Would you like
to download a copy of this book/website to read offline? Click Here to download the printable PDF version |
|
Exam Help Home
Preface
Introduction
1. The Big Picture
2. Techniques of Studying
3. Examinations
4. Thinking Process
Add URL
Contact us
Privacy Policy
1. The Big Picture
2. Techniques of Studying
3. Examinations
4. Thinking Process
Resources
Exam Help ArticlesAdd URL
Contact us
Privacy Policy
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
Retroactive Amnesia
Have you ever heard of people who could not recall, after an accident, just exactly what happened immediately prior to it? Such an absence of memory is called retroactive (back-acting) amnesia, or technically retroactive inhibition. Applying this knowledge about limited amnesia to explain certain situations arising in my experience as an advisor has helped clarify a puzzling occurrence: It very frequently happens that students tell me, in all sincerity, that they spent many hours in studying for a certain exam. It seems quite clear they are telling the truth. Yet they show, by their results in the exam, that their efforts were largely wasted.
Until some other explanation is indicated, such as a deep, personal problem, it is logical to focus attention on the students' activities during study. If they tell about these activities in detail, there are almost always some events described (upon cross examination) which acted as over-stimulants, interrupting a study period (Fig. 4).
Everyone has experienced the ease with which some unhappy experience can be forgotten by plunging into enormous bursts of activity. It may be that the new activity submerges the unwanted recollections in a process resembling retroactive amnesia. It has even been shown that actively wanting to forget an unhappy event may speed the process. A burst of activity after a study period may obliterate what you have studied. This topic will be referred to again, in a somewhat different way, under "Distractions."
