Columbia University

We had planned to go to a meeting at Central Office however when we’d taken the #1 NYC subway up to 116 avenue we found we were at Columbia University.  475 Riverside which is near 120th was closed for the holidays.  The main entrance was locked but the reception at the rear entrance told me the whole building was shut for a ‘building holiday’.
Being there we decided to wander around the campus.   I’d only just been recently looking at conferences here because Teacher’s College  has a Spiritual Mind Body Institute which I’d thought might be worth following up on.  Here I was serendipitously at the campus and now might even find it possible to attend a conference in the future. It’s certainly an attractive and good excuse to return  to New York City.  It certainly helps that Central Office is nearby in the Interchurch Centre.
The Spiritual Mind Body Institute is what I’ve looked at the last couple of years.  Nothing was open because of the holidays but the Library had an exhibit of ancient Asian art so was open.  Laura and I walked around.
As universities go it has a nice feel. Certainly a beautiful campus.
 

How to get A's at University #2

Assuming now that you are attending classes, doing assignments and studying sufficient time , 1 hour per class for a B, 2 hours per class  for an A and three hours per class for an A plus, then there are ways to improve your efficiency at study.
1) Know your reading time.  Most of University is listening, reading, talking and writing.  Given case assignments such as read up on how to genitally garrot your pesky neighbour you would necessarily want to have some idea of how much time such an assignment would take.  The chapter on genital garroting of pesky neighbours is 100 pages long. How much time are you going to devote just to reading this material?  To know that, you have to measure your reading time.  My reading time for scientific material, studying, not just perusing, is roughly 10 pages per hour ie chemistry and physics, mathematics etc. .  My reading time for Art material such as a novel is 40 or maybe 50 pages an hour.  History and anthropology I read somewhere in the 20 to 30 page per hour range.  Knowing this I can estimate the amount of time I will require for an assignment. In Pathology we had a professor who needed genital garroting in the womb.  He assigned routinely hundreds of pages of reading which if we were to do would take up all the spare time any medical student with a dozen classes could have.  He had a megalomania complex.  Students failed that year's pathology becuase they tried desperately to meet his wholly unrealistic sadistic and ignorant demands.  Smart students however recognising that sleep was required in their lives quickly got a the equivalent of 'coles' notes for pathology reading that instead.  Normally though it's just recognising that if  4 books are assigned for a semester in a subject then as each book is a couple of hundred pages plus each course might involve a thousand pages of reading. One can then plan how much time one has to do in terms of simply reading the assigned material.
2) It is better to hand in incomplete work than not hand in anything at all. Manny students, especially those suffering obsessive compulsive disorder, think that something has to be 'perfect' so don't complete things. The key is to plan out how much time is required and set a reasonable deadline. The deadline for completion of assignments is not the day they are due but a week before the day they are due because an alien might well appear two days before the assigment is requiring completion. Aliens commonly abduct students for suctioning of sexual fluids and anal probing.  Since no one knows when this is going to occur smart people ensure that their deadline for completion gives them a couple of days lee way for potential alien abduction. That way they don't have to show up with a medical note saying they had a suicidal psychotic break and can they have a few more days to complete their assignment.
3) Undergraduate school is kindergarden. High school was nursery school.  You're not at university to invent a new wheel or find the meaning of life.  That's left for the phd programs. Their thesis's proving the existence of God and providing sustainable perpetual clean energy from fish farts are filed in all the libraries of all the universities all the world over.  The principle expectation of the undergraduate program is that it allows the university to market and sell higher education.  That's why people remember university undergraduate years as the best time ever and people do drugs, play bridge and make ski movies and still pass.  If you have a father who owns a corporation this is a good thing to do.  But if you are at university with the hope of going on to higher education and real learning and want to be first selection to real universities and real jobs it's good to get A's at university. Smoking dope and getting A is maybe possible in psychology but not in microbiology.  So stay straight and focus on study.  The strategy for success is the do as you are told.  Most undergraduates can't shit when and where they are told so they're not ready to be trusted with nuclear warheads or business proposals involving real clients.  So listen in class and learn exactly what the professor is saying. If the professor really was top themselves they'd probably not be teaching undergraduates but would in fact be designing the space shuttle and teaching the president in advanced classes called 'briefings'.
4) Demonstrate that you can listen and do exactly what the professor asks.  Teachers usually have low self esteem and need their ego stroked. If they ask you to describe the culture of Italy they don't want you to tell them about the 'history' of Italy alone. Use a dictionary. Most undergraduates are illiterate and high school as a nursery school which was developed to allow their parents to go to work, not worrying about the rug rats, doesn't prepare most people for university. University entrance exams were developed when it was collectively recognised that high schools were giving politically correct diplomas to utterly ignorant students who were likely to collect welfare and run meth labs and be consumers of beer and cigarettes.
