STUDY SKILLS
A student asked how to study: First good students may do poorly on exams because they don't know how to prepare for an exam, though they study the reading assignments.
So there's a special skill in exam study as distinct from general study.
This skill is less important in my class, because I comment on the reading.
It stands to reason that if I comment on verses, exam questions would be drawn from my commentary.
It's unlikely, if not impossible, that I would ask an exam question on material I did not comment on.
So simple COMMENTARY is an important clue to an exam question. If a teacher comments on the Sabbath, or the Shema, or the Ten Plagues, that should be noted and singled out for exam study.
REDUNDANCY, or REPETITION, is even more important. If a teacher comments three times on an issue or term, clearly that could be exam material, keeping in mind that not all questions can be asked on a twenty-question exam.
This involves class ATTENTION too. It always AMAZES me how a teacher can talk about an issue, such as TYPOLOGY, maybe ten times in class (not to mention commentary in handouts), and still many students cannot answer the exam question on this issue.
In our class, ATTENDANCE is not a serious matter; there are few absences. So the problem is ATTENTION.
Students CANNOT LET THEIR MINDS WANDER, thinking of what to have for lunch or why your friend did not return your phone call, etc.
The way to keep ATTENTIVE is to always engage in dialogue with the material being discussed. This is why note-taking is important; not so much to keep notes, but to KEEP ATTENTIVE.
So long as the hand is writing something down, or prepared to write something down, one will be attentive.
It goes without saying that even a little talking to your neighbor is not good. I remind students that everytime you speak to your neighbor, you may be losing one exam answer, even in that brief period of time. So if this happens just three times before exam, that's three questions lost, and that may be the difference between a 70 and a 55 on the exam score!
As we say in morals too, the Devil loves idle hands. So keep your hand busy taking notes or prepared to take a note and your mind is less likely to wander.
And, of course, NEVER, even for a half minute, speak to your neighbor. Besides, you're making your neighbor lose one or two exam answers too, because (out of courtesy) she feels she must reply to your question.
But there's another issue of how to organize your note material. In this class you have it a little easier, since I, in effect, take notes for you by commenting on the material. It stands to reason that if I comment on material that it's important.
Still there's the general issue of how to organize material for this or other classes.
Here are some clues:
DEFINITION. Usually a definition is a place a teacher looks for an exam question. In fact, many definitions, such as in film textbooks, appear in boldface font, so the important words (we call this "terminology") stands out. In our class, definitions would include words such as the Shema, Sabbath, typology, Torah, Pentateuch, etc.
CAUSE-EFFECT. Usually the cause or effect of something is a place where a teacher might look for an exam question. "What caused World War I"? "What are the causes of cancer?" "Why did the studio system in Hollywood decline?" "Why was widescreen cinema marketed in the 1950s?" "Why was Adam and Eve expelled from Eden?" "What resulted in Adam and Eve's eating of the forbidden fruit"? "What reason is given in Deuteronomy for observing the Sabbath?" And so on. And CAUSE-EFFECT if often related to the following:
DIVISION. Division is an obvious place to look for exam questions. Division means numbering or making a list. "Name five of the Ten Commandments." "How many tribes made up the new nation of Israel?" "What two reasons are given in the Torah for observing the Sabbath?" "What are the five books of the Pentateuch?" (It amazes me that basic questions like the last go unaswered!)
FIRST. The first of something is usually a place to look for possible exam questions: "Name the first sound film." "What is the first commandment in Jewish teaching?"
LAST. Same with the last of something. "Who was the last king of Israel before its defeat in 722?"
DATES. Important dates are usually exam material. "When was the first sound film released in Hollywood?" "In what year did King Josiah claim to discover the book of the Law?" "In what year was Israel finally defeated?"
NAMES. "Who was the man who deceived Jacob into marrying Leah before he could marry Rachel?"
Here we have three important names. When you study, you must note the importance of these names.
The problem is, there's some degree of selection involved: when is a name important?
But other factors figure, mentioned above.
