Jt — 8 et hot me nt de ey ecrereseser> Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. A charge is made on all overdue books. U. of I. Library fa Ee Ee eee MAY 28 3 UEC 20 196s JHN 29 iges . at awe phos q 3S aoe is ee i Pecans 3 Saray Sat bes pes agate MATERIALS FOR THE STUDY | OF BUSINESS ee HOW TO STUDY oh cs . ) YG THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO, ILLINOIS THE BAKER AND TAYLOR COMPANY NEW YORK THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON THE MARUZEN - KABUSHIKI -KAISHA TOKYO, OSAKA, KYOTO, FUKUOKA, SENDAI THE MISSION BOOK COMPANY SHANGHAI © mow LO STUDY SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR STUDENTS Ey ARTHUR W. KORNHAUSER THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO, ILLINOIS CoPyYRIGHT 1924 By Tue UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO All Rights Reserved Published August 1924 Second Impression October 1924 Third Impression October 1924 Composed and Printed By The University of Chicago Press Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. e f\ Calg \ | oP A 0, PREFACE This booklet was prepared to meet the needs of fresh- men students in the School of Commerce and Adminis- tration of the University of Chicago. The material is sufficiently general, however, to be widely applicable to other groups of college and high-school students. The attempt to help students improve their study- methods is not something new. Many books and articles are in print on the subject. But a survey of available material reveals nothing in the form of brief and direct suggestions specially adapted to college students. The present booklet attempts to fill this gap. The contents of the following pages are the result of several years’ experimentation with material for aiding freshmen in their methods of study. During 1923-24 the material was used substantially in its present form and was found helpful by large numbers of students. Sets of printed rules cannot, of course, take the place of more personal and continuous instruction in study methods by teachers and advisers. Diagnosis of individ- ual difficulties and careful directing of work over long periods is to be recommended wherever possible. Class- room guidance in studying may likewise be made highly valuable. The present booklet is in no sense a substitute for these more fundamental ways of teaching students how to study. It aims to serve merely as a supplement. One word of advice is added for students who come to this booklet for help. The advice is: Use the sugges- tions! Merely skimming the pages which follow will Vi Se MY ay (° 4 te é vi , PREFACE do no good. Stop at every new point and inquire carefully whether the suggestion is applicable in your own studying. Figure out just how you will apply the rule, and then apply it. All the rules are not equally important and all of them do not need attention from any one person. Find out which ones you need most and then hammer away persistently at those. Return to the booklet from time to time to check your methods and remind yourself of the many possibilities of improvement. Effective study methods can be made habitual only through a steady and ne vigorous campaign. The sttdent is strongly advised to go beyond the present rules and suggestions. To this end, a list of references for further reading is given at the end of the booklet, A. W. K. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. II. DE IT. THE MEANING OF STUDY. THE FUNDAMENTAL REQUIREMENT FOR EFFECTIVE STUDY. . CONDITIONS FAVORABLE FOR CONCENTRATION . SYSTEM AND REGULARITY IN STuDY; STuDy HaBITS . DEVELOPMENT OF EFFECTIVE METHODS IN READING . TRAINING ONE’S SELF TO READ THOROUGHLY . TRAINING ONE’S SELF TO READ RAPIDLY . . CLassroom Stupy MeEtTHops; LISTENING AND NOTE-TAKING . AIps IN MEMORIZING CRAMMING AND EXAMINATIONS PUTTING ONE’S KNOWLEDGE TO USE SUMMARY OF RULES FOR EFFECTIVE STUDY REFERENCES FOR° FURTHER READING . .. .. vii PAGE GHAPDTER «| THE MEANING OF STUDY There are,two aims in study: one is to acquire certain bodies of knowledge; the other is to acquire certain abilities to do things. We study history to gain a knowl- edge of ancient Greece or of pre-war Germany; we study arithmetic or French to gain an ability to solve problems or . read French books. Clearly there is no sharp line between these two kinds of study, Knowledge is bound to play some part in guiding future thought and action; it is part of our ability to do. Likewise, our study of how to do things always involves the assimilation of some necessary knowl- edge. In acquiring new facts we always use our ability to think, and in learning how to act and think in a new field we must always acquire bodies of facts. Theré* remains, however, a difference in emphasis between studying to acquire knowledge and studying to acquire the ability to use knowledge and to do things. Major emphasis undoubtedly belongs on the side of developing our abilities. College education should in- crease our powers and capacities—our abilities to work and play, to vote and manage men, to read and to think, | to organize a business, or plead a case, or cure disease. This does not minimize the place of knowledge. ‘True, knowledge is made subordinate to the ability to use knowledge, but it is an indispensable subordinate. Intelli- gent thought and action always have sound knowledge as their basis. 