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How to dominate economics and chemistry (1 Viewer)

Parvee

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memorisation is the key to everything. If u memorise, you add to your bank of permanent knowledge. Critical thinking means fuck all if u cant remember what you're thinking about.
goodluck in uni LOL
 

hayabusaboston

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You need a combination of both, pure rote is bad.
Yea I know, but its by default that critical thinking comes 1st. WHen you're given any piece of information, u analyse it, think critically about it. Then comes the memorisation, to add it to your knowledge.

I am finding it difficult to see how critical thinking and rote learning are separate? One comes first, the other comes second. They dont come separately, unless u want to forget what you're learning about.
 

hayabusaboston

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goodluck in uni LOL
FFS IS NOONE GETTING THIS?!?!?!
Critical thinking is something that happens automatically when ur presented with information. In HSC and Uni, you're never going to be presented with something that you know nothing about and have to rote learn it. You will have some knowledge, and what u have to learn is an addition on that knowledge. When ur presented with it for the first time you think critically the moment u receive it. You analyse what you've been given. Srsly, wtf, its not like ur rote memorising everything and not having a fucking clue what u just memorised. You just arent ever presented with information which u have no idea about, in uni and hsc. you will always understand it before u even try to memorise it. Thats how ur brain works.

Thats the whole point of educational institutions. Step by step training.

Ur never thrust into the deep end with random shit u just have to memorise. That literally never happens, anywhere, besides like a spelling bee or some shit.

You'd have to be retarded, honestly, to rote learn something, and not understannd what its about.
 

enoilgam

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You'd have to be retarded, honestly, to rote learn something, and not understannd what its about.
Then that isnt rote learning - to me, rote learning is just memorising facts, process etc without understanding what they are or how they operate.
 

Kiraken

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FFS IS NOONE GETTING THIS?!?!?!
Critical thinking is something that happens automatically when ur presented with information. In HSC and Uni, you're never going to be presented with something that you know nothing about and have to rote learn it. You will have some knowledge, and what u have to learn is an addition on that knowledge. When ur presented with it for the first time you think critically the moment u receive it. You analyse what you've been given. Srsly, wtf, its not like ur rote memorising everything and not having a fucking clue what u just memorised. You just arent ever presented with information which u have no idea about, in uni and hsc. you will always understand it before u even try to memorise it. Thats how ur brain works.

Thats the whole point of educational institutions. Step by step training.

Ur never thrust into the deep end with random shit u just have to memorise. That literally never happens, anywhere, besides like a spelling bee or some shit.

You'd have to be retarded, honestly, to rote learn something, and not understannd what its about.
rote learning has a much more specific definition than merely remembering stuff though
 

nerdasdasd

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Sy123

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FFS IS NOONE GETTING THIS?!?!?!
Critical thinking is something that happens automatically when ur presented with information. In HSC and Uni, you're never going to be presented with something that you know nothing about and have to rote learn it. You will have some knowledge, and what u have to learn is an addition on that knowledge. When ur presented with it for the first time you think critically the moment u receive it. You analyse what you've been given. Srsly, wtf, its not like ur rote memorising everything and not having a fucking clue what u just memorised. You just arent ever presented with information which u have no idea about, in uni and hsc. you will always understand it before u even try to memorise it. Thats how ur brain works.

Thats the whole point of educational institutions. Step by step training.

Ur never thrust into the deep end with random shit u just have to memorise. That literally never happens, anywhere, besides like a spelling bee or some shit.

You'd have to be retarded, honestly, to rote learn something, and not understannd what its about.
Example of a 'critical thinking question' (albeit quite simple)



If you rote learn and don't know how to critical think, you think 'oh derp we didnt learn this at school, I guess I'll just have to skip it because I don't know what to do'.

When you could be thinking:

'Ok, so they ask for trapezoidal rule, I know trapezoidal rule uses trapeziums to estimate area underneath a curve'
'But here they ask to estimate ln 2 instead'
'Maybe I should estimate an integral where the area underneath the curve is ln 2, but I'll do it using trapezoidal rule to get an appropriate estimate'

Then you are done.

The only memorisation here is trapezoidal rule estimates using trapeziums, but I remember a great post by GoldyOrNugget which said that these minute things are simply stored in our long term memory which is later retrieved for convenience when solving problems.

Adapting what you know is essential.

Another example is in Chemistry,







Critical thinking needed for this as well, not just 'oh well I didn't do this question at school yet even though I have the tools readily available'
 

hayabusaboston

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Example of a 'critical thinking question' (albeit quite simple)



If you rote learn and don't know how to critical think, you think 'oh derp we didnt learn this at school, I guess I'll just have to skip it because I don't know what to do'.

When you could be thinking:

'Ok, so they ask for trapezoidal rule, I know trapezoidal rule uses trapeziums to estimate area underneath a curve'
'But here they ask to estimate ln 2 instead'
'Maybe I should estimate an integral where the area underneath the curve is ln 2, but I'll do it using trapezoidal rule to get an appropriate estimate'

Then you are done.

The only memorisation here is trapezoidal rule estimates using trapeziums, but I remember a great post by GoldyOrNugget which said that these minute things are simply stored in our long term memory which is later retrieved for convenience when solving problems.

Adapting what you know is essential.

Another example is in Chemistry,







Critical thinking needed for this as well, not just 'oh well I didn't do this question at school yet even though I have the tools readily available'
You dont just "have tools" and not know how to use them. THat literally makes no sense sy. If you have the tools, and a human brain in the 21st century, you will be able to think critically AUTOMATICALLY. I get what you're thkning of though, and thats where IQ comes in. Higher IQ allows you to use your "tools" in more complicated ways, lower IQ means you often wont be able to realise that you can actually do this or that with those tools.
 

Kiraken

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i suggest you look up what rote learning actually means before you proceed with this line of argument lol
 

enoilgam

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i suggest you look up what rote learning actually means before you proceed with this line of argument lol
The problem is that "rote learning" is difficult to define - I have a very narrow definition whilst some people have a much more broad definition.
 

nerdasdasd

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The problem is that "rote learning" is difficult to define - I have a very narrow definition whilst some people have a much more broad definition.
Isn't rote learning , basically remembering information but having not much of a clue of the understanding behind concepts?
 

Sy123

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You dont just "have tools" and not know how to use them. THat literally makes no sense sy. If you have the tools, and a human brain in the 21st century, you will be able to think critically AUTOMATICALLY. I get what you're thkning of though, and thats where IQ comes in. Higher IQ allows you to use your "tools" in more complicated ways, lower IQ means you often wont be able to realise that you can actually do this or that with those tools.
Yes you have the tools, you aren't supposed to know HOW to do everything, some questions should challenge people in their critical thinking skills. It makes absolute sense. There maybe should be some questions as free marks to 'warm' people up.

IQ tests are skewed since you can easily 'practise' for an IQ test. Which if you practise hard enough no doubt can increase your 'IQ' by 20+ points.
 

Kiraken

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The problem is that "rote learning" is difficult to define - I have a very narrow definition whilst some people have a much more broad definition.
the generally accepted definition is memorisation through sheer repetition

getting back on topic though, chemistry was my weakest subject by a fair margin so I don't pretend to be an expert in it, however there are a lot of concepts which you simply shouldn't be rote learning. Not necessarily because it doesn't work, but because learning through understanding will prove to be more efficient due to the volume of stuff in the chem course. Also, as albertcamus rightly pointed out, some questions will blur the lines between dot points and even topics, and if you come across a question you haven't seen before then rote learning would render you incapable of answering it as effectively.
 
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