 Do you feel like this, too, that studying and homework are a waste of time because all you do is try and memorize materials, information, and formulas? What if we told you there was a better way? First, let's look at what's wrong with most people's current study strategies. They focus on memorizing information instead of understanding it. Memorizing isn't the same as understanding. Just because I can memorize a recipe doesn't mean I can cook the dish. There may be terms and techniques I don't understand, ingredients I don't have, and equipment that's broken. Studying is the same. Just because someone can memorize their chemistry textbook doesn't mean they can understand or apply it to homework and test questions. There's no deep understanding of the material or mastery of concepts. Reading to understand is not something most of us were taught in school. If we had, we'd all have done better on our homework and our tests, and we'd be less frustrated in most of our classes. When you read to understand, you work through what doesn't make sense to you and find the information in the book to answer those questions. So, how can we make changes to make this process both better and easier? Let's use the five-step homework strategy. First, study the material. Then, work example problems. Next, check your answers. Figure out what was wrong and redo the problems until you get them right. Finally, work the rest of your homework problems as if taking a test. This process ensures you understand the homework problems instead of just trying to get the answer right. Let's see this in action. We'll demonstrate using a math problem, but the process is the same for any subject. Press pause in the module to read this text on simple interest. This is the study step. Now let's work an example problem to find out if we've understood what we just read. Next, we check our answer. We got it right. The final balance in this account would be $11.25. If our answer was wrong, we could go back to the text to figure out what we had done incorrectly. This is a critical step in your studying process. If you don't figure out what you've done wrong, you'll keep making the same mistakes. Mastering the material often means going back and redoing or re-reading the text until you understand the homework. But, what if we got the answer wrong? Say we completed the same problem, but this time we forgot to convert from months to years, which is a common mistake when working this type of problem. In this case, we go back to the important note in chapter 6 in the textbook to figure out what we've done wrong. This is a critical step in your studying process. If you don't figure out what you've done wrong, you'll keep making the same mistakes. Mastering the material often means going back and redoing or re-reading the text until you understand the homework. Now, we work the rest of the homework problems as if taking a test. That means we work each problem without using notes and other resources and check our answers. If we're right, great. If we get one wrong, we go back, figure out what was wrong, and redo it. Another strategy is to talk through what we've learned with someone else. We do this because if you can teach someone else what you've learned, you've truly mastered the content. You could teach your study buddy, a family member, your pet, or even your teddy bear. What's important here is that you can clearly explain how to do what you've just learned. By doing this, you're engaging different parts of your brain, talking, thinking, and writing, which ensures you retain more information. Take a moment and think through this question. Will you learn more if you just want to get a good grade, or if you have to teach the material to the class? You'll put more effort into learning the material when you must teach someone else. When you use this strategy with your homework, it means you put more effort into mastering the content instead of just memorizing the material. This naturally leads to better grades on homework and tests. Now, let's review why this technique works. It uses strategies that engage your brain. Instead of simply memorizing words and content you may not understand, by working through the material and sample problems, checking your answers, and reworking if necessary, you build confidence and true understanding. When you teach someone else what you are learning, you are actively engaging your brain and will retain more. This is active learning, which is more productive and lasts longer than simple reading, which is passive learning. You're learning more because you're focusing on what you do and don't understand. When you can understand what went wrong in a simple problem, you're truly understanding the process. You're helping to teach yourself what you don't know. This focuses on true comprehension instead of simply reading. In conclusion, we all want to do better in our classes. We want a more effective way to study and an easier way to master concepts, not just memorize the textbook. This is why we use the five-step homework strategy. First, we study the material. Then, we work example problems. Next, we check our answers, figure out what was wrong, and redo the problems until we get them right. Finally, we work the rest of your homework problems as if taking a test and then teach someone else what you've just learned. Using this homework strategy can help you reduce frustration, make it easier to complete your homework, and improve your ability to master new material. Give it a shot and let us know how it worked for you.