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Highlighting Is a Waste of Time: The Best and Worst Learning Techniques (Time)

Pushbeat

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Five leading psychologists have evaluated learning techniques and Time summarized their findings.

Worst techniques
- Highlighting and underlining (even can get in the way of learning);
- Rereading;
- Summarizing.

Best
- Spreading out study sessions (the longer you want to remember, the longer the intervals should be);
- Practice testing.

But I succeeded my study with almost all worst techniques (except for rereading, which I didn't have the time for as an INTP), and I did none of the best. But I remember a lot even 30 years after my exams.

May it the case that personality type is involved in learning techniques?
 

chickpea

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I'd always buy a pack of rainbow highlighters when I went back to school shopping, and the first couple days I'd obsessively highlight and color code anything I could. then I forget about the highlighters, maybe use them to color on myself with, then lose them.
 

Fluffywolf

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Leading psychologists. Heh.

Conclusion drawn is weak.

What about topic interests? What about the subjects intellect? What about preference? What about experience? There are so many variables that oppose the idea that any one of these techniques is bad or good on a general level. Some might work for you, some might not.

Perhaps it is true that for 51 or more percent of the population, highlighting is ineffective. But even than it doesn't actually say anything about the learning technique, just about the state of the the 51 or more percent of the population that sucks at it for whatever reason.

For example, I know for a fact that the highlighting technique works wonders for people with above average photographic memory.


PS: I learned most stuff by global reading through material the day before it was going to be tested. I didn't apply any learning technique. It's called paying attention in class and refreshing your mind before the test. It worked for me.
 

King sns

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:shrug:

Worst methods worked fine for me. Take that leading psychologists!!! (goes and hangs out with the psychologists in the back row).
 

pinkgraffiti

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For me, writing what i was reading (basically, transcribing those fast-written class notes into proper, logically-organised notes) worked the best. always hated highlighting/colours though
 

Lexicon

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Highlighting never did anything but smear my notes to hell.
 

1487610420

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I usually underline/use different colors in an attempt to making things stand out, when I read my notes later. the latter seldom happens tho. :doh: :thinking: :shrug:
 

Ism

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Practice testing is definitely very helpful, so I'll say that.

Maybe it's not good for learning, as in memorizing, but I do enjoy highlighting for organizational purposes, and rereading to make sure I understand.

Honestly, though, the only thing good for actually committing things to memory is just cut and dry memorization. Everything else is just a way to help you get there and ease the process.
 

Rail Tracer

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I rarely highlight, I only highlight titles while writing notes. I sometimes reread, and mostly summarize.

There are some studies I follow by.... using more senses, and sleeping on it. Both have shown to have better than expected effects on studying, remembering, and understanding a subject.

Honestly, I've gone through books without feeling like I've gone through books like other people have.

If I truly wanted to learn, I'd use at least 3 sense (touch:physical writing, typing,) sound (listening on lectures instead of goofing off,) and sight (look at what I am reading or what the professor is writing.)

In reading a book, it is generally touch and sight (read and then type out everything I know about a chapter).

If I find something difficult to truly remember that day, I'd sleep on it. I think it was REM sleep that helps you process memories of the day, it is also that time that allows your body to rejuvenate.
 

sprinkles

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I always thought highlighting was for reference purposes, not some kind of learning thing. o.o

Speaking of sleep, I tend to work things out in my sleep. It's not unheard of for me to make charts and diagrams in my sleep since my brain can take over 'visual' functions and draw whatever the hell it wants, which helps to visualize things.
 

greenfairy

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I don't think those techniques listed as worst are that way for everyone. I find rereading and summarizing to be very helpful in the ways that I do them. In addition to primary material (like books) going over lecture slides a couple of times or key passages solidifies it in my mind. Summarizing in terms of writing an outline of the material works well. I did that when I took chemistry. I read the book the summer before and wrote outlines of the chapters as I read them. Spreading out study sessions I guess is good, but for me it's more about frequency and tying it to something interesting. If something is interesting or notable I'll remember it forever. I still remember most of the concepts I learned in chemistry, but I've forgotten most of the formulas (even though I used them like a million times). Practice testing works well depending on the subject matter. Science, math, and language would be appropriate, but philosophy not so much. In philosophy I just read, take notes in class, and think about what I learned, and then I remember it forever.
 

netzealot

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Highlighting and taking notes I find useless. All through school and post-secondary, I have gotten good grades just by simply paying attention and listening (it is WAY more interesting) so my experience concurs with the learning study.
 

