Best way to learn - use the solution manual often or not?

[WannabeNewton]

Don't use solutions manuals. Just don't. Take Ben's advice. The above poster is completely mistaken as to the purpose of textbook problems. Plus, graduate level texts often don't even have solutions manuals so getting used to the existence of solutions manuals will only come to bite you in the end.

 

[Turion]

Don't use solutions manuals. Just don't. Take Ben's advice. The above poster is completely mistaken as to the purpose of textbook problems. Plus, graduate level texts often don't even have solutions manuals so getting used to the existence of solutions manuals will only come to bite you in the end.

I guess it also depends on the textbook; there are obvious exceptions such as Calculus Spivak. At that level, you lose more with a manual than what you gain.

Also, make sure you don't actually read the entire solution. Just read the start very slowly, use that as a hint, and then go back to the problem. It is about having the discipline to make the honest effort first before using the manual.

 

[Catria]

Only when one is getting started with a given area of the subject matter should a solutions manual be used. Even if you do use a solutions manual, make sure you make an active reading of the solution.

 

[member 392791]

I'm just saying, someone that uses something like the teacher's solutions manual to correct their homework before turning it in is cheating if it's being graded. If it's something you've been told to use, or it's notes from class, no problem. AFTER your homework has been graded and you find out you were wrong, that is when you can look at finished solutions to get help in finding out where your mistake was and how to solve correctly.

I think in today's world that just doesn't work. If others are doing it, then you are just asking to get a worse grade. It's too competitive for grades to NOT cheat by your standards of cheating. This might be okay if no one else used solutions manuals and it was purely from the students.

Do you consider working in groups as cheating too? Because certainly not everything is your own original work, but is a product of the collaboration with others.

 

[meBigGuy]

Putting it simply --- Using the solutions manual is giving up. You don't want to get in the habit of giving up.

Using the solution manual is like working through the examples in the text. You think you learned it, but when you get to the homework you find out you don't have a clue. I call that the Delusional Understanding Progression Effect.

Edit: oops --- this is an old thread. Oh well ... Someday I'll look first.

 

[serllus reuel]

Many of the strongly anti-solutions people above are (it seems) experienced scientists who mean to give good advice.

However, for those learning the subject for the first time, particularity those self studying, the most important purpose of the solution manual is for CHECKING ANSWERS. It is commonly said "if you are not confident in your answers, then you have not mastered the material." However, if one has such a complete understanding that he is 100% sure of his answer, then why is he even doing problems? A few times I have attempted a problem, and then checked the solution only to see that my answer was off or my reasoning flawed. I then would to proceed to completely redo the problem. Had I never checked the solution, I would have continued to believe that the wrong method was the right one. Of course, the above situation should happen only rarely (otherwise you really do not understand the material).

 

[Evo]

Solutions manuals are not meant for students. This thread was supposed to be closed.