As a student, you gather about three-fourths of your facts and ideas through listening and only about one-fourth through reading.
Yet, if you are like most students, your knowledge of the skills of listening is very slight or perhaps non-existent.
With so much of your school time spent listening, this important activity must surely deserve better treatment than this.
Perhaps you have often been told to "pay attention!" But have you ever been told how to pay attention? Paying attention in class is a real problem since the brain can think more than five times as many words per minute as can be spoken.
In fact, only 10% of your thinking power is used in hearing the words spoken by a lecturer or teacher.
And it should be no surprise that what happens to the remaining 90% can make the difference between an "A" and an "F.
" Not knowing how to listen efficiently, you may have drifted (as so many students have) into practically wasting most class periods.
You may justify daydreaming by saying, "I can get this better from the book," or "no use to get this now, the test is three weeks away," or "I'll take notes and study this later.
" Perhaps you suffer from the opposite effect.
Maybe you take so many notes in class that you sometimes lose track of what was actually being spoken by your instructor.
You are learning little while merely taking down notes.
You may just tune the whole thing out and wait for the bell to ring ending the class.
Going to class can become something you do only because it is required.
ALL THIS CAN BE CHANGED Classes can be profitable.
Classes can be enjoyable.
You can learn how to understand more of what is being said.
You can make your activities during the class period save you hours of study time outside of class.
You can get all of these benefits by actually following these effective listening procedures.
PREPARE FOR LISTENING Fill your thinking space beforehand with a pattern of ideas related to the class work.
Skim the day's assignment before class and listen carefully to the teacher's introductory remarks.
A good teacher always explains briefly in the beginning what he is going to talk about.
Twenty minutes of preparation before attending class will save you an hour after class.
Preparation will increase your ability to understand the unfolding of new ideas and new concepts.
It will help solve the note-taking problem.
(More about this below.
) It will cut the amount of work required to make good grades in any course.
STUDY AS YOU LISTEN If an idea comes up that doesn't seem to fit, ask a question about it.
Glen tried to listen carefully in his high school physics class.
But he reported that he found it hard to follow the teacher and needed to spend too much time on the textbook after each class and before going ahead with his homework.
We suggested that he read his book first, then go to class and listen, and then read again if necessary.
He was to read ahead in the textbook, even though he might have some question about points discussed there.
He did this and made a delightful discovery.
He could now follow the lecture.
His questions, formed while reading the book in advance, were automatically answered during the class period - because he was on the lookout for the answers.