First, some things you should consider . . .

Coursework

Principle of Desirable Difficulty:  Things should be at a certain level of difficulty to promote optimal learning situations

So if you think a course is tough, you will learn more.

Take notes:

When learning material is less clearly organized so the brain has to work to make sense of it, more learning occurs.

Studies have shown that those who take notes by hand have longer retention and more understanding than those who take notes by typing on a laptop.

Study:

We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done. -- Longfellow

Get inside the box, master it, then obliterate it from the inside out.

WHERE

Choose it!!!

What are the other people around me doing?

What are the distractions?

That's ok, I can multi-task

Research shows:

• You are not really multi-tasking, it is "task-switching."

MIT neuroscientist Earl Miller notes that our brains are "not wired to multitask well... when people think they're multitasking, they're actually just switching from one task to another very rapidly. And every time they do, there's a cognitive cost."

A study at the University Of London showed that subjects who multitasked while performing cognitive tasks experienced significant IQ drops.  Men are affected even more than women, dropping IQ as much as 15 points, essentially turning you into an 8-year-old.

• Moving back and forth wastes productivity.  It takes more time to complete tasks when switching than if you do them one block at a time.

• It slows you down

• You make mistakes

• It causes stress now and later (consequences of above)

• Disrupts short-term memory

SO

Eliminate distractions for blocks of time

TEXTBOOKS

Take a tip from Harry Potter

Don't just think it - ink it!

Bad study advice??

Study of students in a calculus class indicated that 60% of African American students were in a DFW list.

One professor noticed that the students who did best in the course had formed study groups and practiced with old exams.

The professor began to require in his course that all of his students do group work. The DFW rate went from 60% to 4%.

College students are usually told to spend 2 hours studying for every one hour of class time.

If reading textbook chapters and re-reading is the only strategy . . .

BEWARE

the

Illusions of Fluency

Definition:  when we believe we have obtained mastery over  something when we truly have not.

Use RETRIEVAL, not RECOGNITION

	Studies show increased retention with hand-written notes
	Taking non-verbatim handwritten notes + test yourself = best outcome

REFLECTION

What do I think about that?

Can I relate that to any of my past experiences?

How can I use this?

Recalling something over and over - practicing it over and over in your mind.

SPACED REPETITION

The mark of good learning isn’t that you got it right; it’s that you can’t get it wrong.

GET HELP

Understand what you don't understand.  "I understand up to this point . . ."

Mark the point during class that you cease to "get it."  Then get help right away.

15 minute rule:  when you get stuck, work hard to solve the problem for 15 minutes, documenting everything you do;

if you are still stuck, someone will know how to help you.

This is the process of critical thinking!!

What happens when you make a mistake?