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by nilkn
3683 days ago
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> I'd come in and the entire rest of the class would be sitting around sharing their homework answers, copying each other on the ones they couldn't figure out, getting help from each other... This is actually one of the reasons I frequently avoided study groups for many of my math classes in college. There was too much of an emphasis on just getting the answers from each other, which meant you might get a decent score on the homework but not on the tests. What's worse, you wouldn't develop a true understanding for the material, which would hinder you in later and more advanced courses. It was definitely a lot more work for me to labor through every problem myself, but I ended up at the top of almost every math class I took, and I really do believe that my avoidance of the study groups was part of this. They were just toxic to a degree. If I really hit a stumbling block and needed help, I'd go to the TA or the professor, who were always extremely helpful because it was obvious I'd put in real effort and wasn't just seeking a quick answer. I will say that this approach backfired in one case -- a course on advanced integration theory with extremely difficult problem sets, no exams, a very old professor who was brilliant but not very good at all at interacting with or helping students (his lectures were quite bad too and his handwriting illegible), and an invisible, incredibly harsh grader who was not available for advice at all. Doing every problem myself was too much of a burden and I got my first and only B in a math class ever because I didn't join in on the study groups. A year later I met up with some students from that class who learned that I had done every problem myself, and they were collectively in shock and awe due to the length and difficulty of the problem sets. |
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