EFFECTIVE STUDY by FRANCIS P. ROBINSON Professor of Psychology ‘Ohio State University Columbus, Oto HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS New York and LondonEFFECTIVE STUDY Copyright, 1942, 1946, by Harper & Brothers Punted in the United States of America All nghts in this book are reserved No part of the book may be reproduced m any manner whatsoever without wntten permission except im the case of brief quotations embodied m entical articles and reviews For mformation address Harper & Brothers cr Effective Study is a revised edition of Diagnostic and Remedial Techniques for Effective Study.CONTENTS Preracr, wee eee Se ee ee ee i) Urmopocrion)) . eee eee ok Part One: Higher-Level Work Skills IL Survey Q3R Mzrnop oF Srupwne. . foe IIL Evrrorve Sxnx my Exannations Le ee 8B IV Sxuxs m Artsck aNp CONCENTRATION 6 ve eee ee 85 V_ Preparinc Reports . . « ae . Se ee 81 Vi) Ciasmoom Gare 0 Part Two: Educational Deficiencies Affectmg Schoolwork VIE ResvnoAvory 8 tos VI Warne Semis. se Be oe a9 DG Marware ay Part Three: Problem Areas Indwrectly Affecting Effective Study X Heavr ano Heaumm Has 1. cee ag XI Vooarionan ORENTATION =f 0. ee 7 XII Socun Avyusmenr 2... ee bee 169 MUM Persona: Promuems ee XIV. Looxme AMD eee . 8 Aresoxt 2 ee ae eee 183 Arrenpx I... 5. oe Oe ayPREFACE Efficient work skills are necessary in col- lege, as m any occupation, in order that students may make the most effective use of their time and be able to understand the more complex ideas in their lessons While at as not possible to make all individuals into equally good students, a traming pro- gram can be set up to show each student how to work to hus full capacity The re- sponsibihty of the college must go beyond merely providing educational offermgs, it must include showing the student how to take full advantage of his opportunities ‘This, m turn, will more than pay for itself by reducing the number of repeaters and by providmg for more efficient progress in the classroom How-to-study programs have been set up am many colleges, one of the oldest and most successful being the one at Ohio State Um- versity, Evaluations of sts effectiveness are summarized on page 2 of Project I As the result of an extensive research program and of experience in applymg the findmgs, a great deal of useful trang matenal has Deen developed This book represents a co- ordination of these diagnostic and traming devices, and should be of use mm other similar courses When this matenal was first presented m Diagnostic and Remedial Techniques for Effective Study (Harper, 1941) emphasis was placed on two general areas: (1) the diagnosis and remediation of skill disabilities which often cause students to hmp along meffectually mm thew work, and (2) the handling of problem areas which distract vm students from their studies These areas axe tieated in Parts Two and Three in the present book, but Part One introduces a new and important idea im how-tostudy work—higherlevel work skills Heretofore, goals in how-to-study work have been ob- tamed by determining m what ways good students differed from poor ones, poor stu- dents then bemg urged to adopt the ways of the good students Recent research, how- ever, indicates that even good students have bad habits of study and are, on the whole, relatively mefficient m their study methods ‘An analogy to the outcomes of an old-tme method of teaching swimming—the “snk or swim” method—llustrates this A long time ago people were taught to swim by throwing them in the water Each person gradually developed a dog-paddle swimming stroke from lus desperate thrashing of the water m an effort to stay up. In those days such swunming methods were “good enough” to have fun and even permitted some to swim better than others But since then experts have analyzed the problems of resistance and propulsion and devised new swimnung methods which each year result in new swimming records Students have sumilarly been thrown mto assignments and each has had to figure out as good a method of studying as he could Bright stu- dents, however, have easily been able to keep ahead, even with inefficient methods. Now the educational psychologist is stepping in and, on the basis of extensive creative experiments, 19 suggesting new methods of studying on a higher level of efficiencyvin Such stalls permit students to learn more rapidly, with déeper understanding, and with no more effort than with thei present tnal-and-error methods Such an emphasis on hugherevel learn- ing skills has caused two changes in the nature of the how-to-study trang program at Ohuo State University and might well be given consderahon im other programs ‘Whereas how-to-study work once tradi- tionally emphasized helping or “saving” the poor student, it now as of value to all stu- dents since even good students do not have eficient techniques In fact, the students who take this work represent almost a normal distribution of ability, and those who make the most gams and feel the most satisfied with the program have tended to be the bughter students A second effect has been. the removal of the stigma which such tram- mg sometimes has with its emphasis on remediahon and probation students Re- medial work is still carned on, but it 1s in- troduced as needed after the student has had some successful experiences with the use of higherlevel study stalls. A program to develop effective study habits in students should also have other charactenstics The characteristics hsted be- low have served as gudeposts in the prepara- tion of this book, 1 A how-tostudy program must be in- dividualized to each student’s needs, Stu- dents have different programs of courses, they have different ability pattems and methods of learning, and they have dif- ferent problems which need remediation or which are distractng them Even in the field of higher-level study skills, the program must be mdividualhzed as a student pro- gresses mn Jearmng a skull, much as coaching in golf takes mdividual instruction. 2 Although students are keenly aware of difficulty m studymg their lessons, they usually do not know thei actual level of PREFACE skill nor the specific nature of ther dif- ficulties For these reasons it is important that a student have some means provided for determming his level of skill and, if there is a difficulty, some knowledge of its nature As he makes progress m learning a skill, he needs evidence of the nature of hus improvement and of what 1s next needed Self-evaluation tests are imcluded m each project for these purposes 3. How-to-study work has to go further than helpmg a student discover what 1s wrong or giving lim information—through reading or lecture—on how to study effi ciently For, ass true of most skills, the mere possession of a desire to improve and in- formation on how to do it will not guarantee that correct procedures will be used How-to- study traming demands much actual prac- ce under supervision until the best stall 1s obtained and fixed 4 To develop maximum motivation and to merease transfer of skills to actual study- ing, this work should be as closely allied as possible to a student's lessons in his other courses That 1s, artificial exercises may pro- duce gams on similar tests, but these gains do not transfer as well to actual studying as when the how-to-study suggestions are made mm terms of the student’s methods on other courses and his gas measured there For this reason much of the student’s practice and application is done outside this book ‘This book acts as an introduction, a basis for chagnosis, a presentation of study techniques, and a place to record progress, much practice will have to be carned on with other ma- tenals, preferably the student’s actual text- books 5 Finally, this trammg m study methods can be of htile value unless the student realizes its amportance and beheves 1t worth while to expend some effort toward im- provement, The mstructor’s cajoling, mak- ang asngnments, and giving grade penaltiesPREFACE n have little place m such work The student must, of his own volition, do the work The projects are so arranged that he can select those of interest, the specific duections make at possible for him to go ahead on his own ‘These factors free the instructor so that he may become a counselor rather than a task- master The purpose of this book 1s to pro- vide a working ad for the student and counsclor which will increase the efficiency of classroom and counseling sessions. The arrangement of the projects and the emphasis on self-chrechon permit the use of this book either an a course or in chmical conferences At Ohio State University several sections of a class (for college credit) mect daily for a full quarter in an mformal Jabora- tory? Vanous projects and tests are also used in the counseling of individuals who want help without being registered in the class on Effective Study. ‘This book 1s the product of the wnter’s ex- penence in how-to-study work over a penod 1A descnption of this program and also one for counselor trang will be found in the article, Two quames with a single stone, J Higher Educ , "1945, 16 201-206 of fifteen years, This program has grown until about 450 students a year receive trammg im a class on Effechve Study and about 100 more are helped 1n the How-to- Study Chic In this work, the wnter has been fortunate in having colleagues who have willingly and capably expenmented with possible teaching methods and matenals The diagnostic and traning matenals in cluded here are thus an outgrowth of many research adventures in personnel work, many persons have had their part in shaping the program Tests that are not ongmal with this progiam are used by permssion of their authors and acknowledgment 1s made im the proper place Special acknowledgment 1s due Miss Louse Edmundson, hbranan at Ohio State University, for assistance in the prepara- tion of the library tests, and to Dr Ray G ‘Wood of the State Department of Educa- tuon for permission to reprint several of the Semor Survey tests The writer 1s indebted to Dr Loren S$ Hadley, Mrs Carolyn B Robinson, and Mrs Alice Seeman for value able suggestions in the preparation of the manuscript.PROJECT I INTRODUCTION Almost all students have im their college life some problem or problems which so impair therr efficiency that they are unable to make the most of their college exper ence When asked to hst the problems, as in the Problem Check List at the end of this project, students mention difficulties with thei studies more often than any other type of problem* And an objective analysis of students’ behavior shows that they do have many such study problems Further- more, recent research in educational psy- chology indicates that new, higherlevel methods of learnmg can be devised which * are more efficient than those now used by even the best students This book attempts to help the student who as worned and in- efficient to make the most of his educational efforts Contrary to the opmion of many students, the way to achieve effective study 1s not by more study or more determmed concentra- tion, but by changing the quality of study method For instance, good students study no more (usually shghtly less) than poor students, they just use ther time more effectively * Ineffectiveness may be due to such defects as slow reading rate, poor grammar, or poor study habits, these cause *Ross Mooney, Problem Check List, Norms, 1940, E G Andrews, Guidance survey of student problems, Educ and Psych Meas 1944, 4 209~ 215, Ruth Stang, Behavior and ‘Background of Students mm College and Secondary School, Har- Pet, 1937, p 21, C G Wrenn and R Bell, Stu- dent Personnel Problems, Farrar & Rinehart, 1942 2B, G Wilkamson, The relabonshup of number of hours of study to scholarship, J, Educ Psych , 1935, 26 682-688 a student to limp along in his work when he might be able to go further, with an equal effort, af these deficiencies were remeched Or a student, even one with good grades, may be trying to do his work the hard way, little realrzing that there are etter techniques For snstance, even good students seldom make use of headmgs im textbooks * Finally, a student may be m- efficient because some worry or outside mn- terest so distracts him that he cannot con- centrate on his work The Value of a How-o-Study Program Colleges are sincerely interested in help- ing students “make the grade”, in fact, over a hundred colleges have remedial reading and how-to-study programs whose function is not only to rescue potentially successful students fiom failure but to help the many others work to their full capacity Although many of these programs started out for the purpose of helping students on probation, a traning in how-tostudy can help anyone since every person 15 somewhat iefficient ‘There 1s evidence, in fact, that the bnghter the student the more he gains from such trammg An analysis of the records of several hundred students who have recently taken the how-to-study course at Ohio State Um- versity shows an almost normal distnbution of intelhgence (median percentile 1s 47 with shghtly less than a fourth of the number mn aather the bottom or the top quartile) and *F P Robinson and P., Hall, Studies of higher level reading abihtes, J Eduo,'Psych, 1941, 32 241-2522 EFFECTIVE STUDY grade pomt averages have canged from oo to 3 93 before taking the course And the stu- dents with aboye average grades have been among the ones who gamed the most How-tostudy programs have met with notable success* Some of the more out- standing ones have been those at the Unt versities of Buffalo, Chicago, Dartmouth, Ilbnois, Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio State, Stan- ford, and Yale Measures of student progress have shown moreased reading ability, greater skill m organiaing work, better use of edu- cational facilities, and move satisfactory per- +The following sources prowde excellent reviews of the many reports that have been published on how-to study programs im high schools and cok leges WW" Charters, Remedial 1ending in col- lege, J. Higher Educ, 1941, 12 127-221, J] W Sherburne, Problems and Outcomes’ of a’ College Remedial Program, PhD dissertation, Ohno State ‘Umv, 1938, pp 8-36, R Strang, Improvement of Reading in High Schoo! and College, Science Press, rev ed 1949 pp 136-177, F Togs, Remedial reading ‘programs evidence of thar development, ] Educ. Psych , 1942, 33 678-685 PROJECT I sonal and social adjustment Further concrete evidence of improvement has been shown through higher grade pomt averages Some actual results over a period of years am such a course at Ohio State University may be of mterest to the student. Ferguson found that remedial trammg for probation students produced postive results for the several quarters measured’ Makmg up a control group of probation students with background comparable to that of the tramed group, she found that the grade pot average of both groups before traning was 27 The next quarter’s grade pomt averages were 179 (trained group) and 104 (un- tramed or control group) The spring quarter grade pomt averages were 177 (tramed group) and 1 43 (control group) Pressey gave howtostudy traning to 50 probation students, but not to another *J -M Ferguson, Probation students under guid- ance, Educ Rev, 1928, 75 224-228 Test Engi: sh Survey} Spelling Rate HHA 7ravked Greep| onleroe Comprehensi E ZA, Vocabulary Outlining Ww o 10 20 30 40 Percentile Crunr 1 Changes in test percentiles after a how to study course, compared to those of a matched control group measured after the same penod of time (J W Shecbume, unpublished Ph D disserta- ton, Ohio State Unversity, 1938.)INTRODUCTION a matched group ° She found three and a half years later that 58 per cent of the tramed group had maintained a passing grade average or had left college with satisfactory grade records, but only 18 per cent of the control group did as well Twenty per cent of the tramed group graduated, but none of the control group did ‘A more recent expersmental evaluation of the result of this same how-to-study course, but with all types of students en- rolled, showed that the students taking this course improved a great deal m vanous determiners of scholastic success’ Chart 1 summanzes some of these results For mn- stance, the mechan student, as a result of this traning, mproved 24 percentiles on a test of English skills, 34 percentiles m reading ate, 9 percentiles m comprehension ac- curacy, and 24 percentiles on an outhnng test A control group taking and retaking these tests over a comparable period of time showed very shght gams The students in the how-to-study course received 17 per cent more A’s and B’s on a term paper in an- other course than a control gioup with comparable background Fewer of the traned students withdrew or were dropped from the university than in the control group, and the grade pomt average of the tramed students was 15 grade pomts higher for the year than that of the control group Several aspects of the students’ personal and social adjustment also showed improve- ment, The Approach to Improvement of Study Shalls It takes more than knowledge to improve study skills Not only must the student ®L C Pressey, The permanent effects of tramn- ang im methods of study on college success, School and Socs 1928, 28 409-404 77 W Sherburne, Problems and Outcomes of a College Remedial Program, PhD dissertation, Ohio State Uv, 1938, 411 pp know what effective study skills are like but he must patiently practice until he has acquired them He can quickly learn enough to tell some one else how to study but he will have to use contmued effort in order to develop effective study skills m himself. ‘The program obviously has to be mdividu- alized to fit each student’s needs Students progress differently and vary m the errors they make while Jcarnmg new skills Meth- ods which are of value m dealing with one student’s problems may be of little use to another student More than other courses, this program demands a highly individu- alized laboratory approach And unlike other courses, it may be said that the subject studied is the student himself The situation in this class has a definite analogy to coaching in athletics In teaching a swimmer the crawl stroke, a coach presents it as a new method and not as a patchwork modhfication of the dog paddle And it takes more than one explanation or tnal since contmumg practice is necessary to develop pohshed skill But practice alone 1s not ‘enough because the swimmer does not recog: mize hus erors, a coach, on the other hand, can spot difficulties and make defimte sug- gestions. Similarly m study-skill trammng, higher-level work slalls will be demonstrated and then, through the aid of tests and ob- servation of work, further tramng sugges- tions will be made The student can gain ttle without such chagnostic ard Another aspect of study skills, also analo- gous to coaching in athletics, concerns the importance of motivation mm mmprovement ‘The wuiter’s attitude toward his own game of golf will illustrate this pomt Although the course of lus ball may be likened to the meandenngs of a child’s tiddlywink, the writer does not see any great need to um- prove his game, or at least he does not want to take the trouble to work at it. In this case, no coach in the world can do much4 EFFECTIVE STUDY good. To state this prnciple m a positive form, it has bee found that the student must sincerely desne to improve his study skills before these projects can be of much. assistance. Mere exposure to such a program will not help im Finally, 1t 18 obvious that emphasis will be placed on developing effective skulls, not just in findmg out about them Much of this ‘book 1s devoted to helping the student dis- cover hus difficulties and learn what to do about them, some practice exercises are in- cluded but much of the actual practice should be done in hus other courses The student will get Ins practice by actually doing hus work more effectively during study hours, i other classes, whule reading at the library, and so on Evaluation of achieve- ment should be based on how much progress a student makes toward remedying his prob- Jems rather than on how much he knows in comparison to others Self Insight Does the typical student know how good he is m various traits? How poor he may ‘be in others? He doubtless feels that by the time he 1s in college he ought to know him- self quite well In such traits as height and weight, where he has had frequent measure- ments and has seen tables of norms, he probably does have a fasrly accurate notion, but everyday life provides few opportunities PROJECT 1 for objective measures of abilities and other personality traits which affect school success A person must be able to determine whether or not he needs help in developmg study slalls so the question of how accurately stu- dents estimate ther own abilities becomes ampottant in a how-to-study program. ‘The discussion of this topic will have greater interest and meanmg for the reader when he fills out the following Check List, Checks can be lightly made and crased later, no one will ask to see the results Ratings should be frank and honest. Later m the book, tests are provided for some of these trats; the reader may be mterested m seeing how accurately he can estimate his relative standing How do you compare in each of the fal- lowing tuaits with the other students in your college? If you feel that you are m the top fifth (20 per cent) on a given trait, check m the first or left-hand box, af you feel that you are in the bottom fifth on that trait, check in the third or nght-hand box, but if you feel that you are m the middle 60 per cent on that trait, check in the middle box Interesting results have been obtamed from using this type of rating sheet with high-school and college students In several schools, the entire junior or senior class was asked to fill out such a sheet, since each stu- dent compared himself to the rest of the In My College, I'm in the Middlé Bottom 20 Pe ent 60 Per Cent 20 Per Cent Bpeed of vesting Ability to understand textbooks Vocabulary ‘At ease with persons of own sex ‘Honesty . Note-taking ability .. Spelling Grammar Abshty to recite in classINTRODUCTION 5 class and everyone in the class answered, the distnbution of rating in the three levels should have been 20, 60, and 20 per cent, respectively Every effort was made to get as accurate estimates as possible; the students were told that they would not be asked to sign their names and that the data were to be used only as part of a research project ‘The actual results showed a marked tend- ency to overrate! For instance, only 11 per cent on the average rated themselves in the bottom fifth on a trait Thus only 1 per cent felt they were m the bottom fifth m honesty, while 59 per cent felt they were more honest than the top 20 per cent of then classmates Only 3 per cent felt they were in the bottom 20 per cent im being at ease with their own sex, but 45 per cent felt they were more at ease than the top fifth of ther classmates Only 8 per cent felt they were in the bottom fifth m abihty to understand textbooks and 37 per cent felt that they were n the top fifth® Such overratings are in part products of (1) an unwillingness on the part of a person to admit to himself (the results were other wise anonymous) that he might be deficient and (2) the normal tendency to view one- self through rose-colored glasses It 1s little wonder that a lecture or an assignment on how to improve usually does so little good when the advice seems to apply so much more to someone else than to oneself! Even though there 1s a tendency to rate oneself high, 18 a person's self-rating related to his score dn a standardized test which measures the same trait? Vanous studies in- dicate not. In one study in which students were asked to estimate how intelligent