5大科学方法助你考试拿A Five Scientific Steps to Ace Your Next Exam

英文原文传送门

文章目录

• • • The Strategy to Ace Exams

Below, I’d like to outline a simple strategy you can use to ace any exam you might have coming up.

ace做动词讲的时候，有 在考试中得A，得优 的意思。
you might have coming up
这句话看起来有点奇怪
我觉得可以这么理解：
在have后断句，you might have 是修饰exam 的定语从句
coming up 是修饰exam的后置定语。

下面我想描述一个简单的策略，你可以用它在接下来的你可能经历的任何一门考试中得A。

Although the specific strategy is my own, the approach is based on cognitive science. In particular, I’m going to look at five key ideas from cognitive science that are easy to miss, but extremely important if you want to study effectively.

cognitive science 
认知科学

The Strategy to Ace Exams

1. When to Study and How Much

The first question to answer is when you should study and how much.

The obvious answer to this question is that you’ll do better the more you study. If you spend hundreds of hours preparing, you’ll do a lot better than if you spend ten, and you’ll do even better than if you do nothing. This is pretty clear.

What’s less clear is exactly how you should allocate your limited studying time.

This brings us to our first cognitive science principle: spacing.

The robust literature on the spacing effect clearly shows that studying time is more efficient if it is spread out over multiple sessions than if it is compressed in one session. More exposures to information, separated in time, will result in better retention than if you cram them together in one burst.

robust
在计算机领域就是：鲁棒的，健壮的
也可以形容人：强壮的
形容过程或体系（经济）：强有力的，坚实的

literature
除了有`文学`的意思还有`文献`的意思

spaceing effect
间隔效应

spead out
分散的

multiple
adj. 许多的，多部分的
n. 倍数

session
n. 一场，一节，一段时间

compressed
压缩的

retention
n 保持，保留

cram
v 塞满，填满
死记硬背，填鸭式学习

burst
做名词讲有`（突发的）一阵`的意思

Therefore, your studying schedule should take whatever time you have available and try to be as evenly spread as possible throughout your semester. It’s natural to study a little bit more right before the exam, but you should do this much less than is typical.

快到考试时多学一点是自然的，但你应该避免学生典型的临时抱佛脚。
（后半句是扇贝阅读的官方翻译，我真的不知道该咋翻译后半句话。。。）

The next question is how much to study each piece of information. Jakub Jilek and I recommend that you aim for covering each piece of information (via questions or problems) at least five times, evenly spaced from the time you first encounter them until your eventual testing date. This approach is near-optimal for retaining information with the least amount of effort.

near-optimal 
近乎最优的

Advice: Keep your study schedule evenly spaced out, with only a slight bump right before the test (if at all). Try to practice each piece of info five times from when you first learn it, until your exam.

evenly
均匀地，平均地，公平地

space out
使间隔开

bump
v 碰，撞
n 肿块，撞击

拓展：
bumper
保险杠

保持你的学习计划均匀间隔,只在考试（如果有的话）之前稍微加大一下强度

2. What to Study and How to Do It

Once you’ve figured out your schedule, it’s now time to look at what you’re actually doing when you study.

figure out
v 解决，想出，算出，理解

This is a place where there’s a vast gulf between what most students think is effective and what actually works best.

gulf  /ɡʌlf/
n 海湾，深渊
巨大的差距

there’s a vast gulf between … and …
……与……之间存在巨大的鸿沟

Consider one experiment by psychologists Jeffrey Karpicke and Janelle Blunt In it, they had students in four groups: single review, repeatedly reviewing the information, free recall of the information (meaning you try to remember as much as you can without looking), and creating a concept map (also called a mind map).

free recall
*回想

concept map
思维导图

Which do you think best?
Before I answer that, let me tell you what the subjects themselves thought. Those who did a concept mapping and repeated review thought they’d do best, with those doing free recall expecting the worst.
What really happened? The exact opposite. Free recall did much better than the other groups, even though the students themselves expected to score the lowest grades.

subject
有`研究对象`，`实验对象`的意思

This result is just one of many from a broad literature concerning the testing effect. This effect says that testing oneself, so you must retrieve the important information from memory, works better than re-reading notes or creating diagrams while referencing your textbook.

retrieve  /rɪˈtriːv/
v 取回，找回
检索

Advice: After your first time learning the material, the majority of subsequent studying should be in the form of retrieval practice —trying to reproduce the information, solve a problem or explain an idea—without looking at the source.

subsequent
随后的

随后的大部分学习应该采取检索联系的形式

3. What Kinds of Practice to Do

There’s a strict hierarchy of what kinds of study materials will be most useful to you in preparing for your eventual exam:
1. The most valuable are mock tests and exams which are intended to be identical in style and form to the test you’re actually going to take.
2. Next are problems, given in homework assignments, textbook questions or quizzes, that are given for your class specifically.
3. Finally, self-generated questions or writing prompts based on the material.

hierarchy  /ˈhaɪərɑːrki/
n 层级，等级制度

mock test
模拟测试

Problem sets from other classes often differ a lot in the scope and expectations, so I don’t recommend using them if your goal is to study for a particular exam.
The reason for this hierarchy of practice is known as transfer-appropriate processing. This basically means that the more your practice resembles the exam, the more your practice efforts will transfer into actual results.

