on the grading policy and the “expected returns”
from guessing.
If you finish early, check your work.
5) After the Exam
Think about what happened so you can learn from it, for each phase discussed
above.
How was your preparation? Knowing what you do now,
would you approach it differently? In what specific ways?
How much “exam excitement” did you have? Did it seem
to help or hurt you?
How was your pacing?
Point strategy? For each question you missed, ask WHY? Was it due
to a lack of knowledge and skill, or was it a problem you should have been able
to solve but didn't? Ask the questions from the “How To Learn More from
your Problem-Solving Experience” and “Find The Trouble and
Fix It” parts of Section 20.2.
Can you gain any insights from this experience? What
wise advice would you give, if you could talk to yourself two weeks before the
exam? Two days before it? At the start of the exam? Halfway
through it?
Can these insights help you prepare for your next exam?
20.7 Using Your Time
Effectively
Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time, for
that's the stuff life is made of. { Benjamin Franklin, 1746 }
Three ways to use your time more effectively are
wise planning, good timing, and increased efficiency.
Planning
The foundation of planning is knowing yourself and what you want to do with
your abilities and opportunities. { This doesn't necessarily mean having
a specific career goal. As a student, your immediate goal may be to earn
grades (and skills) that give you good options to choose from later.
} Wise
planning is choosing daily activities that help
you make progress toward your long-term goals. In his excellent book “How to Get Control of Your Time and Your
Life,” Alan Lakein describes the relationship between goals and activities:
“When you have planned well on both long-term and
short-term levels, then goals and activities fit together like well-meshed
gears. Most if not all of the activities specified in short-term plans
will contribute to the realization of the goals specified in long-term
plans."
When should you plan? In the evening (so you can
review the previous day and plan for the next) or morning (when you're well
rested and ready to go), or at any time during the day when you ask Lakein's
Question, “What is the best use of my time right
now?"
A useful time-management tool
is a daily To-Do List. First think of all the things you might want to do,
then set priorities -- it is very important that you do certain
activities today (so be sure you do them), others would be nice to do but they
aren't “necessary", while some probably shouldn't be done at all (cross
them off your list). Then use this prioritized list to plan your
activities for the day.
You can use a time schedule, or just “improvise as you
go." The ideal amount of scheduling structure depends on your
personal preference and the situation. For example, when I tutor students
a schedule is essential, but during work on this book I just wake up and start
writing, then take breaks (for a nap, walk, prayer, eating...) whenever I'm in
the mood for it. Try different mixes of structure and spontaneity, and
find out what works best for you in different situations.
BALANCE. Your daily plan can include studying, rest
and recreation, work and play, solitude and socializing. Leave some
flexibility for “surprises."
A portable to-do list (like a 3 x 5 card in your
pocket) increases the probability of getting activities done, and decreases
your memory load -- you don't have to think about “what to do today” so your
mind is free for creative thinking. I use a cheap alarm watch to
remind me that it's time to go to class, or catch a bus, or...
The purpose of planning is to use time effectively.
It's all right if you don't finish all of the activities on a to-do list.
If a list gets you to use your time for high priority activities, it has served
its purpose.
A little time invested in planning (it can be done
quickly!) is a great investment. If you ever feel “too busy to
plan", consider it a reminder about the importance of planning -- you
don't have enough time to do everything you want, so it is essential that you
decide how to use your limited time wisely.
When you set priorities, consider urgency and long-term
importance. To find out if something is urgent, ask "What will
happen if I don't do this today?”; Urgency tends to demand action, but
non-urgent activities can be just as important because their effects are
“cumulative” -- for example, brushing teeth, nutrition & physical fitness,
and preparing for an end-of-semester term paper or final exam. Be sure to do non-urgent yet important activities on a
regular basis.
Occasionally, to keep things in perspective, stop for
introspection, orientation and long-term planning. Re-think your present
situation (Where am I now?), values and goals (Where do I want to go?), and
time use (Are my activities effective in bringing me closer to my
goals?). Use orientation times to make a master
list of activities. Write your goals on the left side of a
page, and activities that will help you reach each goal on the right
side. Then use this master list to help you make daily to-do lists.
A whole-semester schedule of “things to do” will help you plan ahead, so you
can skillfully coordinate your daily and long-term activities. On this
schedule, put the due-dates for everything that must be done (homework, exams,
papers,... ) for each of your classes, and also “advance warnings” to remind
you that (for example) you should begin writing your term paper at least a week ahead of time, plus extra events (sports,
concerts, special lectures,...). If you want, you can make a schedule
that is more complex, with more rows, so you'll have one for each of your
classes plus another for events.
