学会如何学习学习笔记——4. 4复兴式学习与释放你的潜能——​​​​​​​测验清单，先难后易

测验清单

We've mentioned it earlier, but it's worth repeating. Testing is itself an extraordinarily powerful learning experience. This means that the effort you put into test-taking, including the preliminary mini-test of your recall and your ability to problem solve during your preparation is of fundamental importance. If you compare how much you learn by spending one hour studying versus one hour taking a test on that same material, you'll retain and learn far more as a result of the hour you spent taking a test.

Testing, it seems has a wonderful way of concentrating the mind. Virtually, everything we've talked about in this course has been designed to help make the testing process seem straightforward and natural, simply an extension of the normal procedures you use to learn the material.

So, it's time now to cut directly to one of the final features of this course, a checklist you can use to see whether your preparation for test-taking is on target. This checklist was developed by legendary educator, Richard Felder. Although it was originally developed for engineers, it's actually suitable for many disciplines. As Doctor Felder says, the answer to the question, how should I prepare for the test, is do whatever it takes to be able to answer "yes", meaning usually to most of the questions on this list. Did you make a serious effort to understand the text? Just hunting for relevant worked-out examples doesn't count. Did you work with classmates on homework problems or at least check your solutions with others? Did you attempt to outline every homework problem solution before working with classmates? Did you participate actively in homework group discussions, contributing ideas and asking questions? Did you consult with the instructor or teaching assistants when you were having trouble with something? Did you understand all your homework problem solutions when they were handed in? Did you ask in class for explanations of homework problem solutions that weren't clear to you? If you had a study guide, did you carefully go through it before the test and convince yourself you could do everything on it? Did you attempt to outline lots of problem solutions quickly without spending time on the algebra and calculations? Did you go for the study guide and problems with classmates and quiz one another? If there was a review session before the test, did you attended and asked questions about anything you weren't sure about? Lastly, did you get a reasonable night's sleep before the test? If your answer is no, your answers to all the preceding questions may not matter. Taking a test is serious business. Just as fighter pilots and doctors go through checklists before takeoff and surgery, going through your own test preparation checklist can vastly improve your chances of success. The answer to the question, how should I prepare for the test, becomes clear once you've filled our Doctor Felder checklist. I'm Barbara Oakley. Thanks for Learning How to Learn.

我们之前提到过，但值得重复一遍。测试本身是一种非常强大的学习经历。这意味着你在考试中所付出的努力，包括在准备过程中进行的初步回忆和解决问题能力的小型测试，具有至关重要的意义。如果你比较一下花一个小时学习和花一个小时在同一材料上进行测试所学到的东西，你会发现通过参加测试所花费的一个小时，你能够更好地记住和学到更多知识。

测试似乎有一种奇妙的方式来集中注意力。实际上，我们在本课程中讨论的所有内容都是为了帮助使测试过程看起来简单自然，只是你用来学习材料的常规程序的延伸。

现在是时候直接进入本课程的一个最终特点了，即你可以使用的一份检查清单，以查看你的考试准备是否准确。这份检查清单是由传奇教育家理查德·费尔德（Richard Felder）开发的。尽管它最初是为工程师设计的，但实际上适用于许多学科。正如费尔德博士所说，关于“我应该如何准备考试”的问题的答案就是尽一切努力能够回答“是”，通常意味着对列表中的大多数问题都能回答。你是否认真努力理解文本？仅仅寻找相关的已解决示例并不计算在内。你是否与同学一起做作业问题或至少与他人核对解决方案？你是否尝试在与同学合作之前概述每个作业问题的解决方案？你是否积极参与作业小组讨论，提出想法并提问？当你遇到困难时，你是否向讲师或助教咨询？你是否理解所有提交的作业问题解决方案？你是否在课堂上要求解释对你来说不清楚的作业问题解决方案？如果你有学习指南，你是否在考试前仔细阅读并确信自己能够完成其中的所有内容？你是否尝试快速概述大量问题解决方案，而不花费时间在代数和计算上？你是否与同学一起使用学习指南和问题互相测验？如果考试前有复习课，你是否参加并在不确定的地方提问？最后，你是否在考试前睡了个好觉？如果你的回答是否定的，那么你对所有前面问题的答案可能都不重要。参加考试是一件严肃的事情。就像战斗机飞行员和医生在起飞和手术前进行检查清单一样，通过你自己的考试准备检查清单可以极大地提高你的成功机会。一旦你填写了费尔德博士的检查清单，关于“我应该如何准备考试”的问题的答案就会变得清晰明了。感谢你们学习如何学习。

先难后易

Now that you've gotten some insight into how your brain works, we can give you some final useful tricks that can empower your test taking. The classic way students are taught to approach tests is to tackle the easiest problems first. This is based on the idea that by the time you finish the relatively simple problems, you'll be confident in handling the more difficult. This approach works for some people, mostly because, well, anything works for some people. Unfortunately, however for many people, it's counterproductive. Tough problems often need lots of time, meaning you'd want to start on them first thing on a test. Difficult problems can also scream for the creative powers of the diffuse mode. But to access the diffuse mode, you need to not be focusing on what you so badly want to solve. What to do? Easy problems first or hard? The answer is to start with the hard problems, but quickly jump to the easy ones. Here's what I mean. When the test is first handed out to you, first, take a quick look to get a sense of what it involves. You should do this in any case. Then, when you start working the problems, start first with what appears to be the hardest problem. But steel yourself to pull away within the first minute or two, if you get stuck or you get a sense so you might not be on the right track. This does something exceptionally helpful.

