Before securing leadership of the Federal Liberal Party, Malcolm Fraser was widely criticised for reportedly saying, ‘Life wasn’t meant to be easy’. As Mr Fraser explained, the phrase was based on a longer quote by George Bernard Shaw: ‘Life is not meant to be easy, my child; but take courage: it can be delightful.’ At the time I understood Mr Fraser was making the point that we should accept that setbacks and challenges are part of life.
Mr Fraser was asked in a 1978 TV interview, ‘Do you ever regret saying that? It's become the great quote of all time I think.’ He replied: ‘I don't think so, because it is a fact of life. If people want to do things well, it's not easy, it's hard. You've got to work at it. You work at this show. An Olympic athlete works and trains at that.’
Related to the idea of perseverance, cognitive neuroscientists (who study how our brains acquire, recall and apply knowledge) have found we are more effective learners when we place ourselves in more challenging situations.
This is directly relevant when revising for tests and examinations. Increasingly, final examinations require students to apply knowledge, not just recall facts and other detail. While examinations may have limited broader relevance, understanding and refining how we learn is very important.
Rather than spending significant blocks of time focussing on one topic or subject at a time, cognitive neuroscientists promote a practice called interleaving. While it may seem counterintuitive, we are more effective learners and more likely to be able to recall and apply knowledge when we spend shorter periods of time on something. So too it is better to have a broad rather than narrow focus and to shift between revising or reviewing topics and different subjects.
We encourage students to set aside time to study, to limit the chance they will be interrupted and to be intentional about what they set out to achieve when studying.
There is a difference between interleaving and multitasking. The idea that we can work effectively on many things at the same time has been discredited. I would discourage anyone who says their study will be improved by keeping one eye on a video, checking messages or having their focus interrupted by other distractions!
Graeme Young
Deputy Head of Senior School – Student Learning