they were in comparison to other college students, only 40 per cent placed themselves within the correct fifth of where they actually be- 8] © Wight, A Study of High School Student? Inaght into ‘Ther Problems and Resources, Mas- ter’s thesis, Ohio State Um, 1944. longed, 41 per cent overestimated and 19 per cent underestimated giossly.” In another study students’ estimate of how many words they knew correlated only .so with ther actual test scores, ie., these students could estimate their own scores only 14 per cent better than a blindfolded man could by pulling numbers from a hat” Other studies of ality, English usage, and vocational m- terests show sumiar results** This small relationship between estimate and score m- dicates that students may actually be stran- gers to ther own relative abihties, ‘The funchon of this discussion 1s to pomt out the need for the use of diagnostic tests m how-to-study haimmg Such testing, how- ever, 18 not to be used in grading—tt 1s solely for the mformation of the student To assure the reader of this fact, the keys for all tests im the book are printed in Appendix I One of the first steps in how-tostudy work 1s to help a student discover his profile of abilities and slalls Such self-discovery 1s of yalue in itself and shows where trammg is needed Feelings of security m schoolwork are promoted by knowledge of areas ot competence, and energies can be focused where they will do the most good when specific difficulties are pointed out. A stu- dent with such knowledge will not need to feel, as some do, that he may be altogether “dumb.” Because diagnostic tests show what needs to be worked on, a “nfle” rather than a “shotgun” approach can be used to pick off specific problems, Finally, a testing °T H Schutte, Students’ estimates of thar abil- ty and achievement, J Educ Res, 1929, 20 394 6 Lrrr—s— students mto ther knowledge of word meanings, School Rev , 1942, 49 754-760 3 Arseman, Own estimate and objective meas- urement, | Edue Psych, 1942, 33'291-302, N D ‘M_ Hiusch, Relationship between anterest, ‘abihty, a selbetimated abuhty among maladjusted boys, m & Soc Psych., 1939, -399, RC Grosby and AL. Winsor, Phe aaicaty & students estates of their mterests, J Appl Paych., 1943, 25 408-4146 EFFECTIVE STUDY program before and after traning provides concrete proof of* gains How to Use This Book 1 Organization of the Book This book is designed to assist a student in leam- ang how to secure the most from hus col- Jege hfe m the classroom, in ius study, and on the campus The projects will assist him im analyzing the effectiveness of various de- termmnants of his success at college and in selecting suitable steps for improvement. The projects are presented in three gen- eral groupmgs (I) higherevel_ work stalls, (II) educational deficiencies, and (Il) problems indirectly affecting scholastic success Projects m Part One concern special- ized work skills developed from research on techniques of Ieammg, 1e, Survey Q3R Method of Studying, Effective Skills in Ex- aminations, Skills in Attack and Concentra- tion, Preparing Reports, and Classroom Slalls Projects in Part Two deal with de- ficiencies in reading, writing, and anthmetio which are surprisingly frequent among col- lege students Projects in Part Three relate to problems of health, vocational choice, recreational and social adjustment, and per- sonal adjustment—problems which distract some students so much as to affect ther success im college These projects may be taken up m whatever order most interests a student Some may wish to work in different sections of the book at the same time For instance, while working on the Survey Q3R Method in the next project, a student may wish to work on reading rate im Project VIT and also on making a vocational decision through Project XI As a result, the m- dividual members of a how-to-study class may not wish to emphasize the same proy- ects nor take them up in the same order. In the final project, the student 1s given an opportunity to evaluate Ins progress in. all these potential problem areas PROJECT I So much for a general descnption, but you, the reader, ae more interested m your own chagnosis and treatment than in a general discussion of student problems, especially since each student’s problems are so dis- tunctly mdividual_In other words, what are your problems and what should you do about them? The first step m using each project is evaluation, that 13, how you stand in that skill or trait, With this information you may decide whether or not you are satisfied with that particular level of performance The project will also indicate whether new higher levels of performance are possible beyond even the present level of good students This mformation again provides a basis for de- cxding on which projects you wish to work, as well as giving useful diagnostic informa- thon for a starting pomt The second step 18 devoted to readmg about how you may improve these abilties and skills Space 1s provided in each project so that you may summanze the difficulties found and suggest the nature of the tran- ing program. The third and last step deals with practice and 1s, of course, the most im- portant part of the whole project. Little wntten matenal can be prepared for this step because practice must be cared on m your actual courses im order to obiamn the best results This fact emphasizes that this as not a program of reading but of practice, You can rather quickly read a project and carry out the evaluative and diagnostic steps; but if you find a problem area, st will take constant application to obtam improvement Furthermore, as you work on improving these skills, 1t will take contmung chagnosis to point out what still needs to be done to develop such skills fully. In beef, your job 1s to find problem areas as soon as posible, to determme the specific nature of the difficulty and what higher-level skills are posable, and then to undertake aINTRODUCTION 7 training program This last task 1s the most difficult and time-consuming, but it makes the prehminary ones worth while Aside from completing the diagnostic step, every student 1s not expected to put the same effort on all projects You should select areas of need and there devote most of your tme to programs of tramng 2 The Counselor and the Laboratory. You may find it difficult to determine with- out help whether or not a grven project will be worth while for you to work on You may also find it difficult to decide just what traming achvity you should try Further, you may have difficulty nm deciding how much to do As mentioned eather, how-to-study ‘traming 15 in many respects similar to learn- ing golf where an observer or coach can see what needs to be worked on and make suit- able suggestions Furthermore, more effec- tive suggestions can be made if a student’s actual studymg can be frequently observed. For these reasons, how-to-study traming 1 done most effectively in a laboratory situa- tion with the aid of a counselor A student can benefit from worlung with this book without outside assistance, but greater help will be obtained if he has some other person analyze hus study methods, notes, examma- tions, and papers, and then make suggestions Most colleges provide such help through how-to-stady counselors or through courses on how-tostudy ‘The exercises mn each pro} ect are onented to help the reader make effective use of this counselor or course. The term “counselor” 1s used throughout tis book instead of “instructor” in order to emphasize the charactenistics this observer ot coach must have He 1s there to help you with your particular problems He will not lecture merely to give you information and he will not urge you to do this or that, he 1s there, available for consultation If you want help, he can check your methods and plans and so save wasted effort. 3 Diagnostic Tests Many tests have Deen provided so as to give a picture of your study abihties If as many of these as possible are completed early, a basis is pro- vided for planning a traning program The counselor can also be more helpful xf he has such test information and any further data which you feel will help explam your study difficulties Whatever inforination 1s given will be considered confidential The matenals necessary for using a test are included in the book the directions for taking the test, the key for correcting the responses, the norms for interpretmg results, and specific exercises for correcting errors, This arrangement enables vou to take tests at the time they are most needed (except an a few mstances where some assistance will have to be given m timing a test), rt also permits you to score a test ammediately so that you may go on with a mmmum of interruption The following procedure 1s used in cor- recting tests After fillmg out a test, tear out the key which appears in the back of this book Fold st close to the column of correct answers, place the stp by your answers, and mark those that are incorrect It 1s also useful at thus time to write in the correct answer and, sf designated on the key, the symbol for the rule that 1s violated Place your score (usually the number of items right) sn the place designated on the test ‘The next step 1s to find out what the test result means, for a given score has litle meaning by itself Two bases for mterpreta- tion are provided 2 All the items in the tests have been selected because they represent amportant aspects or factors m college courses For m- stance, the items in the English Survey Test represent the most frequent major errors which students make m wnting and are not merely a sampling of grammar rules It mght be said then that as a well-educated person8 EFFECTIVE STUDY you should know or be able to do anything you may miss. 2 Another meaningful and possibly more interesting approach 1s to show how well you do in companson with other college students.* To do this, tables of norms are provided for many of the tests Your next step, then, 1s to find a comparative value (percentile rank, median, or quartile) m the table of norms and place this beside your test score These norm terms have the fol- lowing meanings A “percentile” indicates the per cent among college freshmen who do poorer than you on that test A “median” indicates the score of the middlemost person among college freshmen, and the “first quar- tile” and the “third quartile” refer to the scores made by the persons who had one- quarter and three-quarters of the freshmen below them respectively ‘This emphasis on companison to a college group 1s portant because students in higher educahon tend to be a select group The percentile ranks show how you compare with your compet tion in college but not with the population at lage For instance, one may be at the tenth percentile m intelligence for college students and still be above average for this trait m comparison to the general popula- thon of the Umted States A table for summanzing your test results 1s placed on the back page of this book Such a list permits a quick evaluation of tests taken and, when tom out, will provide a summary of your test results, Each tme 2The function of some tests in this book 1s to help organize your thinking about certan topics Others Zanchoa as quick ways of giving your coun: selor formation. ‘These tests are not interpreted through percentiles, other direchons accompany ese tests PROJECT 1 you take a test, wnte your result not only on the test but also on this Summary Sheet. (As other activities in this book are com- pleted, they, too, should be recorded on this Summary Sheet.) The final step nm making use of a test result 1s to determine for yourself the level of skill you wish to attain You may be satis- fied with your present level and wish to do nothing further on that skill In certam areas, however, you will feel challenged to ampiove your skills and so plan a traming program If, at the end of the school term, you wish to measure your gams and find what prob- lems remain, you may retest yourself on the tesis m this book, or second forms are avail- able for some areas (See Project XIV ) Certam shortcomings of tests should be noted when you make interpretations Fust, most tests are somewhat unrehable ‘That 1s, if the test or a similar test were repeated, one would not get exactly the same score Decause of differences m how hard one worked, accidental vanations in the diffi culty of the tests, ete Not that your score has no value, for this unrehability will pro- duce fluctuations of only a few pomts Second, you may punctuate very carefully on the punctuation test, but in your letters home leave out most of these marks The test will tend to give your best performance 4. Work to Be Completed im This Project. Please fill out the following ques- tionnanes with complete formation While this will be only a rough measure of infor- mation concerning yourself, the checking on the Problem Check List will help clanify your thinking and the formation on both questionnaires will be of great help to the counselor,INTRODUCTION 9 STUDENT DATA SHEET Date Personal Name Age Sex M F ‘Major o © 0 oo Year Fr So Jr Sr School Address 0 9 dod Phone ‘Home Address ‘How many years have you hved m a city (over 10,000 population) town (1,000-10,000) «.yvillage or country (under 1,000) Occupation of father Mother ‘Edueation of father Mother Of whom beside yourself does your mmediate family consist (1¢, father, mother, two younger sisters, one older brother, grandfather, grandmother)? Rehgious preference Educatwonal Which hugh school subjects did you like best? Lake least? What high schools or colleges have you attended? . ‘What scholastic honors (valedictonan, honor soaiety, scholarship) have you won in school? What grades did you make last term? What courses i psychology have you had? Why did you enroll in this remedial course? ‘Did someone suggest your enrollment? What courses are you talang this term? Vocational What are your vocational plans? Why did you make this vocational choice?10 EFFECTIVE STUDY PROJECT I ‘What other occupations have you considered? Have you talked over your vocational plans with anyone? Whom? ‘What work have you ever dono (summer or regular, part or full time)? ‘Are you now working to help earn your way? If's0, what are you domg? Social To what organizations (community as well as school or college) have you belonged? List specific organizations such es 4-H Club, Boy Scouts, Epworth League, sorority, editorial board of achool paper, debating team, football team, orchestra, dramaties club, Latin club, student government board, ete Draw a hne under organizations to which you now belong ‘What offices have you held m any orgamzation (clude charmanships of committees)? To what social gatherings or affars have you been m the past four weeks? About how many days have you been away from home in the last year? Recreational What magazines do you read fawly regularly? What are your favonte sports, recreations, and hobbies? Where have you traveled? Give below any other formation about yourself you think of significance‘Third Step: Answer the following five questions: SUMMARIZING QUESTIONS 1. Do you feet that the items you have marked on the list give # well-rounded picture of your prob- lems? You, No If any additional items or explanations are desired, please indicate them here. ; . 2. How would you summarise your chief problems in your own words? Wnite a brief summary. 3. Tf the opportunity were offered, would you like to talk over any of these problems with someone on the college staff? Yes No, If so, do you know the particular person(s) with whom you would like to have these talks? Yeu. . No oNote @ Counselors: Normally the statistical summary 1s to be made by the counselor In some situations, however, the counselor may want students to make their own summanes In these cases, studente should be given definite mmatructions and a demonstration of the method, preferably after they have filled out the check het. Instructions for Making o Statstwcal Summary For convenience m summansing resulta on an individual esse or on groups of students, the 330 problems are classified m eleven areas (1) Health and Physical Development (HPD) (6) Courtship, Sex, and Marnage (CSM) @) Finanots, Iaving Conditions, and Employ- (7) Home and Family (HF) ment (FLE) (8) Morals and Rehgion (MR) (8) Somsl and Recreational Activities (SRA) (9) Adjustment to College Work (ACW) (4) Soeul-Paychological Relations (SPR) (10) ‘The Future Vocational and Educational (8) Personal-Peychological Relations (PPR) VE) (11) Curneulum and Teaching Procedures (CTP) ‘There are thurty problems in each area, these beng arranged in groups of five stems across the aux columns of problems The first area 1s the top group, the second ares is the second group, and so on down the pages On page 4, st the end of each group, 18 a box in which to record the count of prob- lems marked in each ares In the left half of the box put the number of items circled aa important, an the night half, put the total number marked in the area (including the curcled items as well as thove ‘underlined only) At the bottom of the page enter the totals for the lst If denred, the area totals can be recopied to the firat page for grester convenience in Iater referencePART ONE HIGHER-LEVEL WORK SKILLS ‘Years ago many persons were taught to swim by throwmg them in the water After their sm- tial terror they tned to propel themselves toward the shore while sll thrshmg the water to stay up The result of such seléan- struction was commonly known as the “dog paddle” and eventually permitted the swimmer to feel reasonably safe in the water and to en- joy 1t Some undoubtedly became known as the best swimmers in the county, but an modern competition such dog paddlers would be left far behind Modern methods of swim- ming were not found by companng good and poor dog paddlers, they are based on scientific research on how to reduce the resistance of the body in the water and how to obtain the most forward push with the least effort As a result, highly efficient swimmang methods such as the crawl have been designed and taught Be- cause of further research and expert coach- ing, new swimmings records are constantly be- ing set Present and possible future study techniques furmsh an analogous picture. Typically, stue dents have to learn to study as best they can, but such tnaland-eror methods result only mm a hodgepodge of efficient techniques Since everyone 18 about equally mefficient, how- ever, a student can mamta his place im class on the basis of antelhgence and effort But what if this student could Jearn an “Australian crawl” method of studying! His work would seem much easier and his performance would be much better. ‘The reader may be surpnsed to find that even good students have bad habits, but several illustrations can be given One study of soldiers assigned to ASTP traming showed they were a Tghly select group m terms of intelligence, previous scholastic record, and present knowl- edge, but their study skills were no better on un the average than those of other college stu- dents * Inquiry brought out that, being brighter than ther classmates, they had been able to get by in hugh school with their wits and person- ality Other studies show that even good stu- dents pay little attention to boldface headings m books, re, they read as well when such headings are omitted, and they know few of the short cuts m term-paper wnting Of course, some people hike to do things the hard way, but others—because they are lazy or want to get done sooner or want to do better—hike to learn easier and more efficient ways of domg things The projects m Part One describe a series of higher-level work skills which have been devised from a scientific analysis of how per sons learn and of the nature of school materials They are called “ngher level” because they represent an entirely different approach to studying than you have been using ® They will 1F P Robinson, Study skills of soldters in ASTP, School and Soe, i943, 58 398-399, also CW. Brown, The study habtts’ of faring’ and successful students m the first two years of college, J Exper Educ, 1941, 9 205-209, F D Brooks and J C Heston, The vahdity of items in a study habits n- ventory, J Edue Psych , 1945, 36 257-270 2'The adea of higher-level work skills 15 not new nor 1s it hmited to swimming and study salls Time and motion stuches of expert bricklayers showed many ineBicenees and, when new work anange- ments and new techmgues were taught, output in- creased 92 per cent Snmilarly candy dippers were helped to mcrease their output 88 per cent and seemed to others to work less hard than regular candy dippers Expenments have been cared out 1m which persons were taught methods of pitch dis- enmmation, puzzle solving, and card sorting with reultag palonnmace dstactiy above what Mey had been able to do before Finally, some expen ments have been cared out m teaching persons techniques of analyzing problems with xesultin umprovement in the quahty of ther answers an the speed with which they were obtained12 EFFECTIVE STUDY be taught as new methods and not as an at tempt to patch up your present techniques, 1.