Make or Break College Preparedness Skills: Subject Mastery

By Amy Barr, Sage Thinkiac at The Lukeion Project

Subject mastery isn’t usually something people think about during middle and high school years. At least for many, a modern high school education is nothing more than a mad dash to complete a list of class hours served before we hurry off to complete the next list of hours to serve. Does everyone need the same semester of time to learn algebra or biology or French? There’s nothing magical about a semester on one subject, or a week of classes, or an hour of lecture. Some students can master the material in a fraction of the time, others need triple with a dollop of review mixed in daily. If a certain subject is poorly presented—for any variety of reasons—all the time in the world won’t help bored students. 

Instead of the time-served approach (exactly like a prison sentence ) what if we return to a subject mastery approach. To do so, students need a few basic learn-how-to-learn skills that have fallen out of favor. Memorization, for example, has been tossed out in favor of “subject tools.” Mainstream educators argue that students simply need to know how and where to access the information they need to complete their work. In the modern world, they argue, it isn’t necessary to memorize the periodic table, the anatomy of a cell, or Latin verb forms when one can just look online. Imagine giving a baby a dictionary rather than expecting him to form new words for himself. Requiring a child to swim laps before she can kick-and-paddle is a cruel recipe for disaster. Telling a student to rely on “subject tools” year after year is equally cruel. 

But, one might argue, if a child isn’t going to become a biologist, Latin teacher, or physicist, does she really need a storehouse of memorized data to make progress in science, language, and math? Children will never one day become any of these things without memorization, and we wouldn’t want them to. Consider the difference between a memorized speech and one read from a teleprompter. An actor reading lines from cue cards can’t compare with one who memorized his lines. Your heart surgeon shouldn’t be searching subject tools while you are under her knife. A concert pianist never performs with sheet music. Your physical therapist should already know how to improve your poor swollen knee without a fast web search. 

Memorization is essential, normal, and not all that difficult once you get the hang of it. There are dozens of techniques for subject mastery that will help anyone do it well at any age. Here are just five methods that will work for anyone mastering anything.      

Write it out 

Qui scribit bis legit, “He who writes learns twice.”

The act of writing helps us remember. You can master a lot of information very quickly just by writing it out a couple of times. Take notes while listening or reading to cut study time down considerably. A student activates all mental muscles when pen is put to paper. Sight, sound, higher reasoning, analysis, and coordination all work together to help the student remember the material. Transcription is still an excellent way to teach spelling to younger students for this reason. Some teens lament they hate taking notes, but I know firsthand how information retention improves just by helping them build this skill.  

When it comes to note-taking, the magic only happens when pen or pencil hits paper. I don’t care if your handwriting is messy. Taking notes is the real secret. No one cares how they look.

Involve all your senses

"All our knowledge begins with the senses, proceeds then to the understanding, and ends with reason. There is nothing higher than reason." –Immanuel Kant

Good note taking habits make mastery easy because multiple senses are put to work. All effective study techniques involve more than one sense. When I ask a young student to “study” for an exam, he’ll likely flip open his book and stare at the words, hoping they will soak in. This is an exercise in futility. Teach  your young ones how to study actively. Tell them to try a variety of approaches including reading it aloud, writing it, drawing it, dancing it, singing it. Flash cards are still a powerful tool simply because they involve more than once sense. If done well, flash cards are portable, cheap, and used by subject masters worldwide. 

Teach it 

Homines, dum docent, discunt, “People learn while they teach.” (Seneca)

When I was in graduate school two of my fellow students had been teaching high school Latin for years. Though they were proficient in Latin when they started their teaching career, they had become excellent at it while teaching it at the high school level. The rest of us trailed behind by comparison. This principal applies to every subject and is one of the best perks of home education, especially at the high school level. We adults get to relearn all sorts of forgotten tidbits as we teach them to our children. When a big sibling instructs a little brother one of his favorite subjects, he has the chance to become exceptional at that subject. The practice of carefully explaining and illustrating anything makes one more proficient at it which is why assigning presentations is a good idea. Parent educators with large families shouldn’t feel bad about employing older siblings to educate younger ones within reason. They will gain as much as they give. If you have an only child, just ask her to teach the material to you or a friend.

Mix it up

"It may be that when we no longer know what to do we have come to our real work, and that when we no longer know which way to go we have come to our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings." –Wendell Berry

Even the best study method can grow stale if used in isolation. Try a variety of study techniques so that mastery will come quickly and painlessly. Everyone has a slightly different learning style. Chanting something might work well for one person but utterly fail for others. Try out games, flash cards, study partners, diagrams, silly rhymes, funny songs, chalk drawings on the sidewalk, play acting on videos, and even audio recordings: Be creative. 

Do a little every day 

Assiduus usus uni rei deditus et ingenium et artem saepe vincit, “Constant practice devoted to one subject often outdoes both intelligence and skill.” (Cicero)

The battle for mastery over a subject is not won in a single night. How many of us can recount times when we pulled all-nighters in college? If only I could get back all that sleep I lost on geology and Hittites, about which (I should point out) I recall very little. To every cram-session success story you’ll hear a dozen sad tales of poorly written essays, flagging health, and plummeting grades. Help your student learn how to study a little every day. 30 or 40 minutes of clearheaded memorization over a week’s time is far better than 4 fog-brained hours the night before the quiz. Sleep is as essential to organizing and storing data as are short effective study sessions. Alternating periods of both are key.

Students will argue they are preparing for an exam while their brains fight for concentration between notifications from social media, the urge to change songs on a playlist, and a hilarious video complete with ads. They think this works because they haven’t ever tried it any other way. Study sessions should be conducted in a distraction-free zone. Phones, internet, television, social media, friends, and siblings will always win the competition for brain time. Even little distractions like music will conspire to rob a student of subject mastery. 20 minutes with no distractions will be far more effective than 2 hours with them. Short effective study sessions with small rewards for success and a nice break in-between sessions.

So, even if you are educated now (as most are) under the time-served style, you can turn time into mastery with just these few special skills that will give your brain super-powers.