<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/960335-effective-study-habits.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/960335-effective-study-habits.html</a></p>
<p>Whistleblower, you’re confusing me. Where do you stand on memorization vs. concept-learning?</p>
<p>Why not just skip tests and party… ask for a makeup exam later</p>
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<p>He probably memorized effective study habits a few days ago for a test and has forgotten them by now.</p>
<p>the education system isn’t perfect? you guys are onto something.</p>
<p>It’s interesting because I bought this book “What Smart Students Know” (one of the mods mentioned in a sticky’ed post that it was a good idea) that basically extolls a type of Conceptual Learning. I think it might be fairer to say the book teaches a new way of relating to the data than just pure memorization. I was considering using some of the techniques but was scared because I’m one of those people who reads the book the night before the exam and spends the entire night memorizing all the facts. Now to be fair until last semester that was a hit and miss trick, I could score high Cs or occasionally As (except in Physio Psych but I challenge ANYBODY to get an A in that class when the test is a 50 pt multiple choice one day and 2-3 short answer questions combined with a cued recall essay and 4-page verbatim rewritten essay the next). Anyway as of last semester I started reading the book once through a few days ahead of time then coming back with the study guide and pouring over the questions until I got them in my head. 5 Classes, 5 As.</p>
<p>whistleblower, has your highish GPA altered your ability to distinguish between aptitude and a sponge brain?</p>
<p>The best way to ace tests is to anticipate exactly what will be on the exam</p>
<p>Study the course material in the semester before you will take the class. You can do this by going through the problems in the textbook or sitting in on the course though not as an official student (if the prof doesn’t mind). It’s a lot easier to absorb material that you’ve already seen.</p>
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<p>What advantage is there to learning the Concepts so far ahead of time? For thermo, as long as you know the Laws of Thermodynamics, you should be able to handle pretty much anything they can throw at you. For Accounting, as long as you truly understand the Accounting Equation, you should be fine. You either get it or you don’t. Some folks got it, others, well, you know. Starting so far ahead of time seems like something that a memorizer would do, and that’s just sad. Is there any room left in your brain after all of that cramming, memorizers?</p>
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<p>And the best way to prepare yourself for what will be on the Exam is by fulling understanding all of the Concepts.</p>
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<p>So that you can enjoy the material in more depth when it comes to class time.</p>
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<p>This is key. All good Memorizers have one Conceptual ability: they can predict test questions. It’s a forecasting of sorts; you psychoanalyze your professor and this allows you to understand his/her thinking style. You get a sense of what the test is all about. Then you Memorize the necessary material.</p>
<p>I argue that Top Grades cannot be achieved without such forecasting abilities. If you cant predict the test, you can’t do well. Like I’ve said before, Conceptual Understanding can not be gained within a semester. Thus, you could not actually Understand all the material necessary in the allotted time, and you could not Memorize all the material without predicting the test. </p>
<p>Of course, certain Super Memorizers ([Kim</a> Peek - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Peek]Kim”>Kim Peek - Wikipedia)) may not need such forecasting abilities, but it is rare. They tend to be developmentally challenged (they need an unusually low IQ to achieve a high GPA with such ease).</p>
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<p>This is the pseudo-intellectual bull crap passed along from one generation of low IQ/high GPA students to the next generation. You learn before class because this gives you a head start in Memorization. Intellectual interest is only a facade, behind which lies the desire to achieve Higher Grades than your peers.</p>
<p>OK. Here’s what it comes down to. What’s more important? Memorizing something that will last for 2 days and getting a good grade but then you forget? Or understanding something and retaining the information that may be important in future classes?</p>
<p>There’s no question that memorizers can get higher grades than concept learners. But unless the memorizers can retain the information, it doesn’t help you out in the long run.</p>
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<p>I can’t see how you could proof your knowledge of the motivations of a large class of people that you know nothing about.</p>
<p>IOW, you don’t know what you’re talking about.</p>
<p>It does help them, I mean they got the grades and they can just spent the summer reviewing.</p>
<p>but aren’t some classes pure memorization? Like history?</p>
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<p>not really. in my experience, seeing topics multiple times really helps cement understanding of that topic. i think that preparing a semester in advance for a class is pretty extreme, but it does make sense to do the readings prior to lecture, in my opinion.</p>
<p>amorestare, I doubt that college history classes aren’t always pure memorization. My history teacher this past year had essay exams with questions like: “Do you believe the US was justified in dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima? Back up your answer.”</p>
<p>I don’t think there’s a right/wrong answer to that question.</p>
<p>Son is doing a research internship this summer. I gave him Stonebraker’s book (database history and theory) to read for fun.</p>
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<p>There is no such thing as “Understanding” something. Those who think they are Conceptual Learners are simply condensing material into a more readily Memorizable form. </p>
<p>Ultimately, there is no such thing as a Concept. It is merely the compression of useful information into more primitive form that can be understood by the slightly less sophisticated “Conceptual Learners.” </p>
<p>Ironically, it’s the Conceptual Learners that look down on Memorizers. At least the Memorizers retain all pertinent information for a short period of time. The Conceptualizers never even retained that information for a second. They dumb it down the second they input knowledge, and they call this Conceptual Understanding.</p>
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<p>i’ve never taken a college history course, but i’m pretty sure that college history courses are about analysis of history, not about whether you can namedrop all of the roman emperors or whatever.</p>
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<p>what? do you believe what you are writing?</p>