M
|
T
|
W
|
R
|
F
|
A
|
U
|
|
Sep 7
|
|||||||
Sep 14
|
|||||||
etc
|
Timing
Good timing lets you take advantage of opportunities while they're still
available.
Timing is an important part of planning; you are
deciding what to do and also when to do it. But planning doesn't always
lead to doing. A valuable time-use tool (Lakein devotes 1/3 of his book
to it) is the ability to convert planning into action at the proper time.
If you avoid an activity that
you know is “high priority,” you are procrastinating. You are especially likely to avoid a task you feel
is unpleasant or overwhelming, or if you have doubts about whether
you should do it.
If you have doubts, re-think the situation and ask “Is
this something I should do? Is it a top-priority project?”; If you
answer NO, decide what you should do instead. If you answer YES, then you
can move into action with increased confidence that you are doing what you
should be doing.
It may help to think about why you are avoiding a
project. Does the project involve work you find unpleasant? Is it
in any way unethical? Could it be dangerous (physically, socially,
financially,...)? Are you afraid of failure, or the changes in life that
success might bring? Ask yourself, “Is there any way I can decrease the
project's unpleasant aspects, or change my attitudes toward them?”;
The “unknown” is a common reason for fear. If a
project requires doing things you've never done before, it may be wise to get
advice from someone with experience. { Talk with an expert, or ask a
librarian to help you find useful books or magazine articles.}
Alan Lakein suggests turning an
overwhelming project into “Swiss Cheese” by poking holes in it with small tasks
that are quick and easy to do. You can gather information, do
brainstorming (as described in Section 20.8),
make a plan of action, or begin work on some aspect of the project. After
you've poked a few holes in it, the project may not look so overwhelming.
Hopefully, your first small steps will lead to full scale
action. If your initial involvement leads to interest-and-enthusiasm,
which leads to more involvement and more interest, you'll want to continue
working on the project.
But if your first steps don't lead to eager involvement,
you have to use willpower.
This is easier when you give yourself logical reasons for “doing what you don't
want to do." Ask yourself, “What are the consequences of delay, and what are
the benefits of doing the
project now?”; Convince yourself that since you have to do the project
anyway, sometime, you might as well choose the best time to do it.
Let's look at a common victim of student procrastination,
a term paper that must be written. If you wait until the last minute
there may be unexpected interruptions or opportunities, you may be uninspired
or have “writer's block", pressure-plus-fatigue can decrease your writing
quality and speed. If writing the paper takes longer than expected (it
usually does) you face a difficult choice. You can submit a late paper,
or one that is poor quality compared with what you could produce with more
time.
If you begin early, you can take advantage of your moods
and write when you want to, not when you have to. You can make an
almost-final draft, ignore it for a few days (or give it to a friend for
constructive criticism), then look at it with “fresh eyes” and revise it into a
paper you'll be proud to submit. Perhaps the biggest benefit of good
planning is the sigh of relief and night of contented sleep before the paper is
due, the satisfaction of knowing that you conquered indecision, laziness and
fear, that you acted responsibly and did your best.
What are the benefits of
studying physics regularly instead of only cramming before exams? You can
do repeated reviews that help you remember, make a summary and revise it, take
advantage of “creative incubation,” prepare for lectures, and use the time just
before an exam for realistic practice and effective cramming.
If you get behind in your classes, you may have to leap from one cramming
crisis to the next as every crisis puts you further behind in all classes
except the one you're cramming for. This game of catch-up, which is
inefficient because you don't get the benefits listed above, can be avoided if
you study regularly for each class.
Ask yourself, “Do I work well
under pressure? In what ways does my thinking quality depend on the type
of pressure? on the type of project?”; If you don't work well with
pressure, try to find out why and what you can do about it. { Some
possibilities are discussed in the “Exam Performance”
part of Section 20.6. } If you work best with pressure, try to analyze
this high-intensity concentration and then figure out how you can do it all of
the time. Maybe you can pretend it's the night before the deadline, to
fool yourself into thinking like you do when the pressure is on. If you
can do high-intensity thinking in low-pressure situations, the flexibility of
your time planning increases and so does your freedom and sense of control.
As much as possible, try to “use your moods” and study
what you want to study, when you want to do it. Then monitor your
progress in each class, for each phase of studying (reading, lectures, making a
summary, solving problems, review). If you are neglecting a class (or
part of the learning process) that you don't especially like, you can use
willpower to get yourself to do it.
