How to Study

by George Fillmore Swain

IV

MENTAL INITIATIVE

It will become evident from the foregoing that a fourth essential for proper study is mental initiative. The student must have a definite purpose, and must do what is the proper thing without it being suggested to him. He must not simply do as he is told. If he have not initiative and cannot develop it, he will probably never study intelligently, nor gain a thorough understanding of what he reads, but will merely memorize.

Memory is a most important faculty; it is not, however, a substitute for thought, but should be based upon it. Thinking is essential in order to decide what to memorize. Memory, however, is often made the sole factor in study. Fundamental principles should frequently be memorized, so that by numberless repetitions they may be permanently impressed upon the consciousness, and can be repeated verbatim as a guide in any concrete case where they are to be applied.

Some suggestions may be useful as to the use and cultivation of mental initiative.

(a) CULTIVATE AN INTEREST IN WHAT YOU ARE STUDYING, AND SOME IDEA OF WHAT IT LEADS TO.—Without interest your study will be perfunctory and of little use to you. Make yourself believe that for you, at that time, it is the most important thing in the world. It is of course true that in most schools students are required to study definite subjects according to a curriculum arranged by the faculty. In some of these subjects a student may take little interest; indeed they may be so foreign to his natural tastes that he is not able to cultivate any interest in them. In such a case his study of them will be of little value to him. If, relying upon the judgment of those who prescribe the curriculum as necessary or desirable for the object which he has in view, he cannot persuade himself that they have value for him or make himself take an interest in them, it would probably be better for him to drop them even though he may thereby become a special student in the school or lose his degree. A degree which simply means slipshod, unintelligent and uninterested study of a considerable number of subjects embraced in the curriculum, is verily a "scrap of paper" not worth having. If you wish to concentrate your entire attention upon certain subjects in which you take an active interest you may become proficient in those, but you may become very narrow minded and altogether lacking in that all-around breadth of view which comes from the cultivation of other subjects which well informed men consider necessary.

(b) INSIST UPON FIRST CLEARLY FORMULATING THE PROBLEM, IF ONE IS BEFORE YOU.—Many students literally do not know what they are doing, because they neglect this injunction, which is a necessary corollary of the necessity of forming definite ideas. Do not proceed to endeavor to solve the problem until it is clearly formulated, no matter how long it may take. See what the data of the problem are, whether definite or not, and what is required. See also how variations of the data, if indefinite, would affect the result.

(c) WORK INDEPENDENTLY OF OTHERS.—Solve your own difficulties and welcome them. Do not expect things to be easy. You will never gain strength by being shown, but only by the exercise of your own unaided powers. Therefore, do everything for yourself, so far as possible. Seek only suggestions from your teacher, when you need help, except in regard to mere matters of fact, which you could not be expected to reason out. Let the suggestions be as slight as possible.

If you have problems assigned, solve them entirely by yourself, even if you make mistakes. Then, when those mistakes are pointed out, consider them with great care and discover the causes for them, and remedy them, so that you will not again make the same mistake or one analogous to it. You should delight in discovering difficulties which give you an opportunity to test and increase your strength and so avoid future errors. In the same way, examinations should be welcomed, not dreaded. The teacher does not mark you—you mark yourself; the teacher merely records the mark. Even if you fail in the examination, that should indicate to you what you lack, and so be a benefit. Indeed, it is better to fail than to scrape through.[[1]] There must be a line somewhere. The man just above the line passes, and the man just below the line fails. The former may not be as capable as the latter, but, having passed, he does not remedy his faults; while the man who has failed is required to remedy his. Huxley said that the next best thing to being right is to be completely and wholesomely wrong.

(d) DRAW YOUR OWN CONCLUSIONS, WHENEVER POSSIBLE, BEFORE YOU KNOW THOSE OF THE WRITER You ARE STUDYING.—When you read, "From the above it is evident," stop, close the book, and see if you can state what is evident. When you have written this down, compare with the result reached by the writer. Practise such exercises in whatever form they present themselves. If your conclusions are different from those of the writer, in kind or in character, see which is right, or whether both are right. If you are right, why did the writer not reach your conclusion? Was it because it was not pertinent to his problem? Is it simply a difference of expression?

The process of investigating any subject is a process of question and answer. The student must first propound to himself a question, and it must be the proper question. He must be able to perceive what the proper question is, under the circumstances. Then he must give to himself the proper answer out of all the possible answers that are verbally correct, namely, the answer that affords a new vantage ground from which another question may be asked; and so the problem may be gradually unravelled.

Then again, many questions are indefinite, and can only be answered indefinitely; but to all questions a correct answer can be given, and the student must give the most definite answer the case admits of, and must gain the ability to qualify his answer or classify possible cases in such manner as may be necessary.

(e) IF YOU CANNOT SEE HOW THE AUTHOR REACHES A STATED CONCLUSION, BECAUSE HE DOES NOT INDICATE THE PROCESS WHICH HE FOLLOWS, DO NOT SPEND TOO MUCH TIME TRYING TO FIND OUT HOW HE DID IT, BUT RATHER SEE IF YOU CAN COME TO A CONCLUSION IN YOUR OWN WAY, THUS CULTIVATING YOUR OWN POWER AND INITIATIVE RATHER THAN FOLLOWING THE AUTHOR.—A good textbook should not make things too clear, or relieve the student of the necessity of exerting himself.

(f) LEARN TO GENERALIZE.—Draw the most general conclusion possible from the premises. Try to see if a general principle can be laid down. This is a most important faculty to acquire. At the same time, avoid the prevalent fault of hasty generalization, based on insufficient data.

(g) GO BEYOND THE BOOK.—Regard the book as suggestive and not final, as the assistant to your own powers that you are for the moment employing. Pursue the subject as much farther as you have time for. In this way you may develop a faculty for independent thinking.

(h) VISUALIZE YOUR RESULTS SO FAR AS POSSIBLE.—Train the imagination by perceiving results in your mind, in concrete form, and in imagining applications of facts and principles. Remember that use is the object of study, and try to see the use that may be made of what you have acquired.

We have seen that there are four main requisites for proper study, viz.: (1) Mental courage; (2) Understanding; (3) System; (4) Initiative. In addition to these may be mentioned (5) Proper habits and methods of work, under which head a number of minor but important suggestions may be made.

[[1]] "The greatest piece of good fortune is that which corrects our deficiencies and redeems our mistakes."—Goethe.