<p>Hi, how do I learn like a robot? That is, how do I listen to a lecture and immediately be able to to get everything right on a quiz after regarding the lecture material? For two of my classes, engineering and physics, I am expected to do just this for some days. This is problematic because I cannot learn everything the moment it is taught. The average student in my class however can. How do I learn like a robot? I’ve tried reading ahead but the quizzes require thorough understanding of the material.</p>
<p>I’m just going to say learning engineering like a robot isn’t going to cut it.
You might have to play with the tools you’re given before you can effectively use them… A robot won’t be able to use the tool without the prior programming…</p>
<p>First of all, don’t be a robot. That’s not the intent of quizzes.</p>
<p>Try to understand concepts during lecture… don’t focus on memorizing, don’t just copy notes from the board. If they do practice problems during class, try to understand why/how they’re solved. Can you predict the next steps as the professor goes over them?</p>
<p>Or, change how you’re reading ahead. Try working through the practice problems ahead of time, try to get the basic concepts and main equations before you go to lecture. But I can’t imagine they’d give questions complex enough for a “thorough understanding” to be required the day something is taught…</p>
<p>If the quizzes really are that hard, I doubt the other students around you are getting perfect scores either. If they are, maybe you can ask them for some tips. Ask them what they’re doing, how they figure things out, what the thought process is. They’ll be able to give you more specific advice and problem solving tips, since they’re more familiar with the situation.</p>
<p>Assume it’s a robot with an infinite capacity to store background information and to be able to immediately apply any concept it is taught.</p>
<p>@failure622
I do try to understand the concepts during class but understanding is much much harder than memorization. I’ve asked the instructor and he says that if I focus during lecture then I should be able to do all the quiz questions right but I incredibly frustrated because I do focus but I still do badly during the quizzes. Also, I’ve asked others and they say that the instructor basically teaches everything you need during the lecture for the quiz but my brain is not as quick as theirs are which further frustrates me.</p>
<p>Make sure you are well prepared BEFORE you go to class. Check the syllabus and make sure you have done both the assigned and optional reading or problem sets. Even if you can’t complete the problems familiarity with them will help you understand the lecture better by it being in context. Take good notes at lecture but don’t take so many notes that you miss the forest for the trees. … In other words, don’t be so busy scrambling to get every word down that you don’t really pay attention to what the professor actually is saying and how it all fits together.</p>
<p>what are you having trouble with on the quizzes? Do you need to remember formulas and can’t? Are you having trouble picking the right formulas? Something else? Not all “doing badly on quizzes” are created equal and identifying your actual deficiency is the first step to coming up with a plan to address it.</p>
<p>I am having trouble of thinking of the right concepts or pathways to apply to the problem. Some of these concepts involve formulas. I usually take a long time to develop ways to do a problem instantly.</p>
<p>I also feel like there’s something wrong with me. I always struggle with my physics/engineering homework after going to class and reading the text while my peers can just go over their notes and read the textbook to do all the problems, most of the time immediately. I always feel like I need to get help every single time I try to do anything because I always do it wrong at first. I feel like I have a giant handicap learning slower than other people I know.</p>
<p>Maybe math and physics just isn’t your thing.</p>
<p>I had this exact same epiphany when I tried to do engineering. Long story short I realized exactly what the posted above me said, I was good at math and science but it wasn’t great. I switched out of engineering and I am much happier now.</p>
<p>
For most people, thinking of the right concepts or pathways to apply to the problem requires a LOT of practice over your life time. Many people seem to come natural to this mostly because of their related “problem solving experience” accumulated in the past, say, 5 or even more years! There is really no short cut IMHO.</p>
<p>When I could not think of the pathway to tackle a given type of problems, I will look at its answer and try very hard to find the reason why I could not think of its solution in the first place. Some people would say this is kind of “meta-thinking” – thinking about the thought process (or the lack of the thought process.)</p>
<p>I was an engineering student who was good physics and applied math when I was in college. I have tried hard to pass on this way of approaching problem solving to my child when he was in the elementary/middle/high schools. (He would naturally not listen to or learn from me while he’s in college.) He was good at this all by himself by the time he entered college. I hunt down TONs of good problems for him to solve/practice when he was growing up (and I often wrote down the detailed solutions just in case he needed to refer to it – however, most of the time, he did not – this was good because it is better for him to figure it out by himself.)</p>
<p>There is a good or bad method (each student needs to find it out with some pain by himself; it really can not be readily “handed down” by teachers/mentors/parents. No pain, no gain.) Even having found a good method, you still need a lot of practice before you can “internalize” it eventually. </p>
<p>DS still occasionally teased me that I told him that he needs to master the problem solving in trigonometry in algebra I. Hey, trigonometry is indeed important in solving, say, physics problems in high school and in college. It is no harm to master it sooner than later.</p>