It’s difficult to give study
tips that are both useful and informative because most of the best study tips
are things that you probably know already.
They fall in the category of
Generally Good Advice that’s applicable
to pretty much every class. Specifically:
·
Come to class every
day.
·
If you can’t come to
class every day, contact a classmate to find out what you missed.
Toward
this end, it’s a good idea to get to know a couple of people in class, if you
don’t know some people in class already. Many professors get loads of email,
and many of us don’t like to get messages from students asking us what they
missed when they weren’t there. It’s not that we don’t want to help. We do. It’s
just that we can’t really summarize our classes for everyone who couldn’t make
it. So, if at all possible always try to get that information from
another student first and if you do need to contact your professor explain that
your classmate was unable to fill you in on what you missed.
And,
while I’m giving general cautionary advice, if you need to check with your
professor after missing a class, please don’t say, “Do you do anything?”
“Did I miss anything?” or “Did I
miss anything important?” J
These three questions jointly comprise a common pet peeve among professors, who
try to do something important in class every day. Instead, ask, “What did I
miss?”
·
Do the assignments
before coming to class.
·
Review your notes or
the Power Point presentations after class.
·
If you don’t
understand something, say so.
Raise
your hand in class if possible because that will allow your instructor to
clarify something that’s probably confusing a lot of other people too. If you
don’t feel comfortable raising your hand in class, check with a classmate after
class or contact your professor. I said earlier that many professors don’t like
to be asked to summarize material that a student missed. Almost all professors,
however, will be more than happy to help you if you’re confused. So you should
feel absolutely free to chat with your professors after class, to email your
professors, or stop by their offices during office hours if you want something
clarified or explained.
·
Start studying for
the exams as early as possible.
It’s usually better to study for half an hour every day for ten days than to cram for five hours right before the test.
Philosophy, however, is in
some respects different than other courses, so there is some Advice for Studying Philosophy in particular. Namely:
· Understand, Teach, and Understand by Teaching
Philosophy
isn’t about memorizing things. It’s about understanding them. The
best way to understand anything is to teach it to someone else - preferably someone
who isn’t in class and who hasn’t taken the class before because then you’ll really
need to explain things. If you
have a friend who’s willing to act as your student this semester, that’s great!
If none of your current friends are interested in talking philosophy with you,
then trot out that imaginary friend you had in Kindergarten. I’m serious.
Explaining something to anyone, even if that person is invisible,
will help you to understand it better. I’ve given lots of classes to imaginary
students. (By the way, this “teach and learn” approach is a good one to take
toward any course that requires higher-level conceptual thought – that asks you
to understand rather than memorize.)
·
Understand the
question being asked.
·
As we’ve seen,
philosophy is the activity of addressing questions that can’t be answered
empirically. Sometimes the philosophical conversation can get confusing. By always
remembering the question that’s under consideration you can keep you from getting
lost. And the best way to fully grasp this question is by explaining it to
someone who doesn’t already know it.
·
Understand how each
position is an answer to that question.
Just
as remembering the question being asked can help you stay on track, understanding
how different philosophical positions are answers to that question can help you
to fit everything together. And again, the best way to do this is to explain
these positions to someone who doesn’t already know them.
·
Understand the
reasons, or arguments, given in support of each position.
Just as philosophy is the activity of answering questions that can’t be resolved empirically, it’s also the process of giving reasons in support of these answers. Understanding the arguments that support positions is, in philosophy, at least as important as understanding the positions themselves. Once more, to understand these arguments, try to explain them to someone who knows less about the subject than you do.
·
Understand the
objections to each position.
Because very little is settled in philosophy, it’s often important to understand the objections that are leveled against positions, in addition to understanding the arguments that are advanced in support of those positions. And yet again, the best way to understand these objections is to explain them to someone else.
Now that we’ve seen what philosophy is, why we should do it, and how we can go about studying it, let’s take a look at how it’s done by learning a little logic.