You may find it useful to keep a record of the time spent
studying each subject. I keep three lists: a simple checklist
for activities (exercise, ...) and two “time lists” for writing. One
list is a record of writing time; I make a game of trying to reach my
total-hours-per-week goal, and this helps me to be more disciplined. The
other list, which records the hours-per-chapter, reminds me to use piecework
motivation, to think quickly so I can get this book finished -- with a
satisfactory level of quality -- in a reasonable amount of time.
If necessary, use the “no choice” weapon against
procrastination. Instead of giving yourself a choice between doing a high
priority project and a desirable but lower priority activity, make it a choice
between doing the project or doing absolutely nothing -- just stare at a blank
wall. This confronts you with your procrastination, eliminates
rationalization, and soon gets you moving into action.
If your studying is often interrupted by thoughts like
“I'd rather be doing ___", there is a conflict
of interest. Physics will do better in this competition if you
enjoy it. I find physics fascinating and hope that you also feel a
genuine enthusiasm for it. But even if you aren't convinced that physics
is fun, you can use willpower to do what you know is good for you. An
effective strategy is to link physics (or any subject you're studying) with a
future goal and think about delayed
gratification. Say to yourself, “I'm doing physics now so I can do
___ later."
Cooperation and Teamwork
For many students, in many situations, studying with other
students is an effective strategy. If you don't know something, your
study partners can help you learn. And vice versa, which (because
teaching is a good way to master ideas-and-skills) will help you learn.
And study groups can help you form valuable friendships.
But for some students, in some situations, studying alone
will be more effective.
Probably you'll want to do some of each. Based on
experience you can try to know yourself, and your situations, well enough to
know which blend of approaches (by studying with others and also on your own)
will be most useful for you, in each of your classes.
And you can develop strategies for making your study
groups more effective, for keeping all of you on-task, but in ways that are not
too overbearing so you also promote good social relationships.
Efficiency
To get more done, you can 1) waste less time,
and 2) work more efficiently.
There may be more time than you realize. Do the
following hours-per-week seem reasonable? Sleep (50), classes (17), study
(21) and meals (10), for a total of 98 hours. There are 168 hours in a
week: where did the other 70 hours go? / Some time is used for
getting dressed, commuting, work (if you have a job) and play, but not 70
hours. Do you think you could find more studying time by using small
blocks of time (like “transition times” between major activities) that are
usually wasted, and by taking large blocks of non-study time and cutting them
down to medium size blocks?
To minimize your transition time, be decisive and avoid
procrastination.
A good way to use small time
blocks is to have 5-minute fillers, things
you can do immediately with no “warmup": review flashcards, read a
textbook you carry with you (and mark it to preserve your thoughts), review and
mark lecture notes,...
Since “total time = sum of parts", one way to reduce
big blocks of study time is to think more
quickly and use better tools.
When you study, if your attitude is analogous to “working for piecework wages”
you will be highly motivated to “learn more per hour” and you probably will.
Be aware of your biological rhythms. Find the times
of day when clear thinking is easiest, and use these “prime times” for
important creative thinking and for the most challenging parts of your
studying.
A writer never finishes a book. Instead, at some
point they decide it's “good enough” and they abandon it. Similarly, you
must decide on an acceptable level of
perfectionism. Is it a wise use of your time to “polish” a
project, or should you abandon it and move on to another activity? Try to
answer without being influenced too much by laziness, impatience or frustration
(these can make you give up too soon) or by excessive pride (that keeps you
working past the point where it is worthwhile).
Section 20.1's “Rapid Progress”
and 20.4's “factors that contribute to success” explain how the interdependence of physics tools can let
you make rapid progress. Analyze your tools and find the places where
more time and effort will bring the greatest improvement per hour invested.
You can also be efficient in non-study activities.
For example, try to combine the tasks on a weekly to-do list into efficient
“errand runs” that reduce the number of trips you make. Sometimes you can do two things at once, like listening to
educational tapes while you commute, jog, exercise, do dishes or clean your
room.
To organize your school-related
or general paperwork, thus making it easier to find things quickly, use hanging files. Ask
about them at your college bookstore.
About 1/3 of life is used for sleeping. But the time
you invest in sleep isn't wasted; it helps you stay healthy, and makes your
waking time more efficient and enjoyable. When you are tempted to “gain
time” by sleeping less, consider this: 16 high-quality hours may be worth more
than 19 lower-quality hours.
