LEARNING TIP: SUPPLEMENTARY EXERCISES HELP

I DO not know if you have experienced this. Let me explain. 
Say you were learning a subject (like French, Mathematics, History, Biology, etc), doing/attempting supplementary exercises from another text, one not used by your lecturer/tutor. That is, you learn words, phrases, etc on your own. 

You will find that those stuff that you learn on your own would reinforce what you learn in class – or advance your grasp of the subject you are studying.

Last week, I had a dream in French. Well, part of the conversation was in French. I used a dictionary and with the basics I knew, I re-constructed the essence of the conversation.

While doing up the conversation, I learned that the phrase “you put the fire under the wood” is “tu mets le feu sur le bois”.

I learned two new words in that exercise: “le feu” = the fire; and “le bois” = the wood.

When I turned up for class on the weekend, the tutor tried explaining a concept about the traffic lights and (interestingly) mentioned the word “le feu” – yes, the very same word I learned on my own a few days before.

That word is now reinforced in me and would be remembered.  

Some people say “things that you learn by yourself (as in attempting supplementary exercises in Language, Maths, Biology, History, etc) will often be remembered much better than what others teach you”.

Every extra effort you put into learning more stuff in a subject (on your own) helps you master the concepts better.

With that, I hope you all have a nice productive week (after the holiday).

Bon courage (best wishes).