Study groups are overrated

This post is a continuation of my thoughts on quality study.  In my previous post "Study Smarter, not Harder", I talked about how I discovered the following relation:

Study Power = Quantity of Study X Quality of Study.

I mentioned that one habit I have is to focus intensely.  I have mentioned other things in previous posts as well.  Here is another one of my ideas on "quality study".  Some of my ideas on this topic are unconventional and therefore a lot of people will disagree with them.  However, I know that they have worked for me.

Study groups are overrated

Collaboration is important in many endeavors. However, when I am trying to learn something complex, it is important to me to learn it for myself.   There are many arguments for working in study groups.  I have attended study skills talks where I was told that study groups are an important study skill.  Despite this advice, I don't see how people can learn complex concepts without intense, alone study.

Don't skip the hard problems 

When I do a homework assignment for a class that requires problem solving, I commit to doing all of the assigned problems on the assignment.  I realize that most people don't do this.  Most people give up on the hardest problems and go over these problems later in study sessions, recitation sessions, in office hours, etc. or simply don't do them at all.  Being that most people don't do as I am doing, most will disagree with my opinion that it's better to do all the problems.

I have the most effective studies when I am trying to figure out things that I don't know how to do.  By doing all the problems, I figure out how to do all the problems.  Therefore, when I finish my homework for a class, I don't need to study hard for my exams; I already learned the concepts.

That Sounds Too Hard

Some people would argue that they are not good at (fill in the blank) or not smart enough to do this.  To that I have a couple points.  

Don't Give Up


Especially in graduate school, I have had assignments where it seems like I am not going to be able to finish because there are problems which I am just not getting.  In these moments, I have learned no to give up.  With more work, I always am able to do all of the problems.  In the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, he brings up a point that studies show that those who don't get frustrated by learning math slowly but stick to it are able to learn it.  There is no royal road to learning mathematics or any other complex subject.

Have Confidence

Being good at school subjects has more to do with "I can" than IQ.  For example, a student in the class I assist in brought a problem to me.  She had done most of the steps in the problem, but had stopped when she got to a "hard" step.  She said that she wasn't good at the concept which was required for the step. When I looked at it, the hard step had nothing to do with the thing she said was hard for her.  It just required doing the same stuff as the other problems, just with a hard-looking thing.  If she had pressed on instead of giving up, she would have for sure succeeded at the problem because she was able to do the other identical problems.  She made the problem harder than it needed to be.

Go Back and Review to Fill in Holes

When there are things that I don't understand as well or that I learned but forgot, it is not that hard to fill in those holes in my knowledge.  When I am in this situation, I Google things or look them up on Wikipedia.  Going back to the example in the previous paragraph, when the student said, "I am not good at (fill in the blank)," she could have taken the time to figure out how to do (fill in the blank).  Her specific topic could have easily been found on Wikipedia.  Another more heavy-duty solution have been to pick up a book at the library to review (fill in the blank) more heavily.  Doing this will take more time in the short run than to ask someone the answer, but in the long run it will pay off in terms of both time saving and in better grades.

Procrastination


I see this subject like procrastination.  If I eat something, put my dish in the sink, and then wait to wash it, it is going to take more work to clean it later than it would have been to clean it immediately.  If I do a load of laundry and then wait a long time to fold and hang it, my clothes are going to get wrinkled and I will have to do the extra work of ironing them.  If I am doing homework for a class, and I avoid figuring out a hard problem, I am going to have to put in more work to make up for it.