Time to Think

University Students

I have seen 3 different types of graduate students in Canadian universities. Those who have got their undergraduate and high school degrees from North America, China, and Iran. It is interesting to see how different their approaches in research and study is (of course this is in average and cannot be extended to everybody).

In one type, the grad student finds a paper, read it in 30 minutes, put it away and start thinking and writing his/her own idea even if he/she does not have enough information about the topic. Students in the second group, read the paper over and over for days until they have understood it perfectly, then they start to do the same thing that the authors of that paper did with small modifications.

And finally the students in the last group, start reading the paper. Then come across a reference in the first paragraph. Go to the library and find that reference. Photocopy that paper or download it. Continue the original paper and do the same thing with all other references in the paper. At the end of the day he will have 20 papers on hand which have to read them all and find their references again. After one week, you have read 100 papers and exposed to many different topics and completely deviated from the original research!

I leave it to you to decide the nationality of students in each group!