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How to Study Effectively

320 points by jonsen 5y ago

daxxa1 5y ago
AKA use spaced repetition software like Anki or SuperMemo
- kthxb 5y ago
  This is not what the author means by "Space out your study sessions". Also, SRS is no panacea, e.g. you can use it to learn a mathematical formula, but not to learn how to apply it. For this, you need actual practice.
  - kiba 5y ago
    You can absolutely make cards for practicing procedures, or even math proofs. A mathematician used it to learn proofs. He even derived new proofs from his deck of cards, and add them as cards. It takes some imagination and experimentation to figure out how to break down subject matters into something you can study with cards.
    - dqv 5y ago
      And I think that imagination is also a part of the studying process! Trying to figure out how to split information-dense cards without losing context is what takes me the longest. But I find that the act of splitting them out helps me remember them better!
    - watwut 5y ago
      There is not much utility in memorizing proofs. The primary work should be in trying to understand them. The amount of memorization should be small in math.
      - kiba 5y ago
        That's a misunderstanding. If you don't understand something, then it's much more difficult to remember and recall. That mathematician is hardly doing this by rote.
        watwut 5y ago
        If you use flashcards for learning, you are doing rote learning by definition. There is nothing more rote then making cards and then memorizing their content. It is also absurd way to learn stuff that has relationships in it.
      - BeetleB 5y ago
        > There is not much utility in memorizing proofs. This was a misconception I, too, had. When I was taking grad analysis, we had to memorize the proofs, as the professor was guaranteed to ask for the proof of one textbook theorem in each exam. I was incensed, but when I memorized the proofs for the final exam, I noticed more "proof patterns" than I had during the whole semester, and got a lot better at the subject. Memorizing without understanding is useless. Memorizing with understanding is much better than merely understanding.
        watwut 5y ago
        You 100% dont have to memorize proofs for that. If you put in work to understand to proof, then you have to remember maybe one tricky step or something like that to reproduce it. Again, just because the proof is on exam does not imply you have to memorize it. Also, way better way to test is to put similar made up theorem on exam. Which means you cant just reproduce what you memorized without understanding.
        BeetleB 5y ago
        It's quite clear you didn't understand my comment.
robg 5y ago
1. Get good sleep. Your brain power is most affected by a lack of sleep. Poor and insufficient sleep impairs learning, memory, and attention. https://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/matters/benefits-of-sleep/learning-memory https://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/matters/benefit...
- mettamage 5y ago
  This. I can't sleep well, trying to do everything in my power to make sure I get enough. Whenever I'm well-rested for a week or so, I'm smart. Whenever I'm ill-rested for a week or so, I'm only capable of basic functioning.
  - DiffEq 5y ago
    BioTest Z-12, except I take one, not the 2 or 3 they recommend. It it worth 10x its weight in gold.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - markus_zhang 5y ago
      I found this: https://www.reddit.com/r/quittingphenibut/comments/d8vazr/z12_sleep_supplement_is_phenibut/ https://www.reddit.com/r/quittingphenibut/comments/d8vazr/z1... Not sure what it means though, but I would caution.
      - DiffEq 5y ago
        I have been using this for years. I have never had the negative experiences that these people on the Reddit forum ascribe to it.
  - larrywright 5y ago
    The thing that has made the biggest difference in terms of sleep quality was adding a magnesium supplement to my nutrition routine. It was an immediate change for the better and it’s held for years now.
agumonkey 5y ago
who else here, after studying long hard (according to their level) topics, realized that there's also a notion of smoothness/patience ? rushing is rarely required to reach eurekas. A little bit of playful intellectual contemplation is often enough.
- Jtsummers 5y ago
  That clicked for me at some point in college. When I had my epiphany moments on calculus one or two years after taking it, but with the extra time applying it I just "got it" one day. It switched from mechanical application to actual understanding. Same thing happened with a number of other subjects. Classes where I had little time (I took a couple summer courses that had 5-10 weeks to cover a semester's worth of material) did not stick with me in the same way unless I had an opportunity to reuse it later. Classes that I never reused (Latin) stuck with me better, though, given their duration (a full academic year) versus an Old English course that was crammed into 5 or so weeks.
  - agumonkey 5y ago
    interesting, especially the 'actual understanding' .. - when young, you coat stuff with more emotions than the topic itself, it feels hard, or advanced, or hard, later on you simply look at it naked - the patient eureka is clearer and larger, it really feels as if suddenly you're simply sitting on top of a nicer viewpoint and effortlessly you can connect more pieces in more ways
- galaxyLogic 5y ago
  I think that is what Feynman technique is much about. You spend time writing questions of what you still don't understand recursively until you have understood it all. It begins by understanding what you don't understand. Once you understand something after spending time trying to understand it and writing down your understandings and non-understandings, you typically have little problem memorizing it.
  - agumonkey 5y ago
vallas 5y ago
Summary > Focus on constructing your own understanding of a topic, not reproducing someone else’s > Make retrieval practice an integral part of your studying > Don’t just highlight material, think about it
southphillyman 5y ago
I do a combination of Feynman technique, space repetition via Anki, and even katas if it's something I'm really struggling with.
- dqv 5y ago
  Can you share some resources on katas for studying? It just seems like karate moves, which is cool, but doesn't seem like what you're talking about.
  - stonemetal12 5y ago
    kata is making a repetitive movement, so that you can make the movement naturally, without thinking. While it is most well known as martial arts training, there are kata for most traditional Japanese arts, even tea ceremony. In the west it has gotten used for any sort of repetitive training used to reinforce a skill.
kashkhan 5y ago
More like how to memorize effectively for exams. Maybe take a step back and realize that systems the rely on exams and memorization (like tech interviews), don't produce greatness.
- Jtsummers 5y ago
  The techniques discussed aren't just about exams. In fact, if you just want to pass exams you can still mostly cram the information into your head for a lot of them. What the author discusses is ways to study (how often, how long, rotate through subjects or focus on one?) that lead to better long term retention.
- jedimastert 5y ago
  Internalizing concepts is the first step to using them creatively.