€ , she best way to teach the crawl 1s to teach at as a whole skill rather than as a modification of the dog paddle Evidence as to the efficiency of these higher-level work stills will be brought out in each project ‘The first two projects take up the problem of school learmng in its chronological aspects selecting and compre- ending the essentzal ideas, and remembenng and demonstrating knowledge on examinations ‘The next three projects in Pat One discuss skills m attack and concentration, shill im Preparing reports, and stalls in the classroomPROJECT Il SURVEY Q3R METHOD OF STUDYING Haye you ever noticed how students study? Everyone has his own techniques which typically are not very efficient The following description (possibly somewhat exaggerated) may remind you of some of the ways your friends study xf not of yourself. A Typical Student Let us for the moment skip over the diffi culties of getting to the library, finding a suitable place to study, looking aound at people, finding out what the assignment 1s, and getting settled down, these are discussed m a later project Once started, how does our typical student go about studying? Hav- img found the first page of the assignment, what does he do next? He probably looks for the last page, holds the assignment up to see how thick xt 1s and then leaves a finger at the end of the lesson as a goal mdicator Haye you ever noticed how students, after reading a whule, will hold up the part read and the part to be read m order to compare their relative thickness? Also indicative 1s the student who, when asked what the lesson was about, looked at the length of the lesson and sad “about thirty pages” Note how many students follow the les with ther fingers as they read One almost gets an impression of dutiful Ime following so that the next day they can truthfully say “I don’t remember, but honest I read every word” Some so carefully mark the cadence of their plodding eyes that them fingernails seem to be plowing each line under Not all are “line plowers” but certamly few reach the stage of using headings and context clues. Most readers feel that they understand the maternal as they read, the trouble comes later in trying to remember st ‘Thus as they read along they can continually murmur “mmhm,” “uhlimm’” as they see cach idea, much as a muror passing over the book mught clearly reflect what was printed On fishing, the book 1s pushed aside with a sigh To an smpolte inquiry as to what ideas were discussed, the typical reader has a neb- ulous fechng that there was much he had understood but 1t now 1s jumbled And rather than dwell on this discomforting fact, he prefers to say, “Well that’s done, now for the next lesson” Of course, there are a few really conscien- ‘uous students who reread ther lessons, some students read their lessons as many as four and five times in one sitting But their testi- mony mdicates that this approach 1s anefi- cient and not very fruitful Other students laboriously copy out notes—as much as five pages on a lesson—only to find later that they would rather reread the book than ther handwntmg How Effective Are Typical Study Methods? So much for a cancature of the composite, typical student. What are the facts as to the outcomes from such study methods? ‘When several thousand high-school students were tested ammedhately after reading a seleo- tion they averaged only 53 per cent nght on the quiz Other experments also show that the average student gets only about half of14 EFFECTIVE STUDY the ideas asked on an immediate quiz* Since probably every student felt that he understood each of the ideas as he read the selection, what can be causing the difficulty? ‘A similar problem ss found when a senes of numbers, such as 89 416587 35,18 read ‘once, each number 1s readily recogmzed as at 1s read but somehow by the end of the series the whole thing 1s mixed up. And what little 1s learned .eems to be for- gotten so rapidly! The solid ne in Chart 2 100 pret A S== «iS Bothy: EE a] © geo] Pr ae ipo : vy P20 = £ Viti, TT aia 3 Time n Days Gnanr 2 Curves of retention without anter vening recall (solid Imes) and with intervening recall (dotted lines) at vanous time intervals (From Spitzer.) shows how rapidly the several thousand high- school students mentioned above tended to forget what they had leaned from a single readg (The conditions which permit memory to persist as shown by the broken Ines m Chart 2 will be discussed later ) Thus at the end of two weeks the average student could recall only 20 per cent of what he knew ummediately after reading, and this, twill be recalled, was only 53 per cent right. Some conscientious students try rereading their lessons in order to raise the level of ther comprehension accuracy and to retard 16 V Good, The effect of a single reading ver- sus two readings of a given body of matenal, | Educ Meth » 2926, 5 325,329, HF Spitzer, Studies mn a -—Lrt—<“C~C—s—s——C. see also the norms for the reading fests am this book, PROJECT IL forgetting But simply rereading several tumes in one sitting does not help compre- hension accuracy very much, thus im one expenment the average reader got 69 per cent nght on an easy test after one reading of the text and only 74, 75, and 74 per cent night with two, three, and four successive readings, respectively ® (Later on it will be shown, however, that reading and then re- reading at a different time 1s more effective ) ‘What then can be done? Is there some other more efficient method of studying than reading and rereading a lesson? It 1 evident that the average student, through tnaland-error learnmg, has not found an efficent way One further experment illus- trates this pomt and indicates one source for building a better 1eading technique In this experiment it was found that a superior group of students read no faster or any more accurately when a selection was printed with headings than they did when reading an equivalent selection without any headings * But a boldface heading mdhcates the subject of the text which follows, 1t can be used to call to mind what 1s already known and to precompiehend or guess as to what will be sad Such a preortentation also helps a stu- dent discern what 1s and is not important as he reads Rather than analyze the skills of good students and suggest that poor students em- ulate them, the educational psychologist has more recently been conducting experiments to discover possible bases for devismg more efficient study methods New methods have ‘een mvented and their worthiness as study methods tned out A higherlevel method of studying will be presented later in this project but first st seems best to review the 2H _B English, E L Welbom, and G D Kil- han, Studies m substance memonzation, J Gen Psych, 1934, 11 233-259. 35 'P ‘Robson and Prudence Hall, Studies of Tughlevel reading abilities, J Educ Piych, 943, 32 agi-a52SURVEY Q3R METHOD OF STUDYING. 15 two types of evidence used in devising this method (a) cues provided by the way text- books, lectures, and quizzes are prepared, and (b) new learning techniques obtamed through extensive expernmenting These con- stitute the next two divisions of this project. Cours mm Course MATERtars Rather than being an apparent piling up of line on lng, textbooks are organized with definite cues, ether in typography or m writng style, to pomt out what 1s important One tends to read fiction straght along, ‘but nonfichon 1s usually so wntten that the expert reader can know what the mam idea as even as he starts to read a section and 1s able to skim, skip, or study in the night places ‘Trammng m the use of these cues will enable a student to speed up his read- ing, smprove his comprehension of essentual pomts, and—to be discussed more fully an the next project—predict quiz questions, The three sources of these cues—in text- book, in class, and in previous quizzes—will each be discussed in tum, 1. Textbook Cues ‘Textbooks usually include many cues in- dicating what 1s important If sensiive to them, a reader can readily increase his read- ing efficiency An author m writing a text- book makes an outhne of the six to ten major points to be developed and in the final prmted copy has this outline inserted as the boldface headings starting each sec- tion Major and minor pomts are differen- tated by using centered and dented headings, and as further help these are often numbered Some headings ve the gist of the discussion which follows, others merely announce the topic but do not give the answer For instance, the heading “Learning and Intelligence” indicates that these two topics will be discussed but does not say what the nature of ther relationship is While headings which state the mam thesis are more helpful with precomprehension, the mere indication of the topic can help the reader in loolang for the answer. Other cues are also used to indicate im- portant pomts Paragraphs typically have topic or summary sentences at the begin- ning or at the end which state the gist of the idea under discussion Important state- ments or defimtions are often put m itahes or boldface type Cue phrases and typograph- ical cues are often used For instance, watch for numbers as m “three kinds” or “four causes” followed by sentences or phrases set off by (1), (2), (3), or (a), (b), (0), (4). Or, sentences may begin with “Furst, Second, And lastly,. ” These rep- resent dead giveaways as to equal and important subpomts m an outhne Authors frequently use a hsting device to indicate briefly what 15 to be discussed m the next sections or as a summary at the end to show what has been discussed Finally, the reader should pay especial attention to charts, chagrams, and maps, almost mvana- bly the author uses them to present the most important ideas visually * Tt will be worth while to analyze several books to determme how these cues are used, some authors will prove to be more expert than others in the use Sensitivity to these cues will do much to speed up reading and amprove comprehension In fact, it 1s through the use of such cues that phenom- nally fast readers, the so-called “pageata- glance” readers, are able to perform, that 1s, ‘by merely spottmg these important cues ‘Expenence im wnting manuals for the armed sernces has shown the value of these cue indicators In fact, many of the manual wnters adopted a plan of presenting pomts in short paragraphs which in turn were orgamzed in an outline form Cues such as numbenng, boldface type, diagrams, etc, have also been much used Research indicates that’ many textbook wnters could improve the reading ability of students if they would ‘modify their prose style through use of more cue indicators16 EFFECTIVE STUDY they can guess what will be sad m between But such skimming skill or, even more important, efficient study skill 15 not to be obtamed through meie knowledge of these cues, there must be practice in their rapid recogmtion and use Such practice will be provided at the end of this sechon and again later on 2, Classroom Cues ‘A teacher's time im class 15 usually so limited that whatever he says should be important Students may feel that this is not true of some lecturers, but even these professors meant to cover certain umportant pomts and may have wandered, or st may be that the students couldn’t see the forest (main pomt) because they were too en- grossed m the detals of the trees (illustra~ tons of the pomt). A teacher will usually try to cover about half a dozen pomts more or less during a peniod ‘This may be represented by any combination from a couple of major pomts wath several important subpomts to a senes of equal ideas The amportant skill to be discussed here is analysis of each teacher's lectures to determine af hus lecture points are also emphasized m the textbook. If so, the student 1s doubly forewarned; both leo- ture notes and textbook should be studied thoroughly on these topics If the lectures do not take up items in the book, it means that important supplemental pomts are being added which need to be known as well as those in the textbook. Suggestions on how to take lecture notes will be dis- cussed in Project VI Finally, some cues as to the types of future quiz questions can be obtamed by analyzing the questions which the teacher uses in class discussion One can determine m general if the emphasis runs to definitions, lists, apph- cation, problems, or interpretation, and then ' study accordingly PROJECT I 3. Cues from Previous Examinations ‘When a corrected exam 1s handed back, most students fail to recognize it as an important tool in studymg Many get httle further than ther test scores Those who do look over the exam usually concentrate on what they did well, or feel hke arguing with the instructor over items missed On the other hand, an instructor’s second quiz usually follows the same pattern as his first Looking over the first test, one can see what types of questions are asked Whether they are primarily truefalse, completion, or essay 3s not important But are definitions empha- swed, or problems, or judgment questions, or lists? Do the questions come primarily from the textbook, laboratory book, or class lectures? Can you find where the topics for some of the questions appear i the text? Do they comeide with the headings? Fiom such an analysis, one can often pomt up one’s study technique for the next examma- tion, one can then be more effective with no more effort Practice In bnef, then, three sources of cues—n textbook, lecture, and previous quizzes—provide the skilled student with means for promoting greater readmg and listening efficiency and for pomtmng up his attempts to review for examinations To sensitize you to these cues, you are asked to do four things at this time, further polish- ang exercises will be cared out later. First, go back over this project to see what cues were used Jot down the headings used in the form of an outhne Does this outlne cover all of the important points as you remem- ber them? Skim over the text and underline the other ones used, 1¢, numbers, typograph- rcal cues, summary sentences, etc Check these with your counselor for evaluation.SURVEY Q3R METHOD OF STUDYING 17 Second, rapidly glance over the selection used m the Art Reading Test and jot down a bnef outhne from the mayor cues there, Now compare this list of cues with the quiz used an the reading test, how many of the questions did you predict? The questions 1m the quiz ae of two types restatmg and illustrating points mn the text Do you feel that af you were to read more matenal by this author you could more easily prepare for a quiz? Check your outline with the counselor for suggestions, Third, select a textbook from another one of your courses, mark the cues that the author uses to mdicate important points, and check these with your counselor. Does this author give you good cues? What would be a good way to go about reading that textbook in order to use the cues? Fourth, in this same outside course and text- book, jot down the headings as a brief outline Are there many important points? Compare this outhne with your class notes on this same topic, ‘Were many important pomts covered in class? ‘Were they the same or chfferent than the mam pomts in the text? If you have a copy of the quiz questions over this section or can remem- ber any of the questions, what 1s their relation- shup to the text or lecture outlme? Experiments To Discover New Meruops Analysis of the experimental attempts of educational psychologists to devise new Jearnmg «methods provides a second basis for constructmg higherlevel study skills,18 EFFECTIVE STUDY ‘These experiments fall into two general categones (1) techniques for selecting and comprehendmg what 1s important, and (2) ways to retard forgetting The discus- ston will be organized accordingly SELECTING AND COMPREHENDING WHAT IS IMPORTANT 1. Value of Quick Preview Several studies indicate that a quick pre- view of the headings ot a look at the end summary 1s of help in reading a chapter, ‘Thus m one experiment, 118 college sopho- mores were put in two equated groups, one group bemg shown how to skim over head- ings and summanies, the other not When the two groups were then given a selection to read, the tramed group read 24 per cent faster and as accurately as the students who read in the usual way® Such a quick over- view orients the reader and permits a partial precomprchension of what 1s to come; this head start speeds up the rate at which the selection can then be comprehended. 2. Value of Previous Questions Of probably greater importance, however, 18 the discovery of techmques which am- SH Y McClusky, An expenment on the infu. ence of preliminary skimming on reading, J Educ Poych , 1934, 25 521-529 Selection immediate Recall ‘Bang utc BE science ¢ PROJECT 1 prove comprehension as well as rate, One xdea ted by several experimenters has been to give questions to the readers before or as they read in order to give them a basis for selecting and organizing the 1deas presented Thus one experimenter divided 170 college students into two equated groups and had them read matenals concerning science and the history of Enghsh hterature One group was given a list of 20 questions before read- ing, the other group was not Comprehen- sion was tested smmediately after reading, and again two weeks later on a 4ostem test (these 20 questions plus 20 other questions) As might be expected, the group given the questions did better on these questions, but they also did as well as the other group on the new questions They were supenor on the total tests, especully on the one given two weeks later, this 1s shown graphically m Chart 3 (Each bar represents a different selection for which results were obtained, all differences favor the method of using questions and a critical ratio of four is sta- tustically sigmficant )* Is there a best time to mtroduce these questions, 1, before, dunng, or after read- mg? One interesting experiment sheds light *E Holmes, Reading guided by questions versus careful reading and rereadmg without questions, School Rev, 1933, 39 361-371 o 12 3 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Critical Ratio Cuant 3 Reading, guided by questions, shows greater efficiency for both immediate and delayed recall than careful reading ani rereading without use of questions (Adapted from Holmes.)SURVEY 03R METHOD OF STUDYING 19 on this problem" In this study 1456 high- school students, chvided into groups of equal ability, were given a selection about Flor- ence, Italy, to study for 25 mmutes The selection read by each group, however, vanied to ths extent. For one group questions concerning facts and generalizations m the arhcle were presented at the begmnmg, for another group these questions came at the end of the article, for a third group each question appeared at the beginnng of the section in which t was answered, for a fourth group each question was placed at the end of the section m which :t was answered, and for a fifth gioup no questions were given during the reading of the article The test, which all the pupils took after reading the article, contamed the questions already asked and other comparable questions Of these patterns, the two most effective were all the quesons given at the begining of the article, and each question placed at the beginning of the section m which it was answered. Furthermore, this and other ex- penments show that each of these two patterns has sts umque advantages A list of questions at the beginning of an article ononts the reader to the whole subject m such a way that he can fit facts, not asked about, into a meaningful picture, this helps in ther retention On the other hand, st 1s difficult when reading a long assignment to keep a list of questions clearly enough m mind to help most efficiently m organizing the material The use of questions at the beginning of each section gives ait immediate questioning attstude and a core idea around which to organize the matenal which fol- lows Two things seem evident, then An initial overview of a lesson to determme “what xt as about” speeds up reading and provides a 1J.N_ Washbume, The use of questions mm social scrence matenal, J Educ Psych, 1929, 20 321~ 359 general orientation that helps fit facts to- gether so they will be better retaned Asking a question just before starting to read a section gives the most effective mental set for selecting and retammg the important facts and generalizations therein As will be seen later, these two techniques can be com- bined into one effective study method ‘What source can the student use to find such helpful questions? Teachers occasion- ally provide students with lists of questions to direct them study, or questions may be stated at the end of a chapter or m a Jabora- tory manual Such hsts, if stated in a way to make the reader want to find the correct answers, are useful m providing an overview, true-false tests, on the other hand, are not helpful because the reader’s attitude 1s one of acceptance or rejection of the statements ® But where can the reader obtain the all- important question he needs as he starts to read each section of the textbook? One ex- cellent source has already been discussed That 1s, authors place many “cues” 1m their wntings to indicate the main theses under discussion, the most obvious of these are boldface headings and italicized phrases. It 1s a simple tnck to turn each of these ito a question as the reader comes to it, he then reads on seckmg the major pomts which answer ns query Another problem in learnmg is to deter- mune the most effiaent sie umt which a given reader can handle in a meaningful way. ‘Throughout our discussion there has been an emphasis on obtammg the larger deas presented by the author Students tend to get lost in detail and so muss the forest for the trees Students vary, however, in the size of the bite of textbook stuff which they can assimilate at one time Where material 15 famikar one can more easily take in bigger ideas than where it 1s unfamiliar Some stu- 4A 7 Jersld, Examination og an ad to leaning, I Edue Psych ,' 1929, 20 602-60920 EFFECTIVE STUDY dents, in addition, are not as well tramed as others in grasping these larger ideas Each reader has the problem then of finding how far he can read before he has, so to speak, to come up for ar and reorient himself* Its obvious that these spots should comeide if possible with the breaks m thought of the author, 1¢, at the end of headed sections If such headed sections extend over several pages, then the reader has to use paragraph- img and other cues to find the best places for bnef stops to summarize ideas and to re- onent himself for the coming material Learning poetry illustrates how the most efficient sized unit may vary with age and trammng Jn memorizing poetry itas generally best to read and reread the whole poem so that the total meaning can help with the learning On the other hand, sf the poem is Jong and the language difficult to under- stand, the total meaning wall be hard to get, and reading and rereading the whole poem will not be particularly effective In one expenment children at different age levels leamed, by the whole method, four poems varying m length and dhfficulty Other equated groups of children leamed these same poems by the part method The length and difficulty of the poem on which the pupils used the whole method most effi- ently varied with the developmental level of the children, children in the lower grades Some students try reading straight along, pos- sibly because of habits developed in fichon reading, only to end up with quite hazy notions as to the content of the lesson, Very often in desperation they resort to momonzmg of key phrases and for- niulae Probably every student can remember a fume when he couldn't gure out an algebra eque tion ot a chemistry formula and tned to “get by” with memorizing it, the only trouble was that the instructor changed ‘the letters or numbers m the equation and the student was stuck. For example, am one group only 6 per cent didn’t know the an ower to (x + y)# but 28 per cent couldn't tell the answer when the question was (bi + be)®, Further- more, matenal which 1s memonzed 1s forgotten much more rapidly than matens! learned by understand- ing xt PROJECT 1 found the whole method most effective on the simple poems whereas the pupils m the higher grades found xt most efficient on the more difficult poems® A student can train himself to handle larger and larger umts as a whole with resulting mereased effective- ness m his work, 3. Value of Outlining ‘The emphasis above has been on under- standing the major ideas which the author presents and on seemg the relationship among these ideas Various experimenters have ted to devise techniques which would help the reader clanfy and verbahze lus n- sights and which would give a visual picture of the ideas and their relationships Of these techniques, outhning, underlining, and wnt- ing précis summanes have been the most frequently suggested. Many students have definite opmions about the value of these techniques While it 1s true that good students tend to keep notes on thew readings more than poor students, many good students do not Prac- tically all students agree that taking notes 1s a lot of work, they often say that they scarcely have time to read the lesson and certainly wouldn't have time to read and take notes Many students, having given note-taking a tnal, report that it slowed them down and did not seem to help, m fact, some feel that the lengthened time and extra activity made it harder to get the lesson. These observations have been verified by expenments in which students’ effectiveness with various of these techniques tried more or less for the first time, was compared with simply reading and rereading. In one expen- ment 242 college students tned the tech- niques of underlining, outhning, wntmg précis summanes, and simply reading and 19M L Northway, Difficulty of the Task and the Abihty of the Subject as Factors m Whole-Part Learning, MA theas, Univ of Toronto, .934SURVEY Q3R METHOD OF STUDYING 21 rereading on different selechons equated for difficulty, Not much difference was found in the effectiveness of these techmques, the clearest difference was between reading and underlining compared to reading and wnting a summary“ Analysis of students’ behavior in this and other expenments showed that the students did not know how to use these other techniques very well and became so involved m mdiscnmiate note-talang and compositional efforts that their reading com- prchension was actually hindered Having tried these techmques once or twice, many students decide to rely on the one techmque with which they are famuhar, eg, reading and rereading ‘These students are like the bashful boy who complamed of great diffi culty m tallang to gulls, on hearmg argu- ments that at 1s easter to talk to a gul while dancing, he decided to try it on his next date although he was not a good dancer Afterwards, when asked how it was, he re- plied, “Gosh! I was so busy placing my feet that I couldn’t talk at all” Tt.s obvious then that any technique used must be so automatic and simple as to be subordinate to the task of reading Rather than interfere with reading it should help In the experment reported above it was found that underlnmg was more effective than writing summanes, probably because tne former merely requires the drawing of lines while wnting a summary 1s a composi- tuonal effort On the other hand, underlining has its disadvantages Students tend to un- derlne too much, to have difficulty seemg relatonshups among the scattered under- Immngs, and to memonze the author's words when studying To overcome these objections, a type of buef, topical outhming has been devised, 1t BH F Amold, The comparabye efficiency of certain study techmques m the field of history, ] Educ Psych., 1942, 33 449-457, also C E, Ger mane, The value of the wntten paragraph summary, a —s is called “working notes” to differentiate it from the type of outhning which most stu- dents know To save bme in wnting and im. later reading, headline phrases are used rather than complete sentences To promote easy visualization of the main ideas mm the lesson and again to save time, only the main ideas and mam subpomts are jotted down, the notes on a chapter will cover a half page or at most a page, and the indentation of sub- pomts makes the mayor pomts stand out To cut out clerical, slavish copying into a notebook, notes are jotted from memory after readmg a meaningful unit such as a headed section ‘This type of note-taking 1s not what most students think of when note- taking 1s mentioned, it sounds much easier A sample of such notes and a discussion of lecture notes will be presented later. Such note-taking may not be particularly effective the first time xt 18 tned, the new- ness of any techmique tends to upset previous reading habits, just as trying a new but better gnp in golf may temporanly spoil one’s score ‘With practice, however, a student can de- velop a learmng skill which 1s far more efficient than the usual student method, such engineered skills are here called higher- level learmng skills This need for practice and the possibilihes of gan with xt are shown m Chart 4 It shows that the first time three groups of students used outlining as a technique on study umts im history it was not very effective, but after a month’s practice the technique was highly beneficial (companson 1s to the effiaency of equated groups who had not been shown how to outhne).