Making The Most Of Our Abilities
Too often we tend to evaluate ourselves not by our abilities and accomplishments but by our limitations and mistakes. We often forget that beyond a given level of general intelligence, personality, motivation', opportunities, education, and training contribute more to our occupational success and. failure. Specific jobs require specific skills-psychomotor, athletic, mechanical, musical, artistic, and creative abilities.
Training relates to the teaching of specific skills. Education is broader and less specific; itrefers to learning things in order to gain. proficiency in future situations. Many college programs combine training and education. Self-confidence comes through self-understanding and relates closely to what we do with our abilities and how we learn to work around our limitations.
Acquiring efficiency in study hinges on "learning how to learn."
It relates to motivation and study time habits; knowing how to prepare and take exams; and knowing how to read and check on one's progress. Learning will not take place unless there is an underlying motive to learn. Preparing a flexible study schedule can be helpful in budgeting time and effort. Both motivation and scheduling prepare the student for studying. The choice of a physical setting for study is also important.
Study assignments are made meaningful in four ways. First, skim the assignment to get a bird's-eye view of what is to come. Second, use a dictionary to learn the meaning of specific words. Third, make the study perioe meaningful by relating new facts to old problems. Fourth, summarize material in your own words. This helps to identify essential material to be remembered. Recitation is necessary in helping to stamp in what is to be learned. The advantage of recitation over passive reading is that one is forced to maintain an active attitude so essential to memory storage. Good note taking is an art whereby one evaluates the material that will be useful in the future.
Essay exams emphasize the recall of information. Objective exams emphasize recognition of material. Preparing for and taking exams is an art that can be acquired by following step-by-step procedures. There is no substitute for knowing the material in-the first place, and here overlearning is important. Taking an exam is a skill which is to be learned much as any other skill.
The most common study handicap is deficiency in reading. Reading is a complex behavior. Poor readers show four basic habits. First, they spend too much time looking at words that carry irrelevant or repeated information. Second, they make regressive eye movements which impede the information-gathering process. Third, they vocalize, which slows down reading. Fourth, they often have deficient vocabulary.
Research on speed reading courses shows three things. First, the average speed reader cannot triple reading speed, or even doutle it, without missing large chunks of material. Second. there are som case evidences of better comprehension at faster speeds, but we need to ask what our purpose in reading is. Third, the claim that most of us, most of the time. can increase our reading speed dramatically without loss of comprehension remains to be provven. We need to ask: "What do I wish to get from what I read, and how much time and effort will it take for me?" Individual reading habits vary greatly.
