Ron Fry - How to Study: The Program That Has Helped Millions of Students Study Smarter, Not Harder

How to Study

The Program That Has Helped Millions of Students Study Smarter, Not Harder

25th Anniversary Edition

RON FRY

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

Copyright 2016 by Ron Fry

Cover design by Howard Grossman

978-1-5040-5523-9

This edition published in 2018 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

180 Maiden Lane

New York, NY 10038

www.openroadmedia.com

Learning is its own exceeding great reward.

W ILLIAM H AZLITT

As I began preparing this new edition, I wasnt sure how drastically I would need to change it. Had technologyfrom SMARTBoards and smart phones to a million apps and a zillion Websitesso altered the educational landscape that many of the study tips and techniques Id written about were obsolete?

Thinking about all of the technological changes that have occurred in the last decade spurred me to rethink every aspect of this book. Were there now easier or more efficient ways to accomplish the same age-old study tasks? Were there new problems that had to be addressed? Were there suggestions or tools that were now hopelessly out of date?

Since, as Montaigne declared, a man must always study, I am happy to report that todays successful student needs to master the same basic set of study skills. However, the most efficient ways to master them and, especially, the variety of tools available to do so, clearly have grown and evolved.

So this edition of How to Study still includes hints, advice, and techniques for reading, understanding, and remembering what you read; taking notes in class, from your textbooks, in the library, and online; how to prepare for and do better on all kinds of tests; how to research and prepare great papers and oral reports; and how to organize your study schedule to get the best results in the shortest amount of time. But there are essential skills you may think have nothing to do with studying, and important steps you need to take right from the start, that we will cover first.

Learning without thought is labor lost. Thought without learning is perilous.

C ONFUCIUS

Developing great study habits is like a footrace between you and your friends. Before you can declare a winner, you have to agree on where the finish line is. In other words, how do you measure your ability to use these skills? Whats a good result? Whats a poor one?

But you cant even start the race until you know where the starting line isespecially if its drawn at a different spot for each of you!

starts by explaining each study skill and clarifying how each can and should function in your life. Then youll be given the chance to identify your own starting line.

, youll learn the importance of where, how, and when you study, and you will start building the study environment thats perfect for you.

There is no magic elixir in the study habit regimen. If math and science are not your strong suits, memorizing How to Study will not transform you into a Nobel Prize-winning physicist. Nobody is great at everything, but everybody is great at something. So youll also get a chance to rate the subjects you like and dislike, and those that are your best and worst.

also introduces some of the intangibles in the study equation: your home environment, attitude, motivation, and so forth. If you are dedicated to studying and motivated to achieve certain goals, all the other factors that affect your study habits will fall more naturally into place. A belief in the study ethic is one of the keys to success.

Finally, mastering some other key components of the study processlearning to read teachers, developing mentors, dealing with perfectionism, the importance of flexibilitywill help you get off to the right start.

introduces the skills basic to any study process: reading and comprehension. No matter how well you learn to take notes, how familiar you become with your library, how deftly you operate online, and how doggedly you study for tests, if you are reading poorly (or not enough) and not understanding or remembering what you read, life will be difficult.

Becoming a good reader is a skill, one usually acquired early in life. If its a skill you havent acquired yet, now is the time!

In how to remember more of what you readinto this new chapter.

To see a significant change in your life, many of you will not need to study harder, just smarter. This means making better use of your study timespending the same two, three or four hours, but accomplishing twice, thrice, or four times as much. introduces a number of simple and easy-to-use organizational and time-management toolspowerful ways to make sure you are always on track and on time.

In , I talk about the one experience we all have in common, no matter how old we are: the classroom. Ill help you take better notes in every kind of classroom, encourage your active participation in class discussions, and help you get a lot more out of lectures.

In early editions of this book, I included a chapter on using your library, later changed to How to Conduct Your Research so as to incorporate the now far-more-prevalent use of online resources. It was a relatively short chapter followed by a far longer one detailing all the other steps necessary to produce a terrific essay, term paper, or oral report.

In this edition, I have rearranged these two chapters so they are more equal in length. So now covers all the preparatory steps to complete any writing assignment, from choosing a topic and establishing a long-term schedule to establishing an initial thesis, creating a rough outline and conducting research, in the library and/or online.

I still briefly review the two major library classification systemsDewey Decimal and Library of Congressand show you how to conduct efficient online research without falling preyfor hoursto the lets-just-follow-that-interesting-link syndrome.

now assumes most if not all of your research has been completed and takes you through the actual organizational and writing processes, from creating your first draft through rewriting, proofreading, and finalizing footnotes, to the appendices and the bibliography. It also includes a brief section on the key differences between producing a written report and presenting the same information orally.

covers the dos and donts of test preparation, including the differences between studying for weekly quizzes, midterms, and final examinations; why last-minute cramming doesnt work (but how to do it if you have no choiceshame!); studying for and taking different types of tests (multiple choice, true-false, essay, open book, and so on); how to increase your guessing scores; even which questions to answer first and which to leave for last.