How To Study

Cultivate an Interest in What You Are Studying, and Some Idea of What It Leads To. — Without interest your study will be perfunctory and of little use to you. Make yourself believe that for you, at that time, it is the most important thing in the world. It is of course true that in most schools students are required to study definite subjects according to a curriculum arranged by the faculty. In some of these subjects a student may take little interest; indeed they may be so foreign to his natural tastes that he is not able to cultivate any interest in them. In such a case his study of them will be of little value to him. If, relying upon the judgment of those who prescribe the curriculum as necessary or desirable for the object which he has in view, he cannot persuade himself that they have value for him or make himself take an interest in them, it would probably be better for him to drop them even though he may thereby become a special student in the school or lose his degree. A degree which simply means slipshod, unintelligent and uninterested study of a considerable number of subjects embraced in the curriculum, is verily a "scrap of paper" not worth having.

Be Interested Thoroughly in What You Are Doing. — Indifference is a fatal enemy to good work. Every subject has its difficulties and you must not be discouraged by them. If you can learn how to overcome difficulties, you will find that doing so affords the keenest intellectual pleasure, and that each difficulty overcome by your own unaided efforts will make you much stronger in attacking the next one.

No doubt every one finds himself at times reading merely words or phrases without understanding them, reflecting about them, or translating them into terms which are intelligible to his understanding. Such reading is worse than useless; it leads to actual mental injury. Whenever we find ourselves doing this we should therefore arouse ourselves, make an effort of will, and concentrate our attention upon the subject, insisting upon understanding it. If for any reason we are unable to do this, we should close the book, take some exercise or recreation, or at any rate do something else, for we are not at the moment fitted for study. We might as well eat sawdust and deceive ourselves with thinking that we are taking nourishment. It is not what is read or what is remembered, but only what is understood, that gives power.

Professor James, in his interesting book, "Talks to Teachers," illustrates this habit by an amusing anecdote:

"A friend of mine visiting a school, was asked to examine a young class in geography. Glancing at the book, she said: 'Suppose you should dig a hole in the ground, hundreds of feet deep, how should you find it at the bottom—warmer or colder than on top?' None of the class replying, the teacher said: 'I'm sure they know, but I think you don't ask the question quite rightly. Let me try.' So, taking the book, she asked: 'In what condition is the interior of the globe?' and received the immediate answer from half the class at once: 'The interior of the globe is in a condition of igneous fusion!'

Perhaps it may be thought that an incident like the foregoing would only occur in an elementary school. As a matter of fact, college students and graduates, and indeed most of us, do this very thing more often than we realize, even in subjects like mathematics or mechanics; and terms like "energy," "momentum," "rate of change," "period of vibration," "value," "social justice," etc., are often used without a clear understanding, and sometimes without any understanding at all, of what they mean.

Benjamin Franklin, writing to a lady who asked him to give her advice about reading said:

"I would advise you to read with a pen in your hand, and enter in a little book short hints of what you find that is curious or that may be useful ... and as many of the terms of science are such as you cannot have met with in your common reading, and may therefore be unacquainted with, I think it would be well for you to have a good dictionary at hand to consult immediately when you meet a word you do not know the precise meaning of. This may at first seem troublesome and interrupting, but it is a trouble that will daily diminish, and you will daily find less and less occasion for your dictionary, as you will become more acquainted with the terms; and in the mean time you will read with more satisfaction because with more understanding."

If You Cannot See How the Author Reaches a Stated Conclusion, Because He Does Not Indicate the Process Which He Follows, Do Not Spend Too Much Time Trying to Find Out How He Did It, but Rather See if You Can Come to a Conclusion in Your Own Way, Thus Cultivating Your Own Power and Initiative Rather than Following the Author.

Professor Hart says, "We fix a thing in our minds by communicating it to another; we make it plain to ourselves by the very effort to give it explanation, or, to state the thing more paradoxically, we learn a thing by telling it to somebody, we keep it by giving it away."

Learn to State a Thing in Different Ways or from Different Points of View. -— Almost anything may be looked at from different points of view, or a truth stated in different ways, and it may appear very different from different viewpoints. A student should practise doing this, first stating a principle perhaps from the mathematical point of view, and then in simple untechnical language that can be understood by one who is not a mathematician. The habit of stating even technical matters in simple un-technical language should be practised continually... Students frequently say "I understand that, but I cannot explain it." Such a student deceives himself: he does not understand it. If he understands it thoroughly, he can explain it clearly and without ambiguity, and so that others will understand him.

