· Get organized. Becoming more efficient at studying gives you more time for other interests.
· Make daily to-do lists in writing. Put items in order of importance, focus on the most important tasks, and assign a time to work on these items. Because life is full of uncertainties, you will be lucky to accomplish half of the items on your daily list. Shift your schedule as needed to accomplish the most important items.
· Set up a study routine in a distraction-free environment. Develop a written daily study schedule and stick to it. Study in a quiet, well-lighted space.
· Work sitting at a desk or table, not lying down on a couch or bed.
· Take breaks every hour or so. During each break take several deep breaths and move around to help you stay more alert and focused.
· Avoid procrastination-putting work off until another time. Do not fall behind on your reading and other assignments. Accomplish this by setting aside a particular time for studying each day and making it a part of your daily routine. Do not eat dessert first. Otherwise, you may never get to the main meal (studying).
· When you have accomplished your study goals then reward yourself with play (dessert).
· Make hills out of mountains. It is psychologically difficult to climb a mountain such as reading an entire book, reading a chapter in a book, writing a paper, or cramming to study for a test. Instead, break such large tasks (mountains) down into a series of small tasks (hills). Each day read a few pages of a book or chapter, write a few paragraphs of a paper, and review what you have studied and learned. As Henry Ford put it, “Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs."
· Look at the big picture first. Get an overview of an assigned reading by looking at the main headings or chapter outline. In this textbook, I provide a list of the main questions that are the focus of each chapter.
· Ask and answer questions as you read. For example, what is the main point of this section or paragraph?
· Focus on key terms. Use the glossary in your textbook to look up the meaning of terms or words you do not understand. Make flash cards for learning key terms and concepts and review them frequently. This book shows all key terms in boldfaced type and lesser but still important terms in italicized type.
· Interact with what you read. I do this by marking key sentences and paragraphs with a highlighter or pen. I put an asterisk in the margin next to an idea I think is important and double asterisks next to an idea I think is especially important. I write comments in the mar gins, such as Beautiful, Confusing, Misleading, or Wrong.
· I fold down the top corner of pages with highlighted passages and the top and bottom corners of especially important pages. This way, I can flip through a chap ter or book and quickly review the key ideas.
· Review to reinforce learning. Before each class review the material you learned in the previous class and read the assigned material. Review, fill in, and organize your notes as soon as possible after each class.
· Become a better note taker. Do not try to take down everything your instructor says. Instead take down main points and key facts using your own shorthand system. Fill in and organize your notes after class.
· Write out answers to questions to focus and reinforce learning.
· Use the buddy system. Study with a friend or become a member of a study group to compare notes, review material, and prepare for tests. Explaining something to someone else is a great way to focus your thoughts and reinforce your learning.
· If available, attend review sessions offered by instructors or teaching assistants. Learn your instructor's test style. Does your instructor emphasize multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, true or-false, factual, thought, or essay questions? How much of the test will come from the textbook and how much from lecture material? Adapt your learning and studying methods to this style. You may disagree with this style and feel that it does not adequately reflect what you know. But the reality is that your instructor is in charge.
· Become a better test taker. Avoid cramming. Eat well and get plenty of sleep before a test. Arrive on time or early. Calm yourself and increase your oxygen in take by taking several deep breaths. Do this about every 10-15 minutes. Look over the test and answer the questions you know well first. Then work on the harder ones. Use the process of elimination to narrow down the choices for multiple-choice questions. Getting it down to two choices gives you a 50% chance of guessing the right answer. For essay questions, organize your thoughts before you start writing. If you have no idea what a question means, make an edu cated guess. You might get some partial credit and avoid a zero. Another strategy for getting some credit is to show your knowledge and reasoning by writ ing: “If this question means so and so, then my answer is_ Develop an optimistic outlook. Try to be a "glass is half-full” rather than a "glass is half-empty" person.Pessimism, fear, anxiety, and excessive worrying (especially over things you have no control over) are destructive and lead to inaction. Try to keep your energizing feelings of optimism slightly ahead of your immobilizing feelings of pessimism. Then you will al ways be moving forward.
· Take time to enjoy life. Every day take time to laugh and enjoy nature, beauty, and friendship. Becoming an effective and efficient learner is the best way to do this without getting behind and living under a cloud of guilt and anxiety.
· How Can You Improve Your Critical Thinking Skills? Detecting Baloney Learning how to think critically is a skill you will need throughout your life. Every day we are exposed to a sea of information, ideas, and opinions. How do we know what to believe andwhy? Do the claims seem reasonable or exaggerated?
· Critical thinking involves developing skills to help you analyze and evaluate the validity of information and ideas you are exposed to and to make decisions. Critical thinking skills help you decide rationally what to believe or what to do. This involves examining in formation and conclusions or beliefs in terms of the evidence and chain of logical reasoning that supports them. Critical thinking helps you distinguish between facts and opinions, evaluate evidence and arguments, take and defend an informed position on issues, inte grate information and see relationships, and apply your knowledge to dealing with new and different problems.
· Here are some basic skills for learning how to think more critically.
· Question everything and everybody. Be skeptical, as any good scientist is. Do not believe everything you hear or read, including the content of this textbook. Evaluate all information you receive. Seek othersources and opinions. As Albert Einstein put it, “The important thing is not to stop questioning."
· Do not believe everything you read on the Internet. The Internet is a wonderful and easily accessible source of information. It is also a useful way to find alternative information and opinions on almost any subject or issue-much of it not available in the mainstream media and scholarly articles. However, because the Internet is so open, anyone can write anything they want with no editorial control or peer evaluation—the method in which scientific or other experts in an area review and comment on an article before it is accepted for publication in a scholarly journal. As a result, evaluating information on the Internet is one of the best ways to put into practice the princi ples of critical thinking discussed here. Use and enjoy the Internet, but think critically and proceed with caution.
· Identify and evaluate your personal biases and beliefs. Each of us has biases and beliefs taught to us by sources such as parents, teachers, friends, role models, and experience. What are your basic beliefs and bi ases? Where did they come from? What basic assump tions are they based on? How sure are you that your beliefs and assumptions are right and why? Accord ing to William James, “A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices." Be open-minded, flexible, and humble. Be open to con sidering different points of view, suspend judgment until you gather more evidence, and be capable of changing your mind. Recognize that there may be a number of useful and acceptable solutions to a prob lem and that very few issues are black or white. There are usually valid points on both (or many) sides of an issue. One way to evaluate divergent views is to get into another person's head or walk in his or her shoes. How do they see or view the world? What are their ba sic assumptions and beliefs? Is their position logically consistent with their assumptions and beliefs?
· And be humble about what you know. According to Will Durant, “Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance." Evaluate how the information related to an issue was obtained. Are the statements made based on firsthand knowledge or research or on hearsay? Are unnamed sources used? Is the information based on repro ducible and widely accepted scientific studies (sound or consensus science, p. 36) or preliminary scientific re sults that may be valid but need further testing (fron tier science, p. 36)? Is the information based on a few isolated stories or experiences (anecdotal information) instead of carefully controlled studies? Is it based on unsubstantiated and widely doubted scientific infor mation or beliefs (junk science or pseudoscience)? You need to know how to detect junk science,
· Question the evidence and conclusionspresented. What are the conclusions or claims? What evidence is presented to support them? Does the evidence support them? Is there a need to gather further evidence to test the conclusions? Are there other, more reasonable conclusions?