5) Read up on the professor.  Find out everything you can about the professor.  If they wrote on Marx as the best latin lover be prepared to celebrate the lack of need for viagra in Castros cabinet. However if they wrote an undergraduate paper on the power and purity of Ronald Reagan don't dare say anything good about Che.  The arts are always political whereas the sciences are often political. If you agree with your professor given that they are teaching and don't really have a real adult job, like planning the mass murder and such things, knowing the 'position' your professor has taken in their training or their writing will go along way to getting an A.  In psychiatry I watched a Freudian psychiatrist become livid when my classmate tried to argue Jungian ideas about child development. He couldn't have been stupider if he'd argued on behalf of Victor Frankl.  The prof did not celebrate the pig headed student.
6) Priorize the material you need to study.  Put more time into the subjects you don't like. Most students put time into the subjects they like with the result they have A's B's and C's.  To get all A's you have to distribute your study time to your weaknesses.
7) Write down everything the professor says in class whether it seems important or not.  You don't know what is important. Having a great set of notes is very important. I copy type and all my classmates grabbed copies of my notes. Today I'd sell such gold for hundreds of dollars. Back then I was just another good guy.. It was the era of peace and love and we didn't know about global politics , psychopaths and sociopaths and such.  After you have a great set of notes, read them over within 24 hours of taking them underlining or highlighting what you think after the class is important, ie might be on the exam.  Later in postgraduate you will probably write in a book. rather than have two sets of notes.  In memory studies reading over material within 24 hours and then reading over the synopsis within 1 weeks results in the material being laid down in short and longer term memory.  Studying then in the week or two before an exam will result in that material being available to memory at the time of exam.  Read up on the latest research regarding study and memory and not the elaborate memory techniques but the 'concepts' so that you can apply this to your own stjudy.
8) Reading, highlight and underline. Books for university where possible are to be used as texts of study. When I studied the Bible at the University it was hard to make notes on the page and underline but I learned to do it and decades later that study Bible with my notes is still one of my all time favourite Bibles.
9) The reason for highlighting and underlining is that you will not be reading anything over except your highlighting and underlining so that a page on a text should be reduced to at least less than a quarter of the material preferably an eighth thereby highlighting the most important memory parts of the text.  The abberviated text then can be used as notes.  If you have a lot of highlighting it indicates you don't really understand what's important here.
10) There are now excellent 'how to study' courses at the university. 20 years  ago when I began treating geniuses who were getting poor grades these weren't availalb.e I've reviewed the local college preparation courses, Langara College had a superb one, and these 1 semester non credit courses were worth their weight in gold if you graduated from a lower end higher school with less than stellar grades. If you did a lot of drugs and alcohol in school then theses courses should be considered mandatory.
11) Don't plagiarise. Don't cheat. I don't care what the Fascists tell you.  You'll spend the rest of your life saying you're okay when you know you're not.  You'll have to buy a lot more toys and have a lot more facelifts to make up for being a sucker in undergraduate. However never turn in material without having it editted. If your father or mother knows the editor of New Yorker ask them a favour if you're in English 101 and expected to hand in an essay on Kaffka versus Camus and whether Hemmingway was a closet homosexual.  Get a tutor if you're having trouble in a class. Get one early. Use editors, professional or otherwise.  This is not cheating.  It's what all smart writers do.
12) If you have a multiple choice exam go with the first thought.  If you have time to review your answers don't struggle over which is right or wrong but reread the question to ensure you didn't miss the negative or positive twist on the question. It's found that most studnets make wrong as many questions as they make right in review.  If the question is short answer or essay then your preparation must include writing long answers off the top of your head and making lists of priorities to remember. It's not sufficient to read to prepare for essay and short answer material. You actually must apply pen to paper.
13) Form a study group of 3 to 6 students ,ideally in the same subject but if not mixed subjects work. Meet weekly for a coffee hour and during that time ask each other questions about the material. If you are in different courses switch text books and ask each other questions randomly from the material prepared or from each other's notes.  Alot of students 'put' information into their brains but don't teach their brains to release that information .  Discussing and answering questions about the material prepares one for the 'extraction' phase which is the essence of the examination.
14) Give up friends and families not involved in school if you need to focus. Friends and families who care will be glad to put the relationship on hold from semester to semester. If they don't they're selvish and probably will pull you down. Cut losers from your life or simply be selfish and reestablish the friendships and family relationsips at the end of the semester or end of the degree.  You simply have to priorize your work to get A's.  Tough.  If you don't or can't do that then don't bitch about the guys who develop space programs getting paid more than you in your car wash job.  You made your choice in that critical window of time. And there are critical windows.  You can't be a professional ballerina if you put off your dance training till 50 years of age.  I know the politically correct say you can but we're not going to pay the same to see a fat balding  middle age swan.