# Evidence of increased efficiency possible with extended practice and of the transfer of efficiency to other courses is shown by still another experiment, Several hundred high-school students received intensive train- “2.W A Barton, Outhning as a study procedure, Teach Coll Contn Educ, No. 411, 1930.”22 EFFECTIVE STUDY 12 u Bio gs 2 a8 é WY, 3° Yj BS Yj 8 yy, g4 YZ : 3 jj 2 Wy, & 1 Q s A GroupsA 8 OC se Furst Unit ‘Second Unit Cuanr 4 Gat m quiz grades when outlining as used as a study techmaue for the fist time an after a month's practice, companson 1s made to equated groups not taught the outhmmng technique (Adapted from Barton ) ng (daily lessons for six weeks) in outhning typical study matenals Emphasis was placed on the thinkng sde of outhnmg At the end it was found that the trained group was better than a matched control group (ze- caved no taming in onthnmg) m abikty to comprehend what they read and in performance on study matenals in other courses.# ‘Thus, m selecting and comprehending what 1s important, the student will find it helpful to make a preview of the headings and final summary before starhng to read, to ask a question based on the heading as he starts to read each headed section, and to wnte bref summary phrases after reading each section so as to check his comprehen- sion and to picture the relationship among the ideas Further it was shown that any UR Salsbury, Some effects of traning m out- lung, Engl J (Coll Ed), 1935, 24 122-126, see also RG Simpson, The effect of specific tran- ang on ability to read fustoncal matenals, J Edue Res, 1929, 20 343-351. PROJECT It method of outlining must be bref and easy to do and must be practiced before its benefits can be obtamed. WAYS TO RETARD FORGETTING ‘As every student is well aware, forgetting one’s lessons takes place altogether too rapidly. Students occasionally reply when quened i class, “I knew st yesterday, but it’s gone now” This rapid deterioration of Iearnng was graphically shown in Chart 2, two weeks after reading a lesson a student usually remembers only about 20 per cent of what he knew immediately after studying the lesson ‘The student’s problem im studying is two- fold learmmg what should be known, and then fixing it in memory $0 it will be there when wanted A student may develop facility at picking out important pomts so he can do well on an immediate quiz (this 38 one reason why many students cram before cxams), but this does not necessarily insure that he will remember it There 1s need to anvestigate the causes of forgetting and to develop techniques which will slow it down, Nature of Forgetting Contrary to popular opinion, forgetting 13 not simply a weathering away of once known impressions The process of forgetting, lke the process of learning, follows certain dy- namic patterns whose study permits the scientist to develop techmiques which retard forgetting. Several facts mdicate posable duections for investigating first, not all material 1s forgotten at the same rate, nor m the same way" One study shows that ¥4E B Newman, Forgetting of meamngful ma- tenal dunng sleep ‘and waking, Amer J“ Psych., 1939, 52 65-71, J M Levine end G’ Murphy, ‘The learning and forgetting of controversial mate. nal, J Abn & Soc’ Psych, 1943, 38 507-517, RD Willams and GW" Knox, A survey dynam punciples govermng memory, J Gen, Prych , 2944, 30 167-179SURVEY Q3R METHOD OF STUDYING 23 eight hours after reading a story 86 per cent of the ideas essential to the plot can be reproduced but only 23 per cent of the non- essential ideas Another study shows that persons tend to forget the content of an article on a controversial subject more rap- idly when they disagree with its pomt of wew than when they agree Darwin sud he found it necessary to jot down unmediately any data which disagieed with his theory of evolution, but that evidence which sup- ported the theory was much more easily remembered. Still other studies show that memones gradually change to fit previous knowledge and thought patterns For exam- ple, the reddish haw of a longabsent frend tends to become redder and redder im memory because it 1s always thought of as “ced” The bad acts of a “good” kang are harder to remember (unless they are so atrocious as to stand out) than the bad acts of a “bad” lang The implication of all this for the student is that he should try to get a thorough understanding of the lesson since tus will help Inm ietain the essential 1deas Fmther, he should study carefully those tems which tend to disagree with the gen- eral theme of a unt Secondly, not all students forget at the same rate The student who remembers the most, immediately after reading, may not remember the most after two weeks, nor will several people who make the same score, unmeduately after reading, score the same two weeks later A study of these people who tend to remember the most indicates that the prime factor m ths supenonty 3s not endowed superionty of memory but leamed skills and attitudes ‘The three pr- mary methods of attack to be discussed in the sections which follow ate interest, recitation, and distnbuted learnmg 1, Interest and Intent to Remember. Every student intends to remember what he studies, at least until the next quiz. 1s over, but students vary in the degree to which they mentally clarify the specific thmgs they mtend to remember and m the strength of this intent, Some students have little more than a vague urgmg from thei conscience that they ought to remember what they me reading, but habits of reading for the moment’s comprehension, as mm fic tion reachng, really determine their behavior Other students carcfully sclect the pomts ‘they feel they will need to know and defi- mately attempt to fix them in mind The chfference m efficiency is illustrated by a simple little classtoom eyperment ‘The teacher in one class asked the students to copy down twenty words in thei notes, but no indication was given that they would Tater be expected to reproduce these words; ‘the teacher im another class asked the stu- dents to copy down these same twenty words Dut they weie told that a test on them could be expected later On an immediate test, the warned group was 30 per cent better and on a delayed test one weck later the warned group was 50 per cent better In addition to choosmg which facts are to be remembered and carrying out activities which wil strengthen memmy, the mterest a student has in a subject seems also to foster memory, Thus one more clearly remembers incidents from hugh school dra- matic and athletic events than he does from most of Jus classes. Material which is of interest 1s moe pl to be meaningful and the student is more apt to remember Because this fact 1s well known, teachers attempt to make thei material interesting to students; the student in turn should make every attempt to make the matenal mean- ingful, and therefore interesting, to himself. If he cannot see us value, he should ask the instructor to explain ats possible rela- tonships to the student's needs, 2 Recitation One of the most effective devices to retard forgetting is very simple24. EFFECTIVE STUDY yet few students make use of it, and scarcely ever do so at the best sme An axom in prepanng oneself for a task 1s to practice the way it will later have to be done Since students have to show their learning through recitahon im class or on tests, the student may well practice reciting beforehand Stu- dents often mistakenly beheve that, havmg understood something as a lesson 1s read through, 1t must be known and therefore will be retamed (Remember the example cated eather of the hst of ten numbers which were easily comprehended but learned with difficulty ) Such selfrecitation msures that the matenal 1s understood and acts to fix it am memory. The techmques of the expert at remem- denng names (how we envy lim) are a good illustration hee, Have you ever watched such a peison? The first thing he does on being introduced 1s to repeat the introduced person’s name aloud immediately, he wants to be sure he has it straight Other persons are usually engrossed im their own thoughts when mtroduced because the stranger obvi- ously means nothmg to them at the time, or if they are paying attention they may feel sure they won't remember xt anyway. ‘There 1s no particular intention to remem- ber as mentioned above And to make matters worse the introducer is often so unsure of the name that he mumbles it so that a person doesn’t get it in the first place. Little wonder that people have trouble in (learmng and) remembenng names But to return to the expert again, He not only says the name mmediately, he may try spelling it to be sure he has st straght and then dunng the course of the conversation he will use the new name several times In other words, he learns and uses the name until it 1s fixed in mind Strong evidence of the value of self- recitation, and further claufication as to the best time for its use, 1s given by a study of PROJECT 0 several thousand highschool students in Towa Reference to part of this study was made earlier m order to show how rapidly students tend to forget after a single reaching of an article (sec Chart 2) In this expen- ment, the groups took an imal test at dif- ferent intervals after the reading and then took it again at later times The first test, therefore, acted as a recitation-review for the later tests The results of such testingreview are indicated by broken Lines m Chait 2, on page 14 For instance, group I took the test immediately after reading, after 1 day and after 21 days, gioup III took its first test on the first day after reading and again on the fourteenth day Two things stand out (1) The recitation-test acted to retard forgetting and (2) the eather it came the better It was found, in fact, that with a single reading the student 1s apt to remem- ber only 20 per cent at the end of two weeks, but with a single readmg followed immediately with a recitation test, he will remember 80 per cent! Or as the author says, “More 1s forgotten m one day when reten- tuon 1s unaided than 1s forgotten n 63 days when retention 1s aided by recall” Such a gam is far beyond what rereading will pro- duce and yet it takes less tme* The best time to use recitation to retard forgetting, therefore, 1s immediately after reading a lesson. But yust where im the lesson should this self-recitation take place? That 1s, after the lesson 1s read cleat through, or after each headed section? If the student waits until the end of the lesson before jot- sing down an outline from memory, he will find that he has too hazy a notion of the details On the other hand, the student should not stop to recite each time he finds an important pomt It seems best to read 4H F Spitzer, Studies im retention, J Educ Psych, 1939, 30 641-656 See also G Forlano, School Jeaming with vatymg methods of practice and rewards, Teach Coll Conta, Educ, 1936, No 688, 114 ppSURVEY Q3R METHOD OF STUDYING 25 through a meaningful umt, such as a headed sechon, and then try selfreaitation This forces the reader to orgamze Ins thmkng im terms of main ideas and does not snter- rupt study so often as to break the train of thought What form should this self-recttation take? Many of the characteristics found necessary for an effective technique in or- gammg comprehension are also pertment here. Any such techmque should be sumple and automatic, 1t should be an aid and not a distraction to thinking The easier a rect- tation technique 1s and the less time it takes, the better. Recitation techniques of com- plete outhnng, underhnng, wntmg sum- manes, jottmg down summary phrases, and discussion have been tried, and the system of reading a headed section and then jotting from memory a key phrase or so m the reader's own words has been found the most effective If the reader feels unsure as he wntes these summary phrases from memory, he can check back over the reading material And as he progresses through the chapter these cue phrases are arranged in outline form in order to present the ideas of the total lesson m an easily visualized form. Underlning 1s not particularly effec- tive as a recitation techmque because the reader has merely to check back over the material and recognize 1mportant points and 1s not forced to check his understanding of the section It 1s comfortmg to note that the tech- nique which was found to promote com- prehension (tummg headings ito questions which are read for and recited om) can also be used to retard forgetting One general HF Amold, The comparative efficiency of certain study techmiques m fields of history, J Educ Pay 1942 33 449-457, M Bulge, The eect on retention ‘of cifferent methods of revision, Mel- doume Umv, Educ Res Ser, 1934, No 28, 55 pp, C O Mathews, Companton of methods of itady for smmediate and delayed reel, J Educ, Paych, 1938, 29 101-106, technique serves several ends: The heading tumed to a question tends to cause reading for important meanmgs After reading a section, this same heading-question can be used as the basis for self-recitation to check whether the answer 1s known The self- recitation tends to fix the knowledge m one’s memory And (to be discussed more fully later) these headmg-questions are useful in predicting quiz questions for later review This vaned value of a single tech- nique 1s used to advantage m a later section which presents an over-all techmque for gomg about textbook studymg (Survey Qs3R) Two other ways are also useful types of self-recitation, but demand the assistance of another mdividual Whenever the teacher or author provides a list of questions covenng the mam pomts of an assignment, these can be used for selfrecitation If quizzes were used as learnng aids rather than as end measures for purposes of grading, they could be useful in checking comprehension and m review. Discussion 1s another effective device because it 1$ so easily done and em- phasizes understanding rather than mem- onzng It is usually difficult to find at convement times for study another student taking the same course, and the urge to visit may be so powerful as to prevent an efficient use of study discussion 3. Distributed Iearnmg. A relatively sim- ple way to mciease learmmg and to smprove retention 1s to distribute the learning over a number of short peniods instead of trymg to master the entire task at one time Common sense would accord with the results of re- search im suggesting that this distribution would be favorable for route memonzing smce in such boresome tasks attention 1s likely to wander after the first few mmutes, several short attempts with attention pre- sumably fairly ngh would be superior to long penods durmg which the student becomes26 EFFECTIVE STUDY bored and inattentive However, the same situation seems to hold for “logical” learmmng not verbatim memorzmg—as well In one experiment two groups of adults were called upon to read passages of a techmical nature five times—one group five times consecu- tayely im one sitting and the other onco each day for five days A test given mediately after the fifth reading showed a supenonty im retention of only 4 per cent for the group using distubuted readings, howevei, at the end of two weeks this group showed 20 per cent greater retention, and 25 per cent after four weeks, as compared with the group who did all the readmg in one day® This experiment 15 suggestive of the defects of crammmg—there 3s reasonably good am- mediate recall, but rapid subsequent forget- tung The distribution of study sessions will vary as they are used to serve either of two functions the most efficient arrangement to obtain clear comprehension or quick learn- ing, and the most efficient arrangement to renew learning through review Suffice 1t to say here, since a thorough discussion of re- viewing for exammations will be presented later, that the rate of forgetting and the value of review near examination time are prime factors sn determining the ditnbu- § D McAustin, A study in logical memory, Amer J Psych, 1921, 32 370-403 ‘Successive Readings Readings Hrs Apart Readings! 1 Day Apart Readings ferme 3 Days Apart PROJECT 11 tion of review sessions When it comes to trying for the first tme to understand some difficult problem or learn some task de- mandmg exact reproduction as im a pocm or foreign vocabulary, a quite different distri. bution of learning sessions 1$ needed, Time enough should be taken on the first reading to get a meaningful view of the whole task and, rather than reread the lesson, evidence already discussed indicates that an imme diate effort at self-recitation 1s very worth while But how long should the student then wait for the next scssion? If he waits too ong there will be so much forgetting that studying agam will seem like a new task If too soon, the factors of fatigue and boredom may be operative One expenment shed some hight on this problem Dafferent equated groups tried readmng a lesson as follows four times in one session, once a session each three hours apart, once a session each one day apart, and once a session each three days apart As will be seen in Chart 5, the four study sessions three hours apart was the best of the four plans * In general, then, it would seem wise for a student with a difficult problem to give it a thorough try, then return to it later In planning distributed learning penods, some consideration should be given to what * English, Welbom, and Kilhan, op cit 358 238 20 30 40 Comprehension Scores, Cuaxr 5, Comprehension scores made by equated groups who read a selecton four times but with different spacings between the readings, (Based on data from Enghsh, Welborn, and Killian)SURVEY Q3R METHOD OF STUDYING 27 1s done immediately after each penod of study A simular task may interfere with the previous learning, especially if it 1s one de- manding rather exact reproduction, thus memonzing a poem there will be more rapid forgetting af xt as followed immediately by study of another poem than if some other activity follows The usual ten minutes between classes not only provides time for travel but also lets what is learned become “set” before the student has to start on new material When studying in the evening, the student may well reward humself with a bnef respite after finishing a lesson and before starting a new one A rest at this time will make a break in the middle of the new Iesson less likely Tt has been shown that forgetting can be retarded if a student becomes interested in the matenal he 1s reading, intends to remem- ber it, and distnbutes his study tme Of further help, and probably most important, s the use of a selfrecitation technique after reading each headed section, the pre- ferred form for such selfrecitation beng “working notes” The eapenmental findings of this and of the preceding section on select- mg and comprehending what 1s mportant provide a basis for devising a new, total method of studying which as highly efficient This as the subject of the nest section, EicuerLever Srupy Sxrs ‘Vanous books have been written on spe- cal skills useful m readmg books® Some have emphasized increased speed of reading, others, techmques for getting the most stim- ulation from an author’s ideas Students, however, want a skill which will be particu- larly effective with school textbooks, 39] McGeoch and F McKinney, Retroactive in- hubition in the learmg of poetry, Amer J Psych , 1934 46 19-30, BA "y “Raler, How to Rend a Book, Sumon & Schuster, 1940,'M A Bessey, Active Reading, Appleton Century, 943, N-Lems, How to Read Better and Faster, Crowell, 1944, 1 A. Richards, . How to Read a Page, Norton, 1942. ‘A new techmique must be devised, since the methods of good students are too often mefficient and no one of the experiments above used the perfect method The findings of these experiments, however, contnbute a scientific foundation from which a higher- level study skill can be devised They showed that a quick survey of headings and sum- manies before starting to read gave an onen- tation which speeded up reading and aided retention They showed that asking a ques- tion before starting each section also helped reading Other expenments showed that the very xapid forgetting which 1s so typical after reading can be markedly slowed down by the simple expedient of forcmg oneself to recite from memory after reacing Other experiments showed somethmg as to the best timing of this self-recitation during the study period Vanous studies emphasized the importance of understanding the larger meanings in the selecton, and of seeing their pattem of relationsup Outhning, re- Jatng the matenal to one’s mterests, and a bnef review when through reading were shown to help with this Still other experr ments showed the value of distribution of effort m studying The creation of a study skill which uses these findings, which satisfies the demands of school study, and which pleases ihe stu- dent with sts efficiency 1s a challenge to the reading specialist The student wants env suggested method to help him (1) select what he 1s expected to know, (2) compic- hend these ideas rapidly, (3) fix them an memory, and later (4) review efficenth for examinations The method must be moe efficent and less time consummg than 1¢- reading lessons And it should not be diffi- cult to lear. For years the writer has had students try out vantous methods which such expermnents have suggested, such tmals have Iced 1o further refinements and suggestions One method has finally been devised which fits28 EFFECTIVE STUDY the criteria above, is more effective than typical study methods, and has found stu- dent approval. Further research may show other possible refinements but rts felt that this now represents a hugherleyel skill of gxcat effectiveness for schoolwork ‘The ma- PROJECT 1 teal which follows ss devoted to a descnp- thon of this study techmique and to exercises durected toward developing such skill Fol- lowing this there will be some discussion of special techmiques an studymg foreign. language and non-prose materials. ‘TI SURVEY Q3R METIIOD The title for this new higherlevel siudy skill 1s abbreviated m the current fashion to make it easier to remember and to make reference to 1t more smple The symbols stand for the steps which the student follows in using the method, a description of each of those steps 18 given below Survex 1. Glance over the heachngs in the chapier to see the few big pomts which will be developed ‘This survey should not take more than a mmute and will show the three to sxx core ideas around which the rest of the discussion will cluster If the chapter has a final summary paragraph this will also hist the adeas developed m the chapter This orientation will help you organize the adeas as you read them later Quzsrion 2 Now begin to work Turn the first heading into a question This will arouse your curiosity and so merease comprehension It will bring to mind informa- ton already known, thus helping you to understand that sechon more quickly And the question will make important points stand out while ex- planatory detail as recognized as such This iurnmg a heading into a question can be done on the instant of reading the heading, but at demands a conscious effort on the part of the reader to make this query for which he must read to find the answer. 