"Becoming a Master Student" by Dave Ellis

• We can change habits by eliminating unwanted ones and adding new ones.
• Success in school and life is largely a matter of cultivating effective habits.
• Facing the truth about a habit frees people.
• After choosing a new habit, promise to use it and make a plan for when and how.
• Before you apply the new behavior, rehearse it in your mind. Mentally picture what actions you will take and in what order.
• You can sometimes rearrange a whole pattern of behaviors by changing one small habit.
• If you want to stop an old behavior then it often works to tell everyone you know that you intend to stop. When you want to start a new behavior consider telling only a few people -- those who truly support your efforts.
• Another way to expand your toolbox is to keep looking for answers.
• Once we’re convinced that we have the answer, it’s easy to stop looking for more answers. We then stop learning. Our range of possible actions becomes limited.
• Study difficult (or “boring”) subjects first.
• Continually avoiding a subject might indicate a trouble area.
• Learn to say no. This is a timesaver and valuable life skill for everyone.
• The overwhelming majority of research indicates that silence is the best form of music for study.
• What is one task I can accomplish toward my goal? Pick out one small accomplishment, preferably one you can complete in about five minutes; then do it.
• Say no to activities that fail to create value for you.
• Managing time is as much about dropping worthless activities as about adding new ones.
• Before rushing to the store to add another possession to your life, see if you can use or adapt something you already own.
• Schedule “downtime” every day -- a period when you’re accountable to no one else and have nothing to accomplish.
• Planning by itself is totally ineffective. Nothing in our lives will change until there is action. The value of planning is that it promotes action.
• Study two hours for every hour in class.
• Quality time counts as much as quantity.
• When possible, study in shorter sessions.
• When you do study in long sessions, stop and rest for a few minutes every hour.
• Set clear starting and stopping times. Tasks often expand to fill the time we allot for them.
• People often discover they can decrease study time by forcing themselves to read faster.
• Goals are specific changes you’d like to make in yourself or your environment. To help make your goals happen, state them as results you can measure or see.
• Writing the plan down keeps it specific and powerful.
• The more you speak about your goals, the more real they become.
• A key part of making any plan work is simply remembering the plan.
• Planning a day or week at a time is a powerful practice. Seeing how your days and weeks fit into a larger picture can yield even more benefits.
• Break big jobs into a series of small ones you can do in 15 minutes or less.
• Do it now. The minute you notice yourself procrastinating, plunge into the task.
• Motivation can come simply from being clear about our goals and acting on them.
• One strategy for succeeding at any task is to hang around the masters.
• When cruising the internet or playing video games, you might find that a whole morning, afternoon, or evening disappears into the digital void. When you choose to play, set a time limit in advance.
• Focus your attention on the here and now.
• A powerful step toward returning to the here and now is to notice when you leave it.
• Goals are merely tools we create to direct our actions right now. They are real only in the here and now.
• The only time to do anything is now.
• Do what you’re doing when you’re doing it. Be where you are when you’re there.
• Money is what we accept in exchange for our life energy -- our time, passion, and effort.
• Money problems result from spending more than is available. It’s that simple. The solution is also simple: Don’t spend more than you have.
• What we call forgetting is either the inability to recall stored information or the failure to store information in the first place.
• Once information is stored in memory, it is never forgotten.
• Short-term memory appears to have a limited capacity, and short-term memory disappears fast.
• The more often you recall information, and the more often you put the same information into your memory, the easier it is to find.
• Pieces of information are easier to recall if you can associate them with similar information.
• After learning something, review quickly.
• Learn from the general to the specific.
• Before you begin your next reading assignment, skim it for the general idea.
• Make it meaningful.
• Know what you want from your education; then look for connections between what you want and what you are studying.
• When information helps you get something you want, it’s easier to remember.
• Create associations.
• Learn it once, actively.
• Action is a great memory enhancer.
• When you sit at your desk, sit up. Sit on the edge of your chair, as if you were about to spring out of it and sprint across the room.