If you feel overworked during semesters, you may want to
try “spreading your vacations out." Study a little during the
semester break (try to find something that is relatively fun and will reduce
next semester's workload), then treat yourself to mini-vacations during the
semester when you really need them. { Or you may prefer to make your
semester break a complete no-study vacation and avoid a feeling of “taking your
work home with you.” }
BALANCE: Education can be
an exciting part of life. But a full life is more than maximizing
study-productivity. The “Fully Alive”
part of Section 20.4 examines attitudes toward work and play. It
encourages you to work hard, play joyfully, relax with a free mind, and avoid
the extremes of workaholic or lazy bum.
The following sections (20.93, 20.95, and 20.96)
are supplements to Sections 20.3, 20.5, and 20.6.
20.93 More about Memory
This section contains a loose mix of information about
flash cards, sensory recall, memory tricks, and memory systems.
1. FLASH CARDS
If you mix problem-solving practice with reviews of the flashcards and summary at the end
of each chapter in this book, it will do wonders for your “tool memory” and
problem solving skill.
MAKING AND USING FLASH CARDS: Put a CUE on one side of a 3x5 index card, and its
corresponding “ANSWER” on the other side. Then use the card for
self-testing: look at the cue, predict the answer, turn the card over to
see if it's correct. / Use cards for anything you want to
memorize. { For example, information from summary notes,... Every
chapter of Physics: Tools
for Problem Solving has suggestions for
specific cue-answer pairs. }
The CUE is
important; choose it carefully. Try to use the same kind of cue that real
problems will provide. And “minimize” it; the less cue you need
during flash card practice, the more likely it is that information within a
problem will be enough to trigger the correct response. Here is a
minimum-cue example. The 4 basic right-triangle relationships
{definitions of sine, cosine & tangent, plus the formula “aa + bb =
cc"} are often used in physics to split a diagonal line, / , into its
horizontal and vertical components. For review, should you use a cue like
“What are the 4 right- triangle formulas?” or “How can I split a diagonal into
components?” or “ / “ ? The last cue is best. Why? Because
a problem won't jab you in the ribs and shout in your ear “Hey Sam! Why
don't you use one of the 4 trigonometry formulas?”; Instead, there will
be a diagonal vector, / , that needs to be split, and the sight of this must be
enough to trigger your recall of the trig-formula tools. Do you see why
memorizing with a minimal “/” cue (instead of a long “give-away” cue) is better
preparation for real problem-solving situations? Almost always, the less
cue you need for retrieval, the better.
MULTIPLE CUES: One fact may have several cues. This makes it
more likely that the cues within a problem will let you retrieve the fact from
memory. [similar to funneling]
The ANSWER can
be practiced in different ways. You can WRITE it (and also SEE), or SAY
it (and also HEAR), or REHEARSE it mentally (along with "VISUALIZING” of
sight, sound, meaning,...). Try each method and choose your favorite, or
alternate them to store the knowledge in your memory using several sense-modes,
thus making it easier to retrieve.
MULTIPLE ANSWERS: One thing can remind you of several associated
items. This is useful for real life problem-solving and creative
thinking, because it gives you different “options” to choose from.
[similar to fanning]
EDITING FLASH-CARDS:
After you've used the cards awhile, you can change the cues to make them more
appropriate and minimal. Or sort cards into piles, like well known pairs
vs. those needing review, essentials vs. optionals, according to
topic,... Use paper clips or rubber bands to keep each group together.
REVERSIBLE CARDS are
useful in some situations. For example, in learning a language you'll
probably want to translate in both directions. To learn English ->
Spanish translation, use the English side of the card as cue; for Spanish ->
English translation, just flip the cards over. / Or to learn a
chemical reaction like “A + B -> C” in both directions, put “A + B -> __”
on one side and “__ -> C” on the other; then alternate which side you use as
cue.
TWO COLUMN
self-testing: Put cues in one column, answers in the other, as in
my end-of-chapter “flashcard” sections. Then use the flash card
method: cover the answer column, look at the cue and predict the answer,
then check by sliding the cover down one line at a time. This format is
good for some purposes, like memorizing language vocabulary in both
directions. And one page is more compact than many cards. But flash
cards are adaptable to a wider variety of situations, and cards can be shuffled
to avoid using one card as a cue for the next -- as occurs, for example, when
you hear a CD often, and one song reminds you of the next song.
In any form, flashcards force you to actively search your
memory to find a response to the cue, and this activity will help you remember.