- tdeck 5y ago
  Many skills involve some declarative learning (i.e. memorization) on the road to mastery. You can approach that declarative learning explicitly, or you can simply accumulate it over time while practicing whatever you're trying to learn. In many cases the former can be much more efficient and get you to mastery faster, so if that's your goal it's useful to know strategies for memorizing things.
joshlingaround 5y ago
As a former middle school teacher, I found that the evidence-based techniques that the author mentioned, such as "spacing" and "retrieval", were underutilized in classrooms due to teachers not knowing about them, as well as how tedious it can be to implement them. I founded a nonprofit called Podsie (https://www.podsie.org https://www.podsie.org) to help with this problem, and we created a free tool that's essentially like "Anki for classrooms" so that teachers can help their students study more effectively in their classes.
- lintaho 5y ago
  this is really cool, especially as a nonprofit - makes it feel much more mission-oriented and teacher-first. are there any ideological/learning methodology differences between podsie and anki?
  - joshlingaround 5y ago
    Thanks, and good question! Ideologically, I think Anki and Podsie are pretty aligned in our beliefs that personalized spaced retrieval (often referred to as spaced repetition) is a much more efficient and effective way to learn and retain information compared to other traditional review practices (eg. reading textbooks or going over notes). Learning-wise, perhaps the key difference is that while Anki is very focused on the individual-learner, we're much more focused on empowering each teacher. This means that we've needed to build features like having different autogradable question types (eg. short answer and multiple choice), ensuring that teachers have easy-to-follow data reports on how students and classes are doing, and also providing teachers with tools to incentivize their students to regularly review on Podsie.
tdeck 5y ago
Wait, do people cram because they think it's a particularly effective study technique? I always thought it was just a byproduct of procrastination and putting off studying until the absolute last minute.
- marksbrown 5y ago
  Think? Know! Cramming works in the short term due to the nature of mass testing. Any sensible person identifies what they will be judged upon and maximises their effort towards that. Especially if we're in a world of credentialism. Which we are.
  - Jtsummers 5y ago
    And people continue with what succeeds. If it worked once, and it worked the next hundred times, why would you change? That it's not efficient or effective in the long-term is irrelevant unless they step back and consider their objectives. Which most people don't seem to do on a regular basis.
  - chenmike 5y ago
    Agreed, I now greatly regret it knowing what I know about the theory of learning, but I crammed my entire way through college and graduated with honors. It's embarrassing to say but I can recall close to 0 of the facts or formulas that I regurgitated onto any of my exams.
    - rramadass 5y ago
      I can assure you that 99% of ALL students have done the same whatever they may claim otherwise. This is simply due to our educational system and social/biological pressures. The way i have tried to remedy this in my own self is to buy lots of books and try and give myself a proper education in the sense of really understanding something to the extent possible with the amount of work and time i am willing to invest. There is no pressure, no deadlines, no competition but simply a desire to learn and understand i.e. knowledge for knowledge's sake. The use of technology in the above endeavour is problematic. The Internet is a huge distraction and time sinkhole and there is too much junk to sift through to get at any actual nuggets. Hence i use it to get an idea of a subject domain and then try to get actual books to study in that domain. The final point is to sit with pen and paper and take notes, read aloud the subject matter to better imprint on the mind, all aimed towards engaging the body with the mind to strengthen the learning process. Typing on a keyboard does not have the same effect.
lnwlebjel 5y ago
... summed up more effectively here: http://www.math.toronto.edu/nhoell/10rules-of-studying.pdf http://www.math.toronto.edu/nhoell/10rules-of-studying.pdf
dukeofdoom 5y ago
I read a story about a math teacher having kids run on a treadmill before the class. Apparently that expansion of energy calmed the kids down, and improved learning. The mind is connected to the body, so kind of makes sense that there would psychological benefits. Maybe similar to taking a cold shower in improving alertness.
- gozzoo 5y ago
  Can you provide a source for that?
  - dukeofdoom 5y ago
    https://johnratey.typepad.com/blog/2008/03/school-on-the-r.html https://johnratey.typepad.com/blog/2008/03/school-on-the-r.h... Seems like remembered wrong, not just math but was a grade 8 class.
alvarlagerlof 5y ago
Maybe the problem is not explaining why students should care about what they're being taught. People learn automatically when they're interested.
- dboreham 5y ago
  Many teachers don't know this information and so can't pass on to students.
  - alvarlagerlof 5y ago
    Then teachers should be taught that in their education.
jrd79 5y ago
My main technique from my engineering undergrad days was extremely effective and yet very simple and easy to describe and/or implement. It is: 1. Attend the lectures and take good notes. Don't write things down that are obvious or that you already know. 2. Before any exam, go back over the dozens of pages of notes and condense them down to 3 or 4 pages, omitting details that will be brought to mind by the things you are writing down. 3. Go back over the 3 to 4 pages, condensing them down to a single page, compactly written. 4. Go back over the single page, condensing it down to a single notecard. The act of condensing requires you to internalize the knowledge enough to know what you have memorized and what you must still note down. And the act of repeatedly writing down the hard parts commits those to memory too. By the end, the notecard has a handful of difficult to remember formulas and a bunch of keywords that prompt your memory to recall the salient details. In the US at that time, a single notecard was often allowed during exams, so the final work product was also that card. (My recall 20 years later is excellent, so this is not cramming.)
- KingFelix 5y ago
  great, pretty much used the same technique. I would re-write lecture notes right after class into 3 or 4 pages, helped solidify the material right away.
  - rramadass 5y ago
    Exactly Right!.
- Dwelve 5y ago
  I did the same but in addition I read things out quietly and asked myself questions about what I just wrote down and read. Not simply reciting the core points but trying to understand why they were put in that place, what makes it necessary for them to be that way and how they fit into the broader context. Additionally I'd "circle back" every now and then, i.e. question what happened in the previous page, then in the previous chapter. It got extremely addicting to learn once I got the hang of it. It is remarkable (and quite frankly insane) how much knowledge you can absorb and internalize in a coherent way if you just blast every sense with that input and force your mind to "live and breathe" a certain topic. (I still became an unemployed loser but at least I can learn fast!)
