Collection of Hack-Phreak Scene Programs/cleanhpvac.zip/cleanhpvac/STUDYING.ZIP/STUDYING.TXT

Text File | 1994-11-03 | 13KB | 264 lines

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                            PLANS AND TIMETABLES:

 Constructing a flexible timetable which would not tie you to a rigid routine,
will save you time and effort, and enable you to keep pace with the
requirements of your study. The thought and planning involved in constructing
a good workable timetable are repaid many times over. Here are the main steps:

(1) Detailed examination of all your waking activities. Analysis of your daily
    routine, to ensure that the necessary `maintenance' activities such as
    meals, travel, shopping, etc., do not take up too much of your time.

(2) Planning as far ahead as possible, so that you have a general picture of
    what lies before you. Regular work over the entire academic year is
    advisable.

(3) Decide as to the total amount of weekly study time you need to perform.
    Your total hours of work, including classes, should be around 40, and
    should almost certainly not lie outside the range of 30-50 hours.

(4) Decide on when to carry out your own private study. Conform if you can to
    the common pattern of working hours: do your important work in the
    mornings, study for four evenings each week and leave the weekends
    relatively free. But don't think that there are certain hours of the day
    when you can't work. Fatigue is mostly subjective and diurnal variations
    in efficiency are small.

(5) At the beginning of each week, plan your study times for the whole week.
    Flexibility enters here. Observe these principles:
    (a) Do each piece of work at the best time. Go over your lecture notes on
    the same day. Write up experiments when they are still fresh in your mind.
    (b) Try and discover the best length of study period for your various
    tasks. A sizable task is often best tackled in a single 2- or 3-hour
    session.
    (c) Plan for rest periods between tasks, and shorter rest intervals in the
    course of a task. Concentrated study of single topics is occasionally
    useful. At least some small part of vacations should be spent in revision.


                           MOTIVES AND HABITS:

 Merely resolving to work harder is ineffective. But you can enhance your
motivation by setting yourself short-term and longterm goals, by controlling
sources of distraction, by charting your progress, and by immersing yourself
in your studies.

 Rapid work is one cure for difficulty in concentrating. Another aid is the
technique of suppression. Since unwillingness to settle down to study is
often the result of a wish to be doing something else, you need to suppress
the impulse to other activities. This best is achieved by allocating a
sensible amount of time to other intruding tasks and activities, and having
made a plan, dismissing them from consciousness.

 Effort and aspiration are influenced by your past history of successes and
failures. Some kind of reward or success is the best spur to effort. But your
goals and aspirations should be realistic and attainable.

 If you decide to change habits of long standing, you should declare your
intentions to others, allow no backsliding, achieve some success at the
outset, and strengthen your resolve by incurring obligations to others.


                        LEARNING AND REMEMBERING:

 You should thoroughly understand what you are studying. To attain insight
you must think and reflect, and relate new information to your existing
knowledge. Information should be `encoded' and memorised in a form that
facilitates it's subsequent retrieval and use.

 The SQ3R system of study is recommended:
(1) Survey
(2) Questions (asking)
(3) Reading
(4) Recitation
(5) Review

 Important knowledge needs to be kept up to functional levels by constant
revision and use. For this purpose meaningful learning is much more effective
than rote learning. Long term retention is helped by organising materials and
linking them together.

 Although general retentiveness cannot be improved, you can improve your
methods of memorising, especially by recitation, attention to meaning, and
alertness and concentration. Artificial memory `systems' are seldom useful.

 `Overlearning' and avoiding interference are more assistance in rote than
the meaningful learning.

 Complex subjects are best learned by (1) dividing them into parts;
 (2) organising each part into a coherent unit; and
 (3) linking to existing knowledge.

 In the threefold process of learning, storage and retrieval, errors can
occur at any of the three stages. Make sure that your initial intake of
information is precise and accurate, otherwise you might perpetrate errors as
you learn and relearn your notes.

 There is an emotional component in learning and remembering. Try not to
neglect those aspects of your subjects which you dislike, and if necessary,
develop tolerance for your teachers.


                                 READING:

 Reading is the most important skill in study. Good readers learn to vary
their rate of reading to suit their purposes.

 Reading involves making complicated patterns of eye movements, as well as
understanding what you've read. You should observe the eye movements made in
reading - the jumps, fixations, regressions and sweeps.