• Also experiment with standing up when you study. It’s harder to fall asleep in this position. Some people insist their brains work better when they stand up.
• Pace back and forth and gesture as you recite material out loud. Use your hands. Get your whole body involved in studying.
• Relax. When we’re relaxed, we absorb new information quicker and recall it with greater accuracy.
• Relaxation is a state of alertness, free of tension, during which our minds can play with new information, roll it around, create associations with it, and apply many of the other memory techniques. We can be active and relaxed.
• Create pictures. Draw diagrams. Make cartoons. Use them to connect facts and illustrate relationships. Relationships within and among abstract concepts can be “seen” and recalled easily when they are visualized. The key is to use your imagination.
• Recite and repeat. When you repeat something out loud, you anchor the concept in two different senses. The “out loud” part is important.
• Repetition is the most common memory device because it works.
• Recitation works best when you recite concepts in your own words.
• Writing a note to yourself helps you remember an idea, even if you never look at the note again. You can extend this technique by writing it down not just once, but many times.
• Writing prompts us to be more logical, coherent, and complete.
• One way to fight mental fuzziness is to learn more than you intended.
• A short review within minutes or hours of a study session can move material from short-term memory into long-term memory.
• Study your most difficult subjects during daylight hours. The early morning hours can be especially productive.
• You can get more done if you take regular breaks.
• When you are stuck and can’t remember something you know you know, remember something else that is related to it.
• Even information stored in long-term memory becomes difficult to recall if we don’t use it regularly.
• To remember something, access it a lot. Read it, write it, speak it, listen to it, apply it -- find some way to make contact with the material regularly.
• Another way to contact the material is to teach it. Teaching demands mastery.
• When you want to remind yourself to do something, link that activity to another event that you know will take place.
• The key is to pick events that are certain to occur.
• Another way to remember something is to tell yourself you will remember it. The intention to remember can be more powerful than any memory technique.
• When you hear a person’s name, repeat it. Immediately say it to yourself several times without moving your lips.
• When meeting a group of people, concentrate on remembering just two or three names.
• The idea behind Muscle Reading is that your textbooks have something you want. They offer knowledge and valuable information. Sometimes the value is so buried that extracting it requires skill and energy. Muscle Reading is a three-phase technique you can use to accomplish that extraction. Each of the three phases has three steps. To assist your recall of all nine steps, memorize three short sentences:
• Pry out questions
• Root up answers
• Recite, review, and review again
• Muscle Reading:
• Before you read: Pry out questions.
• Preview
• Outline
• Question
• While you read: Root up answers.
• Read
• Underline
• Answer
• After you read: Recite, review, and review again.
• Recite
• Review
• Review again
• The main point is to preview, read, and review.
• When previewing, look for familiar concepts, facts, or ideas. These items can help link new information to previously learned material.
• With complex material, take time to understand the structure of what you are about to read.
• Ask yourself what you want from an assignment before you begin reading.
• Knowledge is born of questions.
• The purpose of making up questions is to get your brain involved in the assignment.
• Boredom and fatigue tend to disappear when you’re busy finding answers.
• Deface your books. Use them up.
• The purpose of making marks in a text is to create signals for reviewing. Underlining or highlighting can save lots of time when you study for tests.
• If you mark up too much on a page, you defeat the purpose, which is to flag the most important material for review.
• Talk to yourself about what you have read.
• One way to get yourself to remember is to look at each underlined point. Note what you marked, then put the book down and start talking out loud. Explain as much as you can about that particular point.
• Plan to do your first complete review within 24 hours of reading the material. Sound the trumpets, this is critical: A review within 24 hours moves information from your short-term memory to your long-term memory.
• One of the characteristics of memory is that even when you cannot recall something immediately, you can relearn it more easily if you have already learned it once.
• The final step in Muscle Reading is the weekly or monthly review.
• Develop a habit of regular review.
• One way to read faster is to read faster. The fact is, most people can read faster simply by making a conscious effort to do so.
