[Contributed by Jim Ross, longtime St. Patrick parishioner and dedicated lector]<\/p>\n
I come from an era when handwritten notes were the only way to document class lectures or to summarize my preparation for exams. However, as I progressed into the digital age, I still retained that practice for study and presentation preparation at work. It has been shown that there is a strong connection between that practice and the retention of information not present when typing. Use the keyboard for efficient note-taking in class and for the final presentation of a paper or presentation, but not for study.<\/p>\n
This is not just my opinion; it is backed up by various studies; see: *Psycho-Cybernetics* by Maxwell Maltz; *Switch on Your Brain* by Dr. Caroline Leaf. Of course, the skill of penmanship has declined to the point that handwritten notes are likely to be undecipherable \u2013 even by the author. I get my thank-yous from my grandchildren via Text or E-mail. When their mothers force them to sign a card that she has purchased for the occasion, the signature often meets the aforementioned \u201cundecipherable\u201d – truer for the males than the females. Other notes from my college days: study at a desk, sitting in a straight-backed chair; only acceptable music is classical \u2013 popular is distracting and rap is destructive. Study every subject every day; your subconscious will process and integrate it, thus increasing retention. <\/p>\n
Just reading text is not very efficient, you have to interact with it in some way. Text only destroys the resale value of the book; if it is important enough to highlight, it is important enough to copy by hand. Don\u2019t keep studying stuff you already know; concentrate on your weak points. Pay attention to what your instructor is saying (cellphone OFF), he might drop a hint about what might be on the test with something like, \u201cThis will be on the test.\u201d Your instructor likes to have some class \u201ccut-ups,\u201d so he\/she needs to hand out some low grades to show a proper grade distribution. You owe it to your parents to use their money effectively! Studying efficiently is fairly hard \u2013 tough!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[Contributed by Jim Ross, longtime St. Patrick parishioner and dedicated lector] I come from an era when handwritten notes were the only way to document…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":110006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\n