Reflect upon what is Read: Illustrate and Apply a Result after Reaching It, before Passing on to Something Else. -- Apply it to cases entirely different from those shown in the book, and try to observe how generally it is applicable. Do not leave it in the abstract. An infallible test of whether you understand what you have read is your ability to apply it, particularly to cases entirely different from those used in the book.

"It is not enough to know, we must also apply; it is not enough to will, we must also do."—Goethe.

An abstract idea or result not illustrated or applied concretely is like food undigested; it is not assimilated, and it soon passes from the system. In illustrating, so far as time permits, the student should use pencil and paper, if the case demands, draw sketches where applicable, write out the statement arrived at in language different from that used by the author, study each word and the best method of expression, and practise to be concise and to omit everything unnecessary to the exact meaning.

"We must keep carefully that rule of Aristotle which teaches that the best way to learn anything well which has to be done after it is learned, is always to be a-doing while we are a-learning." —Richard Mulcaster

Locke says, "It is not enough to cram ourselves with a great load of collections, unless we chew them over again they will not give us strength and nourishment."

"There's a vast difference between having a carload of miscellaneous facts sloshing around loose in your head and getting all mixed up in transit, and carrying the same assortment properly boxed and crated for convenient handling and immediate delivery." Lorimer: Letters from a Self-made Merchant to his Son at College.

Review Your Work Frequently. — Review is not re-studying, but is going quickly over the main points, looking at them all in their proper perspective. This will be assisted if you make summaries; writing out a statement of a thing helps you to understand it clearly and to fix it in the memory. As Landon says: "The practice of reviewing keeps the mind in touch with the main lines of the subject; secures freshness and exactness of knowledge; shows what has been imperfectly learned, and gives an opportunity for remedying the trouble; strengthens the recollection and accustoms the mind to recover and give up its stores; saves waste of energy and the formation of bad mental habits; and thus leads to complete assimilation of the subject."

Work Independently of Others. — Solve your own difficulties and welcome them. Do not expect things to be easy. You will never gain strength by being shown, but only by the exercise of your own unaided powers. Therefore, do everything for yourself, so far as possible. Seek only suggestions from your teacher, when you need help, except in regard to mere matters of fact, which you could not be expected to reason out. Let the suggestions be as slight as possible.

If you have problems assigned, solve them entirely by yourself, even if you make mistakes. Then, when those mistakes are pointed out, consider them with great care and discover the causes for them, and remedy them, so that you will not again make the same mistake or one analogous to it. You should delight in discovering difficulties which give you an opportunity to test and increase your strength and so avoid future errors. In the same way, examinations should be welcomed, not dreaded. The teacher does not mark you—you mark yourself; the teacher merely records the mark. Even if you fail in the examination, that should indicate to you what you lack, and so be a benefit. Indeed, it is better to fail than to scrape through. There must be a line somewhere. The man just above the line passes, and the man just below the line fails. The former may not be as capable as the latter, but, having passed, he does not remedy his faults; while the man who has failed is required to remedy his. Huxley said that the next best thing to being right is to be completely and wholesomely wrong.

Cultivate the Power, by Habitual Practice, of Fixing Your Mind Intensely Upon One Thing for a Considerable Time. — If you can acquire this, it will be most valuable to you. It has been said that the difference between clever and ordinary men is often mainly a difference in the power of directing and controlling the mind through the attention.

Education is an opportunity, nothing more. It will not guarantee success, or happiness, or contentment, or riches. Everything depends upon what development is produced by it and what use is made of it. ... What the student gets out of his education depends largely upon what he puts into it.

We often don't consider the impact a child's ideas can have on instruction. Traditionally, it's assumed children soak up learning like a sponge, absorbing knowledge as it's passed from teacher to pupil. But as we'll see, even when a teacher explains things slowly, carefully and clearly, if a student's thinking isn't taken into account, students often fail to learn.

We tend to hear what we expect to hear and see what we expect to see. So when a child comes into a classroom, they have some ideas about how the world is working. They tend to attend to the things that the teacher says that fit with their previous ideas and sort of ignore the things that don't.

