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There's nothing wrong with taking a course that covers a very wide area, even if you're intending to specialize more deeply in all the topics later. It's actual
by ef4 13y ago
There's nothing wrong with taking a course that covers a very wide area, even if you're intending to specialize more deeply in all the topics later. It's actually a very effective learning strategy, because it motivates all the subsequent deeper dives.
- niels_olson 13y agoI will definitely second that. It's simply not possible to cover every aspect of a topic within any course. Survey courses are a great solution to a very real problem.
- alanctgardner2 13y agoI guess personally I would feel like I wasted a semester when I had no problem being motivated to deep dive into the other topics already. I suppose if someone was undirected and needed to pick a specialization this might help.
- ef4 13y agoAh, but if you're actually motivated there's nothing stopping you from going as deep as you want into any of the topics. There's never an excuse for "wasting" a semester. Coursework is the minimum, not the maximum.
- alanctgardner2 13y agoWhat I meant was that I would want to deep-dive into each topic, but we'd be busy moving on, and I'd cover all that material again next year anyways. I don't think survey courses fit my way of looking at topics, I'm very single-minded. That doesn't mean they aren't valuable or they can't work for other people. Just that I wouldn't want them to be mandatory.