Consider the following situation. You have some problem sets for a class you’re taking. You have two ways you can study them:
Which method would result in more general learning, letting you perform better on new types of problems?
Interestingly, in many cases the answer is actually option two: looking at the solution. And this can be true even if you’re capable of solving the problems on your own.
This seems to go against what a lot of us were taught about how to study effectively: the only way to build skill is by solving hard problems. No pain, no gain, right? I sympathize with this perspective because, at least until I came to understand the science, that’s largely how I felt too.
Source: Scott H Young — Read the full article on the original site ↗