2 HOW TO STUDY One of the most valuable abilities to be developed is the ability to study—the ability to carry on the intellectual labor necessary to solve a problem, think through a ques- tion, or master a method of doing something. To learn to study effectively is far more important than to acquire particular bodies of information. If a college educa- tion develops a true power to study, it has succeeded though it do nothing else. If the student does not learn how to study, his college course has left its biggest job | undone. : Study includes not only what we gain from books and the classroom, but it involves also our acquisitions through direct observation and through actual perform- ance. To know how to study necessarily means to know how to think, to observe, to concentrate, to organize and analyze, to be mentally efficient. Viewed broadly, study includes all investigation and research. It is the application of intelligence to the task of understanding ®and controlling the world about us. In learning to study we are learning to think and to live. Study in college is to a great extent study from hook! and lectures. ‘This is true simply because in this way stores of knowledge and points of view can be acquired which it would be impossible or too laborious to collect at first hand. Due to this central position of books and classroom work in college study, the following pages can be profitably limited to these forms of learning. Investigations have repeatedly demonstrated the possibility of students improving the effectiveness of their study. It is a matter of developing “good form” in reading, listening, observing, thinking. Proper methods are as essential here as in football, typewriting, or goli. HOW TO STUDY 3 The pages which follow suggest some ways of developing “good form”’ in studying from books and in the classroom. The material is written for students who really desire to improve their methods. For the student who does not feel the need of learning to study, little can be done. If he has not the desire to study (and study means in college chiefly book and lecture study), he may well ask himself seriously whether it is wise for him to spend valuable years of his life in college. But the student who feels an honest desire to do college work and who believes that he really belongs in college, may find in the booklet some useful hints for improvement. CHAPTER II THE FUNDAMENTAL REQUIREMENT FOR EFFECTIVE stuUDe All specific advice concerning how to read, how to take notes, how to tackle problems, how to form good study habits, is secondary. There is one fundamental and indispensable requirement for effective study more basic than any rules or technique. Without it real study is impossible though everything else be favorable; with it results can be achieved even in ignorance of all the fine points of how to study. This key requirement is a. driving motive, an intense desire to learn and to achieve, an interest in things intellectual, a “will to do” in your college work. If you would learn to study, first develop a feeling that you want to master your studies and that you wil] master them. . All else is subordinate to that. How can this spirit be acquired? First, by building up definite ambitions and ideals toward which your studies lead; by recognizing frankly the consequences of poor work and the rewards of good work. Picture clearly to yourself the satisfaction that will come with success, and the disappointment that failure will bring. Many a student has been transformed from indifference and a merely “getting by” policy to an attitude of earnest and energetic effort by some emergency that aroused him to think seriously of himself and his future. Ask yourself, now and then, what you are in school for and toward what goal you are moving. A little thought given to’ 4 HOW TO STUDY 5 yourself and the things you are working for is an excellent incentive to serious study. The drive that makes true study possible comes, in the second place, from interest inherent in the subject studied. Hand in hand with the development of the major purposes and responsiveness to external incentives just mentioned, interests must grow up about particular problems and topics—desires to study these things for ‘their own sake. Here are four rules for developing interest in a subject: 1. Acquire information about the subject; you will be interested in the things about which you know many facts. You become interested in professional baseball or in radio as you learn more and more details in each field. ‘The same is true of your school subjects. 