Study Methods, M208

I tend to find that my study methods evolve over a module's lifetime, and even from week to week.  When I first took on M208, I began by doing a pre-read of each unit book omitting the exercises, before returning to complete the exercises, selecting a handful from each sub-section, at the end of the week.

The problem with such an approach, is that when the subject gets very abstract, such as when you start to examine conjugacy's of this, and permutations of that; you often find that you lose the thread of what is going on, halfway through a sub-section.  The issue with doing so, of course, is that much of the OU's style, is to build on earlier concepts, with increasing complexity.

So, you can find yourself struggling to understand relatively straight forward concepts at the back of the book, just because you haven't fully grasped an earlier concept.

So,  when tackling the Group Theory units this month, I have adopted an adjusted method, which consists of reading a unit through without doing any exercises, at first; but then, at the point of loosing track of what is going on or getting confused, I put a mark in the margin, and quickly return to the beginning of that sub-unit when I then tackle one or two exercises, in that sub-unit.

I can then quickly move on without too much disruption and with full understanding.

It's a little like the Feynman Method, which I have discussed in a previous post (can't remember which one), and it works very well.  It is a good method to use, if you are short of time, as I have found that I can blast through a first unit's reading, within two study sessions, leaving the exercises for revision at the end of each week.

The key is to just do enough exercises to ensure understanding, on the first pass of the material.