School

[lydy]

So I've finished my first week of school and am embarking on my second. It's rather surreal. At least some of it is like riding a bicycle, it comes back even though I haven't been in a formal class room for more than ten years and the last time I was a serious student it was 1980.

What isn't coming as easily is the rote memorization. My psychology and biology texts are full of three of this and a four of that and seventeen of the other. I don't know how the tests will be structured, so I don't know how thoroughly I need to memorize the various lists. And there really are too many of them, I genuinely think that I cannot memorize all of them. All I can hope for are multiple choice tests. If I'm asked to list the seven characteristics of life, cold, gods know which ones I'll remember. Generally, I remember five, although not the same five from moment to moment. It doesn't help that at least one of the characteristics, that of having an evolutionary history, seems to me to be completely arbitrary. There was a first living molecule somewhere, and it didn't have an evolutionary history, so that by definition makes it not alive, and that cascades...

I am not happy with my psychology professor at the moment, either. Today in class he said that because people have free will, they don't have instincts, but that animals do have instincts. People have reflexes. Since he didn't define free will, and his definition of instincts and reflexes were remarkably similar, I don't think he carried his point at all. But I was a good student and didn't argue.

Unsurprisingly, the class I like and am doing best in is Intro Algebra. I did a bunch of prep work, trying to test out of this class. I didn't manage to test out, but most of the information is dead familiar. One of the classes I took ten years ago was Algebra, and I did very well in it. Besides, math isn't based on rote memorization, really. Except for the arithmetic part of it. The rest of it builds up logically, at least, at this level. Somewhere around calculus I'm given to understand it starts doing the wacky, but early algebra it's as well behaved as ever can be. I like my math teacher well enough, as well, so that works out.

So that's the big thing in my life and will continue to be so unless I screw up real bad. I guess I should go do some homework, now.

Comments

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

flashcards are a goodness for rote memorization.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

Write things down, by hand, repeatedly as needed. Hand memory was a big help to me. In my mid-20s when I started college, I was already losing the ability to memorize huge chunks of senseless material. Algebra made sense, so I could remember that (or reconstruct it -- the old Unit Circle was a big help in trig).

How much psychology are you taking? I liked the intro classes (1 or 2, I don't recall) because it was mostly weird anecdotes about people who weren't normal. I didn't stay with it, because it would have soon turned into me going around with a clipboard asking people questions, and I wasn't into that.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

I'm only taking the amount of Psychology necessary for my "major", which means just Intro. My "major" is Polysomnographic Technology, which is a fancy way of saying sleep tech. I want to be one of the people that wires up patients and watches them sleep. For money. Not, alas, bunches and bunches of money, it is only a tech position, after all. On the other hand, it's a night job, which will make my life much easier. I've lost several jobs now because I can't get up in the morning. Life in the corporate world has become too difficult.

I'm putting "major" in scare quotes because it's not a major in any normal sense of the word. What I'm doing is going to trade school. A dozen years ago I'd have been too proud to do any such thing. The only real education is a four year degree from an accredited college or university... But you know, I'm too old for that. I need to do something now-ish that will lead more or less directly to a job. This should do that. Two years is already a really long time.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

I managed to be the first in my immediate family (parents excepted) to get a degree by the simple expedient of going for an AA. I also went to Voc-Tech, parallel to high school, for two years of electronics that I never used.

I started college right after marrying Cathy: full-time at first, and gradually work took over until I was taking just one class per semester. As I got less and less gruntled with being a secretary in the math department, Cathy offered me the chance to drop out and get a two-year degree. Adding in all the stuff I'd already taken, they allowed me to get it in just two years. I was able to use Bluto's line, "Seven years of college shot to hell!"

But I got a job right out of school. A couple weeks before graduating, in fact -- they called me. I worked there for fifteen years, and at the end of that time, I had lost my ability to get any other job in the art field. Lucky for me my sister sends me some work laying out books at home.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

there was a first living molecule somewhere, and it didn't have an evolutionary history, so that by definition makes it not alive, and that cascades...

The more we learn about this the blurrier it looks; if the first long-chain organic molecules formed by catalysis of component parts on the surface of a clay with a regular crystal structure capable of patterned growth, which side of that process do we want to deem alive and which not ?