2. Tie the new information to your old bodies of knowledge; discover relations of new facts to old matters of interest. Historic events take on new interest when they are seen in relation to present issues. Physics and chemistry become interesting when you see their application in everyday life. 3. Make the new information personal. Relate it to matters of real concern to you. This material on “how to study,” for example, has interest for you only as you think how it may aid you. 4. Use the new knowledge; think and talk and write about it; make it play a part in your action; take the relevant material from one class into other classes. Discuss difficult and questionable points with your friends and classmates. Think out the implications and conse- quences of new ideas obtained in your studies. Part of your study in college will be done with eager interest. Itisnolonger work. There is real pleasure and 6 HOW TO STUDY fascination in it. The studying goes forward concentra- tedly, overcoming distractions and requiring no effort or will power. It is like reading a novel or seeing a movie. The greater the proportion of your study that is of this sort the better. Any study will in time take on this intrinsic interest if only you “stay with it” and try to ‘make it an active part of your thinking. But some studies are bound to be uninteresting at the beginning and parts of these studies will continue to be uninteresting. What is most interesting for one student may be least interesting for another. Nevertheless, there are certain matters all students must master, whether the topics appear interesting or not. Here it is that one must take himself in hand, appreciate the necessities and rewards involved, and then make effective his will to succeed in the subject. Several important hints can be given for gaining the . decisiveness that is essential in carrying good resolutions into actual practice. Most students have excellent inten- tions and high purposes in their study. But somehow the doing lags far behind the desiring. The following rules will help: 1. Feel intensely the urge to do the task before yc '. Make clear to yourself the relation of the present tac< to your larger goals and ambitions. Think how success or failure in this particular case will affect your future, your attitude toward yourself, and the feelings of those interested in you. There are hundreds of motives fcr study. Bring them strongly into play. 2. Make your task definite. Decide just what is to be done and just when it is to be done. Break the whole job up if it is discouragingly large. See exactly what is HOW TO STUDY 7 involved in the first part and do that. Concentrate on the definite piece of work before you. . Begin work! -Get started at all costs. Turn your attention away from the imagined difficulties and the other things that you would rather be doing. Keep clearly before you this one job. Forget everything else. Once you get well started, interest will develop in the subject-matter itself and you will no longer need to hold yourself to the work by sheer force. If you have difficulty getting down to work, a fourth rule will help. . Get set for study. Sit down in a favorable place for studying; open your books; take your pencil and paper. Ina word, go through the motions. . Concentrate. Check every tendency to daydream. Mind- wandering is the greatest enemy to study. One hour of concentrated study is worth ten with frequent lapses. Work intensely while you work. Guard vigilantly against mind-wandering, and pull yourself back sharply on every occasion. Working under favorable conditions and developing an interest in your studies are the surest ways of securing concentrated work. Mind-wandering is very frequently due to inadequate understanding ~ of words or to a deficient background in the present subject. Where this is the trouble, it always pays to go back and provide the necessary foundation at whatever pains. CHAPTER III CONDITIONS FAVORABLE FOR CONCENTRATION Effective study demands concentration. The ability to concentrate is largely governed by the individual’s surroundings and by his own physical condition. Being absorbed in study is being oblivious to everything else. Learning to concentrate is learning to overcome distrac- tions. The distractions to be withstood are of three kinds: distractions in the surroundings (noise, glare of lights, etc.), distractions arising in one’s body (feeling of fatigue, headache, etc.), and distractions in the form of irrelevant ideas. ‘The problem of study is in no small