The Six- Hour D - Research Paper Example

The Six-Hour D The article clearly demonstrates how one gets a D grade even after studying six hours a day. The points out how who study six hours fail to answer quizzes that require genuine understanding and comprehension. Even though such students spend a lot of time with the text to write down every answer to every question it is a fact that they do not read it “slowly and carefully to understand it” (Dewey). The author thus observes that such students fail to engage in effective self-testing after reading the text.

That is why many students fail to answer the questions once the text is closed whereas they are able to recollect the answers to each question when the test is kept open. The article encourages students to comprehend new ideas rather than superficially memorizing them. The article also explains how a student can avoid a 6 hour D. The author points out that “the student should be engaged in self-testing” to check whether he/she has really comprehended the reading material (Dewey). This strategy prompts the student to grasp the underlying ideas within the text rather than merely memorising them.

Thus, the article advocates a meta-cognitive procedure where comprehension is the real goal of reading rather than memorization. The author also advocates that once students are able to comprehend ideas their capacity for memorization also improves naturally. Looking introspectively into my own study habits I have also had the same experience of forgetting the things I learned. I consider my study habit to memorise ideas through repeated loud reading as quite ineffective. However, I have realized that no new knowledge or ideas remain in mind unless I really understand and comprehend them.

One of my main successful strategies to test my comprehension is to go out for a walk after my studies and try to recollect them. Back at home, this offers me an opportunity to revise any reading materials or ideas that I fail to recollect. Similarly, I also try to recollect new ideas from my reading texts while I am engaged in travelling, taking bath or swimming. To conclude, this article has really convinced me that memorization is a poor reading habit whereas my focus should be for real comprehension of ideas.

For this, I have decided to continue the self-testing strategies I mentioned in the previous paragraph. Besides, I also plan to make a list of all the possible questions from the reading materials so that during my revisions I can verify whether the answers have been rightly recorded in my brain. Works CitedDewey, R. The "6 hour D" and how to avoid it, 1997. Web. 5 February 2014. < http://www.psywww.com/discuss/chap00/6hourd.htm>.