Who do you team up with?

[Renoir]

So, muse has inspired me about the idea of having people around that challenge -

The biggest thing is believing in yourself, people think that intelligence is fixed, but your brain is like a muscle: if you keep challenging yourself with new material and people who challenge you, you will see results very quickly.

 

To me, this begs the question - how do you guys typically "team up" with classmates? I'm in a small school where I just hang back for a couple weeks, find the keeners, and make friends.

 

Do you even experience having other people around that challenge you, perhaps help study in groups or do flash cards or whatever?

 

I'm thinking about this from a purely GPA/info retention perspective, and nothing else...

[NewfieMike]

I used to hate studying in groups, because I was usually a bit more prepared than the others. So I spent more time catching them up on stuff I already knew rather than learn things for myself. Great for them, not so much for me.

[Renoir]

Do you think having to explain and teach it to other solidifies/clarifies the knowledge in your own head? I've found that often happens for me - I realize I don't have a perfect definition for something, or don't know every angle of a topic until helping the slackers in the group and having to answer with "uhhhh..."

[NewfieMike]

Do you think having to explain and teach it to other solidifies/clarifies the knowledge in your own head? I've found that often happens for me - I realize I don't have a perfect definition for something, or don't know every angle of a topic until helping the slackers in the group and having to answer with "uhhhh..."

 

the way that I see it, if I can explain it to someone else, then I can write it on an exam. On the other hand, there's still more material waiting for you to learn the first time.

[future_doc]

I have always been a loner and have had to work incredibly hard. Thus far, it has worked for me. When we have group projects, I try to be with a strong group, but if there are weak people in it, I do their work also for my self-protection.

[leap87]

It really depends who are the people in your group. For example: I've once had this guy who was in our group but he didn't study at all. So studying in a group was not productive as he would ask a million questions that he should have already had answers to. However, once I started working in the lab, now I love, love, love talking with fellow lab mates about certain courses - ie discussing research papers, going over stats, etc. I believe it motivates me to study harder (because some people in the group are really smart and know a lot of things I don't) and at the same time, it is fun so I remember it quickly.

 

However, when it comes to undergrad stuff/courses, I prefer to study alone. I usually go above and beyond of what is in lecture notes and many people don't do that so I end up confusing them. For example yesterday.... I'm taking an undergrad course since I have to finish for a certificate, and we were going over action potentials (yeah... I know...) - pretty easy stuff. Turns out, I know more than the whole class combined. I knew the nitty gritty details of it (because I was forced to learn it in undergrad), so I ended up confusing others in class (we had a small presentation). The prof was like "Next time... keep it simple because they won't be able to follow you"... really? I studied this in 2nd, 3rd and 4th years. lol. So... I prefer studying alone.

[charmer08]

I can never study with friends... don't know how ppl do it.

[oto]

It's dangerous developing a habit of studying with friends or a group. They're not always going to be there every time.

[igeorgex]

a bit of both; there are some people I know I can study with because we're very similar in how we approach work/how far ahead we start studying/etc... but for other things, it's a solitary approach. also depends on the course: if it's one where I don't feel I might need the input of others as much, I won't group study as much.

[Tango Charlie]

I hate being dependent on other people. I never, ever study with other people and I would not accept an offer to do so unless it was a woman asking and ulterior motives were suggested.

[oto]

I would not accept an offer to do so unless it was a woman asking and ulterior motives were suggested.

 

hahahhah loll

 

You know what I hate though, when a hot girl acts nice and a bit flirty with nerds to get their help for studying or homework or an assignment... and the oblivious nerd obliges.

[Tango Charlie]

I've never seen that happen. Why do you "hate" it though? Would you rather they used you instead? Or are you just disappointed that a woman is using her feminine wiles to take advantage of your fellow man?

[oto]

I've never seen that happen. Why do you "hate" it though? Would you rather they used you instead? Or are you just disappointed that a woman is using her feminine wiles to take advantage of your fellow man?