My take on calculus is that differential is intuitive and integral isn;t, but people do seem to vary very widely on this.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

None of calculus was intuitive for me. After years of getting an A on every math course, I hit the wall.

ps to my above: In Art History, I drew a sketch of every work of art, and made a flash card from it. Worked like a charm, or maybe I would have done well in it anyway... but it felt like that wouldn't have happened without the work.

[sethb.livejournal.com]

It doesn't matter what you define as the original life; whatever it was, it had no evolutionary history.

Differential calculus is easier because you just apply rules mechanically and get the answer. Integral requires problem-solving; there are heuristics but no algorithms (in general).

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

While they have "definitions" of life, they aren't satisfactory. Until we have a satisfactory one, well. Anyway, they didn't say the "evolutionary history" must include only *living* things, did they? So it goes back through all those non-living precursor molecules.

Math goes by pairs of operations; in each pair the first is strictly mechanical, the second requires some creativity. The second is always much harder to learn to do than the first (and the teach methods are poorer I think). Addition and subtraction, then multiplication and division, then differentiation and integration.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

It was alive when it got its first junk mail.

For the record, it said "You May Already Have Evolved! See Inside For Details!"

[lydy.livejournal.com]

I am fortunately not going to have to go onto calculus. I can get by with just Intro to Algebra, I don't even have to take Algebra. Algebra'd be fun, I had a blast when I took it 10 years ago, but every class costs $$$ and takes time. I want to be out of this as expeditiously as possible. I hate to treat school as a business, I was always a bit shocked by people who did so, but here I am. Get me in, get me out, with as little strife as possible. Huh. Worm: turned.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

For me, the best thing about calculus was that it gave meaning to all the math that I took in high school -- especially the stuff I didn't particularly enjoy.

Go Lydy, go!

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I second the "write things down" suggestion. Make flash cards. Make the same ones over and over if need be to retain the material. And use them. Leave old ones in the bathroom, in your pockets. Instead of more pleasure reading before bed... studying as much as need be.

K.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

I acknowledge the need for flashcards, but I must also profess a profound hatred of them.

The Bio book has an online component which actually has little electronic flash cards, which is helpful.

I was never much on this rote memorization thing. I can't remember any of the myriad of Bible verses I memorized as a child except "Jesus wept" and the only catechism question I remember the answer to is "What is sin?" (None of your smart remarks, it was my parents' obsession, not mine, that caused that one to be drilled into my head.) (Oh, and the answer to that from the Children's Westminister Catechism of Faith is, "Any want of conformity unto or transgression of the Law of God.)

[jiawen]

There are lots of tricks to make flashcards more effective: make them in colors (and, say, color-code Brenner's 13 Signs Someone Isn't Conscious all in orange); draw pictures on them; go through them in small groups (usually 6-8 works best for me) and then draw out the tough ones from each group and do the tough ones in small groups.

Or if flashcards don't work at all for you, try drawing pictures. Or just copying out lists longhand. Different methods work for different people.

Another favorite of mine is study groups. Get together with a half-dozen classmates and go over the material. If you learn by saying and hearing things repeated, this is a great way to do it. Plus, it's one of the best ways of meeting cool people that exists.

Sorry if you already knew all of that...

By the way, stop by my office sometime! It's H.4120. I'm there Monday and Thursday afternoons.

[mom23cats.livejournal.com]

I had many problems with the rote memory too....and often had to learn silly little sayings to help remember important things...like : Some Lovers try positions that they cannot handle helps me to remember the wrist bones!

I took the state licensing exam almost 2 weeks ago and am waiting for results. Not sure if I passed or failed. I hate multiple choice questions where they give 2 right answers but are looking for the "best" answer.

Go, You!

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

Here's hoping the rest of your classes become more like your Algebra class in the very near future....

[mplsvala.livejournal.com]

Woot. Cool that you are in school. Quite different when you're older isn't it. Interesting career choice. Good luck with swift progress.

My addition to the suggestions is use as many different memory systems on the same data set as possible. Writing it out, speaking it, visualizing it, drawing it, whatever. Research shows that the more types of memory used, the more you will remember longer.

Memory

[marsgov.livejournal.com]

1) First of all, kudos on your progress so far. Keep up the good work.

2) You're exercising brain muscles that you haven't used in a long while. Don't be surprised if your brain is a little sore at the end of the day; also don't be surprised when your brain starts to limber up and remember more easily.

3) Finally, kudos on your progress so far. Keep up the good work.