2. SENSORY RECALL
In some situations, “retrieval from memory” will improve if you
MATCH THE SENSE-MODE: During active review, did you write (and see), or
say (and hear), or mentally rehearse (and sub-vocalize)? When you want to
recall, use the same sense mode. Depending on which method you used
earlier, either try to write it (and remember the way it feels and looks) to
say (and hear) it, or to mentally sub-vocalize it. / RELIVE THE
SCENE: To remember where you put the car keys, mentally review (with as much
realism as possible) what you did the last time you had them. With
suitable modification, this principle can be used for academic purposes.
3. MEMORY TRICKS
Summary notes take advantage of a subject's internal logical
organization. Now we'll
look at ways to impose external organization onto any kind of material, even if it has no inherent logic
of its own. For example,
The Great Lakes (and their spatial order) are SHE-OM: Superior, Huron, Erie,
and Ontario; Michigan is not in the continuous west-to-east
sequence of “sheo” ).
To change clocks for daylight savings time, remember to
“spring forward” and “fall back."
“Can I draw a circle?”; { pi = 3.1416 }
“In fourteen hundred and ninety two, Columbus sailed the
ocean blue."
Stalactites hang
from a cave's ceiling, stalagmites grow from the ground.
For unit-circle trigonometry (it doesn't matter if you
don't understand trig; just notice how the “links” are made): x and
cosine both have “ks” sounds, but y and sine don't. For the
vector-splitting results of “adjacent =
hyp cos Z” and “opposite = hyp sin Z", a & c (adjacent & cos) are early in the
alphabet, o & s (opposite & sine) are late.
Or for music, the treble clef space-notes spell “FACE”
while the line-notes are “EGBDF” (every good boy deserves favor).
How do you set a table? “fork knife spoon” are
alphabetical; the fork goes
on the left (both have 4
letters), and knife spoon right (5
letters).
a mental calendar: For 1998, “411 537 526 416” gives
the first Sunday of each month; add 7, 14, 21 or 28 to get the other
Sundays; for Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri, or Sat, just add 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
or 6.
Most memory tricks depend
on linked pairs. For example, the Great Lakes are first linked with
“she-om”. Later, just remember this one word, and it will remind you of
the lakes' initials & location; they tag along as “free riders."
HOW TO MAKE LINKED PAIRS: You can use INITIALS (as in
she-om, the cave's c-g, or face & egbdf), COUNTING LETTERS (for 3.1416),
SOUND ("ks"), POETRY (In fourteen hundred and...), ALPHABETICAL ORDER
(a & c early, o & s late), or VISUAL IMAGERY (as in the action-phrases
“spring forward & fall back").
VISUAL IMAGERY is a good way to
form the “mediating link” between a pair of words you want to remember.
Use your imagination to invent vivid images that will be easy to remember; make
them humorous or dramatic, logical or ludicrous, use exciting action or a story
line. Make the paired words “interact” in some way; this forms a strong
memory link between them. To discover easily remembered association links
(using sound, alphabetical order, initials, interactive imagery, or ...), brainstorm and edit -- first use
creative freeflow imagination to get lots of ideas (without judging whether
they're good ones or not) and
then decide whether to use them.
After you have constructed exciting visual imagery, store it in your memory as
interactive pictures.
VISUAL LOGIC is sometimes a good organizing method.
For example, first try to memorize our 50 states in alphabetical order, then by
using the map shown below. [imagine the map described below] The map
makes it easier to memorize because of chunking and location. / It is easier to
remember 12 “chunks” than 50 individual states. Also notice that 9 of the
12 groupings contain four states, so you know (like having a “string on your
finger") that you must remember four states for most groups. /
The map uses “visual location memory” which can be very effective. And
the U.S. map is familiar; you've seen it often, so you've already done much of
the work needed to memorize its spatial organization.
4. MEMORY SYSTEMS
If you want to recall the 26 letters of the English alphabet, you'll probably
do it in order (abc...
),
not randomly. This is an example of long-chain association, the principle
used in most memory systems. A chain offers two advantages: 1) it's
easy to remember things in a certain order, and 2) you can keep track of
what you have and haven't done already (so you'll end up with 26 letters -- no
more, no less).
