YOUR STUDY OF PHILOSOPHY

The investment you are making in studying philosophy should enrich your life and enlarge your vision. Although many of life's significant questions are beyond philosophy, some very important ones are illuminated by even a first philosophy course. Even the unanswered questions can enrich us, by renewing our sense of mystery about "things too wonderful" for us yet to understand. What is more, your study of philosophy can help teach you how to ask and answer important questions—how to think critically as you evaluate competing ideas and claims.

Having your life enriched and your vision enlarged (and getting a decent grade) requires effective study. As you will see, to master information you must actively process it. Your mind is not like your stomach, something to be filled passively; it is more like a muscle that grows stronger with exercise. Countless experiments reveal that people learn and remember material best when they put it in their own words, rehearse it, and then review and rehearse it again.

A simple study method incorporates these principles. You can remember it as PRTR: Preview, Read, Think critically, and Review.

First, preview what you're about to read. Note its organization (as hinted in the Preview paragraph that begins most main sections). This provides a framework on which you can hang the information to come. We tend to remember organized information and to forget disorganized facts.

Second, read the section you have previewed. Usually a single main chapter section will be as much as you can absorb without tiring. Treat each main chapter section as if it were a whole chapter.

Third, think actively and critically. Ask questions. Make notes. Reflect on implications: How does what you've read support or challenge your assumptions? How convincing is the evidence? How does it relate to your own life? (Ask yourself questions to stimulate your active thinking).

Fourth, review. To root a section's organization more deeply into your memory, rescan the section and the definitions of key terms, or read its Review paragraphs. Glance over your notes or highlighting. Then stop and let it all sink in. Better yet, summarize the material for a friend or lecture about it to an imaginary audience.

Preview, read, think, review.

Additional study hints may further boost your learning:

Distribute your study time. Spaced practice promotes better retention than massed practice. You'll remember material better if you space your time over several study periods—perhaps one hour a day, six days a week—rather than cram it into one long study blitz. Spacing your study sessions requires a disciplined approach to managing your time. For example, rather than trying to read a whole chapter in a single sitting, read just one of the chapter's main sections and then turn to something else.
As psychologist William James urged some 100 years ago, "No reception without reaction, no impression without … expression." Read for the main idea and sub-ideas. Write down questions during and after your reading. In your private study, process the information actively and you will understand and retain it better.

Over-learn. Psychology tells us that "over-learning improves retention." The more often students read a chapter the better their exam scores are (Woehr & Cavell, 1993). Students frequently stop short of over-learning and overestimate how much they know. Really learning something requires more than momentarily understanding it. You may understand a chapter as you read it, but if you devote extra study time to rereading, to testing yourself, and to reviewing what you think you know, you will actually learn the material and retain your new knowledge longer.

Be a smart test-taker. If a test contains both multiple-choice questions and an essay question, turn first to the essay. Read the question carefully, noting exactly what the instructor is asking. On the back of a page, pencil in a list of points you'd like to make, and then organize them. Before writing, put the essay aside and work through the multiple-choice questions. (As you do so, you may continue to mull over the essay question. Sometimes the objective questions will bring pertinent thoughts to mind). Then reread the essay question, rethink your answer, and start writing. When you finish, proofread your work to eliminate spelling and grammatical errors that make you look less competent than you are.

When reading multiple-choice questions, don't confuse yourself by trying to imagine how each choice might be the right one. Try instead to answer the question as if it were a fill-in-the-blank. First, cover the answers, recall what you know, and complete the sentence in your mind. Then read the answers on the test and find the alternative that best matches your own answer.

As you read philosophy, you will learn much more than effective study techniques. Philosophy teaches us how to ask important questions—how to think critically as we evaluate competing ideas and popular claims. It deepens our appreciation for how we humans perceive, think, feel, and act. By so doing, it informs our living and enlarges our compassion. As educator Charles Eliot said a century ago, "Books are the quietest and most constant of friends, and the most patient of teachers."

(Adapted from Psychology, Seventh Edition, by David G. Myers).