The best information is
free
Many
students, the world over, do not realize how easy more effective
learning can be. As a student of learning, and having weeded my mind
of many roadblocks, that inhibited my own learning, one of my
conclusions, is that the best information is free. Free in the sense
that it is easily available, and accessible in the situation at hand,
and the use of one's own personal senses, paired with logic, is
sufficient to clear most learning and personal roadblocks.
One
of my favorite examples of this is math textbooks. I use them every
day in my workplace. I almost always hate using them though, they are
full of pretty pictures, big diagrams and paragraphs, that my algebra
students find useless. My calculus students can barely read their
book, and I don't blame them, I hate looking at that monstrosity, and
I have had Calculus I-III with that book, and have been tutoring math
for 6 years.
Just
to be clear, I have a superpower-level reading level, I was tested to
be at 12th grade, reading level in the 7th
grade, I shudder to think what my comprehension level is currently.
If I don't like these books, how can my less literate students,
possibly get what they need from them? However since, it is my
superpower, I do posses to teach my students some quick and dirty
textbook survival tricks. Below is a summary of them.
First of all the index is my friend. Being able to look up where to
find a concept from trigonometry to calculus to algebra is just
handy. The appendix is great, and is in fact required for say
statistics, with it's bell curve tables. The front and back covers of
our calculus book are so useful, that given the choice between the
book cover, and the contents of the book itself, I would rip the
cover off, if it were my book and not the schools.
After
all that then there are the chapters of the books themselves. While
the blocks of text explain the concepts are worse than any stereo
manual you have ever read, they well do explain it again in case you
missed it in class. The sample, problems, while often useless to
students are handy often enough for tutors and teacher types to use,
often for the higher up courses. Luckily most mathbooks do make a nod
to putting a large obvious sign of where the basic definitions are,
and a few processes for important solutions.
Then
comes the homework questions. A lot of books fall down here for
students, as they barely explain what the student is to do, and even
when the tutor or teacher can notice an obvious sense of progression
and skill mastery in the text. The back of the book usually has half
of the answers for questions there for normal chapters, and all of
them for sample tests and review questions.
I
find the chapter review to be amazing useful to show to students,
because it allows them to find out what they don't know without
reading the entire chapter. Often enough it is explained better there
than in the chapter itself anyways.
So
that's some of my thoughts on textbooks. I won't stop there though.
Another of my academic superpowers, applies to test-taking. Both in
terms of test anxiety, preparation, and performance, my skills are
perhaps legendary.
In a
recent class the majority of our grade was due to multiple-choice
format. I have a 2 year engineering degree, multiple-choice tests are
relaxing compared to what I've had to do for that coursework. I was
literally flying through those tests.
The
rest of the class however, was very much struggling with the same
tests. First of all they didn't have my background, in academics, or
my capabilities in logic. Many of them had test anxiety. Many of them
also had a specific phobia about multiple-choice tests, the dreaded
“it could be either b or c. I can't decide.”
The
“it could be either, I can't decide” multiple-choice problem, and
it's solution is well known to anyone who has prepped to take a big
test like the SAT properly. Know how to eliminate the dumb answers,
and you have better odds of getting the right ones. If you can get 10
problems that you have at 50:50 odds on a 20 question test where you
know the other 10 are 100% right you should get at least a 75% would
help a lot of those students.
I
believe it is a combination of cultural training, lack of
confidence, and not understanding that kind of math prevents many
students from being able to apply that knowledge. That makes many
students mull over individual problem's for longer than they should,
when 'better odds' is more important than 'all the right answers' now
in that format.
Furthermore
often enough information required for the test, is often given in it.
Occasionally true in short answer tests, but most common in multiple
choice, tests often by intentional design by the instructor, to
reward his good test takers, or to help his test takers with anxiety
get a better score.
Fill
in the blank definition sections, answers, that if true, answer
questions in other parts of the test, or amazingly questions that
give information on answers. All of these are intended to help 'jog
the memory' of a nervous student who is unsure of what the answer
is.
When
all of those elements are present on test, and I have some knowledge
of the subject, I can pass it without even knowing the material,
often enough. Pass or fail, I could tell you with a high degree of
accuracy after the test what I was going to get.
This
personal ability of mine is non-subject dependent, as it is due to my
mathematical and logical skills, not knowledge of the course
material. I couldn't pass certain high level courses this way, but I
can and have passed tests for low-level courses, for which I have
little knowledge and perparation
This
ability of mine, to see the world with my senses, and apply logic in
it to do things that academically seem improbable, is actually common
enough, in many fields of human endeavor.
Ask a
poker player who is doing what at a poker table, and if he's any good
at his job, he will tell you who is cheating, who is bluffing, and
who is going to lose all of his money. A sportsman of an expert
level can do the same to 'size up' people in his field just by
looking at them. This analysis of experts in their field is part
experience, part probability, part logic. And it works.
The
fact that logic, experience, and a 'sense' of probability help in
academics is for me beyond question. The fact that many students
don't understand that their physical senses, coupled with these
abilities, can help them succeed is one of the great tragedies of
education. At the end of the day, academic or otherwise, those who
succeed, do so because they tap into the knowledge around them, most
of which, the best of which, happens to be free for the taking.
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