Whole brain super learning ability

Chapter 9 Magical Learning Magic (3)
·Recall

·Review

The SQ3R learning method is a very flexible learning method.You can use it in different ways to study different material and suit your various purposes.Now let's discuss one by one, the specific steps are as follows:

Views
Do your best to get the gist of the material you're looking at by doing a quick preview or skimming.If you are good at browsing, you have the opportunity to dabble in far more books and articles than you can read in detail.You probably know the old adage: "Never judge a book by its cover." There's a lot of truth to it, but there's a lot to be learned from glancing at it.It can tell you:

General subject area - the title of the book.Specific "inclinations" or "angles" - subtitles, if there is an introduction or descriptive short commentary, are usually placed on the back cover.The author's name and his or her background and expertise or biography, information that can help you decide whether his or her views are the subject of note.Sometimes, the information you get from a book's cover is enough to make you understand that the book is not suitable for your needs, so you can cross it off the reading list and use your precious reading time Go browse other candidate varieties.

The title page is the next object of attention.It can tell you something about the author that isn't mentioned on the cover, such as expertise.And the back of the title page may provide some information that may or may not be useful to you: when the book was first published; whether it was an imported (translated) or domestic work; how long has it been in circulation; is it reprinted how many times you read it; when you read the edition; whether it is the latest edition; when it was last revised or republished; and the name and address of the publisher.The front of the book's title page gives you some information you couldn't have gleaned from the cover, while the back of the title page gives you the full history of the book's publication and distribution—enabling you to determine whether it meets the timeliness you require .It also shows you the name and address of the publisher.

The table of contents is the part you must not ignore when browsing, and will tell you what topics the author has arranged.In addition, it will sometimes give you information on how the author has organized the topics—topics, subtopics, and so on.So, your browsing of the table of contents should give you an idea of ​​the topics covered in the book.And can give you some clues to make you understand how the various topics are related.And when you've read a chapter or more, you might come back and browse the table of contents again.Maybe you picked up this book just to find some references that could help you answer a specific question?If so, it might be a good idea to stop your browsing here.Because you can already know whether this book contains the content you care about.On the other hand, sometimes you may find that the table of contents is not helpful to you in figuring out whether the book is suitable for your purposes.In that case, you might just have to look at...

As part of your browsing, the text itself is worth going over from cover to cover.When you are reading, you can: Note the headings and subheadings; read the summary at the end of each chapter (if any); note how the text is arranged on the page; look at graphs, charts, tables, etc., and read special sentences .

Obviously, most of what you read at this stage will be quickly forgotten.But it doesn't matter.Your goal is simply to get a feel for the book—its style and structure.Is it exactly what you need?Or is a section worth reading more carefully?
Therefore, it is recommended that you browse the mentioned aspects of a book.Books in your specific subject area do not necessarily have these characteristics.On the other hand, they may have their own sections worth browsing, such as appendices.

The point of browsing or previewing a book is to decide: What does this book have for me?There are many other questions you can ask along the way.

That's it, if you have invested a considerable amount of time in browsing through the book.You expect this to be helpful when you start reading it formally.You can at least decide whether it's worth reading word-for-word from Chapter 1 onwards (or which chapter you think deserves your focus).

You can do this.However, this is not the best way.Maybe you can consider spending twice as much time on the browsing stage...

problem
As you browse, if you think its content deserves further careful reading, you start asking yourself questions you want to find answers to.Let's now look at the next aspect of the SQ3R learning method "Browse-Question-Read-Retell-Review" of the learning method.Whenever you start to read the text carefully, you should try to ask yourself as many questions as possible.Asking questions is a great impetus to learning.They can give your reading more purpose and can prompt you to read more critically and alertly, making you an active seeker of deep meaning rather than a passive absorber of sentences.

Many students are currently studying material-based courses such as distance learning, open teaching, flexible teaching, etc.Some students are often based on self-study bags, which contain printed teaching texts and sometimes various auxiliary materials.If you've studied open learning textbooks like these, you know that they have many of the same problems as the books you're reading now.

The most common problems are projects often called practical activities or exercises, which are an important part of open learning materials (as in this book).If the author has planned them well, it will help you understand them when you read them.Therefore, the author will ask you to apply the ideas presented by the authors by understanding the paradigm, and coming up with your own examples, solving practical problems, combining the theory with your own specific situation, and so on.As in this book, the author's comments often follow to give you a feedback message.

No matter what material you read—textbook, article, or whatever—you should ask yourself, "What are the most important ideas in this material? What questions would I insert if I wanted readers to apply these ideas?" Moreover, if you keep asking yourself questions as you read, one problem solved creates another.

Therefore, one of the most important reasons for doing a preview is that it gives you the opportunity to ask questions.This will add to the purpose of your reading.At the beginning, you may feel that the generation of the problem is not so easy or a bit far-fetched, but after you practice for a period of time, you will be more comfortable.Read inquiringly, and questions arise naturally.

read
After browsing and asking questions, we can consider the third aspect of the SQ3R learning method (browse-question-read-retelling-review) method: read the full text carefully.If after your initial skim you find that what you've read is exactly what you need, you'll want to read it in more detail.

What we are talking about here is what students often call careful reading.We think this should be the third step, not (as many students think) the first or only step.Before careful reading, there is lighter reading, that is, browsing and accompanying questions.We have quite a lot to say about careful reading.It will be discussed in Chapter 6.So I won't go into details here.Careful reading is meant to be read actively and critically.Your job is not to vacuum up other people's words, but to seek out the thematic ideas behind the words and compare each idea with other ideas of the author, ideas of other experts, and your own experience and logic. Compare and verify.

