nan | 楠木

Lately quite a few friends have asked me for my GRE issues. As I have explained before, I suffered a computer crash and lost most of the near twenty issues that I did practice last August, but here’s a few that still could be dug out.

Issue 28. “Students should memorize facts only after they have studied the ideas, trends, and concepts that help explain those facts. Students who have learned only facts have learned very little.”

When students study, a lot of their time is devoted to memorizing facts and concepts that they have not encountered before. Often it is both helpful and necessary that they also study the ideas and concepts that help explain these facts, as certain knowledge are too abstract to absorb if treated individually.

To demonstrate my point, we need go no further than refer to any contemporary textbook on physics. The introduction of any concept, or law, is not done simply by stating it and showing its proof. The text always takes pains to relate to us the background of a law, how it was discovered, how it is applicable and the connections it bears with other laws. This approach is taken, because to fully realize the power of any law of physics we must completely understand its relation to the whole system. Any law on its own only bears little importance― Newton’s Laws are important because they are the fundamentals of classical physics and are related to nearly all the laws of the classical system. And this is why we do not study any single law; we always study a whole system, for example, mechanics. Hence we can see the value of studying introductory material and related concepts before memorizing facts.

But still, I tend to disagree with the speaker’s position that students should memorize facts only after studying its related concepts and ideas. This actually defies another common approach of teaching: often we are given a fact, asked to accept it without raising questions first, and only on accepting it as truth can we begin to study certain problems which in turn prove its authenticity. This might especially be the case when we first start a certain subject and we lack sufficient knowledge to comprehend the introductory concepts that leads to the fact. We memorize the fact first, and then through application we further understand it which in turn enhances our memorization.

And this leads to the question of whether we have learnt much by only memorizing facts. I am of the opinion that no matter how we first accept the fact (both of the aforementioned methods of learning are applicable, and which approach is taken depends on context), we must put this newly acquired knowledge into use to really understand its concept. Otherwise it would remain a sentence on paper rather than true wisdom in our minds. And we tend to forget easily those items that we remembered by force rather than understanding―such is the way our minds operate. Concepts are accepted more easily if we truly understand them, and concepts can only be understood through frequent usage.

So, in conclusion, I propose that no matter how we acquire knowledge, either by first studying introductory materials and concepts or by accepting the fact at start, we must further study it and put it into practice to truly comprehend and memorize the knowledge. Otherwise we would only be remembering certain phrases instead of understanding concepts, and that indeed is not of much use in a fast developing society which demands true skills.