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Preface
Introduction
1. The Big Picture
2. Techniques of Studying
3. Examinations
4. Thinking Process
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1. The Big Picture
2. Techniques of Studying
3. Examinations
4. Thinking Process
Resources
Exam Help ArticlesAdd URL
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2. Mechanics and Techniques of Studying
A methodical approach | The weekly schedule card | Why study? – Material rewards | Why study? – Non-material rewards | The wall calendar | The pocket date book | Sleep | Tools of the trade general | Tools of the trade specific | Go out for sports? | How detailed should class notes be? | Four methods of taking notes | Notebook inspection | Some note-taking hints | What is important? | What is not important? | Study old exams? | Working conditions | A typical study session | “Take ten!” | Retroactive amnesia | The curve of learning | The law of diminishing returns | The curve of forgetting | Hypnosis | Teaching machines | Reading-acceleration machines | Television | Scrambled books | Distractions enemies of retention
A Typical Study Session
With the necessary equipment before you, spend four or five minutes thumbing through the entire area to be covered by the exam, page by page, in both textbook and lecture notebook. This part of the routine is intended to give you the scope of the exam, so you know how much work lies before you. This study session should take place about two days before the exam (not the evening before). In this 5-minute survey you are re-acquainting yourself with main headings; they are the framework upon which the details will hang.
Now you place a few sheets of scratch paper on the desk, and begin writing one title at the top of each sheet: Definitions; Theories, pro and con; Important People; Dates of Importance; Basic Principles; etc.
What does this procedure do for you? It gives you a different approach to material you have been over before. It is a new angle, designed to group similar things together.
Now comes the page-by-page reading of the assignment, as if you had never read it before. You enter each separate definition, or name, or idea on the sheet to which it applies, getting out a new sheet if you come to a new category. Some sheets will have very few entries; others will require
additional pages. Writing things out is far, far better than underlining. The explanation is quite simple: By underlining, you may deceive yourself into thinking you have actually absorbed the meaning, but by writing you almost have to absorb it. Write and rewrite as much as you can.
Your lists of similar categories now form a review in themselves, and you can glance at the sheets the morning of the exam and have a summary of any category you choose.
