How To Study

How to Study – by Don Frank

Most students tend to believe that doing many exercises would help them understand something better. Well, it is only true if you have understood the concepts well but what if you don’t? The answer is that you become more confused than you were before.

There are two types of learners, namely holistic learner and shallow learner. Holistic learner is the one who has very strong and logical understanding about certain topics but shallow learner uses rote memory.
It is without doubt that most students resort to rote memory learning today because it is one of the easiest and at the same time, one of the most ineffective and time-consuming learning process. For example, shallow learners, while learning PA kertas 1, they tend to memorise all the facts instead of understanding them. By understanding I mean knowing the intuition behind something you learn.

I found that our brain will only remember things that come with logical reasons. The stronger the reasons, the longer it will remember. For example, if your friend tells you that A = B and and he explains why A = B, you would remember it with ease but if he never explains the intuition behind, your brain will struggle in remembering (such is the problem in rote memory learning).

1) Always understand the intuition behind something that you learn. For example, learn how to derive certain formulae instead of memorising them.

Let say for a chemical reaction – aA + bB <—> cC + dD
Its equilibrium constant, Keq = [C]^c . [D]^d / [A]^a . [b]^b

Why should we times the exponent a for [A]? Have your teachers ever taught you how do they derive Keq? I guess most teachers don’t.

If you want to know how, go here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONBJo7dXJm8&feature=fvsr

2) Uses your internal dialogue to learn.

Internal dialogue is the sentences that people tell themselves and the debate that often goes on “inside their head” a form of self-talk, or inner speech.

You talk to yourself on how to solve a certain question, when you are making decisions or when you are choosing which path to go in future and so on and so forth and in the end you choose. So internal dialogue is something that we do since the moment we are born. So how are you going to use it in your learning process? Well, whenever you come across any topics that are mind-blowing, you must use internal dialogue to learn. You must try to give yourself some reasons why something occurs, why is it so, why is that so and so on. Even if your reasons are ludricous, so be it. The stronger the opinions you have towards that certain topic, the better is your understanding and your memory towards that particular subject. The important thing is that you keep talking to yourself about that topic until your brain accepts it without a shadow of doubt.

*The more logical is your reasons, the better your brain can accept and thus remember for a long time. I’m using this to learn biology, chemistry and most of the subjects that are quite abstrative.

3) Learn with heart

Perhaps this is the element that most students lack – the passion to study. A student without heart will have to force himself to learn subjects being taught. Hence, he has to struggle to make himself learn and he of course would not be talking to himself about these subjects so he wouldn’t remember much of it. Imagine if you talk to yourself about those academic subjects you learn, everything would be at your fingertips.

Students who learn with heart will always find learning easy. They would never have problems in learning, even when they have, they would happily solve it without hurry and worry. A student with heart does not have to force himself to learn. Even when learning is difficult, students with heart will not have any problems but students without heart would have headaches.

4) Always understand how something works first before attempting any questions.

Such is the case with vectors, deductive geometry and many math topics which base a lot in understanding rather than simple calculations (matrix).

As emphasised by all the points before, understanding is of pivotal importance. You must make sure you have understood those concepts before you attempt any questions. Doing questions without comprehension is nothing more than bumping your head against the wall. Those examiners who set questions essentially want to test your understanding on certain topics. They are not going to award A to students who don’t understand the concepts. For easy questions, even if you don’t understand the concepts , you still can do. But how about long questions?

4.1) Only do questions when you have understood the concepts.

Knowledge is important, so is application. When we do questions, we are applying what we have learnt into the situations set by questions. This process is important because it makes us think. The prerequisite for doing questions is that you must understand the concepts first.

5) Don’t memorise unless no other options

Believe me or not, memorising is the harder than understanding. This is because memorising is not supported by reasons.Things that are not supported by reasons is usually short term. Memorising is different from using internal dialogue. You ground yourself, trick yourself into believing something strongly with internal dialogue and most of the time they are supported by logical reasons or maybe stupid reasons. But memorising is not supported by reasons at all. Therefore, stop doing it and use internal dialogue.

6) Be light and fluid

When learning something, always leave out all your pre-conception. This is to make your brains taking up the concepts easily, it’s like a little tricking process that helps trick your mind. If you are very pre-occupied, no matter what the books say or teachers say , you can hardly take it so chances are that you will not be able to grab something taught.

7) Use mnemonics

Using mnemonics or making short notes on what you have learnt can effectively improve your memory on them. It is advisable to only include necessary facts in your short notes and mnemonics. Remember, these mnemonics and short notes don’t help you to understand but to recall.

Exam tips

Avoid being habitual

Always be prepared for new challenges. Don’t expect all questions to be familiar or some sorts of questions you usually encounter. To avoid being habitual, you have to be aware of everything. In PA exams, in math exams, read all questions real carefully and understand what they want before you attempt to solve them. Use some logic in your thinking to solve them. Most of the questions in STPM these years are tricky because they want you to really understand. They don’t set straightforward questions already because they want you to think. Always analyse the questions carefully before you start doing. Know what they want and give what they want and they will give you what you want.

**credits to berryberryeasy.com =)