measure the problem of dealing successfully with these distractions. Many distractions are best dealt with by elimination. The student who wishes to do concentrated work can best begin by doing away with all unnecessary distracting influences. As regards external distractions this means choosing a study place as free as possible from all sorts of noises, conversations, moving objects and people, glaring lights, ‘bright colors, varied or novel objects, and all disturbing features of the surroundings. On the side of bodily distractions, it means the avoidance of undue fatigue, the maintaining of sound health and bodily vigor, freedom from digestive disorders, precautions to with respect to light, heat, and ventilation. Care ; ; ‘ HOW TO STUDY 9 be taken, too, to have one’s chair and work arranged so as to avoid any unnecessary strain. Many detailed instructions fall under these broad generalizations. A very few of the more important rules follow: 1. Study in a quiet room whenever possible. It should be relatively free from visual distractions as well as noises. 2. See that your place of study is properly lighted, heated, and ventilated. The light should, above everything else, not shine directly into your eyes or be visible “out of the corner of your eye.” Also avoid a glaring reflection from the pages of your book. The temperature is or- dinarily to be kept between 65° and 68°. Ventilation should be good but, of course, without draft. 3. Arrange your chair and work to avoid strain and fatigue. Shift your position from time to time. Be comfortable—but avoid being too comfortable. It is almost impossible to study strenuously when one is settled back in a large easy-chair or is reclining freely on a couch. 4. Keep yourself in good physical condition. Do not hesitate to consult your medical adviser for suggestions. Be careful of your eating. Eat at regular times. Eat slowly. Eat with friends whenever you can. Make your mealtime a recreation period. Avoid heavy meals at noon and never begin study immediately after eating. Get sufficient sleep at all costs.. Even if it means carrying fewer courses, it will pay in the long run to avoid cutting in on your sleep. If you have difficulty going to sleep, do something to take your mind off your work and to let you relax before retiring. A little light reading, a warm bath, a walk, a conversation, a letter to family or friends, often help. If you are much bothered by sleeplessness, - consult your medical adviser. Manage to get some ike) HOW TO STUDY regular exercise and recreation. Kemember that a little exercise regularly is infinitely more valuable than occa- sional ‘‘exercise sprees.”’ Not all distractions can: be done away with. Hence the student must learn to concentrate in spite of them. He must depend upon his interest in his studies and his ability to hold himself to his work despite the difficulties. Mind-wandering or the distraction by irrelevant ideas must be attacked in the way suggested in chapter 1i—by vigilant and persistent determination to check every irrelevant train of thought. Developing interest in the subject and application of the rules given above will aid. CHAPTER [V SYSTEM AND REGULARITY IN STUDY; STUDY HABITS In school work, as in business or military campaigns, it is essential to have a plan of action. The student who “budgets” his day and then adheres to his program eliminates half the effort and worry from his work. A plan that is steadily followed soon becomes the easy and natural routine of the day. Studying comes to belong in one’s life as fully as dressing in the morning or being on hand for dinner. A fixed program of study is one of the greatest aids in making one’s work smooth-running and effective. The value of systematic plans is well ex- pressed in a recent book by B. C. Ewer: If we have several duties confronting us simultaneously, _ it is only too likely that we shall fail to do any of them. They seem to get in each other’s way. The pressure of each prevents us from giving ourselves whole-heartedly to any, or we turn ina futile fashion from one to another, dropping each as soon as it is begun. A previous declaration, however, such as that we will begin to answer those letters at half-past seven o’clock or that we will take up a certain matter of business next Thursday at nine, settles it. The proper set of the brain is established, other tendencies are frustrated in advance, and when the time comes we almost automatically do the thing appointed. Those whose occupations leave them largely to their own initiative learn that their salvation depends upon regularly ‘making some sort of a day-plan. II 12 _ HOW TO STUDY The details of the daily time schedule must be deter- mined by each individual for himself. Decide how many hours you will give to your studies. Avoid being too heroic in your plans.