I was learning Chemistry the other day… As you said I was just going through and doubling my reading rate. But.. It is a bit hard to learn the equations with holistic learning.. Is there a method for learning equations? Or do we have to do rote memorization with them?

Thanks

I once studied for a medieval history test in college and when I got my test, there were only 10 questions on it (so each was worth a whopping 10 points). And one question asked for information on a historic figure (I think it was a saint) I had not studied.

I figured I couldn’t get less than a 0 on the question and I had plenty of time left, so I wrote a lengthy paragraph lamenting the fact that I had no idea who that saint was and why hadn’t the professor asked me about two other saints I had studied–which I supplied lots of information on. I ended up capping off my answer with the process of how the modern Catholic Church makes saints and I gave the timeline for when Mother Teresa (who had just died) could possibly be beatified and/or elevated to sainthood.

I made 8 out of 10 points.

I took a medieval history class from that same professor in my senior year and I was so damn poor by that point that I couldn’t afford to buy any of the books for class. But I went to class, listened to what people said about the books in discussion and related what they said to information I already knew about history, religion, architecture–you name it.

I think I made a B in that class; never read the first assignment. Not the way I would recommend getting an education, but it was the best I could do at the time.

I took one class which was strictly lecture and the professor required you to regurgitate everything he said without any deviation. I failed the class because I couldn’t help but go off on tangents, drawing paralells between what he said and other things I knew about the Bible and religion in general (in fact, I couldn’t have even told you where his teaching ended and my thoughts began). I learned a hell of a lot, though; he had good information, but I couldn’t manage to repeat it back to him the way he wanted. We just couldn’t speak a common language on that issue.

I managed to breeze through high school with straight As and was the dux, then through university with a 6.8 GPA (here our GPA is /7) without ever really studying or even turning up to most of my lectures. Many times through university I found myself in the situation where I had to learn my entire course for the term with only 1-2 days to go before the exam and I still managed to almost always get HDs.

I could usually bullshit my way through the exam even on questions about things I had never “learned” just because I understood how whatever the question was about was related to the course. Nobody could ever understand how I did it, and I never understood how people found it difficult, however after reading your article I understand.

http://youtu.be/A8qMIvdEVk8
Thanks