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> By interleaving my learning—in other words, practicing so that I knew not only when to use that word, but when not to use it, or to use a different variant of

by closed 10y ago

> By interleaving my learning—in other words, practicing so that I knew not only when to use that word, but when not to use it, or to use a different variant of it—I was actually using the same approaches that expert practitioners use to learn in math and science. This is huge! Even if you learn something so that you can use it without fail today, if you interleave your practice of using it (today) with other things, you'll do much better a week from now.

Jugurtha 10y ago
Interleaving has served me very well during my second year of Engineering. I hadn't attended that much and had a grade of 3/20. There were the final exams where the materials of the whole year was fair game. I buckled down for a month with a friend at my sister's house which was empty. I eliminated the modules with diminishing returns that I had passed or where I was close (easier to go from 0/20 to 12/20 than it is to go from 8/20 to 20/20 for the same amount of points). I was left with five modules I hadn't attended: Numerical Analysis (ANAI), Rational Mechanics(MECA), Strength of Materials(RDM), Vibrations-Waves-and-Propagation(VOP), and Atomic and Nuclear Physics(PAN). I drew a pentagon and organized the modules. Starting at the top, going counter-clockwise: VOP, ANAI, PAN, MECA, RDM. Each day, I'd do two modules: Day1: VOP-ANAI Day2: PAN-MECA Day3: RDM-VOP Day4: ANAI-PAN Day5: MECA-RDM Day6: Restart cycle. Many benefits: - You only do a module for half a day. Intensely. Then switch to another module and you sort of hustle your brain for a fresh start. It's not tired because you're doing something else now. "It's not like you've been studying all day" is the impression. - Mixing modules gives new insights. Especially in second year, there's a bootstrapping phenomenon: to understand a module of Physics, you had to understand a module in Maths. - You study a module hard. You don't see it the next day, but the day after. Not too soon to be sick of it and burn out, but not too far in the future not to remember any of it. The problem with the methods most other students followed was that it violated their brains and common sense: they'd do one module exclusively for a week (all chapters, all exercises). Then go on to the next one and do the same. By the time the exam comes: they're sick of the modules, and they remember nothing for the most part because it's been 3 weeks since they've last done the first module they started with. I, on the other hand, have seen any given module at most 3 days before. This allowed me to study 13 hours per day during a month without burnout (reading the course material for the first time, going over the exercises and exams, etc). The key was keeping a schedule. Up at 0500. 0500 - 0700: Study. 0700 - 0800: Breakfast. 0800 - 1200: Study. 1200 - 1300: Lunch and nap. 1300 - 1700: Study. 1700 - 1800: Afternoon snack and chill. 1800 - 2100: Study. 2100 - 2200: Dinner. 2200 lights out, going to sleep.
- deleted 10y ago
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by closed 10y ago

Jugurtha 10y ago

Interleaving has served me very well during my second year of Engineering. I hadn't attended that much and had a grade of 3/20. There were the final exams where the materials of the whole year was fair game. I buckled down for a month with a friend at my sister's house which was empty. I eliminated the modules with diminishing returns that I had passed or where I was close (easier to go from 0/20 to 12/20 than it is to go from 8/20 to 20/20 for the same amount of points). I was left with five modules I hadn't attended: Numerical Analysis (ANAI), Rational Mechanics(MECA), Strength of Materials(RDM), Vibrations-Waves-and-Propagation(VOP), and Atomic and Nuclear Physics(PAN). I drew a pentagon and organized the modules. Starting at the top, going counter-clockwise: VOP, ANAI, PAN, MECA, RDM. Each day, I'd do two modules: Day1: VOP-ANAI Day2: PAN-MECA Day3: RDM-VOP Day4: ANAI-PAN Day5: MECA-RDM Day6: Restart cycle. Many benefits: - You only do a module for half a day. Intensely. Then switch to another module and you sort of hustle your brain for a fresh start. It's not tired because you're doing something else now. "It's not like you've been studying all day" is the impression. - Mixing modules gives new insights. Especially in second year, there's a bootstrapping phenomenon: to understand a module of Physics, you had to understand a module in Maths. - You study a module hard. You don't see it the next day, but the day after. Not too soon to be sick of it and burn out, but not too far in the future not to remember any of it. The problem with the methods most other students followed was that it violated their brains and common sense: they'd do one module exclusively for a week (all chapters, all exercises). Then go on to the next one and do the same. By the time the exam comes: they're sick of the modules, and they remember nothing for the most part because it's been 3 weeks since they've last done the first module they started with. I, on the other hand, have seen any given module at most 3 days before. This allowed me to study 13 hours per day during a month without burnout (reading the course material for the first time, going over the exercises and exams, etc). The key was keeping a schedule. Up at 0500. 0500 - 0700: Study. 0700 - 0800: Breakfast. 0800 - 1200: Study. 1200 - 1300: Lunch and nap. 1300 - 1700: Study. 1700 - 1800: Afternoon snack and chill. 1800 - 2100: Study. 2100 - 2200: Dinner. 2200 lights out, going to sleep.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]