Review: How to Study - George Fillmore Swain

[rvenkat]

This book is a guide for students on how to study. It is a classic, written in 1917, and published
by McGraw-Hill.

The students of today, in 2016, will find it hard to relate to the style of writing. For example,
they won't appreciate more than two conjunctions in a sentence, and hence, it's a hard sell to
make young adults read this book with interest. Nevertheless, for subject matter expertise
and content, this book is great. It's a treasure cove of guidelines, which can be implemented
practically by anyone to thoroughly study.

Here are some guidelines that I really concur with:

1. Having the right mental attitude of mental courage and determination to understand
the subject
2. Not merely reading the words but understanding the subject
3. Distinguishing facts from conclusions and opinions and keeping a watch on what are
author's conclusions and opinions as against facts
4. Continuously discriminating and questioning till getting to the truth.
5. Keeping a watch on the reliability and credibility of the writer.
6. Quoting "The dictum of Bacon".
7. Studying with an open mind with no preconceived ideas.
8. To see clearly what you know and what you do not know, and pursue
learning what you do not know about the subject of choice.
9. Student qualities: Mental courage, self-reliance, discrimination, modesty,
and caution - in proper proportions
10. Defining knowledge to be 'clear, distinct, adequate, and intuitive'.
11. Encouraging the students to take an introductory course in logic.
12. using everyday language while expressing even technical ideas/details.
13. How to analyze a statement made by the author, while studying.
14. Concluding or making an assumption without logical demonstration
being made should be avoided.
15. Re-reading many times and analyzing from different angles.
16. Cataloging and arranging what is already known on the subject.

I didn't quite agree when author sets the goal as wisdom rather than knowledge
for studying. Yes, wisdom would be the desirable consequence
of learning when the student uses their good judgement along with knowledge
to make a decision or act, but wisdom is clearly outside the boundary of the
domain of learning and acquiring knowledge. Probably, once the learning is
complete, and while applying the knowledge to real life situations, the student
should use their best judgement (wisdom) to act on that situation.

I also didn't quite understand the point that student should strive towards forming
definite ideas about the subject. While striving towards truth is the goal, and
facts are the milestones and guide-posts to go towards that goal, I would not form
a definite idea of what the goal would look like. Because it becomes a conclusion
after all, which prevents one from being not having preconceived notions.

I liked the example of interior of globe as 'memorized' by the class rather
than being understood by the students, while stressing the need to understand
rather than just mugging up and vomiting when asked to answer.

I totally loved the three book references made at the end of the book, which
will serve as the continuation points towards my quest to learn more about how
to learn. The references may also be helpful for me as a coach, trainer and
a speaker.

4 out of 5.