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..Despite the age of this document, its recommendations for effective
study of physics remain appropriate even today, especially for
those students who really want to learn the subject. The problem
examples, using English units, have been left unchanged.
The references to tuition costs and textbook prices are a reminder
of how much inflation has occured since then."
The only 'modification' made from the original document was the title and the sub-headings which are in bold letters to make it not appear too lengthy for our readers.
1. Have a proper mental attitude.
As mentioned in the preface (which you should read), the
most important requirement for effective study is the proper mental attitude
and a driving desire to learn. Picture to yourself as vividly as possible the
consequences of your failure to learn—flunking out, opinions of family and
friends, lowered income throughout life because of incompetence. Then think of
what may happen if you do particularly well—respect from family and friends, possible
scholarships, offers of jobs leading to important and responsible positions.
Get interested in the subject by learning something about it,
tying it in with other courses, talking it over with fellow students. Be
assured that if the course is required as part of a curriculum of professional
training, the course is necessary. Try to discover why.
Go to class; be alert. Make a serious effort to stay right
with the lecture Adopt a cooperative and receptive mental attitude rather than
a belligerent one. Perhaps you will develop more enthusiasm for the course if
you sit in one of the front rows, where you will be forced to pay attention.
2. Set up a conducive work station
Find yourself a quiet place to study, with plenty of light
and desk space that is free from distractions, including radios and pictures of
girl friends or boy friends. (The desk is for work; put the pictures on the
bureau.) Study conscientiously, keep at it; sit with your back to the door and
reject interruptions. The time you save will enable you to enjoy occasional
bull sessions without worrying because you aren’t studying.
3. Make a study a schedule and stick to it
Budget your time. Make out a study schedule and stick to it
for at least two weeks. Get adequate sleep, regular moderate exercise, and some
recreation, but leave two full honest hours weekly per unit for study. [2]
There are 168 hours a week. Of these 168 hours you will be
asleep for about 60, dressing and eating for about 20. If you take Saturday
afternoon off for a hike, consider Sunday morning and afternoon as time off
from studying, and have two four-hour dates a week, you have about 68 hours a
week for work. If you are in class and laboratory for 20 hours, you still have 48
hours for study. It seems like a tremendous amount of time, doesn’t it?—especially
considering that you’ve taken off half of Saturday and most of Sunday. Just
where does all the time go? A great deal of it is lost in ten-and twenty-minute
idle discussions, time wasted during the twenty minutes while you wait before a
class after you’ve needlessly spent another twenty minutes walking to the post
office and back for a stamp you could have picked up just as easily on your way
back from lunch, and so on. It is up to you whether you want to make good use
of these numerous ten; twenty, or thirty-minute intervals. I’m not urging that
you never take a minute off to enjoy life, but there is certainly little danger
that you will use your time too efficiently.
4. Learn in small chunks
You learn more physics by studying it for an hour a day than
by studying it for ten hours on a week end, and it takes less time. Furthermore,
you will get more from the middle-of-the-week classes Don’t get behind. Keep up
with your work. It’s much easier to learn your lessons from day to day than it
is to half-learn them all at once on the day before the exam. If the prospect
of an assignment is forbidding, begin on it; you may get more done than you
expected.
Plan to study physics as soon after class as possible, while
you still remember things that probably will be forgotten twenty-four hours
later. You may find it a good idea to study physics when your mind is fresh, before
you work on subjects requiring less concentration. During a study session of
several consecutive hours, an occasional relaxation period of five minutes
often is a help. Sometimes it is better to study one subject for an hour and
then shift to another subject for an hour, rather than to study one course
continuously. Sometimes it is not better. Experiment to find out which method
suits you.
5. Focus, focus, focus
When you study, really study. Much of your time may be lost
in slipshod thinking, daydreaming, following blind alleys of thought, and just
plain loafing. Probably you have experienced times when your process of
learning was very easy and rapid. Try to figure out how this happened and then
try to duplicate the occurrence. (Sometimes the prospect of an examination
provides a good incentive; can you provide yourself with an artificial
incentive?) While you are studying, keep personal worries off your mind. If you
have a personal problem, get some good advice, think it over, then make your
decision and stick to it.
6. Read about the topic before class
You understand a lecture better if you have some notion
ahead of time as to its subject matter. For this reason, spending the five or
ten minutes between classes reading the main paragraph headings gives you a
better return for the time spent in the lecture than if you spend the time
before class reading the daily paper. (By all means, read the newspaper later.)
Experiment to find out what part of your study time for a given assignment
should be spent before lecture and what part after lecture, in order to give
you the best return. Probably you will spend from ten to forty percent of your
time studying before lecture.
