Julia Hardt

Intro to Psychology

“Six Hour D” Paper

Russ Dewey writes about a concept called the “six hour D”, which is when a student

studies for six hours and receives a D on their assessment. He explains that this happens quite

often, and students do not realize what they are doing wrong. One gets a “six hour D” by

spending a lot of time reading the text, often multiple times, and while doing so, highlighting and

taking notes on all the answers for potential questions from their professor. This method seems

very practical and studious, but in reality, the student does not really learn much from this

method at all. Almost every time, these students who practice this study method are not able to

produce an answer to a question from the text without looking at it. These students put in effort

while reading, but unfortunately, do not learn the material.

In order to avoid a “six hour D” one must, after reading the text, put it away and try to

answer questions without looking at any notes or the book. This requires students to put

themselves on the spot to see if they truly know the material or not. If they realize they can not

answer it to the extent they would need to on a test or quiz, then they must go back and review.

Dewey explains that “the student should be engaged in self-testing”, to engage the brain into

learning rather than simply short-term memorization. This is called metacognition, in which

students can think if they actually know the material. Dewey writes that most of his students do

poorly on his assessments because they do not practice self-testing, so they believe they are

prepared after studying but are actually not. The students spend the time to highlight or take

notes on what they believe to be important, but never take the extra step of making sure they can

reproduce those important things on a test or quiz.

 My current study techniques consist of using flashcards, reviewing notes from class

lectures or readings, and reviewing past tests and quizzes. The least effective method for me is

reviewing my notes from lectures and readings, because I tend to read it but not really get

anything out of it. My mind goes elsewhere as I read, so my attention is not one hundred percent

on the information. The most effective method for me is to use flashcards, because it requires

me to test myself. If I know the answer, I put it in one pile, and if I don’t know the answer, I put

it in another. Reviewing past tests and quizzes is also very helpful because I can see the types of

the questions my teacher tends to ask and I can also review where I went wrong with my past

answers.

After reading this article, I will definitely change the way I study, and think about

studying. I now realize in the past I have done many times what Dewey describes as reading and

taking notes but not obtaining any of the information. Now, after reading things, I will start self

testing a lot more, and I will start using my flashcard method of studying more frequently than

my other techniques. In the past, I used to open my textbook and while reading, highlight what I

thought was important. When I took quizzes, I was baffled why I wasn’t getting good grades,

because I thought I knew the material. This is exactly what Dewey talks about. I didn’t spend

the time to go back, read what I had highlighted, and then quiz myself on those things. I know

understand fully why this method does not work at all, because our brains do not simply absorb

the information after the first time we see it. I feel like I will be able to study more skillfully and

in ways that are a lot less time consuming after reading this.