How to get A's at University

How to get A’s at University

- William Hay, MD, LMCC, CFP, ASH, FLEX FRCPC, ADM, CSAM, MROCC

The average IQ is 100.  University is established at the level where a person with an Average IQ will pass if they attend class and complete the assignments.  People who have completed high school usually have established that they have a 100 IQ.

The University is a business and it’s selling education as a product. It is no longer ‘exclusive’. Everyone can get a university education if they are willing to do the work.  Most people who ‘fail’ university in my experience have been those who did not attend class, do their homework, or show up for exams.  Others have gone to very poor high schools and been passed when they should have had remedial training.

THere are Arts courses and Science courses.  Science courses are by design more difficult and more demanding.  It’s much harder to get by in Science by ‘who you know’ versus ‘what you know’.  I can fake ‘literary criticism’ but I can’t ‘fake’ making nitro glycerin in the lab.   At the higher levels of Arts and Science studies the two become equally difficult but generally speaking a Bachelor of Arts degree is far easier to obtain than a Bachelor of Science degree.

Assuming that there are 3 hours of class per arts credit per semester, and five credits per semester for roughly 3 years or 6 semesters, to get a basic Bachelor of Arts, one has roughly 5x3 or 15 hours a week of university ‘work’ to do to get a degree.  This explains why so many people do their Bachelor degree at night school.  Attending the classes and doing the exams and assignments to complete a Bachelor degree in 3 years with summers and holidays off for work and vacation, one has roughly a 15 to 20 hour work week.

It is not surprising that most people who have government jobs have got them by having a Bachelor of Arts degree.  It’s also no surprise that people in the ‘private’ world look at most low level government jobs as ‘cozy’, ‘overpaid’, and mostly ‘secure’ but for ‘stupid’ people without alot of motivation.  It’s better to have people employed in government and union positions than to have the same people out in the community unemployed causing trouble.

To get a ‘B” average at university, all one has to do in Arts is to study one hour for every hour of class room time. Note “1 hour’” of study is ‘1hour” of study, ie sitting upright at a table or study cubicle with a computer or book focussed on the subject material with pen and note pad or tablet at hand.  This means that person is doing 30 hours of study a week for a 3 year arts degree plus doing exams and assignments.

People who do this are more likely to advance in Government positions based on meritocracy rather than ‘years in”.

If one wants to get an A average in Arts all one has to do is study 2 hours for every hour of classroom time resulting in the average 45 hour work that people who work in the private sector of society do as matter of fact for any income over $50,000 gross a year.  They are working 60 hour work weeks as students.  Not terribly onerous but the basic minimum work week of the leaders of private sector business.  In government these are likely to be supervisors and upwardly mobile.

People who gets A’s in Bachelor of Arts degrees usually go on to do another year Honours and commonly advance to Masters Degrees.