Of course, throughout your reading you should keep asking yourself questions such as:

· Does this text have what I need?
· What is the real meaning of this sentence?
• Are these arguments or opinions?
• How did the author know about the arguments (or judge his or her opinion)?
• What arguments or opinions are worth considering?

• Does all of this fit with my experience?
repeat
When you have read the material, try to restate its main arguments.Don't take notes during the "reading" phase.Even if the book is your own, don't underline paragraphs.Note-taking is the fourth phase of the SO3R method.Reading a text should not be finished unless you have an extraordinary memory.Even if you read the most important ideas, you will probably forget 50% of them within a few minutes of putting the book down, unless you take the active step of retelling them.Generally speaking, the surest way to remember ideas you have learned is to use them, and retelling them to the best of your ability is the first step in being able to do so.

During your reading, try to retell as much as you can.This helps your study in three ways:

· You will concentrate more on reading, because you know there are tasks waiting for you after reading;
· You will have the opportunity to remedy any omissions or misinterpretations;
· You will read in an active way, because you will have to make every effort to grasp the gist of what you have read and be able to summarize it in your own words;

Once you start reading, you will find the following steps beneficial:
Pause every now and then;
· Close your book;
• Tell yourself what the main ideas you have encountered in your reading so far are; how often you should stop.

It may not be necessary to stop and repeat every sentence after reading it, unless the sentences are long and complex (as is sometimes the case in philosophical texts).Read at least one paragraph at a time to figure out what the author's intentions are.

When encountering long or complicated passages, it is necessary to put the book down for a while to see if you can summarize the main points in your own words, but do not stipulate that you have to stop after reading a paragraph or two.Doing so risks preventing you from following the overall flow of the author's argument.

Retelling each section after reading it probably serves most people's learning purposes.For example, it might make sense to stop and take stock before reading the next new major headline.This way you can read several pages in succession before pausing to rehash the important ideas you encounter in this section.

You also naturally want to stop at the end of a chapter or essay and recap all the important ideas you have encountered throughout the chapter or essay.But if the chapter you read is very long or rather cumbersome, then your retelling will not be so smooth or catch the point, so you can only stop 1 or 2 times in the middle and retell its content separately It's over.

Therefore, there is no optimal criterion for how long it takes to pause and repeat.This is something you have to figure out yourself.And, no doubt, the standards you apply to different texts will be different, depending on your circumstances at the time.

Don't just think about retelling, but also jot down the main points.Make some brief notes about some main ideas and details that are important to you.Even the most sketchy notes are more effective than your brain's memory.It's easy to be overconfident about how clearly you understand what you've learned, until you try to put it down in words and it's not as simple as you thought.Also, you may need a record of what you have read.We'll cover the issue of note-taking further in Chapter 7.

You may spend a considerable portion of the time it takes to implement the SQ3R learning method in rehearsing this session.How long it takes depends on the type of material you are reading.If the material you are studying is difficult to understand, or if you think it is necessary to memorize this part of the material, then you can spend more time on recitation and review than on reading.

However, don't be surprised if you spend more than half the time you spend using the SQ3R learning method on retelling certain texts.If the ideas in the article are important to you.Then the time spent is worth it.In fact, the students who really waste their time are the ones whose sole purpose is to finish the book.Even if they understand what they have learned while reading, they will soon forget it completely, unless they follow the method we have described. After reading, they have to complete the tasks of two stages of retelling and review.

review
Check your mastery of the text by reviewing the full text.The purpose of the review is to get feedback on how well the retelling went.Never assume that you have paraphrased every important point and paraphrased it correctly.Know that checking again will always make the result more accurate.However, it is not so easy to use some data in the computer.

You should understand that it may be preferable to assume that you may have missed something than to assume that you paraphrased it perfectly.One way to review is to quickly repeat the first four steps of the SQ3R learning method.This is:

·1.Browse the general structure of the section or chapter. (Again, look at the title and corresponding summary.)
·2.Recall the questions you asked. (Can you answer all these questions? Are there new ones?)

3.Reread the text to see if you repeated all important points.

4.Complete your paraphrase by filling in some missing points and correcting some errors in your notes.

If the book or article is your own, you can also underline some important passages and use other tags to make them more prominent.

Now let's apply these steps to this chapter:
Start by paraphrasing the main idea (eg: think about the title).Take some brief notes from memory, and close the book as you work through these tasks.

Then recheck how accurate your paraphrase is.Follow the four steps above or whatever works for you.Are you satisfied with the level of your retelling?Hopefully it will be better than what you usually get to.But the results will be more satisfying if (assuming you don't) you do your best to complete the retelling task after reading each chapter.

The five aspects of the SQ3R approach to learning have been used by thousands of college students.The results are encouraging.They found this method to be very helpful to them.It is almost certain to say that your gains will not be small.

However, one point must be emphasized. The SQ3R learning method is not a rule or a rigid dogma to be followed blindly.You must try to make it subservient and applicable to your learning purposes.You can use different aspects of it at different times.Or you can adjust the amount of time spent on each step appropriately.The basic strategy should be flexible, and you can use it skillfully in various situations in order to achieve the best effect.

(End of this chapter)