How to Study

Suggestions for High-School and College Students

Arthur W. Kornhauser, Diane M. Enerson

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9780226099132
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

A complete guide for successful studying, How to Study is concise, practical, time-tested, and free of gimmicks. Designed originally for freshmen at the University of Chicago, this smart book has helped generations of students throughout the country improve their skills in learning quickly and effectively. It offers a no-nonsense plan of action filled with techniques, strategies, exercises, and advice for: *Mastering rather than just memorizing material*Learning the secrets of mental preparation before tackling difficult assignments or exams*Strengthening skills for better reading, note taking, and listening*Improving use of time in the classroom, the library, and at homeIt offers a wealth of advice, from the commonsensical ("Never begin study immediately after eating" and "Check every tendency to daydream") to the more psychological ("Use your knowledge by thinking, talking, and writing about the things you are learning").Thoroughly revised and updated, this powerful little book can help any motivated and capable student work smarter, not just harder, from high school through college.When he wrote How to Study Arthur W. Kornhauser (1896-1990) was associate professor of business psychology at the University of Chicago.

1

The Meaning of Study

THERE are two aims in study: one is to acquire certain bodies of knowledge; the other is to acquire certain abilities to do things. We study history to gain a knowledge of ancient Greece or of prewar Germany, whereas we study arithmetic or French to gain an ability to solve problems or read French books. Clearly, there is no sharp line between these two kinds of study. Knowledge inevitably plays some part in guiding future thought and action and is part of our ability to do. Likewise, our knowledge of how to do things and our knowledge of specific things will always affect the efficiency and ways in which we can assimilate new information.

There remains, however, a difference in emphasis between studying to acquire knowledge and studying to acquire the ability to use knowledge and to do things. With regard to studying in college, major emphasis undoubtedly belongs on the side of developing your abilities. Education should increase your powers: your abilities to work and play, vote and understand others, read and think, organize a business, plead a case, or cure a disease. This does not minimize the place of knowledge—which is in fact subordinate to the ability to use knowledge, but an indispensable subordinate. Intelligent thought and action always have sound knowledge as their basis.

One of the most valuable abilities you can develop is the ability to study, which is not something you do the night before an exam. Rather, you have to learn how to study so you can independently approach a novel problem and think it through to a successful solution. Mastering a method of doing something is also an accomplishment that can only be achieved through genuine study. Learning to study effectively is far more important than merely acquiring a particular body of information. In most fields, information may quickly become obsolete, whereas analyzing and approaching a problem, gathering the necessary information, and interpreting that information are skills that will not tarnish quite so quickly. Knowing how to study is tantamount to knowing how to think, observe, concentrate, organize and analyze information. It is the application of intelligence to the task of understanding and controlling the world about us. In learning to study, you are learning to think and to live. When students do not learn how to study, the biggest job of their education is left undone.

Study includes not only what you gain from books and the classroom but also what you acquire through direct observation and through actual performance. However, because it would be impossible—and too laborious—to collect stores of knowledge and points of view firsthand, studying in high school and college depends to a great extent on studying from books. Owing to this central position of books and classroom work in school study, the following pages have been limited to a discussion of these forms of learning. Nevertheless, you should continually aim to tie your book learning firmly to your everyday or firsthand experience. When you do this, the subject you are studying becomes infused with the richer meanings only your own observations and activities can bring.

In studying, as in other activities, skill is not acquired by wishing or resolving—or by reading books like this one. Rather, you must put forth a strenuous and persistent effort if results are to be achieved. Here, as elsewhere practice makes perfect. In other words, you must first determine where you need to improve, and then resolutely hold to the task of acquiring the methods you find outlined here. Although you may gain a certain level of comfort by reading the suggestions that follow, it is only by using the suggested procedures—over and over again—that you will profit from them.

2

A Fundamental Requirement for Effective Study

THERE is one fundamental and indispensable requirement for effective study more basic than any rule or technique, and to which all specific advice concerning how to read, take notes, tackle problems, and form good study habits is secondary. This key requirement is a driving motive, an intense desire to learn and to achieve, an interest in things intellectual, a “will to do” in your scholastic work. If you want to learn how to study effectively, first develop a desire to master your studies and believe that you will master them. All else is subordinate to such spirit.

How can this spirit be acquired? First, you need to build up definite ambitions and ideals toward which your studies can lead, as well as acknowledge frankly the consequences of poor work versus the rewards of good work. Picture clearly to yourself the satisfactions of success versus the disappointments of failure. Sometimes students’ attitudes are transformed from those of indifference and merely “getting by” to those of earnest and energetic effort by some emergency that causes them to think seriously about their future. Reading biographies also often helps provide the necessary spark. But the simplest and most direct stimulus to change may involve nothing more than the deliberate planning of your life. A little thought given to yourself and the things you are working for is an excellent incentive to serious study.

A second drive that makes true study possible is an interest in the subject studied. You can develop an interest in studying particular subjects if you follow these four rules:

1. Acquire information about the subject from a variety of sources. The more you know about a subject the easier it is to develop an interest in it. For example, it is easier to become interested in professional baseball if you learn about the players and about the fine points of the game. The same is true in every other field. Your school subjects are no exception. It is a matter of giving your interests a chance to develop by getting into the subjects.

2. Tie the new information to your old bodies of knowledge. Discover relations of new facts to old matters of interest. Historic events take on new interest when they are seen in relation to present issues. Physics and chemistry become more interesting to many students when they can see the application of these subjects in everyday life.

3. Make new information personal. Relate it to matters of real concern to you. This material on “how to study,” for example, has interest for you only as you think about how it can help you.

4. Actively use your new knowledge. Raise questions about the points made by the book or the instructor. Anticipate what the next steps and the conclusions will be, and then check on these. Think and talk and write about the ideas; make them play a part in your actions. Take the relevant material from one class into other classes. Discuss difficult and questionable points with your friends and classmates. Consider what the implications and consequences of new ideas obtained in your studies might be.

When you study with eager interest, you will discover pleasure and fascination in what you study. It is no longer work. This is the kind of studying that overcomes distractions and requires no effort or will power. It is like reading a novel or seeing a movie. The greater the proportion of your study that is of this sort the better. But the positive relationship between interest and efforts works both ways. Even when you begin studying a subject with little interest, oftentimes simply “staying with it” and trying to make it an active part of your thinking will help you develop an interest in that ...