Well I think the fact that kids have these very rich ideas about the behavior of the world around them and their experiences is a flag that teaching science or learning science is a very ... laborious process... because these pictures that the kids have, these models, are very important to them. It's their whole view of the world, their whole way of living, and they're not going to by any natural process decide that it's time to change their ideas; they're precious, their current ideas, they're very precious to them.

Learning a new idea often means we have to change a deeply-held belief.

We know that changing the way you think about things can often be not just difficult, but emotionally taxing, because it means giving something up; it means letting go of some knowledge that you have used in the past; it means letting go of something while you're still unsure about what it is you're grasping after in terms of a new way of seeing things.

Some of the more complicated learning we have to do in life, and a lot of science is like this, is not adding new information to what we already know, but changing the way you think about the information we already have. It means developing new ways of seeing things.

Every time we communicate, new concepts compete with the preconceived ideas of our listeners. All students hold these ideas, but they are unaware of their private theories. We must make them aware. Only then can we enable them to learn, and free them from this private universe.

The thing is, in science, students don’t know “nothing” about what we’re trying to teach them, they actually know lots of things through their interaction with the world. It just turns out that these things are wrong, scientifically speaking.

So when you present something, the student thinks they already know it and they don’t really pay utmost attention. They don’t realize that what's being presented differs from their prior knowledge and they just get more confident in those things that they were thinking beforehand.

The only way that power and strength can be developed is by effort on the part of the student. The only real education is self-education. The best that the teacher can do for the student is to show him what he can do for himself and how he can do it.

But labor alone will not produce gains unless properly and intelligently directed. Misdirected labor, though honest and well-intentioned, may lead to naught; just as any virtue, such for instance, as perseverance, if misdirected or mis-applied, or in the wrong proportion, may become a vice. Hegel's dictum that anything carried to its extreme tends to become its opposite, has profound significance. A student may work hard and earnestly in school or college and yet accomplish little or nothing. He should, therefore, be made to see — not only the necessity for hard work, and how to work — but also how to work effectively.

Be Modest Intellectually, yet Self-reliant. Train Yourself to Love Correction. — Remember these sayings from wise men:

"Whoso loveth correction loveth knowledge;
But he that hateth reproof is brutish."
—Proverbs.

"Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth correction;
But he that regardeth reproof shall be honoured."
—Proverbs.

"The beginning of wisdom is the knowledge of one's faults."
—Epicurus.

"He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck
Shall suddenly be broken, and that without remedy."
—Proverbs.

"Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee;
Reprove a wise man and he will love thee."
—Proverbs.

"Be not wise in thine own eyes." — Proverbs.

"The true beginning of wisdom is the desire of discipline." —Wisdom of Solomon.

"Censure and criticism never hurt anybody. If false they can't hurt you unless you are wanting in manly character; and if true, they show a man his weak points, and forewarn him against failure and trouble." Gladstone.

"If there's anything worse than knowing too little, it's knowing too much. Education will broaden a narrow mind, but there's no cure for a big head. The best you can hope is that it will swell up and bust, and then, of course, there's nothing left. Poverty never spoils a good man, but prosperity often does. It's easy to stand hard times, because that's the only thing you can do, but in good times the fool-killer has to do night work." Lorimer: Letters from a Self-made Merchant to his Son at College.

Realize the limitations of your own knowledge; see clearly what you know and what you do not know, otherwise you will see the things you know out of proportion. Make sure, however, that you know the fundamentals. Socrates said that a knowledge of our ignorance is the first step toward true knowledge, and a Persian proverb says:

"He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool; shun him.
He who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is a child; teach him.
He who knows, and knows not that he knows, is asleep; wake him.
He who knows, and knows that he knows, is wise; follow him."

Ask yourself, which of these classes you belong to.

The student should be precisely acquainted with the limits of his own knowledge, and endeavour to get some adequate idea of the extent of his subject. To put it paradoxically, he should know exactly what he knows, and what he does not know; otherwise he is apt to see the few things he has learned out of all proper relationship and proportion to the rest, and to over-estimate the amount of his possessions. Socrates said, "A knowledge of our ignorance is the first step toward true knowledge." It is impossible to know everything even of a single subject, the difficult and important thing is to know exactly what is fundamental, that it may receive attention first.