3 Read to answer that question, ie, to the end of the first headed section ‘This 1s not a passive plowing along each ne, but an active search for the answer Having read the first section, look away from the book and try bnefly to recite the answer to your question Use your own words and name an example If you can do this you know what is m the book, if you can’t, glance over the section again An excellent way to do this reciting from memory 1s to jot down cue phrases in outhne form on a sheet of paper Make these notes very brief! NOW REPEAT STEPS 2, 3 AND 4 ON EACH SUCCEEDING HEADED SECTION THAT 3S, TURN THE NEXT HEADING INTO A QUESTION, READ TO ANSWER THAT QUES- ‘TION, AND RECITE THE ANSWER BY JOYTING DOWN CUE PHRASES IN YOUR OUI- LINE READ IN THIS WAY UNTIL THE ENTIRE LESSON IS COMPLETED. ‘When the lesson has thus been read through, ook over your notes to get a bird's-eye view of the pomts and of their relationship and check your memory as to the content by reciting on the major subpomts under each heading. This checking ot memory can be done by covering up the notes and trying to recall the mam pomts Then expose each major pot and try to recall the subpoints listed under at. Reap RecreE 4 Revew 5SURVEY Q3R METHOD OF STUDYING 29 These five steps of the Survey Q3R Method—Survey, Question, Read, Recite, and Review—when pokshed mto a smooth and efficient method should result in the student reading faster, picking out the m- portant pomts, and fixing them m memory. ‘The student will find one other worth- while outcome quiz questions will seem happily familiar because the headings turned ito questions are usually the pomts em- phasized in quizzes In predicting actual quiz questions and looking up the answers beforehand, the student feels that he 1s effectively studying what 1s considered im- portant in a course Its Effectiveness Evidence of the success of this method has been obtained from several studies In one expenment several sections of a how- tostudy class measured ther reading abihty (reading rate and comprehension accuracy) on a test which dealt with the lustory of Canada, they were then given practice in the use of the Survey O3R Method for several days after which they took another comparable reading test Before traming, the average rate of reading for the classes was at the 34th percentile and after traming it was at the 56th percentile, before traning the average accuracy of comprehension was at the 43rd percentile and after trammg at the 53rd percentile In another experiment an attempt was made to measure the effec- tiveness of this method for exammation preparation Two quizzes of equal difficulty were prepared, for the first quiz the students were permtted to study m ther own immi- table ways but for the second quiz they were shown how to predict questions The average number of errors on the first quiz was 15 but on the second quiz only 6 One of the most convincing arguments to the wnter has been the comments of students who have tried at and found that it worked. Students have walked mto class and sad “I predicted 15 of the 20 questions he asked,” or “Boy, oh boy, I've been getting D’s in chemustry but I got a B yesterday,” or “It looked ke he had picked the qurz questions from my List” Further Details of the Method ‘The desenption above has given an over- all picture of the method Expenence in teachang its use, however, shows that certain typical errors may occur, usually because old study methods imterfere Indicating these entical points, so the student can be par- trcularly careful concerning them, 1s helpful m Iearmng a skill These cautions are ar ranged according to the steps n the method a Survey A survey of headings in a les- son should take only a mmute Some students are so m the habit of reading on once they get started that, until they have learned how, they need to make a conscious effort to look just at the headings and then to estimate what the lesson is about. It 1s worth while to practice this skill by itself. Take some reading material on topics with which you are famihar, eg, news- papers, digest magazines, previously read textbooks, etc, glance over the headings m an article or a chapter, then make guesses as to what the material will actually say Check to see how well you have done. bande Reading to answer questions. Changing a heading to a question should be a conscious effort to onent oneself actively toward the material to be read The reader should defintely have in mind what he wants to learn as he reads each secthon and not just passively read it hne by line Habits from reading fiction often make it dif- ficult to read textbooks, for 1t has been found that most people read fiction m order to forget their troubles and not30 a EFFECTIVE STUDY to remember what 1s in the book. Such an athtude of comprehending for the moment, when cared over into text- book reading, gives nse to a delusion that since the ideas are comprehended as they are read they will, of course, ‘be remembered and unconsciously or- ganized as answers to questions Such 1s far from the truth Reading textbooks as work, the teader must know what he 1s looking for, look for xt, and then orgamze lus thinkmg on the topic he has been reading about Recitimg The tendency in reading is to keep going, but one should stop at the end of each headed section to see if he can answer the question asked at the start of the section As indicated before, this tends to check whether the reader has comprehended the ma- tenal, and the recitation fixes the 1deas im memory Furthermore, this insist ence on answering the question makes at easier to force oneself to read with an active, quiring athtude Selfrecitation may consist of men- tally reviewing the answer or writing it out The latter 1s more effoctive since it forces the reader actually to ver- balize the answer whereas a mental review may often fool a reader into Deheving that a vague feeling of com- prehension represents mastery Further- mote, the more sensory channels used m leammg, the more effective it 1s, m wntmg notes one provides visual and kinaesthetic (muscle) cues as well as verbal imagery in thinlang about it But it 1s very important that this note- taking require Little tme and energy, the notes should be exceedingly bnef It is here, m fact, that many students have the most difficulty with the Survey Q3R Method Some think they are to use old habits of lengthy note- PROJECT Ir talung where all details are copied from the book, usually as complete sentences This techmque so cisrupts the progress of reading that the tran of thought 1s lost Other students, when they spy something rmportant, aie in the habit of stopping then to copy it into ther notes—with one finger marang each phrase as they look back and forth be- tween book and notes It can truth- fully be said that many such students copy a sentence into their notes with- out ever having read at (for meanng) Because as soon as they see something in atalics they start copying The student will have to practice the type of working notes, as they are called, recommended here Furst, no notes are wntten until the whole headed secton 1s completely read, Second, the notes are jotted down from memory and not from the book. And third, the notes should be in the student’s own words and should be bnief, 1¢, little more than a word or phrase Just as a puble speaker's notes usually consist of a hst of topics as re- munders of what to talk about next, so the student’s notes should include only cue words and phrases to demonstrate to lus own satisfaction that he knows what points are mcluded Knowmg a topic, the student can easily supply an explanation of xt Such bref wording also keeps the notes in compact form so that they can be easily visualized later in renew ‘The following sample of working notes based on the first five pages of the Art Reading test shows how pomts can be made to stand out (key words are stalicwed for emphasis) and how the indentations make visualization of the subpomnts easter, The bnef wording will not convey full meaning to aSURVEY Q3R METHOD OF STUDYING 31 stranger, he should read the arhcle, but the cue phrases are sufficient re- minders of what 18 n the artucle to the student who made the notes * Notes on Art Test Art—jornmng together, signify experience 2 classes 1 Useful arts 2 Fine arts—attempt to express beauty, tnumph a Artist dentafies self with object, observer also Db Shows effect not causes ¢ Shows imspiation nature gives C Character of art 1 Unity—one idea, no distractions in picture 2 Composition—process of selecting and arranging a Harmony—consistency of charac- ter b, Balance—consistency of attrac- tions ¢ Rhythm—consstency of move- ment 3 Message of art 1s mood o> Its difficult to mamtain an atutude of actrve attack on any type of work over long penods of tme In mdustry at has been found more efficient to alternate periods of working at different activities The change of actwvity 1s less bormg and one can start each new period with zest In studying, an alter- nation of reading and note-taking makes xt easier for the student to keep at hus lessons and to maintam an attitude of active searching for ideas It 1s easter to keep at reading until a headed section 1s finshed than it 1s to complete the whole lesson, therefore breaks m at- 2 Some students find even this amount of note- taking too laborious! Another techmque 3s to jot down, or underhne in the text, exe words or phrases which represent probable quiz questions The an- swers are not wntten These lsts then provide a good basis for review If m reviewing, the answer doesn’t come immediately to mund, the student reads in the book tention are apt to come at logical places im the reading mateual and so do not disrupt the student’s thinking as much ‘Thus alternation of tasks, in fact, helps make concentration much easier in studying Iessons e. Review Review mediately after read- ing should be brief, probably not more than five minutes will be needed This as certamly much faster than rereading the lesson The total outhne should be looked over to get an overall, casily visualized picture, but the review should not be jmsted to this As indicated in. the directions, another attempt at self- recitation makes sure that the matenal as better fixed m memory Later reviews ae also worth while Because of the forgetting which takes place The factors mmfluencmg the eficiency of these delayed reviews will be discussed mm the next project. Exercises In spite of all these do’s and don'ts, the ‘Survey Q3R Method probably sounds simple, but so does golf or swimming Just as in learning any skill, this one will take much practice to make it hughly effechve and as habitual as your present methods And as with any new skills, this one may seem awk- ward and meffechve when it 15 first tried. So a senes of practice exercises has been set up to give you traning im the use of the method Laboratory matenals will be used at first because they are constructed so as to show what 1s wanted and the counselor can more quickly check errors in method As soon as possible, however, practice will be canned out on your actual courses 1 The first step m learning to use the Survey Q3R Method was descubed on pages 16-17 Here you leaned to recognize cues in textbook writing.32 EFFECTIVE STUDY 2 The second step was also completed then when you jotted down the hist of cues m outhne form This was m reahty a first attempt at working notes It also showed how such bref notes can predict quiz questions 3 Now that you understand what text- book cues and working notes are, the next step 1s to get some practice doing the whole skill As m coaching baseball, your whole dehvery should be observed and suggestions made on pertinent difficulties. Practice will De of two types a. Specral reading assignments will be used m class for a sexes of practice ex- excises on the use of the Survey O3R Method You will be observed while doing this, your notes wall be evaluated, and, if tme permits, quizzes will be given over these “assignments” b Dunng the weeks to follow you will also practice this method on some one of your courses, preferably one with much reading in it Keep checking with your counselor as to further ways to improve your skill with the Survey Q3R Method. ‘While a student may become particularly interested in improving one aspect of the total skill, educational psychologists have found that a skill 1s learned most readily af at is always practiced as a whole Thus m studying a lesson, you should carry out the whole Survey Q3R Method as rapidly and efficiently as possible When a lesson 1s com- pleted you can note the time it took and so obtain a measure of rate, your notes can be evaluated by the counselor, and later quizzes, can be analyzed to see how well the correct pomts have been predicted. Evidence of Improvement You will, of course, be interested in seeing evidence of improvement from use of this techmgue. This may show up in various PROJECT IE ways* reading rate may be faster, compre- henston accuracy may be higher, notes may be better, and qmz questions may seem more familar because they have been pre- dicted Charts for designating progress are provided below or are referred to elsewhere m this book Although minor fluctuations may occur i a graph due to chance dif- ferences m difficulty or vanatons in your own efficiency, you should find im time that the les representing performance wall gradually progress upwards. Charting prog- ress provides assurance that your efforts are getting results and will help you and the counselor discover wheie there 1s still dif- ficulty 1 Rate of Readmg Note how many words a mute you are able to read on the average while completing a lesson Plot this on the chart on page 112, Rate with and without note-taking will be quite different, it will be interesting to keep two lines on the graph one for rate with notes, the other for straight reading rate 2. Notes The check hist for rating work- ing notes 1s on the following pages In evaluating working notes as a part of the Survey Q3R Method, two characteristics are emphasized Do they cover the essential poms? And are they im a good format, 1¢, wniting reduced to a minimum, major points standing out with subordinate points an- dented, and wutten so that self-recitation can be cared out easily. Haye the counselor rate your notes on this chart so you can see which aspects need further work 3. Comprehension Accuracy and Predio- tion of Quiz Questions On the second chart below, record such measures of compre- hhension accuracy as test scores and esti- mates of the per cent of questions asked which you were able to predict Great care must be taken in what 1s compared to what, success may be greater on a quz.m one course than it 1 in another because the quizzes inSURVEY Q3R METHOD OF STUDYING 33. the first course are easier So m plotting be- low be sure to mark each item with enough descriptive detal so that later comparable predictions may be jomed up with it by a Ine The chart will eventually have several Innes on st indicating progress in predicting quiz questions in one course, accuracy of comprehension on a series of reading tests, etc To keep these hnes from becoming con- fused 1t may be well to make them of dif ferent colors or of different types Scores are not always obtanable or best presented as per cent right Thus grades may be given only m a letter form of “A,” “B,” and “C”; or the mstructor may indicate the average score for the class with which your score can be compared, or the test score itself may be used. You may plot any of these on the chart so long as they provide you with a visual evidence of progress 4. Memory Students occasionally find that ther notes agree with the questions asked, but they had trouble on the quiz when at was given This is evidence that they once knew the mateual but st was forgotten Some such forgetting 1s normal, but xf this difference 1s extieme it represents an aspect needing remediation Whenever you find mussed quiz questions actually listed im your notes, turn to Project III for assistance,CHECK LIST FOR ANALYSIS OF STUDENT NOTEBOOK Each time the student's notebook 1s rated, use a separate column In general, rate the same subject each tme The rating 1s done by checkmg each of the deficiencies found, and double-checking par~ tieulsrly bad aspects Count the number of checks m each section and put this number m the box for each boldface heading Then add all these numbers for the total score Plot this score on the graph; successive evaluations and plottings will show any improvement made Name of course rated, and date General Format: Handwnting allegible ‘Too many notebooks Notebook too small Pages overfilled ‘Unorganized notes, courses muixed together ‘Loose, odd-sized pages Too much time on notes ‘Too spread out Too compact Organization or Form: Poor labeling at top ‘Need more indentation. Just a hstmg of points ‘Not mm outlme form ‘No numbering system ‘Use emphasis marks Hard to see organization Subtopics unrelated to headSURVEY Q3R METHOD OF STUDYING Phrasmg of Notes Unnecessary wordmess Wordmg does not convey meamng of section ‘Missed some of main 1deas Not fimshing headed sec- ‘tion before writing notes Start with cue word In authon’s words, not own. Too meager for material covered ‘Too much detail General Quality of Notes Rating on 10-pomt seale, with 0 as excellent, 5 as average, and 10 as ter- nble or no notes Total Score Graph Showing Improvement36 EFFECTIVE STUDY PROJECT IL RECORD OF COMPREHENSION ACCURACY AND QUIZ PREDICTION IDesemptive data (date, material, kind of score) | TIT) | 100 i i+] +--+} I-}—}A+ 95} |_| f—}_} } | |_|, 90] || || | A= 85| j—|— | +--+ —}-—|B-++ 80] {|_| |||} -} -—|—|-—} I—|B 75 +-}-+-| +--+ -} B 70) 4 |_| | C+ . 2 Ses - Llc & é | Z Seo |_| | 1 |_| Ji} tt io- g a 55 — |; L_|_ip+ 60) |__} a |_| ID 45] pj} jj} | | |_| Ip 40) I |—|_}e+ 35 a |_| iB 30) 128 45 6 7 8 9 10 Ii 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25SURVEY Q3R METHOD OF STUDYING 37 STUDY SKILLS FOR FOREIGN-LANGUAGE AND NON-PROSE MATERIALS The previous discussion has dwelt at length on techmques of studying the usual college textbook, Some reading matenal, however, is heavily loaded with diagrams, charts, and formulae, and some is even wntten almost entirely m a foreign language Such ma- tenals demand different study skills than are used with prose. That 1s, the principles of learning still apply, but the total study method 1s redesigned to fit these special ma- terials The need for this 1s well illustrated when students try to read a formula at the same rate as the prose which precedes it The matenal which follows first discusses skulls im foreignanguage study and then study methods with diagrams, charts, and formulae. Foreign-Language Study ‘While some students find the study of a foreign language easy and interestmg, others find it one of their most chfficult subjects Some of this latter group spend hours each day studying the strange language and yet find that they have made httle progress Part of this 1s due to d:fferences in facility at hnguistic learning, but leamed factors also determme success in language courses. While occasionally a student may feel that he as aphasic to foreign languages, the causes actually he elsewhere and are usually remedi- able, Some indication of the nature of these difficulties is shown in a senses of expenments on factors related to success in German classes * In the first expenment two groups #R P Larsen, J R_ Wattenborn, and EG Gresecke, Factors’ contnbuting to achevement in the study of first semester college German, J Exper Educ, 1942, 10 265-271, JR Wittenborn and R sen, An ‘empmical evaluation of study habits mn elementary German, J Appl Paych , 1944, 28 20-430 JR. Wittenbom and R P Larson, A factonal study of achievement an college German, J Educ Psych, 1944, 35 39-49. of students, equal m abihty but differimg markedly in their success in German, were measured in a large number of character- istics that might be related to success in language. The only areas in which the two groups showed sigmficant differences were* English proficiency, dese to master a foreign language, daily preparation of lessons, habit of studying cotrechons made on thei papers, and readmg German for ideas rather than translating words, In a second exper ment, an analysis was made of the methods which students use m studying German The results showed that: (a) The poor students tended to postpone study but the good ones mastered each lesson and actually studied German when they sat down to do it (b) The poor ones said they had lots of trouble with grammar while the good ones didn’t, and sad they saw grammar as a means rather than as the end purpose of their course in English And (c) the poor ones said they made no special effort to study declensions while the good students did, and also had a plan to use in attacking new German sentences and studied any corrections which the imstructor made on them papers. In bnef, these factors are of three general types motivation, Enghsh traming, and special skills in foreign-language study Each of these wall be discussed in tum Some students have difficulty because they really are not interested im foreign languages and only study them to fulfill requrements for a degree And even for those who are mterested, the necessary routine practice does not provide interesting new facts