albertop 5y ago
Learning How to Learn by Barbara Oakley has been my go to approach. Best advice I was able to find so far.
- animesh 5y ago
  This is the way. A well structured course that will leave you with effective tools to maximize your learning potential.
WalterBright 5y ago
1. attend every lecture without fail 2. take legible notes by hand on everything that goes on the chalkboard 3. do all the homework, and do it on time 4. make sure you understand how to get the solution to every homework problem 5. review notes and all homework problems as prep for the exam I found this meant reliably getting at least a B in the courses at Caltech. Getting an A required considerably more work. My high school technique of not bothering to do much of anything and still getting an A took a year and a half of abject failure at Caltech before I wised up. Fortunately, Caltech's freshman year was pass/fail, evidently they were familiar with people like me :-)
- maxwells-daemon 5y ago
  Also went to Caltech, and my progression was the complete opposite. Started out going to every lecture and trying to write everything down, but things just moved way too fast -- I'd write down every word and figure without ever internalizing it, and at the end of each lecture I'd have a crappy copy of the lecture notes and no memory of the last hour. By senior year, my strategy was: don't write anything down, just try to follow the main thread of the lecture. Then afterwards, go back and read the textbook and take exhaustive notes then. Empirically I learned way more that way.
  - WalterBright 5y ago
    I'm glad you found what worked for you! Everybody's different. I've counselled students headed off to college, and I'd give them my recommendations (these days, I included taking notes by hand as that seems to be far more effective, and leave the laptop at the dorm). None followed it at first, and got poor results, then did, and things improved dramatically. One thing I wish I had done was get a cheap cassette recorder and record the lectures. My notes were effective at exam time because they'd evoke the lecture memories, but are gibberish today because they completely lack context. I'd also have something special today to donate to the Caltech archives. All those lectures are lost to time. P.S. with your username, you had to be a techer!
  - lugged 5y ago
    Doesn't the lecturer give out notes ahead of time? I used to just print them out and then highlight or make my own notes over top of the printed slides to make sure I was internalizing it.
psychomugs 5y ago
I zipped a five-year undergrad program into three while maintaining a better-than-perfect GPA, while still balancing extracurriculars and a decent social life. I don't think I ever nailed down a particular study habit, and did many things this article says not to do. I was/am a night owl and often stayed in the engineering buildings late enough to greet the night-shift janitors. I could cruise through weeks on 4.5 hours of sleep/night and kept tabs on which gas stations had the best energy drink promos. The handful of times I started homework or projects or exam review early ended up backfiring, so I stuck to cramming and my tests would still turn into the answer key. I did follow some of the advice here, particularly between different but related topics (e.g. heat transfer and fluids, Java and data structures), but even there, I found looking for the relationship between two seemingly disparate topics to still be useful (e.g. electronic circuits as thermal circuits in heat transfer). I think what I'd like to emphasize is that everyone just needs to find whatever works for them, which may or may not be what works for a majority of others. I fortunately went through undergrad right before the deluge of productivity porn, and could definitely have fallen into the trap of worrying too much about how to study instead of just studying.
- ultramegachurch 5y ago
  >I think what I'd like to emphasize is that everyone just needs to find whatever works for them If only it were this easy! As the article points out, often what you think works best for you is actually just what you're used to. I think switching up studying habits every so often is good practice. Forces you to try new things and see if they make an impact on your retention.
  - psychomugs 5y ago
    It's difficult to pin down 'best' because it's so subjective; my 'method' was the best for my transcript but not for my sanity. I think whatever you're doing at the time is the best, until it isn't, though I definitely agree on switching it up, and working with others helps socially and academically from my experience.
65 5y ago
I got really good grades in college from doing this (this might only apply for humanities majors, though): 1. Take notes of the keywords and core concepts 2. Make flashcards (you can use Quizlet if you like) of the keyword/concept and definition/explanation. 3. Quiz yourself a few times a day by going through the flash cards. I liked to start studying about 3 days before the exam. Getting good grades in the humanities can be really easy. Mostly because the humanities are really easy, but I digress.
ioseph 5y ago
Early in my CompEng program I would revise by condensing notes, rereading and practicing areas I didn't understand. With the breadth of some topics (looking at you analog electronics) it was often hard to prioritise study to maximise exam marks. By the end of my degree I realised the best practice was just doing past exams. And I found if I could consistently get 100% on previous exams that would translate to at least 80% on the actual. It made me realise that the faster path to good marks was optimising for answering exam questions rather than a deep intuitive knowledge of the subject.
- rramadass 5y ago
  >the faster path to good marks was optimising for answering exam questions rather than a deep intuitive knowledge of the subject. Right. This is the bane of our educational system i.e. they prioritize for "grading" rather than "understanding". I have met many who were considered smart/genius because of their good grades or where they graduated from but with regular interaction turned out to be pretty average in their understanding. They have simply optimized their "Social Signal".
  - ioseph 5y ago
    Absolutely, and aside from job interview situations I feel that exams don't simulate any aspect of daily work.
animanoir 5y ago
Ankidroid works pretty well for me. Would have aced exams with it.
eloisius 5y ago
Something I've come to appreciate over the last year of studying Mandarin is how well paper works for studying as compared to anything digital. In the past I've often been frustrated by absorbing difficult materials like CS papers. I never gave much thought to the medium because PDFs are pretty convenient, you _can_ annotate them, it's easy to copy paste and search for you things don't understand, etc. However, I still struggled to finish reading and understand a paper. I'm realizing now that I'm much more capable to form understanding than I used to think, and the trick is going to 7-Eleven and printing out a paper instead of reading the PDF. There's something about being able to quickly skim, mark up parts of it, etc. that no digital format has matched for me. If I was going university today, I'd never bring my laptop to class again.
