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Study techniques

jfree7997

Registered User
I am working no my EA and it is all oral no books to read from. So to study i type what i learned into my phone read over it a couple of times erase it and try typing it again. Would this be considered something that goes against the obligation?
 

Glen Cook

G A Cook
Site Benefactor
Well, review your obligation. What does it say? I don't mean that in a harsh sense, but as an effort to respond to your question. I learned my first ritual mouth-to-ear, and understand the challenge. I suspect I should have never mastered Emulation work if it were not clear text.
 

dfreybur

Premium Member
I am working no my EA and it is all oral no books to read from. So to study i type what i learned into my phone read over it a couple of times erase it and try typing it again. Would this be considered something that goes against the obligation?

Exactly what are the secrets is different per jurisdiction so you'd have to ask locally and be warned that the brothers in your own lodge might not know the actual jurisdictional rules and end up thinking more is secret than actually is. We see both situations here on this forum a fair amount.

At very least the parts that are broken up into pieces you mustn't put down anywhere, but how much more can't be answered. Much of it may well fall into the category "if you ask the answer is no".

Something you will soon learn as you experiment - You remember best what you sat aloud, next what you write, least what you read that was written out. It's not obvious how it works. It has to do with what parts of the brain are engaged in the process and how well linked those parts of the brain are to moving short term memory into long term memory.
 

jfree7997

Registered User
I retain it almost instantly I just worry with day to day stuff I'll forget.

Sent From My Freemasonry Pro App
 

Angler

Registered User
I think you will find that you remember better what your heard and repeated with your teacher.
Here are some other tips that worked for me:
When I left the lesson, I did NOT turn on my radio or phone.
I drove to a quiet place, parked, and recited my work fo another 30 minutes or more.
Then I continually recited it in the car or at home when i was alone.
 

BroBook

Premium Member
Question: In the mouth to ear jurisdictions are y'all that y'all have no written work at all?


Bro Book
M.W.U.G.L. Of Fl: P.H.A.
Excelsior # 43
At pensacola
 

Glen Cook

G A Cook
Site Benefactor
Utah has two copies of the clear text: one in the safe and one with the Grand Lecturer (custodian of the work).
 

JamesMichael

Premium Member
Interesting comments here. I had nothing to memorize or study before any of my degrees. My dad said that is a shame. I don't even know what you were requested to memorize. Maybe its the same as our proficiency which occurs after the degree , like weeks later.
 

ARizo1011

Premium Member
Interesting comments here. I had nothing to memorize or study before any of my degrees. My dad said that is a shame. I don't even know what you were requested to memorize. Maybe its the same as our proficiency which occurs after the degree , like weeks later.

Yes brother I believe it is the same. I'm sure you just did it orally. I am in Florida so I do receive a small book titled catechism and we are to not just "memorize" but learn and understand the work then when ready we go through proficiency.

;)
 

ARizo1011

Premium Member
I am working no my EA and it is all oral no books to read from. So to study i type what i learned into my phone read over it a couple of times erase it and try typing it again. Would this be considered something that goes against the obligation?

Brother... I know it is difficult.. Especially just oral no booklet. But remember your obligation... Preferably about typing the work. Brother my advice to you is to just not just memorize LEARN the work. It's so much easier when you hear the question and automatically you know the answer.. Why? Because it just makes sense. There's only one correct answer And it will come to u naturally once you actually understand what it is your trying to "memorize". Good look my brother. And don't worry in the FC it gets easier. Keep studying brother remember persistence! Repetition! Learn and understand. :)
 

dfreybur

Premium Member
I had nothing to memorize or study before any of my degrees. My dad said that is a shame. I don't even know what you were requested to memorize. Maybe its the same as our proficiency which occurs after the degree , like weeks later.

Michigan switched to a proficiency that is not memorized word for word? I take it you were expected to explain in your own words what had happened in your degree and what it meant. I figure the memorization was intended to be that but they started quoting the best ones they'd heard so it evolved centuries ago into memorization.

Something about memorization - As reading became more popular after the invention of the printing press there were complaints that this important function of the mind was being ignored. Having information on line certainly accelerates the trend even further.

On the one hand genius has been described as having a large short term memory buffer to be able to hold enough to process to solve a difficult problem. On the other hand rote memorization using long term memory uses a different brain mechanism. I'm not convinced the move of long term memory to in books and then on line has been a problem.
 

pointwithinacircle2

Rapscallion
Premium Member
Michigan switched to a proficiency that is not memorized word for word?
The truth is yes, they did. Basically the different points of the proficiency are repeated to the candidate and he agrees to them. Only the exchange of the grip and it's name are memorized. They also printed out the ritual in plain text.

I found your comments on the memorization process interesting. I went back to school later in life. I found memorizing more difficult than I remembered, so I read some things about memorization and test taking. One of the things that struck me was the statement that learning information is a different process than recalling information. It struck me that the unspoken consequence of Michigan's decision was to not teach the art of recall to new Masons.

The consequences of this was brought home to me in a very personal way some time later. My Lodge was planning an EA degree and it became apparent that we had no one to do the lecture. So I determined that I would go home and try to learn the lecture secretly from my printed ritual, and that if I was successful I would then offer to do it during the degree. I was able to learn it and I did perform it during the degree. However there was an unexpected consequence from learning to perform the work. One day afterwards I was faced with a particularly difficult and unpleasant task and I was looking for any excuse to avoid it. When BAM! suddenly this whole paragraph from the EA lecture jumped into my head, "Fortitude is that noble virtue which.................." So I did the task, and it wasn't that bad.

My point here is that maybe the reason we learn the work is not so we can do the work. Maybe the reason is because of what doing the work teaches us. Maybe it is about the changes that happen secretly in our minds because of what actions we choose.

Lest anyone think this post is about bashing Michigan Masonry, let me say that when the Grand Lodge changed the ritual many Michigan Masons began encouraging new Masons to learn the lectures and that the Noble Art continued unimpeded.
 

dfreybur

Premium Member
Now you're talking about the hidden mysteries! Good stuff when the pieces fall together like that, isn't it?
 
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