Here are short descriptions of common memory systems:
For the CHAIN SYSTEM, link each item to the one before it,
using imagery or weaving them into a story. / In the PEG SYSTEM,
use concrete nouns associated with numbers (like
bun-shoe-tree-door-hive-sticks-heaven-gate-wine-hen that rhyme with 1-10) or
letters (ape-boy-cat-dog-egg,... for abcde...) and then link the first, second,
third, fourth,... things you want to remember with ape, boy, cat, dog,...
respectively. / The LOCATION SYSTEM, used long ago by Greek and
Roman orators, links items with sequential locations in a building (or in an
outdoor setting); when you want to remember the items, just take a mental walk
and retrieve the items one by one, in the proper sequential order.
It takes some time to learn a system, but the results
(being able to remember things you previously couldn't) may be worth the time
you invest. Many readily available books describe such systems in detail.
20.95 Active Writing
The following discussion can help you improve your skill in
writing and reading, speaking and listening. The same organizing
principles, adapted as appropriate, are used for all of these ways to
communicate. { I recommend that you take courses in writing and speaking,
to help you improve these important skills! }
Using Visual Outlines: As an example of a writing process [in 1987 when I
first wrote this], I'll describe how I write a book chapter. First I gather ideas from my research notes, memory and imagination.
Then I edit these ideas (to narrow the topic by deciding what is
essential, or is important supporting material, and omitting the rest)
and structure them, logically and visually. Some visual outline structures are funneling (when
other ideas “come in” to help explain an idea, or inspire it, or...) and fanning (from one
idea, other ideas “go out” (as logical and practical consequences of the idea,
or ways it can be applied, or other ideas it inspires or can help explain,...)
and when a funneling-and-fanning is applied to many ideas, it produces branching as with a
central idea when other ideas branch from it, and other ideas branch out from
these, to form a free-form circular tree. Or there can be idea-clusters scattered around the page, with some space left between the
clusters (for additions and revision). / Or you may
prefer other structures that use some logical-visual characteristics such as
those in flowcharts, hierarchies,...
Group-and-Number:
No matter which visual form is used (I tend to think in terms of funnel-fan
& branching, but use clusters for making outlines), the ideas are
translated from “visually logical”
outline-form to a “sequential linear”
written-form. To do this, I group the
clusters andnumber them. After
the initial numbering I usually discover “leftover ideas", so instead of
“1, 2, 3, 4, 5", after including the leftovers my numbering might end up
as “1, 2, 2.5, 2.7, 3, 4, 4.5, 5”. Then I write sentences
and paragraphs, in numerical order, based on the ideas in each
cluster. / Computer programs with "outlining”
features can also be helpful. For example, the Outline-view of Word is
useful for rearranging the sequencing of a linear written-form.
Two Translations:
In the group-and-number step, a
writer translates ideas from a “visual outline” form to a “linear
written” form. As a reader,
you want to translate in the reverse direction; find the main ideas in
the writing and organize them in a way that shows their relationships
(flowchart, cause-effect, hierarchy, funnel-fan,...). And this, as
discussed in Section 20.3, is the main purpose of summary notes.
Like Section 20.2's problem solving steps (orientation,
planning, action, checking), writing steps (gather ideas, edit-and-structure,
group-and-number, write) often overlap; while a writer is doing one step,
the other processes are also occurring.
These steps can be repeated at different levels of detail
(book, chapter, section, sub-section, paragraph, sentence), like levels of
mapping (world, country, state, city, campus). And for the steps at each
level, there can be “successive approximations." I often draw
outlines in pencil, and usually write with a word processor, because this makes
it easier to do revisions.
20.96 Exam Tactics
SHOULD YOU GUESS? It depends on the point policy. Consider three
grading schemes for an ABCDE multiple choice exam: A) If nothing is
deducted for wrong answers, guessing is rewarded. B) If correct and
wrong answers are given +4 and -1 points, respectively, average-luck guessing
on 10 questions will be 2 correct (+8 points) and 8 wrong (-8 points) and
you'll break even. But if you can eliminate one or more options, the
guessing odds are in your favor. C) If +1 and -1 points are given
for correct and wrong answers, a 2-of-10 result will get -6 points (+2 and -8),
and guessing is punished.
MULTIPLE-CHOICE LOGIC. A city in California
is: a) Los Angeles, b) Grizzly Flat, c) Lodi, d) San Francisco, e) all of
the above. / Beginning with what you know about LA and SF,
logic tells you that “e” is the answer, even if you've never heard of Grizzly
Flat or Lodi.
This
page (with Sections 20.3-20.7,...) was written in 1989.
Copyright
© 1989 Craig Rusbult, all rights reserved
Pasted
from <http://www.asa3.org/ASA/education/learn/203.htm>