In the present day scenario, many subjects and fields, such as science, business, art, graphic designing, literature et al, have come into existence which can be attributed to constant hard-work, research and cerebration of humans. Over the past few years, the gamut of all subjects has increased considerably and in order to study any one of these subjects efficiently, one needs to put in arduous efforts to study the basics and concepts. However, trying to learn the whole subject at once is fraught with the danger of ending in a complete fiasco. Additionally, in order to learn a new subject or skill a person should try to accomplish the things piece by piece, which allow him to get a hang of the tactics and strategies required to solve some abstruse conundrums of the concerned subject.
The medical science has referred the human brain as one of the most complex and intricate machinery. The intricacy of human brain can be gauged from the fact that, thousands of intertwined neurons work together to perform any operation or calculation logically. Apart from accomplishing logical and analytical interpretations, our mind has a capability to react emotionally to certain situations. However, human brain although being an extremely powerful tool has certain limitations. The first limitation is that, it can concentrate on a single task at a time and can accomplish things well, if the task is done in small steps. The second limitation is that, human brain gets fatigued and frustrated after a few hours of study or practice. Owing to the above stated limitations, learning is generally preferred to be done in small segments rather than completing the task in a single go. However, the aforementioned limitations are like blessings in disguise, because comprehensive study of small segments allows one to garner and master considerable amount of concepts and hence, allowing one to get a better idea about the subject. In addition to this, human brain has the virtue of relating concepts of one subject with the other, thus allowing one to think radically and rationally over some obscure problems. Citing an example to bolster the above stated facts, thousands of electronic devices and equipment have been developed today, and in order to study the working of each and every device one needs a comprehensive study of the basic components such as diode, transistor, MOSFET etc. taken one at a time. However, if a person tries to grasp the concepts of all components overnight, the results produced will be far from satisfactory, which can be imputed to the fact that he tends to mix the concepts of one component with the other. In addition to this, if each component is studied piece by piece then it becomes relatively simple to remember concepts, and one can apply the simple equations involving one component with the others.
Another example that can buttress the above stated facts is that, if a person tries to enhance his vocabulary by simply cramming 500-600 words overnight, then it becomes difficult to remember the words for a long period of time. However, if one learns new words by the dint of etymology, taking one word-root at a time and studying its usage in the past and the present, it becomes relatively simple to remember the word for a longer period of time. Thus, from the above stated facts and instances one can clearly infer that learning in small segments has many virtues and provides many advantages over learning whole subject or skill at once.
Hence, in summary; a great deal of concepts of the concerned subject can be mastered if learning is done in small segments or details, rather than taking the essence of whole subject at once. The limitations of human brain stated above tend to mitigate and turn into advantages, if and only if, slow yet comprehensive study of each segment is accomplished assiduously.
TOEFL listening discussions: A conversation between a university student and an adviser in the university’s work-study program