You know where Universities absolutely and totally fail? Almost all of them?
Teaching people how to actually learn. And, well, high schools generally fail completely. Students don’t know how to read a book well, how to take notes, how to study properly. If they did, a website like this wouldn’t be needed and there wouldn’t be an entire cottage industry of books to teach you how. Now, sure, lots of schools try. My girlfriend had the misfortune of taking on of those courses last semester, and it was a wreck. The book for the class looked and read like something that came out of a middle school self-esteem class.
But some schools actually make a meaningful effort. Today I stumbled upon the University of Texas’s Learning Center Resources, and wow! Lots of great information on one site over a variety of topics from economics to foreign language study!
It seems that the big reason colleges fail at this sort of thing is not because they are not interested, they obviously are, but they try to turn it into a class on its own and then make it so mediocre that no one is interested in anything they say. What they need to be doing is having the professors spend part of that first day of class (you know, the one where you painstakingly go over the syllabus) on successful study patterns, hints, tips, etc. Professors are professional academics, they are an enormous resource!
So, until the revolution comes, you will have to simply be happy with these handouts from UT. Also, I have a few things I’ve created in the resources area of the site. Some basics on reading a book as well as some note templates.
Yeah, I’m a Sooner…. but that doesn’t mean I don’t sometimes dream of being somewhere… better.
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