6 Hours for Solving Problem Sets

Take-Away: For better grades and more intellectual growth, consider spending at least 6 hours across a week cracking your brain on your p-sets before the TA explains it all at recitation.

The 6-Hour Minimum

• Unfortunately, many students give up too soon on their problem sets before getting the answers at recitation.
• By putting in sufficient hours trying to solve problems, you will be engaged in active learning of the concepts the professor has identified as key to the course.
• For most students, 1-2 hours a week of this kind of active learning won’t cut it. Even 4-5 probably won’t.
• 6 hours is a minimum that is also likely to fit with the other demands on your time.

So try 6 hours a week, in 60-90 minute chunks.

• For example:

Why a Minimum of 6 Hours?

• Some learning instructors recommend at least 6 hours a week to their students because, for many students, this represents an increase in time that substantially improves conceptual grasp of key course ideas.
• The idea of improving your learning by spending more time on problems is consistent with a robust literature on expertise.¹ The superiority of some performers over others is a predictable result of more hours on deliberate practice.¹ This is true in athletic, musical, and intellectual pursuits. ¹
• Deliberate practice is working hard on difficult skills that are central to your area of mastery. ¹
• What fits the definition of deliberate practice better—working problems, or listening to answers?

What’s the point of working for 6 hours on problems I’m not solving?

• The point is that you are still learning when working on the problem, even when you are not solving it!²

But the TA will explain it clearly. Why not wait?

• No doubt difficult concepts make more sense as or after they are explained. However, the instructor’s question will not be, “Do you understand these ideas as they are explained?”
• The question will be, “When I give you a new and more complex problem than you’ve seen so far, can you solve it? Under time pressure?”
• Can you confidently answer, “yes!”?
• If you want to be more confident that you can answer “yes” to that question, try putting in six hours across a week on your p-sets before recitation. See if the conceptual learning you attain gives you reason for greater confidence.

But what if I don’t have 6 hours?

• Then spend as many hours as you can before seeking help.  And maybe consult with a Learning Instructor to explore your use of time.

References:

1. Ericsson, K. A., Krampe, R. T., & Tesch-Römer, C. (1993). The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological Review, 100(3), 363.
2. Richland, L. E., Kornell, N., & Kao, L. S. (2009). The pretesting effect: Do unsuccessful retrieval attempts enhance learning? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 15(3), 243–257. http://doi.org/10.1037/a0016496

by Nicholas Santascoy, Learning Specialist