such as the budding scientist finds in lus study of chemistry It 1s little wonder that a stu- dent sometimes prefers to study other more interesting courses first and finds 1t difficult to keep his mind on lus language study. As a first step m making language study easier, a student must clarify in hus own mind the38 EFFECTIVE STUDY values he expects to obtam from the study of a foreign language Since this whole prob- em of getting down to work and learning to concentrate 1s the topic of Project IV, turn to that project if you are haying trouble with Tanguage study Trammg i Enghsh, more specifically in English grammar, 1s another important factor determing success in study of a foreign language Because greater use 1s made of grammar termnology in teachmg a foreign language than in the teaching of English, expenments show that knowledge of English grammar 1s actually more highly related to success im studying a foreign language than am studying English But the necessary grammatical terminology 19 not as extensive as the size of a grammar book might indicate Following 1s a list of grammatical terms that an analysis shows are frequently used, and which teachers consider umportant, m foreigndanguage study * This ®L © and S L Pressey, Essential Preparation for College, Farrar & Rmehart, 1932 PROJECT Ik list 15 m addition to the grammatical terms which a college student would know from his work im Enghsh composition Test your- self on these terms to see if you can think of an allustration for each Any terms which cause difficulty can be looked up sm an English grammar book, a dictionary, or in J A Meredith and W S Jack’s pamphlet, Outhne Enghsh Grammar for Foreign Language Students (published by 1ts authors, 1936) Other practice materials deakng with English usage will be found in Project VIII, tum to it if you feel that English usage 3s a factor in your language-study problem. Special techniques for language study are also important The suggestions which fol- low deal with the twin problems of learning to read for meaning and learning vocabulary and conjugations A first suggestion 1s to read constantly for meaning rather than plod along looking up Enghsh equivalents Some students feel that they have read their lessons when they have dutifully looked up each Technical Vocabulary m Foreign Language Composition 1 masculne gender 2 femme gender 3. neuter gender 4 possessive pronouns 5 possessive adjectives 6 relative pronouns ‘7 intorrogative pronouns 8 demonstrative pronouns 9 definite articles 10 definite articles 11 transitive verbs 12 intransitive verbs 13. regular verbs 14 regular verbs 15 nommative case 16 objective case 37 impersonal verbs 18 reflexve verbs 19. auxihary verbs 20. mfinihves 21 predicate nouns 22 ntirect objects 23, negatives 24 interrogatives 25, prefixes 26 suffixes 27 positive degree 28. comparative degree 29 superlative degree 30 amperfect tense 31 perfect tense 32 pluperfect tense 33. active voice 34 passive voice 35. subyunchve mood 36 imperative mood 37. indicative mood 38 inverted word order 39. syllable 40. declensions 41. conjugations 42, flectionSURVEY Q3R METHOD OF STUDYING 39 word, but such translating gives little mean- ing and does not develop habits of expect- ang meaning, 1t 1s not learning to read Since reading for meanmg as difficult the first fame through a lesson, an ammeduate reread- ing provides this experience and helps fix the material m mind Thus rereading, which as not effective mm studymg other textbooks, 1s effective when learning a foreign language Further practice at reading for meaning can be obtamned by reviewing previous lessons and by reading easy stones and newspapers ‘A second suggestion 1s the study of any specific aspect of the language which causes trouble Thus, even m chemustry, xt 1s m- portant to study the technical vocabulary, but in a foreign language it 1s imperative to put special study on vocabulary, conjuga- tions, and idioms Much of this 18 learned in reading selections, but some additional prac- fuce 1s necessary to fix in mind the meanmg of frequently recurring foreign terms Selé- recitation practice on such word hsts 18 ex- tremely valuable While only bnef use of self-recitation was shown to be very effective immediately after reading a headed section in history, mm learning such things as foreign vocabulary or poetry it 1s most efficient to spend as much as four-fifths of the time in self-recitation! That is, im learnmg a foreign language much time will be spent mm actual reading and rereading, but that part of the tume spent m vocabulary study should em- phasize reciting from memory rather than mere reading of defimtions.* A good way to do this 1s to make a pack of vocabulary cards on one side of the card is written a foreign term and on the other its English equivalent or the desred declension or con- Jugation Such cards are made for all am- %H A Peterson, Recitation or recall as a factor m the Tearning of long pre selechons, J Educ Prag ssc eacataber ieee of experiments’ on the Teaming of French voeabu- lay, Johns Hopkins Umy Stud Educ, 1932, No’ 18, 106 pp portant or frequently recurnng words Dnill 15 cared on by looking at the foreign term, thinking of rts meaning and then checking on the reverse side The cards for those words that were not known are kept separate for a second tnal, cards for known words are put m a separate pile and given an occasional review. A third technique in foreign-language study 1s the development of a threelevel plan of attack on new material 1 Try to foresee what 1s gong to happen in the selection Before starting to read, it 1s helpful to read the title and bnefly slam over the selection, this general onentation greatly helps im recognizing the meaning of words or m guessing at the meaning of entirely strange words And as a student reads further in a selection, the story or theme be- comes clearer so that anticipation 1s easier, this attitude should be mamtarmed through- out the reading 2 Techniques of attack on sentences are also important In some languages the se- quence of subject, verb, and object differs from the pattem in English, the student should haye this pattern clearly m mind and with difficult sentences make it a prac- tuce to look for the words in that sequence rather than im the simple chronology of left to night The position of modifiers m some languages also differs from ther position in relation to nouns and verbs in Enghsh, at- tention to this detail also helps with difficult passages With sufficient practice or with easy material, however, the language will seem so familar that the student can get the sense of the sentence as he reads straight along much as he already does with Eng- Ish. 3. The third level of attack concerns methods of dealing with unknown words Very often the context of a selection can indicate the probable meaning of a strange word, use context to guess at words and40 EFFECTIVE STUDY finish the sentence or paragraph before using the dictionary to versfy your estimate Very often a fambar word root will represent part of a strange word or a known word may be hnked with other unknown words to form a compound word In either instance, such analysis of the unknown word may be sufficient to suggest the correct meanng which can Jater be verified Hunches as to what a word means are night so often that a student should trust his first hunches and sead straight along for general meanmg, then check for more exact meanings. This is more effective than translating each word, with much turmng to the back of the book or to a dictionary Foreign languages are taught by different methods and with different emphases For mstance, some mstructors make much use of grammar or of exact translahon while others emphasize raprd reading for whatever meaning can be obtamed Some emphasize silent reading abihty while others emphasize pronunciation It 1s obvious that each emphass demands a somewhat different approach m studying, If you are having trouble with a language course, ask your in- structor for suggestions as to the best ‘methods of learnmg the language as he 1s teaching it. The following references provide further discussion of techniques for leaming a foreign language C Bud, Effective Study Habits, Appleton- Century, 1931 Pages 78-83 W E Bull and L E Drake, Aids to Lan- guage Learning Spanush, College Typing Co, 1941, 57 pages C ©. Crawford, Studying the Mayor Sub- jects, published by the author, 1930 Pages 72-102. C.C Gullette and L © Keating, Learning a Modern Language, Crofts, 1938, 24 pages P Hagboldt, Language Learning, Umv Chi- cago’ Press, 1935, 165 pages PROJECT I Studying Non-Prose Materials Most textbooks include charts, diagrams, tables, maps, and formulas as part of the text which the student 1s to read, and a sur vey of current textbooks mdicates that these forms of presentation are being increasingly used Students, however, have certam cf. ficulties im studying them Some students skip them because they want to keep on reading the text, other students read them as if they were prose; sill others randomly glance over the tables and charts There are as defimte techmques for studying charts, diagrams, tables, and formulae as there are for prose, There are two aspects to studying these non-prose materuals, ability to read them and effective study techniques Knowledge of how to read these materials 1s discussed in Project VII along with other remedial read- ing problems This section deals with the study techniques which most effectively use this reading skill to learn quickly what is important, 1, an overall plan of studying assignments which include charts, tables, formulae, etc. Non-prose forms usually supplement a prose text in order to emphasize and sum- marize important pomts They may ilus- trate what several paragraphs or pages of text have discussed Obviously they should never be skipped as a half page which doesn’t have to be read. One approach in studying a lesson 1s to read a headed section, then look over the tables and charts before using selfrecitation With a question in mind and having read the background discussion, the important pomts should seem to stand out in the charts and tables It may become ob- vious, in fact, that these non-prose matenials are being used to emphasize and summanze the important pots Thus, rather than a random glance, non-prose matenals war rant an analytic atiack based on questions suggested by the author's headings.SURVEY Q3R METHOD OF STUDYING 4a In some courses, chagrams may be the fundamental means of presenting essential matenal. In zoology, botany, and physiology, for example, a drawing of an organism may be the primary device used to present struc- ture, or in mdustnal arts a wining diagram may be used The prose text in these m- stances may be supplementary to the draw- ings If the course requires ability to repro- duce this material in whole or 1m part, then certam techniques of study are important, Some students waste tme staring at a draw- ing, possibly hoping, on the principle of tune exposure m photography, that such a method will make the matenal sink in. The ampor- tant thing 1s to practice what you will have to do later—practice reciting. Look the dia- gram over trying to figure out sts orgamza- tion, ie, the electncal circuit or the blood circulation system, then push your book aside and try sketching the chagram from memory Part wall be easy, but part will probably be too vague to be reproduced Now look back at the drawing with particular emphasis on the parts that were vague, then try sketching it agam from memory Very soon a complete sketch can be made from memory This techmaue 1s the same general pattem used 1m prose reading ask a question about how at works, look over the diagram to find the answer, then recite from memory to check what 1s known and not known This self recitation also helps to make the matenal stick m mmd If the course requires only that you correctly label parts of a diagram, then practice self-recitation by covermg up the labels in the book and naming the parts Formulae cause particular trouble in read- ing because they seem so small and are put nght in with the prose text A reader tends unconsciously to read them at his prose rate and im his prose manner, 1e, at a glance A formula, however, 18 a short cut for saying a great deal, the only way to read one 1s to take it slowly and analyze it For instance, in a chemical formula the mteraction of the constituent parts of the left-hand side need to be studied untl the result or nght-hand side 1s understood When a formula 1s not easily understood, students often try mem- onzing it, hopmg that this represents com- prehension Since teachers typically alter the components of a formula when using xt 1m a quiz, such memorization leaves the stu- dent unprepared To overcome this tendency and to msure comprehension, it 1s useful to make up a simple problem and then apply the formula Since formulae tend to be so important, at 1s a good idea to be sure to cover them in review.PROJECT III EFFECTIVE SKILL IN EXAMINATIONS ‘A project on examinations follows rather naturally a project on how to study text- books Since students typically differentiate between studymg a lesson for the first time to understand it and reviewing it later for an exammation, the skills needed for each of these tasks are presented as separate proy- ects The skills dealing with exammations are of three general types (1) prepanng for examinations, (2) taking examimations, and (3) makmg use of retumed examinations Each of these areas will be discussed in turn. A. PREPARING FOR EXAMINATIONS Knowing that an examination will come sometime after he has read the lesson, a student wants to set up a review schedule which, with the least effort, will place him at a peak of efficiency for the examination Research studies mdicate not only the best timing for these reviews, but also something as to the most effective types of review Timing of Reviews Since forgetting takes place so rapidly after learmmg it as evident that reviews should come early when review will be easy and most effechve The tme-honored custom of cramming also has the value of returning memory to something of its onginal fresh- ness just before the exammation Research studies show that both of these tumings are more effective than review in between? The student’s problem 1s to distribute his review 4H_A Peterson and others, Some measurements of the effects of renews, J Educ Psych, 1935, 26 65-72 4a times so that no single review takes much time and so that studying before an ex- amimation does not become a hectic and fatiguing effort The best way of gomg about immediate reviewing after reading a lesson was discussed in the preceding project It was evident in Chart 2 that the immediate self-recitation and renew which are parts of the Survey Q3R Method are of great help in keeping memory ata hugh level Another method fre- quently used is rereading the lesson Reading and rereading dunng the same study penod was shown not to be very helpful, but spacing this rereading with several hours in between was more effective than any other distnbu- ton Certain principles are also of value in de- termming the distribution of review tame as the student approaches an examunation The very size of the task of reviewing for a md- term or final exammation tends to lead to procrastination The lengthy cramming ses- sion which finally occurs just before the ex- amunation greatly fatigues the student so he cannot be as alert the next day on the test And during a given study period there 1s a tendency to get the next day’s lesson before starting to review, then there 1s rarely time for review The following principles have been found to help with these difficulties Several review times should be scheduled rather than one lengthy session A review time should be scheduled separately from study time A defimte segment of the lesson should be assigned to each review time so the task looks possible of completion and44 EFFECTIVE STUDY does not lead to procrastination, And finally a student probably should not review for more than an hour or two the mght before an exammation Between immechate review and review just before the exammation there is need for some mtermediate renew to keep the ma- tenal fresh in memory Because, as indicated in the previous project, memones tend to Decome reorganized mm a dynamic way with the passage of time, such mtermediate review tends to keep ideas m line with the actual facts read An occasional lookmg over of one’s notes, wath rereading on obscure points, will do much to reduce forgetting and will he m previous material with what 1s then bemg studied Kinds of Review Just as there are most efficient methods for studying a lesson for the first time, there are most efficient methods of review Further- more, it has been found that the closeness of the review to the onginal tme of study determmes which method of review will be most effective In the Survey Q3R Method at was shown that an immediate self-recitmg. was much more efficient than rereading, on the other hand, if review does not occur for some time after reading, so much may be forgotten that selfrecitation cannot be fully effechve. This 1s demonstrated in an 15 Position I {Days 1 and 3) Position IL (Days 8 and 15) PROJECT I expenment m which large equated groups read a selection and were tested on it 42 days later, im the meantime the vanous groups used different methods of review spaced at different intervals The results, summanzed in Chart 6, show that recitation 3s more efficient than rereading as a method of review soon after studying a lesson, but some two or more weeks later rereading 1s more efficient? ~ An active, orgamzational attack on ma- tenal 1s more effective than a passive ap- proach both in reading and in review In review there should be a prediction of quiz questions with an active searching for, and an organization of, the answers In review a stu: dent should use his notes or textbook head- ings to mdicate probable questions When- ever an answer 1s recalled ammedutely, he can pass on quickly to the next question, Whenever recalling an answer 1s difficult, the student can skim and reread until the answer 1s found Such review through ques- tion answermg provides a feclng of com- pleteness when the job 1s done that does not usually follow attempts to reread a whole book Students who undertake to reread six weeks’ or a term’s work usually find the task so enormous that they resort to skipping 2A M Sones and J B Stroud, Review, with gpecal reference fo temporal poston, J ‘Educ ‘sych , 1940, 32 665-671 Position I (Days 15 and 17) Cuanr 6, Relative effectiveness of two kunds of review at aod Fae intervals after imitual learning. (From Sones and troUEFFECTIVE SKILLS IN EXAMINATIONS 45 about and merely glancing at pages here and there. The increasing accuracy with which a student finds hunself studying the nght questions (shown in the chart of question piediction in the preceding project) also gives hum a feelng of energy well spent in review Rather than an attitude of “There’s no telling what he'll ask” or “One has to know everything,” the student predicting questions feels defimtely onented with a realization that ‘These twenty things are sure to be asked” Too much cannot be said of the value of notes for review Rather than being over- whelmed with a hundred or more pages to reread, the student with three to five pages of notes easily obtains an outhne picture of this matenal. Indentations in the notes make major points stick out and re- lationshups among the major pomts easily seen What effect should the type of examina- tion have on review method? Most students beheve that one should study differently for an essay than for an objective examination * They feel that the objective examination is easier and therefore one has to study less hard, that 1s, one has only to recognize rather than recall the pomts ‘There 1s also a feeling that one should study details rather than orgamation of ideas when prepanng for an objective exammation Actually, it 1s equally hard to make good grades on either type of examination, and a method of study which emphasizes understanding the mam ideas and their relationships should be used for both That 1s, scores tend to be Ingher on tiuefalse examinations because it is easier to recognize answers than to recall them and because of opportumties for guess- ing, but smce all students have these same #E C Class, The effect of the kind of test an- nouncement on students’ preparation, J Educ, Res, 1935; 28 358-361, G Meyer, The effect on recall and recognition of’ the examination set in classtoom tuations, | Edue Psych, 1936, 27.81-99, advantages, a given student will find him- self in the same relative position to the other students as if he took an essay exammation ‘And while objective questions may seem to deal with “small points,” actual comparison of the topics of these questions with head- ings in the text will show a close similarity. Preparation for Final Examinations ‘The pnnciples which apply to prepanng for quizzes also apply to final exammations, but because the latter so typically cover the whole course and count so much on grades, many students get excited and fall back on rather childish methods of cramming, Be- cause of its importance, a special section on final exanunations 1s nuded You may feel at this time, howeve1, that final exammations are a long way off, this section can be read now as a summary of the discussion thus far and should be considered more carefully near the end of the school term. Use the charts below to plan your review time for the last two weeks of the school term Wnte in your regular classes and the tames for the final examinations Wnte n any other necessary achvities, such as work and meetings, Now, wnte in your study and renew times In domg this be sure to dif- ferentiate between study time for daily les- sons in the last days of the term and review sessions, also label what course and materials are to be reviewed at each tme Wednesday evening might look ke this “7-8 30 Study Chaps 17 & 18 Hhstory; 8 30-9 30 Review Chaps 1-5 History, 9 30-9 45 relax; 9:45- 10°15 study French verbs and idioms, 10 15~ 10 45 relaxation and so to bed” Reviewing for a given course should be divided up and assigned to three or four spaced sessions; the last session before the exammation may well be spent in looking over notes for the whole course, No review session should be very long; the task of recalling and organizing many ideas 1s so fatiguing that cfficiency46. EFFECTIVE STUDY goes down rapidly after an hour, or an hour and a half, of review This tenday penod should be one m which you hve normally The extra review time may cut down somewhat on your recreation, but you should be careful to mamn- fam usual habits of eating, exercise, and sleeping Exammations demand a “clear head” for thinking, staymg up half the PROJECT 01 night will not produce this Do not fret and worry about exammations The mght before exammations 1s too late to learn much m preparation, review the matersal thoroughly and then relax Review selectively Review the important points, especially those you have trouble recallng A good way to do tlus 1s to take the main headings 1m your notes or m the Schedule of Renew for Finals Before Exam Week Wednesday Thwsday 8.00 Friday Saturday Sunday 9.00 1000 1100 1200 100 200 3.00 400 5.00 6.00 700 8.00 9.00 10.00EFFECTIVE SKILLS IN EXAMINATIONS not very efficient Reread sections only if, after looking at a heading, you have trouble remembenng what it 1s about Thus you will tend to review m a different way than the lesson was first studied Ask questions, make up illustrations for each topic, diagram re- lationships, and discuss the points with a text and see if you can recite the main ideas fiom memory Look up those items with which you have trouble and try rectting agam Or as previously suggested, guess what questions will be asked on each chap- ter and recite the mam pomts from memory. ‘The headings in the textbook, your class notes, and previous quizzes are all useful in thus prediction of questions Mere rereading 1s time consummg and frend. 