10+ Guidelines for getting Study Help from Textbook Solutions?

Practicing textbook problems are a great way of improving your understanding and getting prepared for exams. However, sometimes, one can get stuck in some problem that can drain one’s energy and time to the extent that one no longer has the motivation or time to solve further problems. To circumvent such situations, it can be useful to get study help from textbook solutions, however, it is as important to make the right use of such study help resources.

Following are some appropriate courses of action you need to take for getting maximum study help from the textbook solutions manuals:

Have the right mindset

This is the pre-requisite before taking study help from any textbook solutions manuals. The objective should always be to enhance your knowledge and bolster your concepts rather than to solve problems just for the sake of solving them or getting your assignments completed on time. 

Give yourself enough time to deliberate

Whenever you encounter a challenging problem, you should give yourself some sufficient time to ponder upon it instead of rushing to get study help from the solutions manual. Read the problem statement several times and write all the given information as well as all that is to be found out. After that start brainstorming on how the problem can be solved.

Revise the specific topic

If you have given yourself sufficient time to reflect on the problem and are still unable to get any clue, you might feel tempted to use textbook solutions for getting study help at this stage but this isn’t quite the right time for that. You should consider revising that particular topic, of the problem is from. Often problems in the textbook exercises are written under topic headings and so identifying the topic should not be an issue. After revisiting that particular topic, re-read the problem statement and try again to solve it.

See the relevant examples

It is also a good idea to see some example problems in the textbook, which you think are similar to the one you are stuck at. There is a great chance of you getting some hints from these example problems which might lead you to the solution without having to get study help from the textbook solutions manual.

Check whether your answer makes sense

Immediately after you have solved a problem, you might feel the need to check its answer in the textbook solutions manual to confirm whether your solution is correct or not. But there are still a couple of steps left before you should take study help from the solutions manual. Have a look at your answer to see whether it is sounding reasonable or not. For instance, if the answer is a numerical value, you can determine if it is erroneous or not by seeing if it is coming significantly larger or smaller than what is expected. If the answer is in descriptive form, you can check if it is making overall sense. 

Recheck your solution

Even if your answer seems reasonable, you should re-check your solution for any possible errors. You can check for mistakes often ignored while solving the problem for the first time like conversion and consistency of units, etc. 

Check the answer in the solution manual

Once you have followed all the previous steps, you can see the answer from the textbook solutions manual. Make sure, you are seeing the solution to the corresponding problem, or else you can get agitated instead of getting study help from the solutions manual!

Check the methodology

Even if the answer matches, you should see the methodology or procedure adopted by the textbook solutions. By doing so, you might find an alternative more efficient way of solving the problem. Some methods can be more time-saving than others and may require less effort as well.

Reading solutions from textbook solutions manuals

Some students prepare for exams just by looking at the textbook solutions without practicing the problems by hand. While doing so, it seems that they are getting everything and will be able to solve the problems in the exams, but as soon as they try to solve the problems in the exam, they realize they cannot remember anything they read from the textbook solutions. Thus, using solutions manuals in this way becomes more of a liability instead of being a source of study help since it gives students a false sense of confidence. Although practicing problems by hand is a must for having the best understanding, if you do not have enough time for that, you should follow the following guidelines while seeing textbook solutions:

Read the question carefully: 

It seems like an obvious thing but many students when seeing textbook solutions even do not bother to read the problem statements, instead, they just start checking the solution! By doing so, they do not know what information is given and even what they are solving for! So, even if you are just seeing solutions from the manual without practicing, you should first read the question critically.

Think and Predict the next steps:

After reading the questions carefully, you should not rush to see the solution manual. Try to think about how the problem can be solved and predict the next steps of the solution. Then check the solution manual and see how the problem is solved there. If your approach is not right, ask yourself what mistake did you make and why.

Question each step:

Instead of skimming through the steps, you should ask yourself the rationale for every single step. Like why some particular formula or method was used.

Where to get Textbook Solutions?

Several online educational platforms offer various study help resources and services to students including textbook solutions. Make sure to get a textbook solutions manual that gives step-by-step solutions to problems.

For example, SolutionInn is one such online platform that provides various educational resources and services to students like textbook solutions manuals, online tutoring, etc. 

Concluding Thoughts

Taking study help from textbook solution manuals can be beneficial and productive only if one takes the right course of action while using them. Merely copying textbook solutions for doing assignments is not only academic dishonesty but can also have a detrimental effect on your confidence to solve problems, which is indispensable for solving any sort of problem. So do take study help from textbook solutions manuals but make sure you do it the right way. 

For more related blogs, visit: Simple Steps To Improve Your Online Tutoring Results