Set Special Times for Your Recreative Study. — Cultivate some hobby as a relief from your concentrated study of books. Music, some games of cards, chess, billiards, or other relaxations, are admirable means of recuperation. When you indulge in recreation or recreative reading, do not let the mind worry about problems of your previous studies. Make your recreative reading in itself have some aim. Do not allow yourself to develop in a one-sided manner, but have interests outside of your main study.

In Connection with Your Studies Do Not Neglect Proper Physical Exercise. — Remember that the preservation of your health should be your principal aim rather than to cram your head with book learning. Study should not be allowed to interfere with a sufficient amount of physical exercise in the open air, but this should not be carried to the extent of severe bodily fatigue. A healthy body is necessary for the fullest cultivation of the mental powers, but on the other hand, the mind will not work when the body is exhausted. Moreover, see that your studies are done under proper conditions of air, light, sun; that you have a comfortable chair, but not one which leads to somnolence.

Success in the work of the world depends much more upon will than upon brains; but all faculties, whether mental or moral, can be cultivated and developed to an almost unlimited extent. A study of the biographies of men who have succeeded should be urged upon the student, and such a study will show how often success has been attained only after repeated failures. It is scarcely too much to say to a student that he can attain anything he desires, if he desires it with sufficient intensity; that is to say, if he possesses sufficient will power, and if he will train himself to direct his efforts properly. Experience with students, however, will often show that a student is on the wrong track, or trying to do work for which he is not well adapted. If this can be demonstrated with reasonable certainty, the student should be the person most eager to take advantage of it, and should alter his course of study or his aim in life, in such a manner that he may train himself to do that work which he is best qualified to do. To put the right man in the right place should be one of the chief aims of education; but for a student to find that he is on the wrong track and that he had better change to another, is very different from becoming discouraged. The opportunities in the world are without number, and it is within the power of every man to be a successful, useful, and respected member of society. If a student finds himself constantly unsuccessful in his work, he should scrutinize himself carefully with the endeavor to ascertain the cause. He should not be too quick to conclude that he is on the wrong track, but should consult friends and teachers with frankness and sincerity. In no case, however, should he allow himself to become discouraged or disheartened, or to lose confidence in his own ability to attain ultimate success in some direction.

Insist upon First Clearly Formulating the Problem, if One Is before You. — Many students literally do not know what they are doing, because they neglect this injunction, which is a necessary corollary of the necessity of forming definite ideas. Do not proceed to endeavor to solve the problem until it is clearly formulated, no matter how long it may take.

The student is not an empty vessel to be pumped full of learning; he is a complex machine which education should help to run properly.

"The true order of learning should be first, what is necessary; second, what is useful; and third, what is ornamental. To reverse this arrangement is like beginning to build at the top of the edifice." - Mrs. Sigourney

Unless, therefore, his education has enabled him to take up a new subject or a new problem and to study and master it himself -- that is to say, unless he has learned how to study, how to use his mind properly and to direct it efficiently upon the subject in hand -- his education may have benefited him little and may not have fitted him for the career in which he finally finds himself.

Unfortunately, the average student reads only to accept what is written, whether fact, conclusion, or opinion, perhaps memorizing it verbatim under the impression that by so doing he is learning; he does not examine or reflect upon it, and often even accepts as facts what are explicitly stated to be mere expressions of opinion. Thus palpable mistakes, or even typographical errors, which a careful student should detect at once, are often accepted and believed. It is for this reason that it is so easy to deceive most people, at least for part of the time. They do not think for themselves, and all that is necessary to make them believe what you say is in some way to get them to think you are an authority.

Remember that the Object of Study Should Be to Gain WISDOM, Rather than KNOWLEDGE. — Facts are important and must be learned; but far more important is it to gain wisdom and to train the mind and judgment so that truth may be distinguished from error.

The student must resolutely make up his mind that he must not rest satisfied with hazy, uncertain; half-formed ideas. A half knowledge of a thing may not be useless, but it is generally found that it is the other half that is needed. If the student could learn this one precept and continually apply it, he would have little difficulty in studying properly.

