Talisker Tutorial's Logging into Class and Tutorial Protocol

How To Study

Using Your Mind to Get the Most out of the Tutorials

The most important difference between tutorials and school "classes" is that in a tutorial situation, you are responsible to learn on your own. You are not "taught" in a tutorial, you are given guidance in your own process of studying and learning. The real work comes during the week when you are on your own, reading, thinking, and writing; if you expect it all to happen in a once-a-week session, your experience will not be a success. On the other hand, if you learn how to learn for yourself without being pushed, you will become an independent student, which is one of the great goals of classical education.

1. Be prepared. Have all of the assignment done before the class in which it is due.

2. Use your reading/study time well. The following is most applicable to Great Books, but the principles apply to all the subjects.
· When you sit down to study, take a few minutes to review the last week's reading and discussion (this is best done by using the study questions).
· Take another 5 minutes and preview the new assignment by looking at the study questions and the table of contents and chapter headings, if applicable.
· Read your assignment carefully, making notes in the margin of your book or in a notebook. Your notes can range from underlining or "what?" in the margin, all the way to full-blown arguing with the author, but the more you write in response to your reading, the more active your brain will be.
· After each reading/study session, take a couple more minutes and review what you just read, again perhaps by looking at the study questions and seeing if you can answer them now.

3. Use the Tutorial time well. You're not watching TV although it may feel like it sometimes. Think ahead to where we are going.
· Have the study questions or exercises handy and keep thinking about them as we talk.
· Have your book handy and open to the pages we are discussing.
· Don't wait to be called on - volunteer answers, whether by typing or by asking to use the audio: the more you actively participate, the more you get out of class.

"...[S]et an example...in speech, in life, in love,
in faith and in purity."St. Paul, First century,
I Timothy 4:12 New International Version