Logic or skills?

Yet, I fall again in the questionning. Let see what we’ve got now:

Have you ever wondered why some students in your class (now or when you were in college) are/were getting high grade doing almost no exercices, if not at all? Well, I have an hypothesis for that: their logic supports them.

When those “talented” people were younger, they developped their own sense of logic until it reached a level where others are not at yet. Understanding faster, grading better. That’s how it works. But how about those who are hard workers and do exercises after exercises until they start to get it, is that a good way to learn? I wouldn’t say yes, but that’s a solution. I think it would be a better idea to improve your logical skills instead. This way you’ll improve yourself generally at school instead of only one specific topic.

So would logic be only the fact that makes the high graded student better? If so, a simple logical training would improve your skills and grades at school. Being logic implies you actually know what you’re doing. Actually, let me start all over.

What those people are good at is “simplifying” the complex. You may have heard of what is called a mind-map. Well, those people, having developped logic skills over the years, are able to produce logical connection in their head about various subjects, like a mind-map. They hear their teacher speaking about nucleus and they start connecting everything they already know to it: neutron, proton. Then they expand to physics, science, etc. The idea here is that they can relate what’s being taught to already learned concept.

They can generalise what they’re learning.

Over the years, I’ve come to realise that understanding a subject isn’t about understanding every small problem you’re asked to do. No. The idea is to understand HOW IT WORKS. Say for example that you are following a course, Calculus 1. You first begin the course with trouble remembering how to apply formulas and such. It’s not going really well. Over the course of the next few weeks, you go to class just to look at the teacher say stuff and write on the board. You copy what’s written, then proceed to NOT understand further. The problem at this moment is that you don’t see the RELATIONS.

What I’d suggest here is to make a simple mind-map of the subject. Put Calculus 1 in the center, then start relating concepts to it. After maybe 30 minutes, you’ll have a map that sums up what you’ve seen in the course, and you’ll realise something really interesting: the course isn’t that complicated. In fact, there’s almost nothing new. It’s just 3 or 4 method to do basically the same thing. But in class, since you had no idea, every time the teacher did an example, it was looking like a whole new subject.

With that in mind, I’d suggest that in order to learn, you grasp the general concepts. If you can do that, you won’t have any problem mastering the subject.

But remember, if you are to learn something new, you must already understand (and possibly master) the requirements. If you’re having trouble in university, don’t expect things to get better as you progress.

Conclusion? Understanding concepts and relating previous knowledge to it equals easier understanding.