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For the impatient, the author of the course has a nice handout with 10 tips for good and bad studying: http://www.barbaraoakley.com/pdf/10rulesofstudying.pdf

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Hmm I disagree with point number 7 under 10 Rules of Bad Studying

> 7. Neglecting to read the textbook before you start working problems.

I think it's a perfectly valid approach. I found that trying to solve the problems first helped me form questions which I would then seek to answer by reading the text. Of course then I would go back to the problems and try to solve them again. Rinse and repeat until I could solve them with confidence.

It's okay to disagree with any of those bullets. I disagree with the entire hand out, but that's not relevant to the people it works for in whole or in part.

I'm a total autodidact. I've been doing it long enough that I know what works for me, but I know that many people don't have the base knowledge to do it, so if they need a resource on how to become a better self-learner (or be successful at coursera), at least it is a start.

Testing/recall and spaced repetition well validated. Focus seems like a gimme. What are your specific problems?

Curious to know, what works for you?

Not the parent but the most powerful technique for me is definitely doing recalling, and for this you definitely need to have patience.

Totally agree. Besides, many textbooks are incredibly bad. Add in a low attention span like mine, and reading chapters start to end becomes an incredibly frustrating experience where I'm happy just to get through, let alone learn anything. That's similar to my issues with lectures, actually.

I agree. I always looked at the math questions first. Then I worked backward to figure them out.

> 9. Eat your frogs first. Do the hardest thing earliest in the day, when you are fresh.

I agree with that in general, but I do also find that it's much less intimidating to start out on something easy (so you're more likely to start) and also helps you to ease into a state of focus. In college I would usually start with a reading (while taking reading notes) since it was something I knew I could always do without too much fuss. Afterward, it was much easier to start in on thornier stuff.

I think that once one has accepted that he/she must start at that moment no matter what, and it will a long time till finishing, then starting with the hard stuff makes all the sense. You might be feeling drained by the end, when you were to take on those hard problems/subjects. Or the easier stuff you can attack at other times, during breaks, while it might be difficult to advance on the harder stuff without a bigger more comfortable time frame.

Thanks for sharing! Is there anything like Anki out there, but it's a SaaS product and available both on my phone and on the web?

I don't quite understand your question.

AnkiWeb: https://ankiweb.net/about

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ichi2.anki

iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ankimobile-flashcards/id3734... ($24.99)

Quizlet, but I personally still use Anki because it's free and it works on my phone.

Anki includes a free sync feature to keep you desktop and mobile device synced. The only cost of Anki is the one time $25 cost of the iOS version. You can get around this by using the we version on your iPhone.

memrise

>Not checking with your instructors or classmates to clear up points of confusion.

Having spend much of yesterday grading, this one rings true. As a professor it is incredibly disappointing to get an assignment from a student who clearly didn't understand the assignment and decided to fake it only to do the assignment totally wrong.

Students, if you are confused: 1. read the directions 2. look on the syllabus (I get way too many emails with questions that are answered in the directions or the syllabus) and then 3. ask the instructor

Which type of learning are these meant for? They seem geared towards a very narrow range of subjects and a very particular testing style.

Example: "Don't repeatedly solve problems you already know how to solve." That's great if the test is only looking to see whether you know how to solve the problem. If instead you are going to be tested on how quickly you can solve multiple iterations of the problem, extensive repetition is a necessity.

There are also times when passive reading wholly absent understanding is not a bad things. This is particularly true in law and history. Any law student who properly understands an assigned reading prior to a lecture need not bother attending class. Often you must just read and retain material on the expectation that it will make sense later. Either it will be explained in person, or at some point you will attain a critical mass of knowledge. At law school that is normally at the start of the second year, when you start making links between the various disciplines and suddenly it all starts making sense.

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