• Your eyes can move faster if they take in more words with each burst. You can do this by following your finger as you read. The faster your finger moves, the faster your eyes move.
• Our eyes also make regressions. That is, they back up and reread words. Ineffective readers and beginning reader make many regressions. You can reduce regressions by paying attention to them.
• Another way to read feaster is to avoid vocalizing. To stop doing it, just be aware of it.
• Children’s books, especially children’s encyclopedias, can provide useful overviews of baffling subjects.
• Effective note taking consists of three parts: observing, recording, and reviewing.
• Students who get as close as possible to the front and center of the classroom often do better on tests for several reasons.
• Conduct a short pre-class review. Arrive early, then put your brain in gear by reviewing your notes from the previous class.
• Look the instructor in the eye.
• Repetition is a signal that the instructor thinks the information is important.
• Copy all diagrams and drawings, equations, names, places, dates, statistics, and definitions.
• Cornell note taking method:
• On each page of your notes, draw a vertical line, top to bottom, 1 ½ inches from the left edge of the paper.
• Write your notes to the right of the line.
• Reserve the area to the left of the line for key word clues and sample questions.
• Fill in the left-hand column when you review your notes.
• Copy material from the board. Record all formulas, diagrams, and problems. Copy dates, numbers, names, places, and other facts. If it’s on the board, put it in your notes.
• Use only one side of a piece of paper.
• When understanding is critical, print. When an important idea must be letter-perfect, print it.
• A key to successful test preparation is managing review time.
• One of the most effective ways to prepare for a test is to practice the tasks you’ll actually do on the test.
• Answer the easiest, shortest questions first. Next answer multiple choice, true/false, and fill-in-the-blank questions. Then proceed to short-answer and essay questions.
• Look for answers in other test questions.
• In quick-answer questions, your first instinct is usually best.
• Answer each question in your head before you look at the possible answers.
• You can calm physical sensations within your body by focusing your attention on your breathing.
• Math and science courses are often text-driven. That is, class activities follow the format of the book closely. This makes it doubly important to master your reading assignments. It’s crucial to master one concept before going on to the next and to stay current with your reading.
• Success in math and science depends on your active involvement. Attending class regularly, coming to class with homework finished, speaking up when you have a question, and seeking extra help can be crucial.
• In any subject, learning comes when we ask questions. And there are no dumb questions. To master math and science, ask whatever questions will aid your understanding.
• Math and science are cumulative. That is, concepts tend to build upon each other in sequential order.
• Estimation is a good way to double check your work.
• Cramming won’t work if you neglected all the reading assignments or if you skipped all the lectures except the ones you daydreamed through.
• The key to cramming is repetitive recitation. Recitation can burn facts into your brain like no other study method.
• A creative environment is one in which failure is not fatal.
• Mistakes are part of the learning process.
• Not only are mistakes usually more interesting than most success -- they’re often more instructive.
• Mistakes are not an end in themselves. Rather, their value lies in what we learn from them.
• Attachments are addictions. When we are attached to something, we think we cannot live without it, just as a drug addict feels he cannot live without drugs. We believe our well-being depends on fulfilling our attachments.
• Practice observer consciousness. This is the quiet state above and beyond your usual thoughts, the place where you can be aware of being aware.
• Pay attention to your emotions and physical sensations.
• Put current circumstances into a larger perspective.
• Take a moment to consider the worst that could happen.
• Practice breathing. Calm your mind and body with breathing or relaxation techniques.
• When we are detached, we perform better.
• People can often get more done by sharing their skills and resources than by working alone.
• Limit groups to five or six people. Larger groups are unwieldy.
• A habit is the point where desire, knowledge, and skill meet. Desire is about wanting to do something. Knowledge is seeing what to do. And skill is understanding how to do it.
• Plan your week.
• If you’re pressed for time, get up 15 minutes earlier or stay up 15 minutes later.
• Review your subjects before you start classes.
