excogitate
[eks-koj-i-teyt]
- to think out; devise; invent.
- to study intently and carefully in order to grasp or comprehend fully.
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Frank furiously poured over the textbook. He read and reread each line, willing his
mind to greater understanding and familiarity with the material with each
pass. And yet it was not enough. There was still some information that eluded
him. Evaded his every attempt to grasp
it. His eye twitched.
“You
know, you’re going to have an aneurysm or something, right?” Victor, Frank’s roommate
said.
“Quiet
you. I’m trying to study. Which, by the way, is what you should be doing.”
While
Frank sat hunched over the college provided desk in the shared dorm, Victor
lounged on the bed, puttering around with his phone. And Frank could see that he was browsing
through his social media feeds, rather than using the device for more
constructive purposes.
“Eh. I never put much stock in studying.”
“And
that’s why you get such mediocre grades.”
“Not my
fault. Not really. I mean, if you’re going to learn something,
then it’ll happen the first time you’re taught it. So really, it’s the teacher’s fault if I don’t
do well.”
That got
Frank to look away from his book for more than a few seconds.
“That…that’s
just blatantly not true. It’s been
scientifically proven that that’s not how learning works. It takes a lot of repetition and effort to
really learn something.”
“Says
who?”
“Says a
lot of people who spent a lot of time doing research and experiments with the
express purpose of understanding cognition and how the brain processes new
information.”
“Sounds
like a lot of people who didn’t have good teachers and wanted an excuse about
why it took so long for them to learn stuff.”
“That’s
just so wrong in so many ways. They’re
people who are very smart. Way smarter
than me, that’s for sure. I’d say if
anyone knows their stuff, it’s them.”
“Meh. Bad learners then.”
“Bad…learners?”
“Yeah,
you know. People like you who need to
study a lot because they didn’t get it the first time.”
Frank
had no idea how to respond to that. Was
Victor, a guy who was barely making a 2.5 GPA, calling him, who had a 3.8 GPA,
an idiot? He could barely even
comprehend how that could be possible.
“You
know what, this is pointless.” Frank
said, turning back to his book. “Finals
are coming up soon, and I need this stuff to be fresh in my mind. But hey, if you want to skip studying and
fail everything, be my guest.”
“Oh
please, you don’t need to. It won’t help
anyway. All that stuff you’re cramming
in there will all leak out the moment you start taking the test. The only stuff that’ll be there is what you
learned the first time the subject was covered.”
“Well,
that and everything else I took the time and effort to study and understand
while you were doing nothing.”
“Uh
huh. Hey, how about a little bet.”
“I don’t
make bets.”
“Come on,
it’ll be fun. We’ll see who gets the
highest score on the finals. $20 to the
winner. Sound good?”
“It
sounds wholly unnecessary.”
“You say
that because you know you’ll lose.”
“I won’t.”
Frank
sighed and looked at his educationally inept roommate. It was an easy $20, certainly.
“Okay,
fine. If it’ll shut you up, let’s do it.”
“Awesome.”
“Good. Now shut up and let me study.”
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Studying is very helpful, as long as you do it right. Cramming day (or night) before a test probably isn't the best way to go. And yet, we all do it without fail. Procrastination FTW!
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