Redundancy, for one. The name's relation to cause-effect, first, last, definition, etc.
"What composer is usually associated with the musical style known as Impressionism?" a) Beethoven, b) Mozart, c) Haydn, d) Debussy.
The student would remember, in class lectures, that Debussy was called an Impressionist; so the name Debussy would be linked with the word, Impressionism.
Simply remembering "Debussy" without linking his name with something important is useless. I suspect that's what some students in the Bible class do. They remember Leah and Rachel but don't know how to make a mnemonic (memory) link.
Which brings us to the issue of mnemonics, or memory aids. Each person will find their own way. But you should find a way. One way is to make words, if possible, of members of a class. Don't just memorize randomly. For example: the main countries on the Eastern border of Israel could be remembered by the word "SAME": Syria, Ammon, Moab, Edom, in that exact order from North to South.
We use memory aids all the time when we shop. That's natural.
For example, we think of members of our family and so remember what we need to buy each one: "Father: shaving. Mother: herbal soap. Sister: Picture of Jay Chou. Brother: Baseball bat, etc.
Or we think of school, then school supplies, then notebooks, pens, etc. By such memory aids, we recall a lot of information.
But notice we first need a purpose or a general picture in mind. Memory aids are not too useful unless you make a general picture of school supplies.
In the same way, memory aids are not too useful unless you make a general picture in your mind of the Bible story. Tell the story that makes the simplest sense to you:
"God created the world good. But men and women disobeyed God and made the world bad. So God made laws to help make the world good again. One such law was the Sabbath, which every week would remind people that the world belongs to God. The seven-year Sabbath reminds people that the land belongs to God too."
And so on. Narration is a very common memory aid, because it allows a person to link many events together, like in a melody:
A melody is a kind of narration: by following the melody we remember all the words of a song:
"Near, far, wherever you are," etc.
Imagine trying to remember all the words of that song without narration or melody, by alphabetical order. Take the words above:
Are, Far, Near, Wherever, You.
You'll admit that's more difficult to remember. Imagine doing that to all the words in the song! But by linking the words to narration and melody, all the words come easily to mind.
Now when you study the Bible, you must do the same thing. Create an order by which one idea will be linked to another.
I've given you some hints. But often each person has their own way to make links.
Certainly, DEFINITION, FIRST, LAST, NAMES, DATES, DIVISION, CAUSE-EFFECT are basic memory aids and units of narration. But there are others of your own making.
There are also more basic memory aids based on repetition, as discussed above. For those who have weak memories, or think they do, type out a list of names and words and memory links to them and keep that list over a kitchen or bedroom table.
As for note-taking, when I took notes as a student, I tried to distill, or summarize, what the teacher said, often writing in made-up code. So you might write: "Adam. Typology. Jesus. Adam=tree. Jesus=cross. Adam=disobeys. Jesus=obeys. Adam=sin. Jesus=saves from sin.
It's all up to you. Then, right before the exam, I used to distill even my notes. So that I would summarize my notes in this way:
Typology: Adam:Jesus.
In other words, by that time I knew I remembered the other details and simply had to refresh my memory link of Typology:Adam:Jesus.
Often my final notes, which I would review the morning of an exam would be just single words in a simple list:
TYPOLOGY
TORAH
PENTATEUCH
SYNCRETISIM
Those words would set in motion a series of memories related to them. In fact, I do the same thing now that I teach. I just write down single words or phrases and those help me recall a fund of information related to them.
By simply seeing the word "syncretism," I am reminded of everything I need to say related to that word: Asheroth, Ba'al, prophetic anger, idolatry, punishment by exile, or analogies with today's Christian holidays, which include a lot of syncretisim, or blending of different religious practices, etc.
But if I needed to sum up in a single word a good study principle, which includes all the above, I would use the word ACTIVE.
Keep your mind active at all times. Active in note-taking. Active in linking the material in terms of narrative. Active in constantly defining terms, dividing causes, effects, in linking as many ideas as possible with a larger idea, from the general to the specific and from specifics to the general.
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