The habit of forming definite ideas may also be cultivated by each day attempting to define a certain number of common words, and after making as good a definition as possible comparing the result with that in the dictionary. If the student will practise this, he will at first receive many surprises, for any word may be defined in various ways, all correct as far as they go, but only one of which is a true definition. For instance, a cow may be defined as a four-legged animal, but this, while correct, obviously does not define a cow, for the same definition would apply to many other animals that are not cows. What constitutes a definition?

Every student should, therefore, in the writer's opinion, take a systematic course in logic, or carefully study by himself such books as Jevon's "Elementary Lessons in Logic" or John Stuart Mills' "Logic"¹

¹"The Principles of Argumentation" by Baker and Huntington, is another excellent book, not treating of formal logic, but discussing the general principles which should govern the preparation of a paper or argument, the principles of evidence, and the logical fallacies in reasoning. It is recommended to readers. This book is, or has been, used in the course in English at Harvard University, and similar books are used in other colleges. A thorough training in English under a good teacher is a good training in logic, for clear and logical writing requires clear and logical thinking. Nevertheless, the writer strongly advocates the study of formal logic also.

Remember That a Statement is Not a Proof. Many Students Think They Prove a Statement by Merely Repeating It in Different Words. You Do Not Understand a Conclusion Unless You Can See the Steps in Its Logical Demonstration.

It is quite surprising how many students commit this error. For instance, if I am asked why can I see through glass and I reply, because it is transparent, I am giving no reason at all, for transparent means what can be seen through, so I am simply saying that I can see through glass because I can see through glass.

It will become evident from the foregoing that a fourth essential for proper study is mental initiative. The student must have a definite purpose, and must do what is the proper thing without it being suggested to him. He must not simply do as he is told. If he have not initiative and cannot develop it, he will probably never study intelligently, nor gain a thorough understanding of what he reads, but will merely memorize.

Memory is a most important faculty; it is not, however, a substitute for thought, but should be based upon it. Thinking is essential in order to decide what to memorize. Memory, however, is often made the sole factor in study. Fundamental principles should frequently be memorized, so that by numberless repetitions they may be permanently impressed upon the consciousness, and can be repeated verbatim as a guide in any concrete case where they are to be applied.

A teacher should never cease to be a student of something or other throughout his career, otherwise his mind will grow stagnant, his methods will become fixed and mechanical, he will lose sight of the learner's point of view, and he will be certain to find his skill decreasing.

Do not attempt too wide a range of studies; otherwise you will dissipate your energy over so large an area as to do nothing well. This is not meant to unduly restrict studies, or to apply to matters taken up for recreation or amusement, but to point out that more should not be attempted than can be properly done. Ask yourself definitely what you want to get out of your studies. See that those which are necessary or useful as a preparation for life, those which are most valuable for present purposes and will best serve as a foundation for future work, receive attention first.

Do not take up a subject of study lightly, but when you have taken it up, do not abandon it, unless there is some good cause for so doing. Knowing your own limitation of power and opportunity, learn to say no to any subject which may strike your fancy for the moment, but which would certainly lead you off from more important things. Unless you do this you are in danger of falling into one of the most serious mistakes a student can make, that of beginning a number of things, and then, when the first novelty has worn off, dropping them one by one for others with new attractions; so that, of many studies taken up, scarcely any are carried forward to a stage where the student can be said to really know anything about them, even of an elementary character.

This beginning many things and completing nothing, this frittering away of time and strength in glancing from one thing to another, is a habit easily fallen into, but it is one of the worst which the student can acquire, and tends to intellectual ruin.

Such a course not only wastes time, and prevents any work worthy of the name being done, but it often beguiles the student into the belief that he knows something of a subject because he has looked into it, and leads to that sham knowledge, that mere superficiality, which is so common. A smattering of this kind, which is worse than valueless, must not however be confused with elementary knowledge. The latter, so long as it is real and exact, is not to be despised, no matter how small its amount; the distinguishing mark of the smatterer is his vagueness and uncertainty.

The student should be precisely acquainted with the limits of his own knowledge, and endeavour to get some adequate idea of the extent of his subject. To put it paradoxically, he should know exactly what he knows, and what he does not know; otherwise he is apt to see the few things he has learned out of all proper relationship and proportion to the rest, and to over-estimate the amount of his possessions. Socrates said, "A knowledge of our ignorance is the first step toward true knowledge." It is impossible to know everything even of a single subject, the difficult and important thing is to know exactly what is fundamental, that it may receive attention first.