 

I would rather they not give false hope or pretend to like a person just to get their help. It's terrible man.

[Tango Charlie]

The only reason they do it is because guys let them do it. A weird nerd guy would hopefully have the sense to know that a really attractive woman who spontaneously begins flirting with him and then asks him for something is being manipulative. If they don't, well, at least he'd get to spend time talking to a girl, right?

[apache]

To be honest, I was referring more to analytical/deductive/inductive thinking than informational retention, usually this would revolve around formal arguments based on certain axioms and presuppositions(in medicine this would be a knowledge of structural anatomy and physiological processes, or an understanding of the principles of imaging) and what/why the consequences of these axioms are.

 

I think in medicine having challenging people are you is most useful for learning the underlying pathophysiology of a disease, why might someone get myriasses if his bile duct is blocked, what are the mechanisms, what other possibilities for the data could there be and why, and right back at ya why not? what are uncommon presentations and what physiological process is responsible for the presentation?

 

For me if you're going to use this approach in the sciences it really has to come from a basis of understanding from a fundamental physiological approach, otherwise those interpretive thinking skills won't flourish.

 

Personally, when I have to memorize something (some rare disease that's not well understood, etc.), I just write it down over and over and over again, and tend to do it alone. You could work in groups though, but I don't think it would be the challenging sort of thing that improves intelligence I was referring too before (which requires drawing upon ideas and active debate and discussion, which in medicine would be more physiology, research methods, more nebulous diagnostics etc.), rather, I think it would be a more co-operative endeavour where you work together to test each other and teach each other once you each have a reasonable grasp of the material, after all, numerable psychological studies show that the best way to truly understand material is to teach it!

 

So, muse has inspired me about the idea of having people around that challenge -

 

 

To me, this begs the question - how do you guys typically "team up" with classmates? I'm in a small school where I just hang back for a couple weeks, find the keeners, and make friends.

 

Do you even experience having other people around that challenge you, perhaps help study in groups or do flash cards or whatever?

 

I'm thinking about this from a purely GPA/info retention perspective, and nothing else...

[apache]

Helping slackers is awesome for both of you, they'll get class average and you'll ace the exam, I know this is just a random diagram, but it's been backed up by countless psychological studies:

 

http://stephenslighthouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/learning_pyramid.jpg

 

 

 

Do you think having to explain and teach it to other solidifies/clarifies the knowledge in your own head? I've found that often happens for me - I realize I don't have a perfect definition for something, or don't know every angle of a topic until helping the slackers in the group and having to answer with "uhhhh..."

[Leon]

I used to hate studying in groups, because I was usually a bit more prepared than the others. So I spent more time catching them up on stuff I already knew rather than learn things for myself. Great for them, not so much for me.

 

Same here. I'm going to try group studying this semester for a certain course and I've asked everyone to be well prepared so we'll see how that goes. I've found that sometimes other people look at the same info in different ways which can be beneficial.

[dr_horrible]

I LOVE to study with people. I'm normally pretty social, and hours spent alone in my room studying freak me out. Even if it's just a group of people getting together and studying independently, without talking, I'd rather have this than study alone any day.

 

I'm also the worst studier ever, so studying in a group usually keeps me on track and makes me feel more guilty about taking 1000 breaks.

[TheBoss]

I always, always study alone. In undergrad, where acing classes seems to depend primarily on content memorization and basic reasoning skills, and so many students have no idea what's going on, I find group studying to be an ineffecient use of time because I can get through content way faster on my own.

[thatonekid]

I always, always study alone. In undergrad, where acing classes seems to depend primarily on content memorization and basic reasoning skills, and so many students have no idea what's going on, I find group studying to be an ineffecient use of time because I can get through content way faster on my own.

This.

 

I used to hate studying in groups, because I was usually a bit more prepared than the others. So I spent more time catching them up on stuff I already knew rather than learn things for myself. Great for them, not so much for me.

And this too.