 Difficulties in reading may be the result of faulty eye movements, or of
poor vocabulary or lack of understanding, but difficulties in learning and
retention mostly result from lack of understanding, that is from an
inadequate background of knowledge.

 But if you think your reading of prose materials is slow you can speed up
your rate by regular periods of timed practice, charting your progress on a
graph. This method is just as good as mechanical methods of speeding up
reading.

 Improvement can be effected by improving your vocabulary. This is best done
by more reading and writing, but it may also help to systematise your
knowledge of Greek and Latin words, from which many learned words are derived.
And use a good dictionary.

 Learn and read intelligently and critically. Make sure of the general plan of
what you are reading, and distinguish the main ideas from the details.

 Make sure you are thoroughly familiar with your library - particularly the
card index and reference system. Don't rely on the library for basic texts.
It is absolute folly not to own the necessary books for your courses.


                          NOTES AND LECTURES:

 It is essential to take notes. You should think carefully about the kinds of
notebooks and filing systems available. Some kind of looseleaf system is best,
together with appropriate files, wallets and binders.


 In lectures make sure you sit where you can see and hear the lecturer
without difficulty. Fairly full outline notes are usually desirable,
particularly in factual lectures. Outline notes are more readily organised
and memorised than pages of unbroken script.

 You should revise and fill in your notes on the same day. A scheme for
assessing and improving your notes is described which involves the
collaboration of two or three other students.



                                EXAMS:

 Preparations for examinations should begin at the outset of a course of
study, in the sense that you should study the syllabus you are required to
cover and the kinds of examinations which you will have to take.

 Progressive assessment is now widely used to monitor course performance.
Therefore final examinations are less of an ordeal. Little effort is required
to relearn for an important examination what has already been gone over a
number times. To be most effective, review should follow closely on the
original learning. For long term retention intermediate periods of review are
also desirable.

 The final review preceding important examinations should be carefully planned
to a schedule, to avoid any last minute rush. Examination anxiety can be
avoided by regular work, careful planning, and a normal routine which allows
for exercise and recreation.

 Different kinds of examinations require different kinds of preparation.
Suggestions are offered for taking objective tests and for taking essay-type
examinations.



                               THINKING:

 In early life thought tends to be by what is immediately present to senses.
Later it becomes increasingly abstract and symbolic. There is a corresponding
decrease in the motor activity accompanying thought.

 For any sort of productive thinking a cognitive map or model is required, as
well as observation, inference and the testing of deductions. The most
effective thought is often not contemplative, but accompanies activity and
experiment.

 Concepts involve (1) an act of classification as to observed properties; and
(2) a set of associations as to unobserved properties. Experience of an array
of instances is necessary if meaningful concepts are to be attained, together
with explicit statements of principle.

 Errors are often made in the act of classification, but even more markedly
in making the unwarranted associations which occur in `stereotypes'.

 Everyday thinking is contaminated by emotion, by the selection of evidence
to fit preconceived ideas, and by overgeneralisation from small samples and
limited evidence.

 Standard algorithms simplify the solution of common problems in most
disciplines.

 From experiments on problem solving it appears that the following steps are
involved: initial exploration, successive reformulation of the problem, seeing
the components in the solution in their proper relation, precise formulation
of solution in symbols.

 Logic helps in the definition of problems, in the sifting of evidence, and
the drawing of inferences and conclusions.

 From the practical point of view five general suggestions are made about how
to improve problem solving.


                    GROUP DISCUSSIONS AND GROUP WORK:

 Group work is desirable in higher learning because it stimulates interest,
helps to clarify ideas, and teaches individuals to cooperate.

 Work output is influenced by the presence of others. Group work has a strong
`pacing' effect on slower workers. If you mean to work hard, you should
associate with others who also work hard.

 The various forms of group work lend to more active participation in study.
Active participation not only generates interest, but leads to better long
term retention.

 Several kinds on discussion groups are described and analysed, and practical
rules for the conduct of informal discussion groups are suggested.

 In problem solving, groups are more accurate than individuals because they
make more suggestions, and are quicker to reject incorrect ideas. It is
salutary for the individual to realise the diversity of others' judgments.

 Benefits of peer teaching are: self esteem, thorough learning of subject
& enjoyment.