Ask Questions

The first place to study is in class. The teacher is there, and if anything is confusing, you should ask.

stevestoneky says:

But if something doesn’t make sense to you, or if you are not sure how it relates to something else, then ask.

“So we learned that this Krebs cycle is how energy is released in the body, and it generates ATP but it needs a few ATP to start with – so is there some “free ATP” in the bloodstream to get things started?”

“So, we have been talking about the Missouri Compromise, if we had NOT had the Missouri Compromise, what do you think would have happened, would we have had the civil war earlier?”

If you don’t understand basics, you can ask “you talked about the color red being symbolic in Stephen Crane’s work, but I didn’t quite get that – could you explain that some more?”

Or you can try to relate it to what you talked about last class, or anticipate what it will lead to next class.

Slagerlagger continues:

You could always ask clarification on something you just learned…

For example, “so an element on the periodic table is just a molecule with a certain amount of protons, neutrons, electrons right?”

ethanfromthedeepend adds:

Something I do from time to time, even if I understood the material, is reiterate a point that the speaker may have said to be cautious or look out for during the lecture.

1. It adds emphasis to the idea and helps me remember when it is important later (test, quiz, etc.)

2. It can often lead to another helpful tip that wasn’t mentioned before… “Yes, the one does carry over to the 2 in this situation but another thing to look out for is… and so on.” It seems redundant but you’d be surprised how many cool little tricks I’ve learned using this technique. Best of luck!

Asking questions and participating can seem intimidating at first. What if I get something wrong? Well, so what? We all learn best by making mistakes.

Ms. Frizzle said:

Make mistakes. Make mistakes. Make mistakes. It’s the best way to learn something.

So go ahead and ask a question or say something that’s wrong. Then you’ll get the right answer and learn. It’s far better to do this than to sit in silence and be confused. As a teacher I ask “does anyone have a question?” or, better “what questions do you have?”. But if no-one says anything, I kind of have to assume that the students understand. Then I move on to the next part. But if someone has an unasked question, then it’s worse to move on than to correct the misunderstanding. But I can’t do that if I don’t know its there. Please ask questions!