Aesthete

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If I don't genuinely enjoy the topic at hand, there's no point in studying for it: in the long-term, I'll forget a big part of what I studied. I don't really do well with specifics - which I tend to forget within days of memorizing them - but rather with details. In fact, last year, for my geography exam, the teacher gave an outline with what to study. There were a few essay topics on the outline, but I didn't study all of them. On the exam, I had to chose one of three essay topics, but I didn't study for any of those three.:D I chose the one where I would have to work in the general without having to go back into what we've been taught. I thought I was going to fail the essay section, but it was the only one I got perfect on.:D
 

FDG

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Best method is having a really good concentration level, attention for detail, and being smart.
 
W

WhoCares

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When are we finally going to accept that what someone else thinks is best for you is totally irrelevant. :doh: The only thing experts have a track record in is being proven wrong at some future point in time.
 

highlander

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I highlight everything. Still. Also practice tests was the approach I used - or a variation of that.
 

/DG/

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I'm not a huge fan of this article. Obviously, it's well known that not studying all at once is more helpful than cramming the night before, but it doesn't give you good strategies on how you're supposed to study other than the practice tests. You can't do practice tests the whole time. They should only be done when you have a decent grasp of the material. What about when you're first learning it? According to the article, highlighting, summarizing, re-reading, mental imagery, and many others are all out. What's left? It does a great job of criticizing, but doesn't offer anything useful.

Highlighting and taking notes I find useless. All through school and post-secondary, I have gotten good grades just by simply paying attention and listening (it is WAY more interesting) so my experience concurs with the learning study.

Yes! All throughout high school, people would think I was super smart because I did very well in my classes and didn't put in much effort at all. In reality, it all comes down to whether or not you are actually listening to the teacher. Texting while the teacher is talking? You're going to have to go over the material yourself then.

I can't say how well this will go over in college for me yet, but it worked great previously.

Oh, but I still highlight and stuff. :p
 
G

garbage

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Huh, surprising and counterintuitive.

I'd peg underlining and highlighting as enhancements, so to speak, to rereading--if rereading is useless, then perhaps so are they.
Cramming information at the last minute may allow you to get through that test or meeting, but the material will quickly disappear from memory.
Although, bolded is usually all that matters.

One of the linked articles, on implicit learning, is pretty cool, too.
 

Orangey

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Highlighting and taking notes I find useless. All through school and post-secondary, I have gotten good grades just by simply paying attention and listening (it is WAY more interesting) so my experience concurs with the learning study.

Yeah, I didn't usually have to study shit (unless I skipped a bunch of classes) because I listened.
 

cascadeco

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Re. highlighting: I remember doing it in high school, in textbooks, but didn't use it as much in college (as in college I went primarily with my written notes, and didn't often need to refer to the textbooks).

For me, it was the act of highlighting during my first read-through that helped, as it meant I was focusing that much more on what I was reading and what was in fact important.

But I don't recall ever leaning on the highlighted sections upon re-reading; so after-the-fact it was useless for me.

Re-reading worked really well for me, and taking notes/re-reading notes over and over to remember, prior to exams. :shrug: Practice tests, if available, were helpful in some cases.

With the exception of a few classes in h.s. and college, I was never exceptionally good at paying attention.. I'd zone out. Sometimes it was due to my finding the teaching relatively useless, and my thinking I'd be just as well off learning on my own, reading the book, etc prior to the exam (and that worked fine). Also though, I tend to have a pretty poor retention of details (and so many classes/exams are based on knowing the details, and aren't as much about the concepts..at least the classes I took; chem/bio details, definitions, dates/peoples' names, law names, math rules, and so on), so notes were a MUST, and re-reading/drilling in my head was a must. There's no way I would have been able to just go to class and absorb everything and remember all on my own.
 
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