47 During the school term you will have tned question prediction many times and should Exam Weok Monday ‘Tuesday: 8.00 900 10 00 1100 1200 Wodnesday ‘Thursday Fuday 100 200 300 400 500 600 7:00 800 9.00 100048 EFFECTIVE STUDY have found it effective (see the chart on page 36) Tt should also help with your final exammations. To provide further super- vised practice, select some one of your final examinations and wnite out your predictions of all the major pomts which may be asked This can be done by jotting down topics or by marking these pomts m your notes with colored pencil Predictions made for previous quizzes can be used here Have your coun- selor check these for further suggestions B Taxive Exammyations Did you ever thank a teacher for giving an exammation? In theory one ought to be grateful for the hours an snstructor spends m giving a test so that you and he may know what has been learned and where further work 1s needed Almost all students, however, look forward to tests with trepida- tion and find the taking of the test some- what of an ordeal Rather than seeming hke a cooperative effort, students often feel that teachers’ tests seem more like a battle im which each tnes to outwit the other In any case the role of tests an determining grades places so much pressure on students that they often become upset during an examina- tion All too often they remember after the examination what they should have said. On other questions, they know the material but can’t see what the questions are dnving at, or later, can’t see why pomts were taken off their grades Skills in taking exams, which will help with these problems, are discussed below. Emotional Excitement During the Examina- tion All tests are not equally upsetting If the questions cover familiar matenal, the student hues to write down all that he knows. Unexpected questions, on the other hand, scare him so that sometimes he 1s blocked PROJECT Ii completely In the last project st was shown that reading to answer questions helps to orgamze learning so that st 1s remembered much better. If these study questions cover the same topics as im the exammation, then it will seem famihar and easy ‘Therefore one of the most effective ways of combating a tendency to “blow up” on exammations 1 to predict quiz questions and study up on their answers. As indicated previously, this can be developed into a nghly effective sll And on questions not predicted, 1t has been shown that studymg in this way 1s as effec- tive, af not more so, than the usual student attitude of “study every ttle thing because there’s no tellng” Students are sometimes bothered because, as they say, they know so much they don’t know how to begin to express it Or they get so engrossed m answermg the early part of an examination that they have to hurry wath the last part or omit 1t Habits of calm and systematic attack on a test help here A good instructor builds an exammation which can be answered m the allotted time although it 1s usually planned so students shoulda’t dawdle on any questions A first step im starting an exam 1s to glance over the test to get some idea as to how long it is and to see if certam parts count more or will take more time or may be easier to an- swer On the basis of such a thirty-second survey, you should then roughly budget time to each essay question or to each page or sec- tion of an objective test It pays to remember that although all the questions are not equally easy, they all usually count alike, at 1s better to work on many easy items and omut a few hard ones than vice versa A final suggestion on attitude 1s just to do your best Although every student would like to get every question night, it must be remem- bered that the test has been made difficult enough to give a range of scores for grading ‘Think and wnte on one question at @ time.EFFECTIVE SKILLS IN EXAMINATIONS 49 Don’t worry about questions further down the list until you get to them Students often get unnecessanly excited just before an exammaton They hurmedly compare ideas as to what the answer 1s to some expected question and find themselves im disagreement The ensuing frantic argu- ment among partially informed and mistaken students produces a fechng of msecure preparation which only serves to upset the student's abihty to think So, if you get to the examination early, keep cool with small talk Other students try to keep calm by de- laymg ther amval at the ordeal untl the last minute with the result that they often arrive late Thus is upsetting and they may also miss opening mstructions, Essay Examinations Each type of examimation requires cet- tar unique skills and has ats specal cif ficulties One common error in writing on essay questions is to waste hme writing away from the subject Because of the press of time dunng an exam, the instructor has to lumt what he asks for, he therefore directs the student not to wnte everything he knows about the topic but specifically to “hst the causes,” “compare the outcomes,” “illustrate these terms” These key words, as they are called, must be watched for in essay questions, they help the student to wnte exactly on what 1s wanted Further. more if the question says “List” or “outhne,” the teacher 1s expecting a list or an outhne and 1s annoyed at having to search out the answer na rambling essay. Any question which asks for more than a buef definition necds to have an organized answer Yet most students start wntmg on the first dea that comes to md after read- ing a question and then continue with what- ever 1deas come to mind next, as a result some wend sequences of :deas are produced, The grader who has a lst of points which should be covered, finds it difficult to de- termme how many pomts are included m such essays, the labor of checking back and forth to find the items puts um m a frame of mind to give a low grade It has been the wniter’s own experience that when he finds a test paper whose answers follow an organized sequence, he often feels like giving, and does give, a higher grade tha: the points listed would warrant An easy and effectve way to obtain this organization 1s first to jot down quickly a sketchy outlne of key words which stand for the ideas to be covered. ‘These ideas remind the student of further ideas which he inserts at the correct spots im hus list Wntmng the essay then becomes a matter of expounding on each of the ideas listed Since the grader has to read many papers, he appreciates any cues which will speed up hus reading It pays, therefore, to number the main points in an essay or to use some visual system, such as outlinmg, to show the orgamzation of the answer, Often a hastily drawn diagram will do much to demonstrate that you see the relationships among the ideas bemg presented ‘There 1s some correlation between length of answer on an essay question and its grade OF course, the student who knows the most will usually wnte the most, but one common failing of students 1s to feel that a few words carry as much meaning to the teacher as they do to the student himself A student may feel that quoting a defimation from the text 15 enoagh, but the grader wonders if these words have been really understood or merely memonzed, Adding an. illustration helps a gueat deal In a question which asks for “discussion,” do not lst pomts only, but explain why they are mportant or how they are interrelated Elaboration to show full understanding 1s different from “padding,” which 1s readily recognized and resented. “Padding” means to bung im autelevant pomts or to repeat points already made in50, EFFECTIVE STUDY order to fill up space Explaimmng what you mean, giving illustrations, or showing the impheations of you: pomts aie different and much appreciated by the grader Simple mechanics in wrhng examinations may markedly affect grades For mstance, in one expenment on the effect of legibility on gradig papers, 43 teachers were asked to grade the same compositions at two different times—one time the compositions were wrtt- ten legrbly, and the other time the same compositions were written somewhat 1- legibly The compositions in legible hand- wnting received an average grade one letter Iugher than the compositions in illegible handwnting* Exammations written m ink are more easily read than those im hard pencil Also, take a few mmutes at the end of the hour to proofread your paper An ac- cidentally omitted “not,” or some other word, may grossly affect your grade Be sure that the questions and thei parts are numbered correctly Objective Examinations There are also certain principles which assist in taking objective examanations Since every question usually has equal weight you should work straight through the lst of questions and not hesitate too long on those whose answers do not mmedhately come to mind These hard questions should be checked m the margin and returned to later Such a system insures that all the easy ques- tions on the examination will be completed, later questions may remund you of the an- swers to the ones skipped Be sure to go ack over the exammation to answer ques- tions that were omitted the first time through, Find out if there is a correction (a sub- traction) for guessing If the correction 1s “HW. James, The effect of handwnting upon grading, Engl J, 1927, 16 180-285, PROJECT Il not greater than nghts mmus wrongs on true-false questions, and nghts minus 1/3 wrongs on four-choice multiple choice, do your best on each question With cor rechons no greater than these, you should do as well by guessing as nol guessing, and there 1s good psychological evidence that you will get more than a chance number nght because of the operation of certamn residual memones from matenal read If there 1s an overcorrection for guessing, such as nights mmus 2 x wrongs on truefalse questions, you should leave unfamihar ques- tons blank * If a truefalse question causes difficulty, the following pnnaple 1s often helpful Most such questions are built on the pattern of bnefly descnbing two things and their degree of relationship to each other, 1¢, “Some cats are black” The two “things” in cach statement are usually true, statements are made false by changing the modhfier so as to overstate or understate the degree of relationship The following series of modi- fiers aie typically used All—most—some—no ‘Always—usually—sometimes—never Great—much—httle—no More—cqual—Iess Positively related—not related—negavely related Good—bad Is—is not When a student sees one of these in a sentence, he can usually test whether the statement 1s true by substituting the other words m that series If none of them makes a better statement than the modhfier already im the sentence, the statement 1s trac Thus when the above statement “some cats are Dlack” as tested by substituung as follows “All cats ate black,” “Most cats are black,” and “No cats are black,” the orginal state- °G M Ruch, The Objective or New-Type Ex- ammation, Scott, Foresman, 1929EFFECTIVE SKILLS ment is shown to be true Knowing this common pattern a student can go to the key word mm truefalse statements and not have to worry about possible exceptions to each word in the statement Many students have leamed to look for the key words “no,” “never,” “every,” “all,” “entirely,” because they usually cause the statement to be false That 1s, it 1s difficult to make any statement which as true of all or no items to which at refers. Knowing this tendency of students to look for these specific words, however, many imstructors work hard to formulate some statements in which the use of these terms makes true statements, 1e, “An island 1s enturely sur- rounded by water” “All men are mortal” Care should also be used in answerng a truefalse statement contammg two inde- pendent clauses If one of these 1s true and the other false, the whole statement must be marked “false” In answering multple-choice questions, certain choices can often be crossed out as obviously wrong ‘This may reduce your im- mediate evaluation to one or two possi- bilities Read the directions If st says mark the one best answer, do not put more than one answer in the space provided Such m- consistencies are marked wrong In answer- ang matching questions in which a given an- swer may be used only once, it will obviously be helpful to answer the known questions first, and then study the few remamng choices as answers to the hard questions Mark out the answers as you use them In answering completion questions, it 1s better to fill m the best answer you can think of than to leave it blank, such answers often. get complete or partial credit If the ques- tuon calls for a word with a certam number of letters, use another word which cares a similar meaning if you cannot think of the correct word If the answer 1s quite famihar to you, but for the moment you are unable IN EXAMINATIONS ba to recall xt, go on and return to this ques- tion Iater Your changed pomt of view may assist in overcomng the previous mental block New Types of Examinations Analysis of typical exammations shows that about 95 per cent of the items deal with knowledge of facts Though the aver- age mstructor hopes that Ins students are also learning certain attitudes, pots of view, ways of thinking, and ways to apply mforma- tion, he assumes that students who know the most facts must be equally good in these other characteristics This is far from the truth, however, because expenments show that these characteustics are not apt to be learned unless there 1s teaching and testing for them For these reasons many teachers are changing them testing practices to in- clude measures of these other aspects. Students have trouble with these new types of examinations not only because they may not have the charactenstics which the tests are attempting to measure, but also because they just don’t know how to take these tests Students who are famliar with truefalse examinations are often stymied by questions which gwe all the data needed night on the test blank and ask the stu- dent to determune with fine discnmination whether an accompanying statement 1s “true,” “probably true,” “probably false,” “false,” or there 1s “insufficient evidence” to say The wnter has found that many students feel they don’t understand what these test items are all about and so resort to guessmg On the other hand, a little ex- planation of how these tests are constructed has been found to increase students’ scores markedly Thus students at Olio State Uni- versity who analyzed ther errors on a 45-1tem test of this type were able on the average to improve their score on a second test by 10 points, furthermore such practice on ex-52 : EFFECTIVE STUDY amples m physics transferred to similar atems m zoology ‘The puxpose of this section 1s to show that with a little trammg a student can demonstrate his abihty on these tests as well as he now deinonstrates Ins knowledge on trucdalse tests Techniques for measuring pomnts of view, ways of thinkang, and abihty to apply mfor- mation are not as well worked out or as standardized as they are for the usual objec- tive or essay examination So the form of these tests tends to vary from campus to campus and from course to course, ‘Two curently emphasized examples are given below as illustrations of these new types of tests Both attempt to measure accuracy and the kinds of constant errors which students make in thinking They are known as “nter- pretation of data” and “apphcation of prin- caples” tests An interpretation of data test gives all the necessary mformation night m the test and asks the student to determine mm terms of this whether each of a senes of statements 1s true or false, probably true or false, or whether there 1s insufficient evidence to say ‘The test 1s scored not only as to the number correct but also as to the frequency with which a student is “too cautious” and “too gullible” in handling data That is, the test measures whether a student has learned to use data without readmg too much or too hittle into it In making these test 1tems, a standard pattern 1s used If a statement 1s directly verified or denied by the data given it 1s “true” or “false.” On the other hand, it is “probably true,” or “probably false” under the following conditions: (a) a shght extrapolation of a curve, (b) an mterpola- tion between pomts in a graph, (c) the behavior of a mayor part estimated from the behavior of the whole, and (d) an exper- ment repeated under comparable conditions And a statement has “insufficient evidence” PROJECT 0 under these conditions (a) comparison made between data gven and data not given, (b) a cause 1s attributed for the data, (c) a value judgment 1s made in terms of the data, and (d) a too extended extrapola- tion 1s made, A student who knows these patterns will more easily recognize what a given item 1s dnving at and so be able to react to it more intelligently In an “application of principles” test, the student not only answers a question but also checks the reasons for his answer from a list which 1s provided These reasons are also constructed to fit a pattern, in this case, the incorrect ones are worded so as to resemble the types of erroneous arguments that people commonly use These vanously disgussed arguments thus represent potential “booby traps” to catch the unwary thinker, some chagnosis 18 possible from an analysis of the types of errors for which a student tends to fall. Following is the pattern of errors com- monly used. (a) reasoning by false analogy, (b) merely restating the conclusion, (c) ref- erence to similar happenings, (d) appeal to authonty, (e) use of ndicule, (£) tcleolog- cal reasons, (g) urelevant reasons, and (h) untiue statements Agam it has been found that students who understand how these items are made are better able to demonstrate ther ability on these tests, they at least know for what they are being tested Many instructors vary the form of their items from that mdicated above and other types of tests are bemg constantly expen- mented with It1s therefore difficult to know what a student will run into on a given campus Rather than provide specific tran- ing exercises, 1t 1s suggested that the student analyze Ins exams to see af they mclude items which attempt to measure these non- informational aspects and with which he has trouble Have your counselor assist you in analyzing how such items are constructed,EFFECTIVE SKILLS IN EXAMINATIONS 53 then make a definite attempt to improve your shill on such tesis C Maxine Use or Rerurnep EXAMINATIONS Your score on a test does not in itself mdicate how well you have done Tests differ im length and difficulty so that a score of 70 may be excellent, average, or faihing You need some standard with which to com- pare your score, 1e, letter giade equivalents for your score, the average score of the class, or somethmg as to the range of scores in the class Having deternuned your level of performance, your next step 1s to determine what was wrong with ;2ur attack on the exammalion Most students, however, don’t take this step Having seen then grade, they compare notes with other students, argue with the teacher that a certam question wasn’t fair, or brood on the thought that they hate exams. A quiz is a quick and easy way of reciting on what 1s important m the course The items mussed are those that need further study Questions that give difficulty are often, repeated later to see if students have mas- tered them If you do not see how the correct answer 1s denved, ask the instructor for an explanation. But in any case use each quiz as a practice review which shows where fur- ther study will be needed before the final examination Much can also be leaned from a test as to what the next one will be like What kinds of questions were asked defimtions? interpretation? discussions? problems? Were they primarily from the test or from the lecture? Were they the ones you had ex. pected? And of those you hadn't expected, where did they come from? What was wiong with your answers not complete enough? poor distribution of time on the important parts of the test? questions omitted and careless mistakes? Very often the instructor will wnte suggestions on the paper for m- proving your answers If not, and you cannot determme what to do, ask the instructor sometime after class. Practice So much for a great deal of advice, the important thing 1s to try these skalls out on actual tests to see if they work and to polish them to a level of efficiency Much of what 1s stated here tes in directly with the methods of study discussed in the preceding project, slalls which amprove comprehension and retention are also useful with exammations Some practice exercises have already been referred to in this project. To aid students, the whole program of prac- tice on exammation skills 1s summatzed here Set up a regular practice program along the following Imes and check with your counselor for suggestions 1 Look up the question topics from some old quuzzes in the index of your text- ‘book Do these topics stand out m the text? Do they represent headings or other items set off by typographical cues? 2 Select some outside course m which you will make xegular predictions of ques- tions on quizzes Check these predictions with your counselor for suggestions or add tions and for ways to speed up making the predictions, Make such a set of predictions for a final examination, also 3 After each such predicted quiz is re- turned, count or estimate the per cent that has actually been predicted Record this on the chart on page 36 4 If prachce exammations are used, answer the following questions a Did you do better on the second than the first test? Did the class? Do you see how the Survey Q3R Method can easily be used? b Analyze these practice tests for key words 1m the truefalse items. Can you54 EFFECTIVE STUDY PROJECT Ot tell which words in a statement make it false or if changed would easily make 1t false? Analyze these practice tests for key words m the essay questions Did you wnte directly to the pomt m your answers? Did you give what was wanted and m the form requested? Have your counselor go over your essay answers and make suggestions as to possibilities for improvement in style 5 Bring m available tests, essay and other- wise, from other couises for suggestions from your counselor as to possibilities for improvement in method ° 6 At the time of final examinations, re- tead the section on final examinations and fill in the time chart 7 Students wishing to read further on hhow to take exammations will find the fol- lowing references interesting and worth- while S L Crawley, Studying Effectively, Prentice- Hall, 1936 Pages 72-83 R W Fredenck, How to Study Handbook, Appleton-Century, 1938 Pages 291-348 H C McKown, How to Pass a Written Ex- ammation, McGraw-Hill, 1943 A W Ham and M D, Salter, Doctor m the Malang, Lippincott, 1943 Chaps 5, 6, and 7PROJECT IV SKILLS IN ATTACK AND CONCENTRATION Many students complain that they have difficulty m setthng down to work and m concentrating, that m hurrying from one thing to another they seem to get very little accomplished, or that with so much to do they cannot relax and enjoy themselves On the other hand, almost every underclassman admures some senior who appears to com- plete all Ins work at a Ingh standard, who has time for social activities and recreation, and who seems unflurmed and unwored about Ins work Since this senor was prob- ably a typical freshman at one time and since skill in concentration 1s acquired and not