If you don’t have access to high-quality problem sets (as is often the case in non-technical classes), a good solution is to do a writing prompt. Pick a concept, theme or big idea and then try to explain it succinctly and accurately without opening the book. Then re-read it to see if you got it right.

succinctly /səkˈsɪŋktli/
简洁地；简便地

problem sets 
习题集

a writing prompt 
写作提示（应该是笔记的意思）

Advice: Always prioritize higher-quality problem sets. Mock exams are best, followed by in-class problems and then writing prompts from big ideas or concepts discussed.

4. Make Sure You Really Understand

Most academic classes are conceptual. This means that passing or failing inevitably rests on whether you understood some important ideas.

conceptual
概念的

inevitably rest on 
不可避免地取决于

Memorization matters, but it’s more often as a means to understanding rather than an end in itself.

a means
一种手段/方法

记忆很重要，但它更多的是作为理解的一种手段而不是目的本身

This means that deeply understanding the core concepts behind any exam you study for should be a top priority.

Practice problems already help with this, since to solve a problem you usually need to understand it.

However, shallow understandings masquerading as deep ones is very common. Psychologists even have a name for this: the illusion of explanatory depth.The reason is that while it’s easy to self-check factual knowledge (you either know it or you don’t), understanding proceeds in degrees, so it’s easy to convince yourself you know something deeply you don’t.

shallow
浅的，肤浅的

masquerade 
v/n 伪装，乔装，冒充

explanatory
解释性的，说明性的

然而，比较常见的一种情况是：肤浅的理解会伪装成深层次理解。
心理学家甚至有一个专门的名字描述这个现象：深度解释幻觉。
原因是尽管自我检查事实性的知识很容易（要么知道要么不知道），
但理解是按程度递进的，
因此很容易以为自己已经深入理解了某件个东西，
但其实并非如此。

As a result, I recommend the Feynman Technique as a tool for deepening your understanding of core concepts covered in the class. You’ll know something best when you can teach it.

文中提到的费曼技巧：
1确立目标-2学习理解-3讲解复述-4纠错反思-5检验成果。
即：
第一步，收集资料，确立目标
先搞清楚自己要学什么东西，学到什么程度，然后收集相关的资料，比如要学科目的教课书，练习题，课程视频之类的，然后在纸或本子上用笔写下目标，用纸笔的目的就是加深印象。

第二步，学习理解，列笔记 学习资料里的知识点，把每个知识点理解，记忆，记笔记，把学到的东西整理记录。

第三步，抛开资料，用纸笔进行复述
从这开始就是重点了，把书本关闭，电脑关了，把资料抛到一边，在纸上列出你刚才学的知识点，然后把这个知识点讲给自己听，或者讲给别人听，看能否讲明白，然后还要在纸上把这个知识点的解释写出来。

第四步：回顾反思
第五步：检验成果
（对于费曼技巧的解释来源于网络~）
（文字复制于扇贝阅读用户笔记）

Advice: Identify the core concepts and make sure you can explain them without looking at the material. If you really don’t get something, go back and forth between the explanation in the textbook and your own understanding until you do.

如果你真的没理解一件事情，
在课本的解释和你自己的理解之间反复对比，
直到你理解了它们。

5. Beat Anxiety by Simulating the Exam First

Big exams come with big anxiety.

Anxiety is one-two punch for your studying ability. It’s both harder to concentrate and the stress makes it harder to remember things, even if you could.

one-two punch 
组合拳

The solution is to make at least some of your studying sessions a full-blown simulation of the exam. If you have a few mock exams, I would save these for doing a full simulation of the test—same seating posture, materials and, most importantly, the same time constraints.

full-blown simulation of the exam
全面模拟考试

解决办法是用至少几段学习时间全面模拟考试。
如果你已经做了几套模拟试题，
我将用这个环节模拟一整套考试步骤——同样的坐姿、材料，
以及最重要的，同样的时间限制。

There’s three benefits to doing full simulations:
• You increase your temporary anxiety while studying, which makes it easier to recall the information due to state-dependent memory effects.
• By exposing yourself to the exam situation you’ll be less anxious when the eventual test comes.
• You’ll actually know what your performance is likely to be on the test！

state-dependent memory effects
状态依赖的记忆效应

likely
adj 可能的
adv 可能地

Advice: Simulate your exam by doing mock exams (or if you lack those, with other problems) under the same time constraints and conditions of the actual exam.

总结

记忆只是理解的一种手段。
1.间隔式学习，每个内容学五遍
2.*回想所学内容
3.模拟测验、模拟考试
4.确保自己是真的会了懂了，而不是浅显的理解
5.解决焦虑的一个办法是来一个全真模拟
（摘自扇贝阅读用户读后感）

这篇文章在扇贝上看是需要会员的，我参加了一个打卡活动有几天的会员体验，今天是最后一天了，觉得这个文章挺不错的，就抓紧记录了下来。