7. Try to understand what you read
Perspective is one of the chief aims of education. To see
the parts in relation to the whole is much more important than to know all the
details. [3] Perspective provides a scaffolding into which the details may be
fitted readily. When you study an assignment, first go over it rapidly, taking
in only the high spots, to find out what it is about. Then go over it more
carefully. Study to understand the material, not just to read an assignment. Go
slowly Physics can’t be read like a novel or even like a history lesson. (A
physics assignment is often only a half-dozen pages rather than a half-dozen
chapters.) Try to think of applications of the material as you read it and of
problems to which the formulas apply. Try to correlate the material with your
previous knowledge and with other courses. Material in the text is not
necessarily 100 percent correct. Textbook authors are human and sometimes are
misinformed, just as other people are. All books have some typographical errors,
although usually not very many. Be critical. Do not believe what you read
unless it makes sense to you. [4]
When you finish a paragraph, think out its main idea. Say it
out loud or write it down. When you finish the page, ask yourself what was on
the page. It may have seemed simple when the author wrote it, but can you put
it in your own words? You may have to do so in an exam.
When you finish the assignment, plan what question you would
ask if you were making up an examination. Close the book and deliver yourself a
three-minute formal lecture on the lesson or, if you feel silly talking to
yourself, write out a fifteen-minute essay on the subject. Probably you will
discover that you didn’t know the material as well as you thought you
did—better to find it out while studying than during an exam. The importance of
frequent self-recitation cannot be overemphasized. Review the day’s work in the
evening, the week’s work on Friday, and the whole course once a month.
Psychologists say that if you overlearn material (i.e., study
it somewhat longer than is necessary just to understand it), you will remember
it later with comparative ease. Furthermore, overlearning and review show you
where you are weak and give you a chance to clear up the weak points.
8. Discuss with friends
Physics can be learned by seeing, hearing, reading, writing,
and talking. Do not overlook the chance of talking things over with your
friends. An excellent study procedure is for two students to study a week’s material
together and then give each other an oral exam on it. (Let A ask B a question. If
B answers, it is a point for B; if B cannot answer but A can, then it is a
point for A. The one with the most points can call the tune but perhaps the
loser will want to study a little more.) Trying to explain something to a
critical friend will show if you really know it. Don’t delude yourself by
saying, “I know it but I can’t explain it,” for if you do understand it, you
can explain it. As a matter of fact, a good test of your understanding is
furnished by the ease with which you can explain something. When you understand
it well enough, you can explain it easily.
9. Use class time to ask your teachers what you don’t understand
As you are outlining the course, revising your lecture-notes,
reading the text, or doing problems, occasionally you will come upon things you
simply cannot understand. Don’t say: “I can’t get it at all.” Rather, try to
analyze your difficulty so that you can state specifically what you don’t
understand. Make a list of these difficult topics and ask the instructor about
them at the next class. Don’t hesitate to ask, either. Probably there are
others who will be glad to know the answers too. Contrary to popular student
impression, the instructor probably will be pleased that you ask about the
course.
If you are having real difficulty with a course, spend an
hour writing an essay on what you think the course is about, what its
significance is, how it should be studied, why you are taking the course (or if
it is a required course, why you think it is required), why you think you are
having difficulty, etc. Then show your instructor the essay but ask him to
count ten before he says anything. Very likely your essay will be of value to
him in diagnosing your difficulty and prescribing a remedy. Writing the essay
certainly will help you to profit from your instructor’s diagnosis and remarks.
10. Find some support material that explains simpler
If the course seems to be too deep for you, try going to the
main library or to the physics library, where there are some books simpler and
easier to understand than your text. The instructor will be able to suggest
several books of this type, But don’t neglect your own book. It has an index
and probably several appendices. They may help. Use your own book; don’t just
read it. Underline important points, put your own comments in the margin, etc.
(If it costs $500 to $1000 for you to take a physics course, it is hardly worth
while to worry about the resale value of a $5 text.)
Sometimes a student can learn more in an hour from a good
tutor than he could in a whole evening by himself. Your instructor will know of
some good tutors. Or the material may not be so difficult as you think. Don’t
expect too much. A thing may have a terrifying name (such as a prolate spheroid)
but may actually represent something simple (a football). The sentence
following an obscure one may clear up the trouble.
11. Learn how to speed read
If your physics suffers because it takes you too long to
read your history lesson, speak to your adviser, who will be able to suggest
corrective procedures. Most people can greatly increase their reading speed and
degree of understanding if they go about it in the proper way. [5]
12. Pay attention to definitions
Pay special attention to definitions. Often a common word
has a special technical meaning; be sure you understand it. Although in common
parlance such terms as force, energy, work, and power often are used
synonymously, all of them have distinct, different meanings in physics. Learn
these meanings. For nontechnical words about which you are in doubt, use a
dictionary. All students should own and use a good dictionary. Definitions are
important not because they may be asked for in an examination but because a
clear and concise formulation of the meaning of a defined quantity is essential
to an understanding of it. Incidentally, do not merely mimic the words in the
text but study for a grasp of the subject so that you can give the definition
in your own words too.
13. Be active in class discussion
Take an active part in recitation work. Ask questions. Try to
anticipate what will come next. Such an alert mental attitude will help to make
the material sink in.
In technical courses, undoubtedly you will have numerical
problems to work from time to time. In addition to quantitative problems, however,
discussion questions are very useful learning aids. If your text has questions
of this type, be sure to go over them. If, after thinking hard, you cannot get
the answers, ask your instructor for some hints. If your book does not have
this type of question, you should either get a book that does or else ask
enough questions in your recitation section so that you get the benefit of this
kind of mental exercise.
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