To get an A plus one simply has to study 3 hours for ever hour of class room time making an average work week of 75 hours.  Considering the average work week of all ‘professionals’ has been said to be 80 hours this is not an onerous beginning. Work is required to be an engineer, doctor, accountant or lawyer.  It’s not required to be a low level government worker but it certainly is required to be the assistant of the premier or prime minister.  Watch “The Devil Wears Prada”.  The star was a lawyer working in business.  Every industry has leaders like this.  Only in government or unions can you expect to get paid for dollars for work. That’s the ‘blue collar’ idea. I get paid by the hour.  In the ‘white collar’ one is rewarded by the willingness to do work for free and as a result of this initial committments fame and fortune follow.

In the Sciences there is another factor that makes them more difficult and onerous.  Sciences have a lab each week in addition to three hours of class room. This makes science courses in general ‘more work’.  Instead of 3 hours of class a week, there are 4 hours of class a week. Hence to get a C one has to do 20 hours of work attending 5 courses for 3 years minimum plus completing assignments and showing up for exams.

In addition to just ‘talk’ like politicians and ‘salesmen’ and ‘administrators’, the sciences require that you actually can ‘make something’.  You must be able to ‘do’ things. You can’t be all thumbs and the making of a nuclear warhead in the class room isn’t a matter ‘of opinion’. Either the product blows up the world or it doesn’t.  There’s no ‘political correctness’ in the Science lab.  In Arts one can be wildly insane and delusional and get an A whereas in Science there’s a basic need to be reality based. Gravity ‘limits’ political thinking.

To get an A+ average in the sciences then one has to assume 4 hours per class study and attenance x 4 x 5 = 80 hours/ week. I think I did the math wrong and it’s even more.

The idea here is that as Einstein said, Genius is 99% perspiration and 1 %inspiration.

The number one reason for students not doing well in school is lack of study time.  Use of a timer and a set study place with mapping of the hours of study is the best self assessment process. Most people over estimate their study time and want to get something for nothing.

This may sound ‘harsh’. It’s clearly not ‘politically correct’.  Political correctness is for losers and whiners.

If you get an ‘A” and ‘don’t need to study’ then you’re doing a ‘too easy program’ or ‘too easy university’.  I got straight A’s at university but at Medical School was 1 of 15 straight A’s of the 100 students in the class.  It’s easy to be a big fish in a small pond.  The olympics and the top universities and professional sports are places where the competition is ‘humbling’.  The same is true for the ‘rich and powerful’. I’ve never met the ‘idle rich’.  If you’re lucky enough to be rich you’ll going to have to work to stay rich because everyone else wants to take your wealth or power.

If you have say 130 IQ  or greater then you will get Straight A’s with simply attending class. If you don’t get straight A’s you’re usually not as smart as you think.  Arrogance is the other principal reason for people doing poorly at university.  It’s not rocket science but ‘laziness’ and ‘arrogance’ do exist and are common and are common ‘reason’s’ for failure. If you are a genius after you get straight A’s in an arts program you might want to get transferred to Stanford or Harvard or do a dual honors degree at University of Manitoba or Saskatchewan.  Idleness is the ‘devil’s playground’. Alot of previously likely to succeed people were under achieving and ended up doing drugs, gambling, watching tv, having all consuming self aggrandising romances or whatever.  Later they said ‘poor me’.

A minority of people have difficulties for other reasons. The majority of people have difficulties because of laziness and arrogance.  Laziness and arrogance are common.

This is not a politically correct attitude. It is common though in those who are ‘achievers’ and do well at university.  They don’t believe someone else should take care of them and they don’t believe they should get something for nothing. They do have a very good ‘work ethic’.

I will elsewhere explain how one can succeed once one has a positive attitude with a positive work ethic.  If a person is doing the minimum numbers of hours of study and still not achieving it may not be because they’re ‘stupid’ but rather because they’re ‘studying wrong’.  Once you’re putting in the time the refinement can be made but until you’re actually putting the hours in the ‘refinements’ can’t be done.  The brain is like a muscle.  If you’re not working out regularly you’re not going to succeed.  Efficiency of study is done after the person is putting in the hours, not before.