Journals/ Essay writing

"Students should memorize facts only after they have studied the ideas, trends, and concepts that help explain those facts. Students who have learned only facts have learned very little."

Facts are the truths in this world. Students learn many facts during their student life. They try to perform well in their life by gathering facts from different sources. They memorize the facts so that they can be able to utilize those facts in their future life. However, memorizing the facts doesn’t help students to achieve higher success in life. They should first understand the concepts, ideas, and trends behind that fact and then they should memorize the fact by linking it to the real examples. Students who only memorize the facts without any relevant examples will not understand the facts properly and will fail to apply it in real life.

Memorizing facts hinder students’ performance in examination. Some students may perform well in the exam by memorizing them, but most of the students cannot perform well. For instance, during my undergraduate life in my algorithm analysis course, the course teacher always defined the topic first and then explained that topic with examples and its application in real life. On the other hand, in computer architecture course the course teacher defined a term and didn’t give explanation for each of the terms. After the final exam, most students performed well in algorithm and few students performed well in Computer Architecture. Those who performed well in the Computer Architecture tried to memorize the facts by understanding those facts with examples and its application. But, the grades for Algorithm was above average as the course teacher always gave examples and application of each of the topic. It also helped the students to apply them in professional field.

Deep understanding of facts is necessary for brainstorming. Without learning the ideas behind a fact a student cannot grab the reasoning behind the fact. As a result they cannot apply that fact in real life. For example, when I was doing my course on programming with C, after I was taught a topic on C programming I tried to make an example relevant to that topic and tried to create a sample programming code. This helped me to think deeply into that topic and expand my knowledge about programming. Also, I have learned many other interesting programming procedures while creating a sample programming code. This approach also helped me to achieve good results in the course and also it enhances my knowledge about the applications and usage of programming in professional life.

Studying the cause and effect of every facts increase problem solving capability. If a student always tries to understand a fact by realizing the causes and effect of it, then he can easily solve other problems that have the same pattern. They can think of a solution to a problem in a different way. For instance, I have learned about design patterns in my undergraduate life. Those patterns implement a solution of a problem in a structures way. This helped me in my professional life when I worked as a software engineer in a private software firm. There I have faced different types of complex problems and solved those problems with confidence. This was not possible if I would just memorize the patterns for problems solving instead of learning its practical application. Practical applications help students to memorize easily about a topic. And also make him a quick problem solver.

Students should try to find the concepts behind a fact. Though it may be very easy to memorize a fact in the first time, later this memorization can come in no use. Students may perform well in the exam by memorizing the facts only for a limited period of time. But, in the long run those who memorize will suffer. They will forget the facts those they memorize and will fail to contribute in his chosen field. So, it will be better for students to memorize facts after understanding the ideas behind that.

© 2008 by Quazi Mainul Hasan. All rights reserved.