mhented, what skills must he have learned to enable him to succeed so much more easily? Basically much of his success 1s due (1) to the development of work-study skills, (2) to the development of habits of efficient nme use, (3) to the setting up of better study conditions, and (4) to motwation When this semor studhes, one finds that he wants a qmet room, that he gets nght to work, that a voice has to be raised to attract Ins attention, that he emphasizes the most im- portant parts of hus assignments rather than reading every word, and that he fimshes a job without unnecessary intenuptions Every student would like to be that way too—at would make life so much easier! The first of these areas, the development of work-study skills, has already been dis- cussed in Projects II and II ‘The other three areas, 1¢, habits of efficient time use, study conditions, and mokvation, will be discussed as separate divisions of this project, 55 Smce imabihty to get down to work or to concentrate may be due to many possible causes, an analysis of each mdividual’s diffi- culties 1s necessary Each dhvision will start with some queries or other forms of self analysis m order to focus attention on the issues which are of prrmary importance to the reader Following this, means of 1m- provement will be discussed Hasirs or Erricienr Tre Use Students’ difficulties in the use of time tend to be threefold (1) they have feelings of guilt because they think they don’t study enough, (2) they waste tme m moving from one activity to another, and (3) they have difficulty in settling down to work even after they have made up the minds to start Most students feel that they ought to study more than they do Many have feel- ings of guilt whenever they stop to talk or go toa movie But as has already been inci- cated, good students actually don’t study more than poor students, they are just more efficent when they do study The pumary remedy for study difficulties 1s mote effec tive methods of study rather than more study ume Good students have good tmes m school and it 1s charactenstic that they usually worry less about needing to study than students with lower grades It 15 not a purpose of this project to try to get you to study more hours, m the case of “grinds,” im fact, part of the remedy 1s to get them to spend less time sn study The average person usually feels that the56 EFFECTIVE STUDY hours in the day pass rapidly with too httle accomphshed Pait of the difficulty hes in the lack of a planned routine of activaties With a continuing attitude of “what next?” one has to be constantly making decisions about next steps Such a person responds sensitively to distractions about him, he no sooner starts something than he 1s reminded of several other pressing matters With htile or no system to a person's activities, every- thing seems to demand immediate attention, Two examples will show how, without some habitual routine, time seems to be fnttered away The average student with classes at mine and eleven behaves somewhat as fol- lows converses after class (10 minutes), smokes a cigarette (¢ minutes), mails a letter (1g minutes), starts for the brary but meets a frend (15 minutes), then be- canse of the time starts for the next class. Os, im the evening this typical student starts prodding himself to go to work immediately after supper, begrudgingly gives humself until seven to talk, then with self-recnmina- ton extends this time until 7 30 and then at 8 finally drives himself to work On 15 — PROJECT IV setilng down he finds that he doesn’t know the assignment and has to fill hus pen, once started he has to stop m order to help his roommate with some algebra Study is fur ther interrupted by the “necessity” of plan ning a week-end tnp and telephoning for a date Later he passes up gomg out to eat with some friends but then finds that he can’t study after that so he goes out to eat alone The next day he says he spent the whole evening trying to study. Concrete evidence of the difficulty stu- dents have m setthng down to study and then keeping at at 1s given in the following studies Students entenng a hbrary room to study were observed during thew first ten munutes, 1t was found that little more than half of this time was spent produchvely, And efficiency after the first ten mmutes was not much more effective. 1F K Bemen and J L Kennedy, How quickly do students start studying, School and Soc, 1942, 55 482-483; DC. Troth, A ten mmute observa: Hon m the ibray, School and Soe, 2935, 29 336- 38, Helen Randall, A Study of Reading Efficiency rer Various Time Intervals and Under Different ‘Work Conditions, Master's thesis, Ohio State Umv , 1943 Reading For a Later ue 10 Reading For Immediate Quz Frequency aaa C 7 ~ | TN 170-189) 190 209 8 & 210229 230-249 Rate in Words per Minute 0 oe ee = —r—~S~—rs=S—sE Cuanr 7, Rates at which students read comparable selections dunng thirty-mmute penods under different conditions: (a) reading for an immediate quiz, and (b) readmg for a later quiz m an ap parently ambmed atuahen. and wth more study, the next ‘normals yy seemung possible, re, similar to tudy conditions (Smoothed eucves adapted from Randall )SKILLS IN ATTACK AND CONCENTRATION 57 In one experiment, students reading for a test several days hence and not knowing that thew rate of reading was bemg meas- ed (1¢, simular to the usual study situa- tion) read only 60 per cent as fast dung jo mmutes as they did on sumilar material when they knew they were taking a reading test (See Chart 7) Indicative that ind viduals differ m the degree to which they apply their reading skills while studying 1s another finding in this same study Knowing a person’s rate on a test, one can predict his rate of reading durmg apparently untied study only 5 per cont better than just guess- ing! It’s a case of the tortoise and the hare, some plod steadily along to fimsh first and others, more harebraned, interrupt ther work to do this and that. Self-Evaluation Fill in the accompanying time chart to show how you now spend your time Select several days this week dunng which you agree to make an effort several trmes a day to mark down by 15-mmute intervals how you have spent your tme Be accurate— mclude loafing, tallang, walking to class, recreation, ete A first reaction to a time diary like this is to see if there has been enough or too httle study, sleep, or recreation As a matter of ‘Tae 1 fact, peoples’ interests and requirements differ so much that no norm can be set; what 1s the best distribution of time for one individual will not be particularly efficient for another Table 1, which summanzes the distribution of tsme of several hundred women mn a state university, shows how vanable the use of time can be for students. Critical judgment cannot be made of the total time which a student gives to different types of activity, but st can be made of extremely unbalanced patterns, ie, all work and no play or vice versa Much more productive to the average student as an analysis of this time diary to find examples of inefficient muang of activi- ties during a umt of tme Thus a student may find that mstead of spending an evening at study as he mtended, he has actually interrupted this activity so often that he spent Jess than half of the period produc- tively, or he may find that some extra hours between classes have been frittered away Try rearrangmg the times you studied or enjoyed recreation into more consecutive periods Does more time seem available than it did during the hectic rush on those days? Later on, principles for the placement of different activities durmg the day will be presented, on the basis of this mformation other inefficiencies in this time diary can then be noted. ‘Week-Day Distribution of Time in Hours and Minutes of Freshmen Women, Data Gryen for ‘Median, First Quartile, and Third Quartile? Medan Qt 3 Sleep Shr Omn 7hr80mm 8 hr 80 mn Meals Lbr13mn lhr Omm Lhr 26 mn Class Shr 07 mn 2 br 39 mn 3 br 35 mn Study 3 br 05 mn 2 br 18 mn 3 br 52mm Recreation Bhr26mn = 2hr84mn 4 br 18min Work ihr 39 mn 57 mn 2 hr 2i mn Personal thr 60mm = Lhr26mm = 2 hr 1f mm ‘Travel 52min 33 mun lbrilmn Miscellaneous 2hr 08 mn 1hbr15mn 3 br03 mm + From unpublished data of M V Bean and E A Gaw Used with permssion The times do nol 24 hours bectuse “work” and “travel” were calculated only from those tone schedules listing them OM58 EFFECTIVE STUDY PROJECT Iv PRESENT USE OF TIME (CLASSIS, STUDY, RECREATION, WORK) ist Day | 2nd Day | 8rd Day Ist Day | 2nd Day | 3rd Day 600 i Tame | 630 830 700 4.00 730 430 | 800 500 | 8.30 530 | | 9.00 600 930 630 1000 700 10 30 730 | i 1100 800 i 1180 830 1200 900 | 12.30 930 | 100 1000 | 130 | 1030 200 1100 230 1130 Name DaysSKILLS IN ATTACK AND CONCENTRATION 59 Study Habits Questionnaire * No ght outof 23. Answer each of these questions by writing 1n one of the fotlowmg words (o1 xts number) (1) never, (2) seldom, (8) sometimes, (4) often, or (6) always. Cet aan owe 10 Ww 13 iT 15 6 Ww 18 * Thue ‘Time Distatbution Do you have ». plan of work for each day? Tf s0, do you stick to 16? Does your work prevent you from engaging in social activities? Do you allow tume for exercise? Do you get enough sleep? ‘Do you have certam hous that you regularly spend mm talking and reereation? Do you eat at the same hours each day? Do you tend to spend too much time on sootal and recreational activaties? ‘When you study at mbt, how long 1s rt usually from the time you lose your book until you are m bed? (Indicate the time im minutes ) Athtudes: Do you feel that vor Lave to -perl too much time study g? Do rou veel that vor ought to spond as awe t me ae poss ble study one? Do you get tence and nevvous when you studs, or worry avout your work? Do vou feel aneypable o dowg your work? Do van tr3 to complete a lesson too ¢ alloy ag inter taption- to take place” With « low-how Tene « than at sc veal auzerent tim giniment novld sou uy lo complete it at one sitting. 1 Urey Work abit. Do vou stuly durmg the hour Letacen to clases, say between a9 and on 11 o'clock” Doyo have trouble ‘stthng down io vork al the Legtne ng or @ study period? When you studs do vou tte terth getup, welleshout glance ava paper or nageazine, oF da otis (hinge whach witertipt vor sock? Do vou devchicou m class or when vou sould be study mg? Do vou stuty 2 piven eomtse eaea wech day mn the sane place and at the sare fimo? Do vou get to elas oF 1 down to study, only Lo find thit you do net huve your notebooks, pen, textbook, or othe. mater 1? Do you get yom work an on tine? Do von urmediately go on to the neat les-on when you have completed the one you are working on? and the question used Ioter concerning study conditvons are adented tom © Te Presey ane! MB ‘troven’s Study Quoeonnace whieh appents in Ue Tabyaiony Workbook in ppliad kalvcota! Peychology, Uaxpet, 1943 Used with perm-ion mu "60 EFFECTIVE STUDY The questions whose numbers are fol- lowed by periods should be answered “often” or “always” whale those question numbers not followed by periods should be answered “seldom” or “never” The answer to ques- tion g 1s “zo munutes or longer” There 1s seldom a paragon, even among good stu. dents, who can honestly answer all of these correctly The stems mussed dicate which suggestions in the followmg discussion will be most pertinent Program for Improvement Developmg habits of efficient time use is a somewhat different proposition than many students beheve 1t to be A person 1s efficient not because of any superb display of will power used to force himself to keep on the job, but rather because he has developed habitual patterns or sequences of activities A person who knows what he wants to do next and who gets down to work quickly usually goes about his work with no particu- lar fechng of effort in “keeping his nose to the grindstone” Two homely examples of activities in which most people are efficient will illustrate: The average person doesn’t have to be constantly reminding himself to remember to eat, even when engrossed m some activity his attention turns to eating at the nght time This occurs because he has built up habits of eating at a regular tme He also has hittle trouble concentrating on eating because every day at this tme and place he has always devoted himself to eat- ing, Another example 1s the greater ease one has m following a time schedule of classes which meet daily at the same times than in followmg a schedule which changes daily After several weeks on a constant schedule, the student goes by habit from one class to the next one, he does not have to prod him- self to go, he seems to follow the routine without much thought One would say that this student finds st easy to concentrate on PROJECT IV getting to class and he 1s less easily distracted by frends and activities he sees on the way Tt should also be evident that ability to concentrate and use time efficiently does not mean drudgery or following a dreary routine Tn fact, these habitual skills should make fe seem more teresting. Thus some people let habit get them to thei accustomed eat- ing places on time while they visit and joke Other people, because of a habitual routine, are even able to get to an 8 o'clock while still enjoymg a halfsleep ‘There are three steps m developing sls m effective time use working out an effi- cient ime schedule, following this schedule until work habits develop, and applying con- scious effort to certam work rules Each of these will be discussed in tum 1 Development of a Time Schedule School programs are so planned that every student should be able to have a suitable balance between study, recreation, eating, and sleepmg. When a student feels too hured, he will probably find that rearrang- ang his use of tme—his whole tme—will help The time diary filled out eater shows where inefficient use of tume tends to occur With this mformation and a little exper menting, an efficient time schedule can be worked out Use the first of the following Time Charts to wnte out this proposed schedule Experience in using xt will prob- ably suggest the need for some revision, so after a week's use of this imtial tume chart make a final time chart. In making out these charts, the following steps and prmerples will be of help Furst, ‘write in those activities for which the time 1s more or less set, such as eating, sleeping, class hours, and outside work. In domg this, be sure to allow adequate time for eating and sleeping. Next indicate the hours durmg which you expect to study each subject ‘That 1s, don't just say “Study from 7 to 11” but say “StudySKILLS IN ATTACK AND CONCENTRATION PLAN OF STUDY, CLASSES, AND RECREATION 7.30" 8.00 9.00 1000 1100 1200 1230 100 200 Monday | Tuesdey | Wednesday) ‘Thursday Friday | Saturday a Sunday 300 400 430 5.00 530 600 630 700 730 800 830 900 9.30 10 00 10.30 1100 *Tinter classes mn red pencil Name ‘Week begannng62, EFFECTIVE STUDY PLAN OF STUDY, CLASSES, AND RECREATION PROJECT iv Monday | ‘Tuesday | Wednesday! Thursday | Indsy Saturday Sunday Ta 800 9.00 10.00 1100 1200 1230 100 200 3.00 400 430 500 5.30 600 6.30 700 730 800 830 900 9.30 1000 10.30 1100 ‘© Enter classes m red pencil Name. Week beginningSKILLS IN ATTACK AND CONCENTRATION 63 nstory from 7-8 30” and “Study chemistry from 8 45-10” Typical students average somewhat less than two hours of study for each hour of class—an often-quoted umver- sity standard. Furthermore, research shows that good students differ from poor students more in effective use of study time than n the amount‘ Rather than planning to study extra hours 1f doing poorly, you should learn to make more effective use of your ume ‘Any student who as averaging much more than two hours daily in preparmg fora given subject should look to other projects for more effective study skills Having filled in these vanous actrwities, you will normally find that there are stil some hours left over These are your reward for time well spent, these hours are for rec- reation Students with heavy outside work schedules may find little time left over Such students report that outside work nor- mally affects hours of recreation more than anything else Studies of working students, however, show that they, with few excep- tions, make as good grades and are as well- adjusted socually as the non-working stu- dent* And it 1s interestmg to note that students with work schedules usually com- plain less about problems of concentration than non-working students, their full sched- ules require them to follow a habitual routine and so form concentration habits 4A C Eunch, The amount of reading and study among college students, School and Soc, 1933, 37 102-104, ] G Jenkins, Stodent’s use of tine, Personnel j,, 1931-932, 10 259-264, D G Ryans, Some observations concerning the relatonship of fame spent at study to scholarshup and other fac- tors, J Educ Psych, 1938, 30 372-377, E G ee ‘The relatonsiup of number of hours of study to scholarship, J Educ Psych, 1935, 326-682-688, a oe 55 C Newman and R L Mooney, Bifects of selfhelp employment on the college ‘student, J Higher Educ, 1940, 11 435-442, M_E Wagner, HP Fiduson, and R J Mots, The effects of Federal Emergency Rehef Administration employ- ment on college grades, School and Soc, 1937, 45 25-26 In assigning defimte hours to study and recreation, certain pnnciples are of assistance a Normally, xt as better to study an as- signment yust after the class m which atas given if the class 1s usually a lecture section, or just before the class in which at will be used af emphasis is on recata- tion or discussion b In studying over long penods of time, it 1s worth while to stop for a few minutes between chapters or between change of subjects® Such a period of stretching and relaxation allows one to attack the next Jesson with renewed energy and, more important, it prevents the immediate study of a chffercut sal- ject matter from interfering with the process of remembering—a ps\chologi- cal effect known as retroach¢ smn bi ton c. It is better to study a subject ovcrv day at the same time than to have occasional long sessions ‘This daily routine develops habits which facilitate deciding what next to do, m getting down to work, and m concentaling d, Allow a “slowing down” petiod be- tween the end of studying and staring for bed Such a penod of 1clevation ss, apt to make going to sleep tuch casict e Make use of vacant hom, belween classes That is, the hom between a g-'clock and an 11-0'dlock class 15 4 poor time for visiting, it can be spent in study so as to reduce the cvenmg’s work, £ From 4 to 7 pm. is the usual period for recreation dunng the week Plan to use as much of this period ay possible for such purposes 2, Habitual Use of Time Schedule Having developed an efficient time schedule °T A Gentry, Immediate effects of uslerpel ‘cd rest periods on leaming performance Tc ich Coll Contn Educ, 194, No 79964 EFFECTIVE STUDY for the school term, the next step 1s to follow it until you habitually turn from each ac- tivity to the next one It 1s a good idea to place the proposed time schedule where you will see it frequently, eg, m the front of your notebook or on the wall of your room Try to follow xts pattern each day Gradually the habit of turnmg from one particular activity to another will develop, getting down to work and concentrating will begin to seem much easier It cannot be emphasized too strongly that this aspect of developing skill in concentra- tion and effective use of time 1s not based on merely understanding how unportant at 1s to study, nor 1s at a matter of making a decision really to get down to work. It 1s a matter of habit development This will take much practice and, to keep yourself at xt, you should check your use of time occasion- ally or have your counselor do xt A time schedule should not be an inflex- ble thmg which gets in the way When special events or opportumbes occur, re- arrange your schedule, but during the normal course of events use the basic habit pattern to guide the flow of the day’s activities 3. Applymg Work Rules The purpose of the above program 1s to develop a tend- ency to turn habitually to a next scheduled achvity, a student can help this tendency along by knowing and consciously applying certain principles of tme use As William James once said, the way to develop a habit is to do the act at the first opportumity and tolet no exception take place A night mental set will go a long way toward helpmg the above habit formation For instance, don’t wait for a suitable mood before studying; begin studying at your regularly set time Likewse, try to finish all your work within the time limts set, do not rob yourself of aecreation time. Don’t worry about all the work to be accomphshed~there 1s a time PROJECT IV scheduled for everything Don’t cay extra books around—you should know which are scheduled for studyig And don’t waste time trying to figure out what to study first —take the subject scheduled Once you are at the study table, try to go night to work, force yourself to postpone other activities until later Check yourself whenever you start to daydream, Set a time or page Iumt on your work because it 1s easier to keep at a lesson for 20 more minutes or five more pages than it 1s to promise yourself to study all evening Try to fimsh your work withm the tme limits set, if you should finish early take a short rest period Srupy Conprrions Study conditions affect in thrce ways the abity to get down to work and to concen- trate (a) Distractions tend to draw the student’s attention away from his work. (b) Poor hghting, madequate ventilation and noise tend to be fatiguing (c) Study materials not readily available cause the con- tinuity of work to be broken in order to hunt for them Self-Evaluation A selfevaluation can be only prehminary at this point Some technical information as to the best conditions for study will be pre- sented, then a summary section for self evaluation will be provided in conjunction with the section on plans The questions which follow, however, will help mdicate which suggestions are most pertinent in the discussion of study conditions All the questions below should be an- swered “seldom” or “never” except for questions 33, 13, and 14 Question 13 should de answered “usually” or “always” and the answers to questions 11 and 14 will be found in the discussion below.SKILLS IN ATTACK AND CONCENTRATION 65 Study Conditions Questionnaire No night out of 15 Answer cach question by writng in one of the following words (or its number) (1) never, (2) selclons, (3) sometimes, (4) usually, or (6) always A few questions are to be completed by writing in other answers as directed Distractions 1 Do you prepare for bed before domg some of your studying? Do you study some of your lessons while in bed or while stretched out on the daxenpoit? Is your room used for many informal meetings duzmg the evening? Is your room near some disturbing source of nosse? Do you have pietures or things that you like to look at on o1 near your study table? Do other people m your study room distract you? ‘Does the temperature of your study room make you feel uncomfortable? Is your studymg interrupted by thmking about vanous personal problems and wountes? Sex eaaupen Is your studymg interrupted by thmking about various interesting events in the neat future? Matenuls 10 Do you have trouble obtaming the matenals that you need for study? 11 How much clear table space do you have for study? That 1s, about how long and how wide 1s the free space on your desk? Fatigue . 12, Do you have much glare on your book? 13 Does enough hgbt fall on your book when it 1s m the posttion n which you normally have xt when you study? (See directions below on use of the hght meter ) 14 What type of lighting do you have? (a) gooseneck or study Inmp; (b) overhead ght, (c) mdirect hghting, (d) —_____ 16. Is it generally noisy where you usually study?