“All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.”
~ Sun Tzu
Confession: I’ve never been crazy about the word “tips” when it comes to how to study, or do better on exams, or do everything you said you would do before you realized that you over-committed.
I used to think that it was because “tips” sounds lightweight, a feathery and effortless little nothing that removes stains from your fine woolens, or helps you pick up a few bucks at the race track. Tips can be bad, too, like when someone leaves you $0.23 on a $54 check.
But aren’t we a learning center? Isn’t that what we’re supposed to do? Aren’t we supposed to provide handy dandy “tips” and then, by the power vested in us by the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, these “tips” become “spells” and then everyone goes home happy, except for Draco Malfoy, because “duh”?
Rest assured that my initial bad reaction to the word “tips” really has nothing to do with the earnest young witch or wizard student who comes to our humble little shop looking for help and/or advice. What gets me about the word “tips” is the underlying thought that better learning involves nothing more than grabbing a few random bon mots before skipping off to a 3.87 gpa.
Anyway, I’ve mellowed.
What we do here at your learning center is help you tackle your academic challenges through self-evaluation and refining your learning process, followed by further self-evaluation and tweaking of the process. You know: lather, rinse, repeat.
What I’m saying is, if you’re looking for a few tips, come on in. We’re delighted to go through how it is you’re going about doing your academic stuff. Just don’t be surprised if you start to see that this learning how to learn thing is deeper than you expected.
Pete Kimchuk, Senior Learning Instructor