- rramadass 5y ago
  A thousand times this! There is evidence for this emerging from Neuroscience. Something about using Pen and Paper engages our whole body and brain and seems to aid and cement the learning process. This does not happen with a keyboard and mouse. I have now become a strong advocate of limiting technology usage in the classroom and learning to use it appropriately.
wiz21c 5y ago
AS a 45+ years old student, I can relate a lot to the spacing thing. Gone are the days where I could memorize in a matter of hours, now it takes weeks. Memory as a "rebuilding" mechanism is also so true. I have to understand everything I study in minute details, else my memory just bumps on the slightest not-yet-understood thing. It's excruciatingly painful 'cos it needs a lot of work. (I have a background in compsci and now I'm studying data sciences at master level, which means : maths, maths, maths and maths and basically no compsci; I like maths, but that's quite a bit more involved than 20 years ago and 10000% more than 2 years ago when I was a PM :-)))
bjourne 5y ago
I'm surprised that the article doesn't mention problem solving. For math and computer science problem solving is absolutely essential to learning.
deleted 5y ago
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hkopp 5y ago
I am currently learning chess tactics using the Woodpecker method, i.e., a modified version of spaced repetition. The idea is to do chess puzzles over a fixed duration, say 4 weeks, and then repeat the same puzzles, each time aiming at halving the necessary time. I cannot yet comment on its effectiveness, but Tikkanen, the author, used it to get from International Master to Grandmaster.
xyzzy123 5y ago
The article didn't mention solving problems at all, or actively engaging in the field of study. Active reading, notes and summaries "prime the pump" but information doesn't truly "come to life" for me until I try to use it.
niels_bom 5y ago
One of the most useful models of technical learning I've learned is the "illusion of competence"; the fact that you can follow along with somebody explaining or doing something is very different from being able to do it yourself.
- rramadass 5y ago
  Very True! I think this is the reason, people who skip lectures/classes but sit down with the books/notes and work on their homework/problems do pretty well. There is a Chinese Martial Arts saying which i always keep in mind; To show one the right direction and right path, oral instructions from a Master is necessary but Mastery of a Subject comes only from one's own incessant self-cultivation.
foolinaround 5y ago
I found this thread super useful and took some notes highlighting the discussions below I thought i would share for others benefit too... (formatting is messed up, my notes are in MD format, i lost the sub-indentation on these notes, i can just add a new line ) -- - paper over laptop - SRS, anki - you can use it to learn a mathematical formula, but not to learn how to apply it. - write notes, summarize it down to pages at end of session; called as 'making cheat sheets' - a few days down, summarize it further down and more, till you have it like a card. - study above your level, and read the history of the subject. - If an undergraduate read graduate level textbooks, especially overviews. - This gives one a sense of the context of the subject, an appreciation of "where it's going", a hint of why the subject is still interesting and under active development, and makes the undergraduate material seem almost innocent by comparison. - It's much harder, of course, and you'll often find that the entire semester's material is covered in a couple of chapters at the beginning, but the feeling of "how the professionals really talk/think about the subject" is hugely important for getting a feel of the thing. - The history of a subject is great for giving the human context, which is hugely useful for grokking how things developed organically, as well as the personalities involved. It can really help remembering stuff. - just keep at it, hour after hour, without comparing yourself or your efforts to anyone else. - Take frequent breaks, even holidays, and remember, above all, that exams are perhaps the worst test of learning we have yet devised apart from all the others. - understand proofs over memorizing them - as little memorization in math. Memorizing without understanding is useless. Memorizing with understanding is much better than merely understanding. - Read the textbook before attending the lecture - if you find yourself unable to take proper notes, and seems like the lecture moves too fast, this is the issue. - Even if lecturer provides notes, some self-written ones BY HAND are useful for retention - Sleep more important than cramming on exam night - All nighter is never worth it no matter how little material you think you know. - If you're semi confident in the exam, prioritize getting a full sleep over a little sleep. - If you're not confident in the exam, definitely still aim for at least 5-6 hours of sleep. - Sleep early, wake up early -- study notes before exam - make sure you the study session is light to medium; brain has limited stamina that will be depleted little by little, either during exam or while studying - all-nighters actually make you worse - even intelligent people have less than smart answers to simple questions - Magnesium supplement to help sleep routine - Magnesium Glycinate, .Chelated, specifically doctors best brand. - Z12 -https://www.reddit.com/r/quittingphenibut/comments/d8vazr/z12_sleep_supplement_is_phenibut/ https://www.reddit.com/r/quittingphenibut/comments/d8vazr/z1... - Woodpecker method - , a modified version of spaced repetition. - Book : Learning How to Learn by Barbara Oakley - A well structured course that will leave you with effective tools to maximize your learning potential. - Feynman technique - write questions of what you still don't understand recursively until you have understood it all. - begins by understanding what you don't understand. - Once you understand something after spending time trying to understand it and writing down your understandings and non-understandings, you typically have little problem memorizing it. - Duration of class (1 yr ) over intense study - longer the duration, the better - katas - japanese - making a repetitive movement, so that you can make the movement naturally, without thinking. - repetitve study like anki - physical - a run on threadmill or cold showers
prasenjit_pro 5y ago
Though Studying Effectively for me had different methods for Different subjects but massively floated around notes and constantly writing important highlights and ignoring the usual normal things. When I say different methods for different subjects: I mean like Maths: I focused more on redoing my full school book like 6 times in a Half plus would go beyond and redo other similar standard books with more difficult and complex calculations to make the level higher where normal hard problems would become easier. For Literature: It was like reading the book, watching it in theaters and spending quality discussion time with some book worms and teachers.
kazinator 5y ago
Studying to pass an exam and learning are two related, but different things.
maxan 5y ago
Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23514992 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23514992

