How to Work - Three

Quarta-Feira de Cinzas/Epilogue by filmmaker Cao Guimaraes and artist Rivane Neuenschwander. Following the Carnival, the colourful confetti become the ants' treasure and we can watch them as they go about their collective labour (a little help was needed to get them excited by soaking the paper in either pork-fat or honey). There is also some nice tinkling added to the soundtrack. Currently at the Tate Modern.

If an alien arrived on earth one of the first things it would note about our species was how much time we spent with each other. 'Humans are social creatures' it might jot down. Perhaps if our alien had been observing the majority of students doing their revision it would have added to that, "...except when revising."

But it shouldn't have to be this way.

Of course, you get the degree from your own work, you sit the exams by yourself and you need to do the thinking for yourself. I am not trampling on this idea. What's silly is when there is much to be gained, academically and emotionally, from including within your revision a perfectly legitimate social element.

What does this mean? It means chatting. It means spending lots of your revision hours chewing over the academic cud with other people. You'll be surprised at how digestible material is afterwards.

However, to do this, a lot of you will need to shake off the intense privacy with which you guard your ideas. Generally speaking, there is more to be gained from discussion than there is to be lost. And besides, you can keep the really original and creative cards close to your chest. But, I'd bet you'll find yourself with way more of those type of cards if you discuss material frequently and fervently with course mates.

I didn't do this in second year very much. Revision was lonely and painful. I did it in third year with the co-authors of the 'revision bible' and other lots of people on the course and revision suddenly got a whole lot better, and, dare I say it, at times enjoyable. Yeah, enjoyable.

I estimate that I reduced my 'sit-down revision time' by 30% by ironing out the creases in understanding over a beer, meal or walk on the Downs. What can take you 20 minutes in the library, takes you 20 seconds in a group to understand. Also, things seems to stick to memory more easily when they are spoken compared to when they are read. So, there are academic reasons for doing this.

Rather nicely, this idea has very recently been supported in the literature. In February, a paper published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin found that social interaction (as little as 10 minutes) improved intellectual performance.

In related stuff, more social contact is correlated with well-being (Sinha & Verma, 1990; Triandis et al., 1986); its absence is marked by depression (Gladstone, Parker, Malhi, & Wilhelm, 2007). Doing stuff together is better for the psyche.

In groups of friends, discussing things will probably occur organically. This post isn't really for that group. However, there will be lots of you who are doing this alone. This is for you then: You'll understand and remember more - and be happier, which counts for a lot - when you exploit your brain's natural affinity with social intercourse. Go and chat a psychologist up...