Welcome,
Thank you for joining me here at this essential lesson to begin your study of logic, language and information architecture.
I have kept notes my entire life, not personal journals but class notes from lectures and textbooks. Peers, universities, employers … people and places have asked to use my notes, or paid for them.
101_the Art of Studying marks the start of a journey — not my own, because mine began well over two decades ago. But for you ! As you read through these lessons, you will find questions to help you practice and develop your skills in reasoning, writing and understanding.
Soon, writing a well organized and meaningful composition won’t be daunting. You will present an opinion, or test that of another, and support it with relevant evidence.
Welcome to the journey of processing information and demonstrating it to others. You can do it!
Let’s begin 😊

the Art of Studying
An exam will measure your ability to express your ideas in logical, correct and effective sentences. You will be asked to communicate in standard written English : to recognize grammatical conventions, solve problems, make inferences and present an argument or critique one.
In later lessons, we will explore formulas to follow to get high marks as well as specific keywords to remember. But first, let’s talk about mastery, timing and endurance as the art of studying.
Mastery
Practice makes perfect !
The process of mastering something is an exercise in personal patience. It takes time. You will need endurance, stamina and the ability to accept failures as valuable as success.
Timing
Racing or pacing with a clock is good practice for time management once you have consistently started answering questions without error — without the clock.
Timing yourself from the beginning can trigger stress and anxiety. Try to choose a mentality devoted to absorbing information, like a sponge.
With practice, your pace will improve naturally and you will beat the clock.
Endurance
Try to write practice exams in an environment like the test. Typically, you can have a bottle of water with a lid and not much else inside the exam room.
Try to check your phone or use facilities during a designated break time.
During The Test
Answer questions even if you’re not sure — take a guess !
Pace yourself and be aware of time remaining. For exams taken by computer, confirm your answer when you are confident it’s correct, you may not be able to change your response afterwards.
Pay careful attention to : “Section Exit” and “Test Quit” commands or buttons.
A good practice is to take an example test in the same format as you will experience on the day. This way you can gain a level of comfort with the functions of buttons and formatting. You may run into fewer surprises.
Pro Tip
Reading the notes from the author or introduction by the editor at the beginning of any published work is a great way to get familiar with different writing styles, types of essays and critiques on a wide range of subjects.
Suggested Reading
The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. It’s the best book to read before writing anything in English. The link is provided below.
Next Lesson
In the next lesson of the series, 102_Reasoning, we will figure out how to find the argument and outline the details that support it.
Until then, happy studying !
-Hilary