• When you meet people whom you consider to be excellent learners, observe them. Isolate specific things they do and say to promote their mastery. Then imitate one of these behaviors.
• Society depends on persuasion.
• Critical thinking underlies reading, writing, speaking, and listening. These are the basic elements of communication -- a process that occupies most of our waking hours.
• Critical thinking also helps us uncover bias and prejudice.
• Be constantly on the lookout for thinking that’s inaccurate, sloppy, or misleading.
• Critical thinking is a path to freedom from half-truths and deception. You have the right to question what you see, hear, and read.
• Thorough thinking is the ability to examine and re-examine ideas that may seem obvious. Such thinking takes time and the willingness to say three subversive words: I don’t know.
• Thorough thinking is also the willingness to change our point of view as we continue to examine a problem.
• Skilled students are thorough thinkers. Yet no one is born a thorough thinker. This is a learned skill.
• Begin with creative thinking, a powerful starting point for critical thinking.
• Brainstorming is a technique for finding solutions, creating plans, and discovering new ideas. The purpose of brainstorming is to generate as many solutions as possible.
• Creative thinking:
• Formulate the issue or problem precisely by writing it down.
• Set a time limit for your brainstorming session.
• Sit quietly for a few seconds to collect your thoughts.
• Write down everything. Accept every idea.
• Avoid making judgements and evaluations during the brainstorming session.
• After the session, review, evaluate, and edit.
• Let go of the need for a particular solution.
• Relax. Creativity is enhanced by a state of relaxed alertness. If you are tense or anxious, use some of the relaxation techniques throughout the text.
• Set a quota or goal for the number of solutions you want to generate.
• Focusing and letting go are alternating parts of the same process. Intense focus taps resources of your conscious mind. Letting go gives your subconscious mind time to work.
• Focusing attention means being in the here and now. To focus your attention on a project, notice when you pay attention and notice when your mind wanders.
• You can use your body to focus your concentration.
• Be willing to accept conflict, tension, and discomfort.
• Take a nap when you are tired.
• To fuel your creativity, read voraciously, including newspapers and magazines.
• Turn a problem upside down by picking a solution first, before you know it will work, and working backward.
• Creativity is the ability to discover those new combinations.
• To capture your ideas, keep a notebook by your bed at all times.
• Genius resides in the follow-through -- the application of perspiration to inspiration.
• Critical thinkers want to know the truth. They are willing to consider and even accept ideas that undermine their assumptions or self-interest.
• The critical thinker recognizes statements that call for evidence.
• The critical thinker is willing to seek truth, listen with an open mind, and do the hard and useful work of thinking.
• The critical thinker wants to know.
• As a mature person, the critical thinker possesses a wisdom born of experience.
• Be willing to say “I don’t know.”
• Critical thinking demands that we take time to understand an idea before rejecting or modifying it. One mark of skilled debaters is that they can sum up the viewpoints they disagree with -- often better than the people who hold those viewpoints can.
• Read magazines and books that challenge the opinions you currently hold.
• Four questions that sum up the whole task of thinking about another person’s ideas:
• What is the writing or speech about as a whole?
• What is being said in detail, and how?
• Is it true?
• What of it?
• Uncritical thinkers shield themselves from new information and ideas. In contrast, scientists constantly look for facts that contradict their theories.
• You stay more alert and creative when you’re on your feet.
• Letting our assumptions remain subconscious can erect barriers to our success.
• When we remain ignorant of our assumptions, we make it easier for people with hidden agendas to do our thinking for us.
• You can follow a three-step method for testing the validity of any viewpoint:
• Look for assumptions -- the implied assertions.
• Write out these assertions.
• See if you can find any exceptions to them. This helps detect many errors in logic.
• One mark of a skilled thinker is the ability to explain a complex subject in terms that non-specialists can understand.
• The ability to organize ideas in outline form represents a high degree of thinking skill.
• Jumping to conclusions is a fallacy that involves drawing conclusions without sufficient evidence.