320 points by jonsen 5y ago

daxxa1 5y ago

AKA use spaced repetition software like Anki or SuperMemo

kthxb 5y ago
This is not what the author means by "Space out your study sessions". Also, SRS is no panacea, e.g. you can use it to learn a mathematical formula, but not to learn how to apply it. For this, you need actual practice.
- kiba 5y ago
  You can absolutely make cards for practicing procedures, or even math proofs. A mathematician used it to learn proofs. He even derived new proofs from his deck of cards, and add them as cards. It takes some imagination and experimentation to figure out how to break down subject matters into something you can study with cards.
  - dqv 5y ago
    And I think that imagination is also a part of the studying process! Trying to figure out how to split information-dense cards without losing context is what takes me the longest. But I find that the act of splitting them out helps me remember them better!
  - watwut 5y ago
    There is not much utility in memorizing proofs. The primary work should be in trying to understand them. The amount of memorization should be small in math.
    - kiba 5y ago
      That's a misunderstanding. If you don't understand something, then it's much more difficult to remember and recall. That mathematician is hardly doing this by rote.
      - watwut 5y ago
        If you use flashcards for learning, you are doing rote learning by definition. There is nothing more rote then making cards and then memorizing their content. It is also absurd way to learn stuff that has relationships in it.
    - BeetleB 5y ago
      > There is not much utility in memorizing proofs. This was a misconception I, too, had. When I was taking grad analysis, we had to memorize the proofs, as the professor was guaranteed to ask for the proof of one textbook theorem in each exam. I was incensed, but when I memorized the proofs for the final exam, I noticed more "proof patterns" than I had during the whole semester, and got a lot better at the subject. Memorizing without understanding is useless. Memorizing with understanding is much better than merely understanding.
      - watwut 5y ago
        You 100% dont have to memorize proofs for that. If you put in work to understand to proof, then you have to remember maybe one tricky step or something like that to reproduce it. Again, just because the proof is on exam does not imply you have to memorize it. Also, way better way to test is to put similar made up theorem on exam. Which means you cant just reproduce what you memorized without understanding.
        BeetleB 5y ago
        It's quite clear you didn't understand my comment.

robg 5y ago

1. Get good sleep. Your brain power is most affected by a lack of sleep. Poor and insufficient sleep impairs learning, memory, and attention. https://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/matters/benefits-of-sleep/learning-memory https://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/matters/benefit...

mettamage 5y ago
This. I can't sleep well, trying to do everything in my power to make sure I get enough. Whenever I'm well-rested for a week or so, I'm smart. Whenever I'm ill-rested for a week or so, I'm only capable of basic functioning.
- DiffEq 5y ago
  BioTest Z-12, except I take one, not the 2 or 3 they recommend. It it worth 10x its weight in gold.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - markus_zhang 5y ago
    I found this: https://www.reddit.com/r/quittingphenibut/comments/d8vazr/z12_sleep_supplement_is_phenibut/ https://www.reddit.com/r/quittingphenibut/comments/d8vazr/z1... Not sure what it means though, but I would caution.
    - DiffEq 5y ago
      I have been using this for years. I have never had the negative experiences that these people on the Reddit forum ascribe to it.
- larrywright 5y ago
  The thing that has made the biggest difference in terms of sleep quality was adding a magnesium supplement to my nutrition routine. It was an immediate change for the better and it’s held for years now.

agumonkey 5y ago

who else here, after studying long hard (according to their level) topics, realized that there's also a notion of smoothness/patience ? rushing is rarely required to reach eurekas. A little bit of playful intellectual contemplation is often enough.

Jtsummers 5y ago
That clicked for me at some point in college. When I had my epiphany moments on calculus one or two years after taking it, but with the extra time applying it I just "got it" one day. It switched from mechanical application to actual understanding. Same thing happened with a number of other subjects. Classes where I had little time (I took a couple summer courses that had 5-10 weeks to cover a semester's worth of material) did not stick with me in the same way unless I had an opportunity to reuse it later. Classes that I never reused (Latin) stuck with me better, though, given their duration (a full academic year) versus an Old English course that was crammed into 5 or so weeks.
- agumonkey 5y ago
  interesting, especially the 'actual understanding' .. - when young, you coat stuff with more emotions than the topic itself, it feels hard, or advanced, or hard, later on you simply look at it naked - the patient eureka is clearer and larger, it really feels as if suddenly you're simply sitting on top of a nicer viewpoint and effortlessly you can connect more pieces in more ways
galaxyLogic 5y ago
I think that is what Feynman technique is much about. You spend time writing questions of what you still don't understand recursively until you have understood it all. It begins by understanding what you don't understand. Once you understand something after spending time trying to understand it and writing down your understandings and non-understandings, you typically have little problem memorizing it.
- agumonkey 5y ago

vallas 5y ago

Summary > Focus on constructing your own understanding of a topic, not reproducing someone else’s > Make retrieval practice an integral part of your studying > Don’t just highlight material, think about it

southphillyman 5y ago

I do a combination of Feynman technique, space repetition via Anki, and even katas if it's something I'm really struggling with.

dqv 5y ago
Can you share some resources on katas for studying? It just seems like karate moves, which is cool, but doesn't seem like what you're talking about.
- stonemetal12 5y ago
  kata is making a repetitive movement, so that you can make the movement naturally, without thinking. While it is most well known as martial arts training, there are kata for most traditional Japanese arts, even tea ceremony. In the west it has gotten used for any sort of repetitive training used to reinforce a skill.

kashkhan 5y ago

More like how to memorize effectively for exams. Maybe take a step back and realize that systems the rely on exams and memorization (like tech interviews), don't produce greatness.