Starting hard, loads the first most difficult problem in mind and then switches attention away from it. Both these activities are what allow the diffuse mode to begin its work. If your initial work on the first hard problem has unsettled you, turn next to an easy problem. Complete or do as much as you can. Then move next to another difficult looking problem and try to make a bit of progress. Again, change to something easier as soon as you feel yourself getting bogged down or stuck. When you return to the more difficult problems, you'll often be pleased that the next step or steps in the problem was seemed to be more obvious to you. You may not be able to get all the way to the end immediately but at least you can get further before you switch to something else of which you can make progress.

In some sense, with this approach to test taking, you're being a little like an efficient chef. While you're waiting for a steak to fry, you can swiftly slice the tomato garnish and turn to season the soup, and then stir the sizzling onions, the hard start-jump to easy technique, may make more efficient use of your brain by allowing different parts of the brain to work simultaneously on different thoughts. Using the hard start-jump to easy technique on tests guarantees that you will have at least a little work done on every problem, it's also a valuable technique for helping you avoid einstellung, getting stuck on the wrong approach because you have a chance to look at the problem from differing perspectives. All of this is particularly important if your instructor gives you partial credit.

The only trick with this approach is that you must have the self discipline to pull yourself off a problem once you find yourself stuck for a minute or two. For most students, it's easy. For others, it takes discipline and willpower. This may be why test takers sometimes find that the solution pops to mind, "right as they walk out the door." When they give up, their attention switched allowing the diffuse mode, the tiny bit of traction it needed to go to work and return the solution. Too late of course. Sometimes people are concerned that starting a problem and then pulling away from it, might cause confusion on an examination. This doesn't seem to be a problem for most people. After all, chefs learn to bring various facets of a dinner together, but if you still have worries about whether this strategy might work for you, try it first on homework problems. Also keep in mind, that if you haven't prepared well for a test, then all bets are off. Just take what simple points you can. I'm Barbara Oakley. Thanks for learning, how to learn.

既然你已经对大脑的工作原理有了一定的了解，我们可以给你一些最终有用的技巧来提高你的考试能力。学生们被教导应对考试的经典方法是先解决最简单的问题。这种方法基于一个想法，即当你完成相对简单的问题时，你就会有信心处理更困难的问题。这种方法对一些人有效，主要是因为，嗯，对某些人来说任何方法都有效。然而，不幸的是，对许多人来说，这是适得其反的。难题通常需要很多时间，这意味着你希望在考试一开始就开始解决它们。难题也需要发挥扩散模式的创造力。但是要进入扩散模式，你需要不专注于你非常想解决的问题。该怎么办？先做简单题还是难题？答案是从难题开始，但迅速跳到简单题上。我的意思是，当考试第一次发给你时，首先快速浏览一下以了解它涉及的内容。无论如何你都应该这样做。然后，当你开始解决问题时，首先从看起来最难的问题开始。但是如果你遇到困难或者感觉你可能没有走在正确的轨道上，那么在一两分钟内坚定地转移注意力。这会起到非常有帮助的作用。

从难题开始，将第一个最困难的问题加载到脑海中，然后将注意力从它身上转移开。这两个活动都是让扩散模式开始工作的原因。如果你最初在第一个难题上的工作让你感到不安，那么接下来转到一个简单的问题上。完成或尽可能多地完成它。然后转到另一个看似困难的问题并尝试取得一些进展。同样，一旦你感到自己陷入困境或卡住时，立即切换到更容易的事情上。当你回到更难的问题时，你经常会高兴地发现问题的下一步或几步对你来说似乎更加明显了。你可能无法立即完成所有问题，但至少在你切换到其他可以取得进展的事情之前你可以走得更远。

在某种程度上，用这种应试方法，你有点像一个高效的厨师。当你等待牛排煎炸时，你可以迅速地切片番茄装饰并转向调味汤，然后搅拌着嘶嘶作响的洋葱。从难题跳到简单题的技巧可能会更有效地利用你的大脑，因为它允许大脑的不同部分同时思考不同的问题。在考试中使用从难题跳到简单题的技巧可以确保你对每个问题至少做了一点工作，这也是帮助你避免思维定势、陷入错误方法的重要技巧，因为你有机会从不同的角度看待问题。如果你的老师给予部分分数的话，所有这些都尤为重要。

这种方法的唯一技巧是你必须有足够的自律力，一旦发现自己卡住了一两分钟就从问题中解脱出来。对大多数学生来说这很容易。对其他人来说，这需要纪律和意志力。这也许解释了为什么有些考生有时会发现答案“就在他们走出门的那一刻”闪现在他们脑海中。当他们放弃时，他们的注意力转移开来，允许扩散模式发挥作用并返回解决方案。当然为时已晚。有时人们担心从一个问题上开始然后离开它可能会导致考试上的困惑。这对大多数人来说似乎不是问题。毕竟，厨师们学会将晚餐的各个方面融合在一起，但如果你还担心这种策略是否适用于你，请先在家庭作业问题上尝试一下。还要记住的是，如果你没有为考试做好准备，那么所有的努力都将白费。只需掌握简单的要点即可。感谢你们学习如何学习。