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Close the Book. Recall. Write It Down.

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Re: Close the Book. Recall. Write It Down.

#3
Alternatively:

Don't miss class. Take good notes. Read the book. Party the night before the test.

I'm still amazed that half my fraternity brothers spent 40 hours per week "studying" and the other half spent 40 hours drinking beer and playing bridge. There was no correlation between which group you were in and your grades.

Re: Close the Book. Recall. Write It Down.

#5
The interesting thing, to me, is that this effect could serve as an explanation for the phenomenon described yesterday in http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=580209 . Namely, the independent study technique might naturally encourage this mode of learning by sheer accident. In short, you are studying to prepare for a discussion, rather than memorizing for an exam. This naturally causes you to 'close the book', recall, and then speak it out loud. (This article reports that speaking out loud is better than just recalling.)

In a conventional 'learn to test' scenario, one might feel naturally compelled to read and reread, or to take notes with the book open, simply out of desperation.

What do you think? Could the success of 'Unschooling' be largely due to the very effect described in the current article?

Re: Close the Book. Recall. Write It Down.

#6
Seems like it works the same way that showing somebody else your unfixable bug and explaining to them why it's impossible works for fixing it. Having to teach/explain/write about a topic without a book forces you to examine your implicit beliefs about it, to show you where you've left holes.

Re: Close the Book. Recall. Write It Down.

#8
post #3

Alternatively: Don't miss class. Take good notes. Read the book. Party the night before the test. I'm still amazed that half my fraternity brothers spent 40 hours per week "studying" and the other half spent 40 hours drinking beer and playing bridge. There was no correlation between which group you were in and your grades.

The same applies to life in general.

Re: Close the Book. Recall. Write It Down.

#9
When I wanted to make sure that I knew a class subject area front and back, I'd get into a room with a whiteboard. Preferably with other students.

We'd make an agenda, or use a study guide, and take turns presenting the material at the white board.

You feel yourself writing it. You read it. You say it. You hear it.

It worked like gangbusters. A wild-draw-4 of learning styles.

Re: Close the Book. Recall. Write It Down.

#10
post #3

Alternatively: Don't miss class. Take good notes. Read the book. Party the night before the test. I'm still amazed that half my fraternity brothers spent 40 hours per week "studying" and the other half spent 40 hours drinking beer and playing bridge. There was no correlation between which group you were in and your grades.

but are you sure that there weren't two different types of people? That some people inherently need to study 40 hours, while others can party them away?

Your observation matches my own, but I'm not at all certain that it's not due to differences in learning style.

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