Jtsummers 5y ago
The techniques discussed aren't just about exams. In fact, if you just want to pass exams you can still mostly cram the information into your head for a lot of them. What the author discusses is ways to study (how often, how long, rotate through subjects or focus on one?) that lead to better long term retention.
jedimastert 5y ago
Internalizing concepts is the first step to using them creatively.
tdeck 5y ago
Many skills involve some declarative learning (i.e. memorization) on the road to mastery. You can approach that declarative learning explicitly, or you can simply accumulate it over time while practicing whatever you're trying to learn. In many cases the former can be much more efficient and get you to mastery faster, so if that's your goal it's useful to know strategies for memorizing things.

joshlingaround 5y ago

As a former middle school teacher, I found that the evidence-based techniques that the author mentioned, such as "spacing" and "retrieval", were underutilized in classrooms due to teachers not knowing about them, as well as how tedious it can be to implement them. I founded a nonprofit called Podsie (https://www.podsie.org https://www.podsie.org) to help with this problem, and we created a free tool that's essentially like "Anki for classrooms" so that teachers can help their students study more effectively in their classes.

lintaho 5y ago
this is really cool, especially as a nonprofit - makes it feel much more mission-oriented and teacher-first. are there any ideological/learning methodology differences between podsie and anki?
- joshlingaround 5y ago
  Thanks, and good question! Ideologically, I think Anki and Podsie are pretty aligned in our beliefs that personalized spaced retrieval (often referred to as spaced repetition) is a much more efficient and effective way to learn and retain information compared to other traditional review practices (eg. reading textbooks or going over notes). Learning-wise, perhaps the key difference is that while Anki is very focused on the individual-learner, we're much more focused on empowering each teacher. This means that we've needed to build features like having different autogradable question types (eg. short answer and multiple choice), ensuring that teachers have easy-to-follow data reports on how students and classes are doing, and also providing teachers with tools to incentivize their students to regularly review on Podsie.

tdeck 5y ago

Wait, do people cram because they think it's a particularly effective study technique? I always thought it was just a byproduct of procrastination and putting off studying until the absolute last minute.

marksbrown 5y ago
Think? Know! Cramming works in the short term due to the nature of mass testing. Any sensible person identifies what they will be judged upon and maximises their effort towards that. Especially if we're in a world of credentialism. Which we are.
- Jtsummers 5y ago
  And people continue with what succeeds. If it worked once, and it worked the next hundred times, why would you change? That it's not efficient or effective in the long-term is irrelevant unless they step back and consider their objectives. Which most people don't seem to do on a regular basis.
- chenmike 5y ago
  Agreed, I now greatly regret it knowing what I know about the theory of learning, but I crammed my entire way through college and graduated with honors. It's embarrassing to say but I can recall close to 0 of the facts or formulas that I regurgitated onto any of my exams.
  - rramadass 5y ago
    I can assure you that 99% of ALL students have done the same whatever they may claim otherwise. This is simply due to our educational system and social/biological pressures. The way i have tried to remedy this in my own self is to buy lots of books and try and give myself a proper education in the sense of really understanding something to the extent possible with the amount of work and time i am willing to invest. There is no pressure, no deadlines, no competition but simply a desire to learn and understand i.e. knowledge for knowledge's sake. The use of technology in the above endeavour is problematic. The Internet is a huge distraction and time sinkhole and there is too much junk to sift through to get at any actual nuggets. Hence i use it to get an idea of a subject domain and then try to get actual books to study in that domain. The final point is to sit with pen and paper and take notes, read aloud the subject matter to better imprint on the mind, all aimed towards engaging the body with the mind to strengthen the learning process. Typing on a keyboard does not have the same effect.

lnwlebjel 5y ago

... summed up more effectively here: http://www.math.toronto.edu/nhoell/10rules-of-studying.pdf http://www.math.toronto.edu/nhoell/10rules-of-studying.pdf

dukeofdoom 5y ago

I read a story about a math teacher having kids run on a treadmill before the class. Apparently that expansion of energy calmed the kids down, and improved learning. The mind is connected to the body, so kind of makes sense that there would psychological benefits. Maybe similar to taking a cold shower in improving alertness.

gozzoo 5y ago
Can you provide a source for that?
- dukeofdoom 5y ago
  https://johnratey.typepad.com/blog/2008/03/school-on-the-r.html https://johnratey.typepad.com/blog/2008/03/school-on-the-r.h... Seems like remembered wrong, not just math but was a grade 8 class.

alvarlagerlof 5y ago

Maybe the problem is not explaining why students should care about what they're being taught. People learn automatically when they're interested.

dboreham 5y ago
Many teachers don't know this information and so can't pass on to students.
- alvarlagerlof 5y ago
  Then teachers should be taught that in their education.

jrd79 5y ago

My main technique from my engineering undergrad days was extremely effective and yet very simple and easy to describe and/or implement. It is: 1. Attend the lectures and take good notes. Don't write things down that are obvious or that you already know. 2. Before any exam, go back over the dozens of pages of notes and condense them down to 3 or 4 pages, omitting details that will be brought to mind by the things you are writing down. 3. Go back over the 3 to 4 pages, condensing them down to a single page, compactly written. 4. Go back over the single page, condensing it down to a single notecard. The act of condensing requires you to internalize the knowledge enough to know what you have memorized and what you must still note down. And the act of repeatedly writing down the hard parts commits those to memory too. By the end, the notecard has a handful of difficult to remember formulas and a bunch of keywords that prompt your memory to recall the salient details. In the US at that time, a single notecard was often allowed during exams, so the final work product was also that card. (My recall 20 years later is excellent, so this is not cramming.)

