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Learning Tips 5 LEARNING TIP 2 Figure Out What the Goal Is You probably haven't thought much about why. You're in school, so you take courses. You're in courses, so you go to classes, do some reading, and prepare some assignments. Sometimes you probably feel like you're dreaming it's all happening. The problem is, people rarely remember their .dreams. In order to remember, you've got to force your experiences to make a dent on your brain. (Research scientists can tell you just where the dents occur. They can even show you pictures of the dents.) To make the dents, you need motivation. To help you find some motives, think about why. Here are some answers to think about, too. Why are you supposed to read the assigned book? If it's a fact book, you're reading for information. If it's a book about someone's ideas, it's for understanding. If it's fiction, you're reading for fun-but also critically, to see how it was put together and why the author did it that way. If you're reading a number of books on one topic, it may be to create your own attitude toward the topic, by picking and choosing from the bunch. Why go to class in addition to doing the reading? To get help with the facts or ideas you're reading abo!)t. Otherwise, you could get an independent education and wouldn't need college at all. (If you're one of the rare people who doesn't need much help, investigate your school's Independent Study offerings.) The point of a professor's lectures is either: (I) to highlight the important points in the course (which may not all be in the book); (2) to explain the facts and ideas that are pres- 6 STUDY SMARTS ented In the book-or maybe to explain just the difficult ones; or (3) to challenge what you're reading, so that you'll think more about it and-perhaps-come up with your own ideas. If the lecturer is doing anyone of these things, it pays to go to class. Why take basic courses? (They're often boring and sometimes sloppily taught.) To give you the background information , the vocabulary, the basic formulas, and the working methods you'll need if you ever do any further investigation in this particular area of knowledge-or in related areas, as in the case of taking calculus to prepare for science or economics courses. What's the point of learning a foreign language? Are you planning to speak it some day, or just to read it in your work? (For example, many important old scientific papers are written in German.) Knowing the point of taking the course will help you decide whether to learn every word precisely or to aim for free translation, and whether to spend more time on speaking or on writing. (It may also point you to the instructor whose teaching goals are closest to your learning goals.) If you don't have any point in learning the language, maybe you ought to consider dropping it for now. Few schools require a foreign language for graduation anymore, and Mama's insistence that every educated person needs a second language won't motivate anyone but Mama through the grueling memory work that language courses entail. ...

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