When the fundamental principle or fact is perceived, study this carefully until it is thoroughly mastered. One who knows how to study properly will thus pick out the sentence or the paragraph which contains the key to the subject—the fundamental fact or principle—and will read and re-read this many times until its full meaning is clearly grasped. When this is done it is sometimes remarkable how quickly the rest of the chapter or subject may be mastered, for it will often be found to consist of discussions or illustrations, which will be obvious once the fundamentals are clearly in the mind. The ordinary student, however, does not do this. He does not see the fundamental principle, and each illustration is like a separate problem, different from the others, which has to be studied by itself, and is never fully mastered, because the underlying fundamental principle is not grasped.
(b) BEFORE YOU BEGIN TO STUDY A SUBJECT, THINK IT OVER CAREFULLY AND FIND OUT WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW OF IT OR WHAT YOU CAN ARRIVE AT BY YOUR UNAIDED EFFORTS.—Try also to perceive what you expect to get out of the study of the subject, and how it is related with what you have already studied, and how it is to find application.[[1]] The historian, Edward Gibbon, states in his autobiography that before reading any book, he made it a rule to reflect upon the subject, arranging and classifying what he already knew of it.
This method may be followed to different degrees, depending on the subject. A student beginning the study of a new science which he has never studied before, can do comparatively little; but at least he can insist upon getting a clear idea of what the subject or problem is, its extent, what its objects and methods are, how it is related to other subjects, what its uses are, and how other studies will find their application in it.
(c) CLASSIFY AND ARRANGE WHAT YOU HAVE LEARNED.—When you have finished part of a subject, stop and think over the ground that has been covered, and arrange the various points made. Draw up a topical index and compare it with the table of contents. Note the correlation or interdependence of facts and link them together. By the principle of association the retention of facts and principles in the memory will be much facilitated. Note down concisely the steps of an argument in your own words, and see if the conclusion is justified. Close the book from time to time and go over in your mind what you have learned.
The importance of systematic classification is very great. The minds of many students are like a library without arrangement or catalogue; the books may be there, but cannot be found when wanted, and so are valueless for use.[[2]]
[[1]] "We must keep carefully that rule of Aristotle which teaches that the best way to learn anything well which has to be done after it is learned, is always to be a-doing while we are a-learning."—Richard Mulcaster.
[[2]] "There's a vast difference between having a carload of miscellaneous facts sloshing around loose in your head and getting all mixed up in transit, and carrying the same assortment properly boxed and crated for convenient handling and immediate delivery."—Lorimer: Letters from a Self-made Merchant to his Son at College.