KingFelix 5y ago
great, pretty much used the same technique. I would re-write lecture notes right after class into 3 or 4 pages, helped solidify the material right away.
- rramadass 5y ago
  Exactly Right!.
Dwelve 5y ago
I did the same but in addition I read things out quietly and asked myself questions about what I just wrote down and read. Not simply reciting the core points but trying to understand why they were put in that place, what makes it necessary for them to be that way and how they fit into the broader context. Additionally I'd "circle back" every now and then, i.e. question what happened in the previous page, then in the previous chapter. It got extremely addicting to learn once I got the hang of it. It is remarkable (and quite frankly insane) how much knowledge you can absorb and internalize in a coherent way if you just blast every sense with that input and force your mind to "live and breathe" a certain topic. (I still became an unemployed loser but at least I can learn fast!)

albertop 5y ago

Learning How to Learn by Barbara Oakley has been my go to approach. Best advice I was able to find so far.

animesh 5y ago
This is the way. A well structured course that will leave you with effective tools to maximize your learning potential.

WalterBright 5y ago

1. attend every lecture without fail 2. take legible notes by hand on everything that goes on the chalkboard 3. do all the homework, and do it on time 4. make sure you understand how to get the solution to every homework problem 5. review notes and all homework problems as prep for the exam I found this meant reliably getting at least a B in the courses at Caltech. Getting an A required considerably more work. My high school technique of not bothering to do much of anything and still getting an A took a year and a half of abject failure at Caltech before I wised up. Fortunately, Caltech's freshman year was pass/fail, evidently they were familiar with people like me :-)

maxwells-daemon 5y ago
Also went to Caltech, and my progression was the complete opposite. Started out going to every lecture and trying to write everything down, but things just moved way too fast -- I'd write down every word and figure without ever internalizing it, and at the end of each lecture I'd have a crappy copy of the lecture notes and no memory of the last hour. By senior year, my strategy was: don't write anything down, just try to follow the main thread of the lecture. Then afterwards, go back and read the textbook and take exhaustive notes then. Empirically I learned way more that way.
- WalterBright 5y ago
  I'm glad you found what worked for you! Everybody's different. I've counselled students headed off to college, and I'd give them my recommendations (these days, I included taking notes by hand as that seems to be far more effective, and leave the laptop at the dorm). None followed it at first, and got poor results, then did, and things improved dramatically. One thing I wish I had done was get a cheap cassette recorder and record the lectures. My notes were effective at exam time because they'd evoke the lecture memories, but are gibberish today because they completely lack context. I'd also have something special today to donate to the Caltech archives. All those lectures are lost to time. P.S. with your username, you had to be a techer!
- lugged 5y ago
  Doesn't the lecturer give out notes ahead of time? I used to just print them out and then highlight or make my own notes over top of the printed slides to make sure I was internalizing it.

psychomugs 5y ago

I zipped a five-year undergrad program into three while maintaining a better-than-perfect GPA, while still balancing extracurriculars and a decent social life. I don't think I ever nailed down a particular study habit, and did many things this article says not to do. I was/am a night owl and often stayed in the engineering buildings late enough to greet the night-shift janitors. I could cruise through weeks on 4.5 hours of sleep/night and kept tabs on which gas stations had the best energy drink promos. The handful of times I started homework or projects or exam review early ended up backfiring, so I stuck to cramming and my tests would still turn into the answer key. I did follow some of the advice here, particularly between different but related topics (e.g. heat transfer and fluids, Java and data structures), but even there, I found looking for the relationship between two seemingly disparate topics to still be useful (e.g. electronic circuits as thermal circuits in heat transfer). I think what I'd like to emphasize is that everyone just needs to find whatever works for them, which may or may not be what works for a majority of others. I fortunately went through undergrad right before the deluge of productivity porn, and could definitely have fallen into the trap of worrying too much about how to study instead of just studying.

ultramegachurch 5y ago
>I think what I'd like to emphasize is that everyone just needs to find whatever works for them If only it were this easy! As the article points out, often what you think works best for you is actually just what you're used to. I think switching up studying habits every so often is good practice. Forces you to try new things and see if they make an impact on your retention.
- psychomugs 5y ago
  It's difficult to pin down 'best' because it's so subjective; my 'method' was the best for my transcript but not for my sanity. I think whatever you're doing at the time is the best, until it isn't, though I definitely agree on switching it up, and working with others helps socially and academically from my experience.

65 5y ago

I got really good grades in college from doing this (this might only apply for humanities majors, though): 1. Take notes of the keywords and core concepts 2. Make flashcards (you can use Quizlet if you like) of the keyword/concept and definition/explanation. 3. Quiz yourself a few times a day by going through the flash cards. I liked to start studying about 3 days before the exam. Getting good grades in the humanities can be really easy. Mostly because the humanities are really easy, but I digress.

ioseph 5y ago

Early in my CompEng program I would revise by condensing notes, rereading and practicing areas I didn't understand. With the breadth of some topics (looking at you analog electronics) it was often hard to prioritise study to maximise exam marks. By the end of my degree I realised the best practice was just doing past exams. And I found if I could consistently get 100% on previous exams that would translate to at least 80% on the actual. It made me realise that the faster path to good marks was optimising for answering exam questions rather than a deep intuitive knowledge of the subject.

rramadass 5y ago
>the faster path to good marks was optimising for answering exam questions rather than a deep intuitive knowledge of the subject. Right. This is the bane of our educational system i.e. they prioritize for "grading" rather than "understanding". I have met many who were considered smart/genius because of their good grades or where they graduated from but with regular interaction turned out to be pretty average in their understanding. They have simply optimized their "Social Signal".
- ioseph 5y ago
  Absolutely, and aside from job interview situations I feel that exams don't simulate any aspect of daily work.

animanoir 5y ago

Ankidroid works pretty well for me. Would have aced exams with it.

eloisius 5y ago

Something I've come to appreciate over the last year of studying Mandarin is how well paper works for studying as compared to anything digital. In the past I've often been frustrated by absorbing difficult materials like CS papers. I never gave much thought to the medium because PDFs are pretty convenient, you _can_ annotate them, it's easy to copy paste and search for you things don't understand, etc. However, I still struggled to finish reading and understand a paper. I'm realizing now that I'm much more capable to form understanding than I used to think, and the trick is going to 7-Eleven and printing out a paper instead of reading the PDF. There's something about being able to quickly skim, mark up parts of it, etc. that no digital format has matched for me. If I was going university today, I'd never bring my laptop to class again.

