I will admit to a secret of mine. It is a hack. It is one of the many cheat codes to life, but I imagine this particular hack is of significance in a school setting. What I am saying is that I have discovered the foolproof method for getting good grades.
Now, I’m not sure how many of my fellow students have stumbled upon this secret as I have but I have kept it under wraps because of the sheer potency of it. This kind of a thing could destroy the very foundations of our education system so it’s only right that I wield its power with utmost prudence.
I am talking about the mystic art of “studying”. Using this long-forgotten ritual, any student could conceivably achieve any grade desired with impunity. What is incredible is that the act is simple. To perform “studying” one needs only listen to the teacher, understand what he says in class, and then review what was learned. Three easy steps to a bloodless instant A+.
I am talking about the mystic art of “studying”. Using this long-forgotten ritual, any student could conceivably achieve any grade desired with impunity. What is incredible is that the act is simple. To perform “studying” one needs only listen to the teacher, understand what he says in class, and then review what was learned. Three easy steps to a bloodless instant A+.
There is no more need to spend long arduous hours writing bonus papers. Say goodbye to the stressful and life-shortening act of cramming. No longer is there a need to fear tests. All the traditional ways of getting high grades (cheating, praying to various dieties, psychologically manipulating the teacher’s leniency) need no longer be used because I have found a method that is a hundred times more effective and easy.
The act of “studying” is physically very mundane. There are only three senses involved: the eyes, the ears, and the mind. There are only two processes involved: the acquiring of information, and then the understanding of information. There is only one requirement: will.
I will demonstrate a specific instance of me applying the method. Take for example that I am sitting in a history class. My eyes perceive the teacher and what he has written on the blackboard. My ears receive information about the pre-Hispanic Filipinos. I am being told information on how the pre-Hispanic Filipinos measured wealth in slaves. My teacher explains that land and resource were not considered a measure of wealth because they were in great supply. Later at home, I will deliberately recall fragments of this information. I will try to remember what I learned today, and the concepts of slavery and wealth come to mind. In my reviewing, I apply my own critical thinking, aided by my memory of the class, and piece together that pre-Hispanic Filipinos measures wealth in slaves. Why not land or resources? Because they were abundant at that time. The information spoonfed to me in class, is remembered in fragments, and then because the information is sensible I am able to re-connect the dots on my own later.
This is studying. This is a man who knows how to fish as opposed to being merely given a fish. That I know how the dots connect is now with me forever because it is not a bit of knowledge that I have merely been lent and will degrade in my memory over time, but a process of critical understanding that for all my intents and purposes I discovered myself. I figured out on my own, and with only a little help from what was given to me directly in class, that pre-Hispanic Filipinos measured wealth in slaves because land and resources were not in demand. By taking the step further from being merely shown how to do something, and figuring out how to do it myself, the “studying” has caused me to have a claim on my conclusion. That the pre-Hispanic Filipnios measured wealth in slaves is not something I was told but something I figured out all on my own and so I am less likely to forget it. If in case I do forget it, I know I am capable of simply figuring it out again during the test.
Objectively this act of “studying” is nothing more than a retention of data by way of processing it to a higher degree-- a function of memory that is understood fairly well in psychology and neuroscience. What makes it magical, what makes it an almost mystical power then is not in the sheer method of it but in its essence. The very heart of studying is not the flow of data and the eventual analysis of data. It is in the personal.
My claim is this: the power of “studying” comes from the claiming of knowledge as opposed to the owning of knowledge. We cannot see the significance of this from an objective point of view so I have to take it from my point of view, and how I personally am able to claim knowledge by studying.
When I say the knowledge is claimed as opposed to owned, the difference is in how the specific piece of knowledge matters to me specifically. When I own knowledge, it is mine, sure, but it is merely this separate thing that resides within my jurisdiction, my mind. When I claim it however, like when I discover it myself or understand it in a way that is meaningful to me, the knowledge is not just something in my hand but a part of me. I have a stake in this particular bit of knwledge because a part of me- my analysis- is in it.
It’s like how a mother who babysits will never love another mother’s child as much as her own. For all intents and purposes they are both children. Objectively nothing is significantly different between them-- they have the same relative size, needs, behavior. But the mother has no real emotional stake in the baby that’s lent to her. Yes she has to take care of it but beyond that really there isn’t any obligation to care about it. On the other hand with her own child the mother instinctually does care about it. It came from her, it is the product of her literal blood, sweat, and tears and so this investment even without any emotional description is an undeniable bond between mother and child. It is exactly the same as with information.
There are many people who claim to “study” and yet still not get good grades but I will vow that the method is foolproof (intelligence ceteris paribus). What people are familiar with is not “studying” but merely an act that mimics studying in only the physical sense. There is information received by the senses, and then it is repeated later until it sticks to memory. This completely ignores the personal involvement that real “studying” requires. It is a mere parroting of information. It is studying without the “I”.
When I study I am aware of how I am claiming the knowledge I am given. I specifically involve myself in the process that makes the information make sense. What the teacher does is lay a lot of groundwork for me to discover for myself the same things that Einstein, Darwin, Dumbledore and etc. discovered for the whole world.
To conclude, this method of “studying” is the ideal way to get grades, but it is not about grades. This is the kind of studying that doesn’t just help you know something but really allows you to learn, and the fact that you can get whatever grade you want is merely a consequence of really understanding the material that’s in your readings.
It’s a dangerous weapon only because the world is not prepared for something as revolutionary as this. No one would volunteer to be teachers knowing that they no longer are capable of failing a student every now and then. Everyone getting A’s would cause the grading system to collapse and schools will not be able to carry out their primary function: to print report cards. People would actually learn the things they are taught.
No, for now True Studying will have to be something used only by the lucky few who are able to discover it themselves. That is what the method is all about after all.
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