Study Methodology

	“There are ways to study so that one really learns and can use what one learns.... The end result will be certainty and potential competence.” L. Ron Hubbard

Impossible? Not at the Hubbard College. Here, when students receive 100 percent upon examination—and many do—they are given a “Pass With Honors.” A “regular” pass requires a score of 85 percent or higher—anything less is unacceptable. But even those who score between 85 percent and 100 percent are required to re-study the materials they did not fully grasp, and faculty then guide them to a full 100 percent understanding.

Such requirements are, of course, unheard of in academia today. How then can our students live up to such standards?

The answer lies in another question:
Were you ever taught how to study?

Most people would answer “No” to that question. When they think back to their educations, they remember that students were usually sent home with the order “Read the chapter and there will be a quiz on it tomorrow.” Some students passed, others failed. Some developed tricks to memorize data, others learned speed-reading techniques and still others figured out how to cheat. Everyone was stressed out. And most forgot the data within a day or two anyway. All of these strange solutions occurred and still do because most students have never learned how to study. If one knew how to study, one would really understand the data, retain the data and be able to apply it in real life. This, of course, is a key ability for an executive, as his success depends in large degree on his capacity to rapidly gather and assimilate information, evaluate its importances and make the right decisions.

Our students are fortunate in that Mr. Hubbard isolated the fundamentals of learning and codified these into a technology of study. This includes methods to teach students how to study, giving them the lifelong skills they need to effectively learn any subject. He not only discovered and isolated all the major barriers to study common to everyone (including a previously unacknowledged barrier that lies at the bottom of all failures to pursue a given course of study), but he provided methods to overcome these barriers.

Among the many advancements brought about through his Study Technology is the fact that in courses utilizing these methods, such as those at the Hubbard College, all students are self-paced. That gap between talented fast students and the slower ones is no longer an issue. Each student moves ahead at his or her own pace, studying written materials and tape-recorded lectures at a comfortable speed. Each course is organized around what is called a checksheet, which arranges and presents the materials of a subject in a step-by-step manner to facilitate learning. Checksheets lay out both the sequence of materials to be studied and the practical application drills to be followed. This vital practical aspect is always paramount. Students are not just taught abstract theory, but are drilled on how to fully understand and become able to apply in life what they have learned. There is a constant balance between the study of administrative and organisational principles and practical application of these principles.

Application is the key to all our courses. We are not interested in graduating theorists. We want graduates who can do.

With this as our focus, that remarkable score of 100 percent during examinations is not only attainable but commonplace.