Case Studies

3.2.2.3 Thinking strategies

A common study skills error is for students to think they understand a piece of information when, in fact, they can only recognise it. While some questions are written to test the student’s recognition memory, other questions demand higher-level thinking processes such that the question may not even be recognisable from the specific course content yet can be answered correctly by thinking about the course concepts in ways other than simple recognition. Exam preparation study methods and exam-writing strategies should both include these types of information processing in order to best answer questions that assess how well you have learned the material. The following are types of information processing.

• Recognition – being able to recognise important facts is a necessary part of learning. Recognising something is different, however, from producing it without any external cues. If your study method requires you to do the latter, then you will be better equipped for questions that go beyond simple recognition. For example, if you find that you consistently have difficulty distinguishing between two similar answers, then your studying may be focused on recognition rather than conceptual understanding. Similarly, if you only memorise the words of a definition but do not emphasise the concept, then a test question may state the concept in new words. Will you be able to recognise the concept or just the words from the text?
• Analysis – assessing your understanding through these kinds of questions may involve separating out parts of theories or ideas, possibly requiring you to contrast several different parts in order to choose the right answer.
• Integration – questions of this type require you to make connections between different pieces of information. This may involve comparing similarities, perceiving a more theoretical linkage, or seeing the larger picture that encompasses the pieces of information provided in the question.
• Transfer – a deeper level of learning can be assessed by questions that require you to apply the course information to new situations or in new ways that may not have been covered in the text. If you understand the ideas, then you will be able to choose answers that use the course concepts in different situations/ways.