• People who indulge in personal attacks are attempting an intellectual sleight of hand -- trying to divert our attention from the truly relevant issues.
• Appealing to authority is usually a substitute for producing real evidence.
• Just because one event follows another does not mean that the two events have a cause-effect relationship.
• All-or-nothing thinking is one of the most common errors in logic.
• When we know specifically what we want from life, making decisions can become easier.
• To avoid brainwashing, practice critical thinking.
• Problems stimulate us and pull us forward.
• One way to handle little problems is to find bigger problems.
• Realize that you can make a difference. Your thoughts and actions can change the quality of life on the planet.
• Without planning, we can end up completing jobs of low priority.
• Success breeds success.
• Define the problem, generate possibilities, create a plan, and perform your plan.
• To define a problem effectively, understand what a problem is -- a mismatch between what you want and what you have. Problem solving is all about reducing the gap between these two factors.
• Putting your thoughts on paper forces us to be more accurate and precise when defining a problem.
• Practice. Work lots of problems. Do assigned problems and more. The more problems you do, the more comfortable you’re likely to feel solving new ones.
• Work problems backward, then forward. Start at both ends and work toward the middle to check your work.
• Another way to check your work is to estimate the answer before you compute it.
• Writing is also a powerful way to learn.
• Clarify what you want to say by summarizing it in one sentence.
• Writing flows from a purpose. This means your writing is more effective when you know exactly what your purpose is.
• If you want someone to think differently, make your writing clear and logical. Support your assertions with evidence.
• Write the way you talk.
• Welcome getting stuck. A breakthrough is not far behind it.
• Avoid at all costs and at all times the really, really terrible mistake of using way too many unnecessary words.
• In general, write with nouns and verbs. Relying too much on adjectives and adverbs weakens your message and adds unnecessary bulk to your writing. Write about the details, and be specific. Also, use the active rather than the passive voice.
• Reading your paper out loud is one way to spot awkward sentences.
• Using another person’s words without giving proper credit is called plagiarism.
• To make an effective speech, be precise about your purpose.
• At the end of the speech, summarize your points and draw your conclusion.
• The first and last parts of a speech are the most important.
• The key to successful public speaking is practice.
• The possibility of succeeding at any venture increases when we’re comfortable with making mistakes.
• Listening is not easy. Doing it effectively requires concentration and energy.
• To be a good listener, decide to listen.
• Look at the other person while he speaks. It demonstrates your attention and it helps keep your mind from wandering.
• When communication is emotionally charged, psychologist Thomas Gordon suggests that you consider limiting your statements to descriptions about yourself.
• We use questions that aren’t questions to sneak our opinions and requests into conversations, without owning up to them publicly.
• How you say something can be more important than what you say.
• You are far more likely to get what you want if you say what you want.
• Of all the factors that affect relationships, the biggest is communication.
• Let go of the reluctance that many people feel toward assuming leadership.
• The more important and influential you are, the more likely your mistakes will have huge consequences.
• People in leadership positions become paralyzed and ineffective if they fear making a mistake.
• Leaders make promises. And effective leaders make big promises.
• As a leader, constantly give away the praise and acknowledgement that you receive.
• Assertive behavior is a sign of a healthy, strong leader. Assertive people are confident and respectful of others as well as themselves. They ask directly for what they want without feeling embarrassed or inadequate.
• As a leader, be aware of what other people are thinking, feeling, and wanting.
• Leadership is an acquired skill.
• You are what you eat.
• The formula for weight loss is simple: eat better food, eat less food, and exercise.
• If you can’t fall asleep after 30 minutes, get up and study or do something else until you’re tired.
• Seek the counsel of experienced people you respect and admire.
• Attitudes are powerful because they create behavior.
• An affirmation is a statement describing what you want. The most effective affirmations are personal, positive, and written in the present tense.
• To use affirmations, first determine what you want, then describe yourself as if you already have it.
• What makes affirmation work is detail.
• Once you have written the affirmation, repeat it. Practice saying it aloud several times a day.