Radical - or Good - Idea?

Pre-College Topics High School Life
1

<p>I’ll let you guys in on a secret. I might seem erudite, and sagacious, and scholarly, but AP books bore me. </p>

<p>I look at the walls of text, and on a good day, I might be able to crunch through a few dozen pages. On a bad day, I won’t even be able to retain a paragraph. </p>

<p>So I was thinking - wouldn’t AP books be a lot more accessible if they were interactive? That is, the paragraphs are still there, but there are simply blanks where you have to fill in the key word, concept, or phrase? E.g. consider this:</p>

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<p>I just think that writing an AP book in the style above would make it so much more conduit to learning. Looking at a wall of text doesn’t help me learn. </p>

<p>But if I am forced to think about the material while reading, I would retain the material much better. There is a difference between blankly staring at a page and absorbing in information. Obviously, the correct answers to the blanks would be in the appendix. And this would be so easy to do; the authors just have to go through the book, delete the key words, and make an appendix with all the right words.</p>

<p>This would easily defeat my usual technique of merely skimming through an AP review book and thinking that I know everything. Because that’s what I do. I skim through by looking at the section headings and quickly scanning the text - and think “oh, I’ve already covered the properties of water in class; I know it. Oh, I’ve already gone over taxonomy, I know it, etc.” This would defeat skimming and actually put your knowledge to the test. </p>

<p>The answers, in order, are: Proteins, dehydration synthesis, water, membranes, enzymes, channel proteins.</p>

2

<p>Your title implies that a radical idea can’t ever be a good one ;)</p>

<p>It probably would be a good idea to have AP textbooks that way. I have trouble reading review books too, and it would help if they actually tested your knowledge. It is boring to read stuff you’ve already studied. I don’t think anyone will actually do this though. It’s risky for the providers of the AP book.</p>

3

<p>Those already exist - they’re called textbook study guides (which consist mainly of fill-in-the-blanks and practice questions). I wouldn’t buy a textbook or a review book like that - flipping between pages for the answers I need would be very annoying.</p>

4

<p>My AP textbooks have fill-in-the-blanks. Maybe it’s just the textbooks that have been provided to you?</p>

5

<p>Isn’t that what the practice tests are for?
They give you ALL the information and then test you at the end to make sure u get it.
Filling in as you go is a waste of time</p>

6

<p>But a few sample fill-in-the-blanks don’t cover everything. If it was done through out the book, it would be more helpful and extensive (for me personally, anyways).</p>

7

<p>When I was geometry, the old books had fill in the blanks throughout the WHOLE THING! It was annoying. It’s good for concept checks, but when your whole book has it, it can be a problem. I heard of workbooks that come along with the textbooks that prepare students well.</p>

8

<p>As long as the answers are in order as yours were I’d love that.
I’m horrible at retaining information, so I spend hours creating flash cards or work sheets. That would help awesomely ^.^</p>

9

<p>My AP Stats teacher did that for the notes we took. I hated it because you only try to find out the word, not pay attention to what it means or anything.</p>

<p>But I don’t have any problem reading a review on a subject that I like and enjoy.</p>