rramadass 5y ago
A thousand times this! There is evidence for this emerging from Neuroscience. Something about using Pen and Paper engages our whole body and brain and seems to aid and cement the learning process. This does not happen with a keyboard and mouse. I have now become a strong advocate of limiting technology usage in the classroom and learning to use it appropriately.

wiz21c 5y ago

AS a 45+ years old student, I can relate a lot to the spacing thing. Gone are the days where I could memorize in a matter of hours, now it takes weeks. Memory as a "rebuilding" mechanism is also so true. I have to understand everything I study in minute details, else my memory just bumps on the slightest not-yet-understood thing. It's excruciatingly painful 'cos it needs a lot of work. (I have a background in compsci and now I'm studying data sciences at master level, which means : maths, maths, maths and maths and basically no compsci; I like maths, but that's quite a bit more involved than 20 years ago and 10000% more than 2 years ago when I was a PM :-)))

bjourne 5y ago

I'm surprised that the article doesn't mention problem solving. For math and computer science problem solving is absolutely essential to learning.

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hkopp 5y ago

I am currently learning chess tactics using the Woodpecker method, i.e., a modified version of spaced repetition. The idea is to do chess puzzles over a fixed duration, say 4 weeks, and then repeat the same puzzles, each time aiming at halving the necessary time. I cannot yet comment on its effectiveness, but Tikkanen, the author, used it to get from International Master to Grandmaster.

xyzzy123 5y ago

The article didn't mention solving problems at all, or actively engaging in the field of study. Active reading, notes and summaries "prime the pump" but information doesn't truly "come to life" for me until I try to use it.

niels_bom 5y ago

One of the most useful models of technical learning I've learned is the "illusion of competence"; the fact that you can follow along with somebody explaining or doing something is very different from being able to do it yourself.

rramadass 5y ago
Very True! I think this is the reason, people who skip lectures/classes but sit down with the books/notes and work on their homework/problems do pretty well. There is a Chinese Martial Arts saying which i always keep in mind; To show one the right direction and right path, oral instructions from a Master is necessary but Mastery of a Subject comes only from one's own incessant self-cultivation.

foolinaround 5y ago

I found this thread super useful and took some notes highlighting the discussions below I thought i would share for others benefit too... (formatting is messed up, my notes are in MD format, i lost the sub-indentation on these notes, i can just add a new line ) -- - paper over laptop - SRS, anki - you can use it to learn a mathematical formula, but not to learn how to apply it. - write notes, summarize it down to pages at end of session; called as 'making cheat sheets' - a few days down, summarize it further down and more, till you have it like a card. - study above your level, and read the history of the subject. - If an undergraduate read graduate level textbooks, especially overviews. - This gives one a sense of the context of the subject, an appreciation of "where it's going", a hint of why the subject is still interesting and under active development, and makes the undergraduate material seem almost innocent by comparison. - It's much harder, of course, and you'll often find that the entire semester's material is covered in a couple of chapters at the beginning, but the feeling of "how the professionals really talk/think about the subject" is hugely important for getting a feel of the thing. - The history of a subject is great for giving the human context, which is hugely useful for grokking how things developed organically, as well as the personalities involved. It can really help remembering stuff. - just keep at it, hour after hour, without comparing yourself or your efforts to anyone else. - Take frequent breaks, even holidays, and remember, above all, that exams are perhaps the worst test of learning we have yet devised apart from all the others. - understand proofs over memorizing them - as little memorization in math. Memorizing without understanding is useless. Memorizing with understanding is much better than merely understanding. - Read the textbook before attending the lecture - if you find yourself unable to take proper notes, and seems like the lecture moves too fast, this is the issue. - Even if lecturer provides notes, some self-written ones BY HAND are useful for retention - Sleep more important than cramming on exam night - All nighter is never worth it no matter how little material you think you know. - If you're semi confident in the exam, prioritize getting a full sleep over a little sleep. - If you're not confident in the exam, definitely still aim for at least 5-6 hours of sleep. - Sleep early, wake up early -- study notes before exam - make sure you the study session is light to medium; brain has limited stamina that will be depleted little by little, either during exam or while studying - all-nighters actually make you worse - even intelligent people have less than smart answers to simple questions - Magnesium supplement to help sleep routine - Magnesium Glycinate, .Chelated, specifically doctors best brand. - Z12 -https://www.reddit.com/r/quittingphenibut/comments/d8vazr/z12_sleep_supplement_is_phenibut/ https://www.reddit.com/r/quittingphenibut/comments/d8vazr/z1... - Woodpecker method - , a modified version of spaced repetition. - Book : Learning How to Learn by Barbara Oakley - A well structured course that will leave you with effective tools to maximize your learning potential. - Feynman technique - write questions of what you still don't understand recursively until you have understood it all. - begins by understanding what you don't understand. - Once you understand something after spending time trying to understand it and writing down your understandings and non-understandings, you typically have little problem memorizing it. - Duration of class (1 yr ) over intense study - longer the duration, the better - katas - japanese - making a repetitive movement, so that you can make the movement naturally, without thinking. - repetitve study like anki - physical - a run on threadmill or cold showers

prasenjit_pro 5y ago

Though Studying Effectively for me had different methods for Different subjects but massively floated around notes and constantly writing important highlights and ignoring the usual normal things. When I say different methods for different subjects: I mean like Maths: I focused more on redoing my full school book like 6 times in a Half plus would go beyond and redo other similar standard books with more difficult and complex calculations to make the level higher where normal hard problems would become easier. For Literature: It was like reading the book, watching it in theaters and spending quality discussion time with some book worms and teachers.

kazinator 5y ago

Studying to pass an exam and learning are two related, but different things.

maxan 5y ago

Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23514992 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23514992