Ken Norton wrote:
> Ok, this thread has evolved into about three different branches. Here goes:
>
> 1. On the subject of schooling. I hate lectures. Period. Let's just cut to
> the chase and tell me what I need to know or what the desired outcome is.
>
Uh Oh. Now we have agreed twice in as many days.
> In high-school, I barely passed classes because I didn't do the homework
> assignments, but would nearly ace the tests.
Phew, saved. I did enough homework to post a nice, high GPA, so I could
get into Cal. I did most of my written assignments while watching Johnny
Carson. Im surprised The Great Karnac didn't sneak into some essay.
> Classes requiring memorization I'd struggle in, however.
>
Oops, agreeing again. I wanted to know how it worked, so I could work
out the answers. I always thought memorization was a really poor way to
learn most things. In Physics 4a, the teacher emphasized learning how
the stuff worked. Tests were open book. Of course they were long enough
that one couldn't look up all the knowledge needed, but standard
formulas and such were easy to find - as they are for a working physicist.
Physics 4B was a different story. No tests 'til the first midterm, which
I almost flunked, not because I didn't understand the physics, but
because I hadn't memorized all the formulas. For the second midterm, I
paid little attention to understanding, but forced myself to memorize
everything. The A pulled up my average. In the last part of the
semester, he devoted an entire class to the behavior of a charged
particle shot into crossed electrical and magnetic fields - which wasn't
in the textbook. I don't recall, but I suspect I didn't really
understand the math; but I did understand the rules with this guy by
then. If he spent an entire class on something not in the book, it was
going to be on the test. So I carefully copied down everything he wrote
and memorized it for the final.
Sure enough, there it is on the final. I did a core dump (and erase)
into the exam book. I didn't ace the whole test, just too much stuff for
a non-memorizer, but I did well enough to pull a B in the course. A
friend, who was much better at this stuff than I and ended up a
professor of geophysics, walked out of the final early and I thought
"Uh-oh. If he's finished that quick and I'm still working hard, I'm in
trouble." Not so. He was a guy, unlike me, who could have worked out the
crossed fields problem himself, given the time, but hadn't memorized it.
I raised my D to a B by abandoning understanding for memorization. He
dropped his A to a B by understanding, but not gaming the instructor and
memorizing.
What did we do in Physics 4C? I know I took it, but can't remember a
thing. Maybe I've forgotten 4A, and the story above is about B and C.
With some material, there is not set of rules or organizing principle,
and memorizing is the only way to master a subject. That's the way
organic chem was back then. I changed majors to avoid it. :-)
Moose
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