| Some Study Hints...that may be contrary to conventional wisdom Do not study where you eat or sleep. In other words, don't study on your bed and don't eat at your study desk. And if you think you study better on your bed, ask yourself these two questions. Would you sooner accept a promise from someone on a bed or someone sitting at a desk? Is anyone well-advised to accept a promise you make while you're on a bed rather than while you're sitting at a desk?
Five modes of discourse to identify in texts and other course related books:
- narration
- description
- definition
- explanation
- proof or evidence that the explanation accurately tells how or why the phenomenon happens
Especially note descriptions or analyses, definitions or syntheses, and explanations [how or why A leads to B].
Take breaks regularly, e.g., 5 to 10 minutes every hour; or a fifteen minute break every 2 1/2 hours.
As with physical exercise so, too, with mental: stop when keeping form becomes a major effort. After taking a break, move on to studying another subject. Or, in extreme cases, stop study altogether and do something else equally worthwhile.
What is study form? Study Form = ability to image what is described; apply definitions by citing examples different from yet identical to those given in the text [Rottweiler is different from yet identical to Doberman as an example of guard dog; Liberia is different from yet identical to the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, or Italy as an example of a nation state.]; apply explanations to situations and cases similar to those given as examples in the text.
When you can no longer do all that without confusion, long pauses, or error, then you have lost study form. Time to stop studying that material. Go on to something else after taking a break
Be honest with yourself: If you lack background knowledge in a subject, tell your teacher or talk with a librarian. If necessary, go to the Children's Section of a library to get started on developing adequate background.
How do you know you lack background knowledge? You can't imagine what is described, or You can't provide examples of defined words, or You can't apply explanations to similar situations. You're not even sure what is a "similar situation."
Use your Collegiate Desk Dictionary [paperback dictionaries are a waste of money; compare one with the other to see so for yourself]. Use your dictionary if the word you read or hear is:a word you yourself do not use, or you seldom hear the word used or seldom if ever come across it in your reading, or you cannot define it or provide synonyms for it, or you have difficulty pronouncing it, or you could not spell it if at an earlier time you had been asked to do so.
Never, never, never, never and again never use as excuse for poor academic performance that you just don't have any interest in a course or subject, that you can't work up or find any interest in the course or subject, or any other such lame excuse. Some of the best education you will ever receive is education that teaches you how to learn what you yourself do not yet have any felt interest or desire to learn. Think about that.
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