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| advice_column [2019/04/30 10:40] – [Homework Assignments] edit | advice_column [2020/01/05 22:11] – jhoe |
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| =====How to do well in school===== | =====How to do well in school===== |
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| I assume all of you have the mental “horsepower” if you are at CMU in the first place. It is easy to do well if 1) you enjoy what you are studying AND 2) you apply good study “mechanics”. If the former is false, you have a big problem. But, the latter just takes discipline. I was going to write about study mechanics, but then I found [[https://www.cmu.edu/student-affairs/ocsi/academic-integrity/prevention.html |this]]. (This link isn’t presented from quite the right context, but it is the case though that a lot of academic woes could have been avoid in the first place with just good study mechanics.) Now you have an actual recipe for success written down in front of you, do you have the discipline to follow through? | I assume all of you have the mental “horsepower” if you are at CMU in the first place. It is easy to do well if 1) you enjoy what you are studying AND 2) you apply good study “mechanics”. If the former is false, you have a big problem. But, the latter just takes discipline. I was going to write about study mechanics, but then I found [[https://www.cmu.edu/student-affairs/ocsi/students/avoiding/index.html |this]]. (This link isn’t presented from quite the right context, but it is the case though that a lot of academic woes could have been avoid in the first place with just good study mechanics.) Now you have an actual recipe for success written down in front of you, do you have the discipline to follow through? |
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| Studying correctly will make learning more pleasant and productive---all the while taking LESS (not more) time. Nothing is more frustrating (and a big waste of time) than showing up to a lecture and not understanding what the professor is talking about. (Did you do the reading assignment beforehand?) Nothing is more frustrating (and a big waste of time) than struggling on a homework assignment that you fundamentally have no clue about. (Did you wait until the night before the deadline so you cannot get help in office hours? Did you skip the relevant lecture in the first place? Did you do the reading assignment?) These unpleasant scenarios and others like it can be avoided if you had the discipline and mechanics to do the right thing in the first place; trying to make up afterwards is a forever up-hill battle. Every topic you don’t understand well now will make it that much harder to understand the next topic that depends on it---don’t let it snowball. | Studying correctly will make learning more pleasant and productive---all the while taking LESS (not more) time. Nothing is more frustrating (and a big waste of time) than showing up to a lecture and not understanding what the professor is talking about. (Did you do the reading assignment beforehand?) Nothing is more frustrating (and a big waste of time) than struggling on a homework assignment that you fundamentally have no clue about. (Did you wait until the night before the deadline so you cannot get help in office hours? Did you skip the relevant lecture in the first place? Did you do the reading assignment?) These unpleasant scenarios and others like it can be avoided if you had the discipline and mechanics to do the right thing in the first place; trying to make up afterwards is a forever up-hill battle. Every topic you don’t understand well now will make it that much harder to understand the next topic that depends on it---don’t let it snowball. |
| Lastly, I often see students studying lecture slides. Lecture slides contain very little information on their own; they are more like mental tabs to remind you of what was said in the book or in the lectures. If you have not read the book or did not attend the lectures, there is very little you can extract on your own from the lecture slides themselves. If you are not doing the reading assignments or you are not attending lectures, then you are really missing out on learning. | Lastly, I often see students studying lecture slides. Lecture slides contain very little information on their own; they are more like mental tabs to remind you of what was said in the book or in the lectures. If you have not read the book or did not attend the lectures, there is very little you can extract on your own from the lecture slides themselves. If you are not doing the reading assignments or you are not attending lectures, then you are really missing out on learning. |
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| All in all, if you are going to spend the time reviewing, make sure you are not just going through meaningless motions. Otherwise, you are much better off just getting a good night sleep before the exam. | All in all, if you are going to spend the time reviewing, make sure you are not just going through meaningless motion. Otherwise, you are much better off just getting a good night sleep before the exam. |
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| =====On grades and cheating===== | =====On grades and cheating===== |
| Even in an ideal world with ideal students, I would not do away with homework because it is an effective teaching/learning tool. In the ideal world, I would give out homework (and provide solutions) with no consequences on grade. (Then again, in the ideal world, I wouldn't have to assess grades to begin with. You learned what you learned; you make do with what you learned.) | Even in an ideal world with ideal students, I would not do away with homework because it is an effective teaching/learning tool. In the ideal world, I would give out homework (and provide solutions) with no consequences on grade. (Then again, in the ideal world, I wouldn't have to assess grades to begin with. You learned what you learned; you make do with what you learned.) |
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| If you ever find yourself rushing through homework the night before it is due (even though it covers multiple weeks of past materials and you had weeks to do it), stop and rethink your strategy and mindset. You could do it anytime---before or even after the due date---for the same learning effect. Why did it suddenly become important the night before it is due? BTW, if you have skipped reading assignments because you are not **directly** assessed on it, see above. Still worse, if you ever resorted to "cheating" to finish a homework, you really need to ask yourself why and what for. | If you ever find yourself rushing through homework the night before it is due (even though it covers multiple weeks of past materials and you had weeks to do it), stop and rethink your strategy and mindset. You could do it anytime---before or even after the due date---for the same learning effect. Why did it suddenly become important the night before it is due? (BTW, if you have skipped reading assignments because you are not **directly** assessed on it, see above.) Still worse, if you ever resorted to "cheating" to finish a homework, you really need to ask yourself why and what for. |
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| Do homework to learn from it not to finish it. | Do homework to learn from it not to finish it. |
