How to Study Effectively

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.

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!)

This is the same way I studied philosophy and law. That + immersion (go to bonus lectures if interest, join the academic community if you can) is superior.

This is very much what I did, but I would add two other things: 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.

Before going back to college to do Maths and Physics I went out to the local university to get advice as to how to study the subjects. I was told to get Feynman's Lectures ((in)famous) and Boas' Mathematical Methods in the Physical Sciences (extremely terse but excellent). I did, tried my best, and in retrospect still think they were taking the piss. And yet, when I went back to university a year later, there were so many ideas and intuitions already in place that although the Maths was still computationally difficult the concepts were not as strange as they might have otherwise been.

In college itself it was the library that was the real draw, so many amazing texts just there for the reading. To be fair, the professors were wonderfully patient and encouraging.

But mainly, just keep at it, hour after hour, without comparing yourself or your efforts to anyone else. It's hard enough without imagining other people looking over your shoulder. I remember a number of young ones who, though brilliant in school, found university just that bit beyond them. 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.

I agree and had a very similar technique. Only change perhaps was all my notes were written as question on the left, answer on the right. Id just run through the page(s) top to bottom with hand over the answer repeatedly. If it was long after a while id just write down a new page omitting the ones i was confident in by that stage.

I would say that this is great for school but not a technique that really prepares you for 'life'.

That's less like a technique and more like saying "just learn the material".

> My recall 20 years later is excellent, so this is not cramming.

Then one of the following is true: you have an exceptional memory, have been reviewing the content since then, or are dramatically overestimating your recall. It has little to do with your technique.

My maths/physics undergrad was mostly spent trying to solve a lot of problems and exercices. I don't think I've had to actively memorize things. I still remember a lot of things.

On the other hands, there are subjects that I've been trying to learn just by reading or watching youtube videos and my knowledge stays very superficial.

That's how authors of the past compressed and encrypted important knowledge. This is why we've ended up with pearls like "everything is water" and unless you know what "everything" and "water" mean at this level of compression, this is just a funny allegory.

Another trick is inventing symbols to compress common concepts, much like the gzip algorithm. Your notes become an Egyptian papyrus to an outsider, but to you they contain all the info without omissions.

This worked for medical school also for me. Except we had a note taking service so I didn’t have to take any notes myself. And I don’t like take notes on notes. So I just highlighted 5-10% of the notes that weren’t obvious the first time around in yellow, then about a page or two I didn’t remember from them in red the second time around. but this technique would not work for 95% of the population.

How do you apply this to something beyond undergrad ? I mean like learning new concepts (like DNSSEC, NAMESPACES)

I strongly disagree with trying to condense to a very compact form. You almost always will lose information and understanding that way. Remember; the devil is always in the details. However engaging in the act of condensing called "Precis Writing" is very vital and a must. Just make sure to do it in conjunction with a Textbook and logically to whatever level feels comfortable to you (a page or two is fine).

Interestingly, that's exactly the process for making cheat sheets.

It is well known that some students make these with the intention to cheat at the exam, only to realize that they don't need them.

That's interesting, in a similar vein I always thought the measure of intelligence was the ability to compress information. If you cannot summarize, then you do not understand the subject.

I would say that 2 is the most important. You have to spend time writing things and 3 and 4 are seem overkill and wasteful - rather just use the time go over 2 again.

1 depends on how diligent your are at attending class and how interesting the class is. I usually tried to find other student(s) who took notes.

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.

6. Teach others and fill the gaps in their knowledge.

> take legible notes by hand on everything that goes on the chalkboard

Disagree. Only take notes on what you don't understand.

P.S. Hal Finney was in the dorm room next to mine. His technique for getting As at Caltech was to do nothing, skip the lectures, and flip through the text book a couple hours before the exam. On the other hand, there was a sad group who would work their tails off and still barely scrape by. Sort of like me at basketball camp. They'd usually transfer out after a year or two.

> take legible notes by hand on everything that goes on the chalkboard

This is very person-specific.

For me, if I'm writing then I'm not actively listening. My brain can only do one or the other well. When I take notes, I'm not processing anything very well and I learn very little.

Instead, I generally only ever took notes on high level things, or on very specific details that mattered.

I also discovered that a surprising number of my professors were literally writing on the whiteboard the exact, word-for-word text that was in the textbook.

(1) and (2) are solved by recorded video lectures. I think I would have learned a lot more in school if they had that back in the day.

Simple and Direct process which works. This has been my experience too except i didn't do (3) & (4) diligently which directly affected my grades. I am not sure why people come up with elaborate frameworks (most of which are unworkable due to time, complexity and reqd. effort) for such a simple and fundamental process.

But one crucial step needs to be inserted into the above process to make it really work;

2.5. After the lecture whenever you have time, within 24/48 hrs sit down with the Notes and Textbook and go over the Notes in the context of the Textbook i.e. filling in the details and gaps in understanding. Try and engage in "Precis Writing" with Pen and Paper to get to the heart of the matter.

hm, I did almost none of that, missed 70% of the lectures, my (computer-taken) notes were a mess and I barely if ever reread them. Didn't miss homework tho. (french engineering school, my grades were hovering between 15-17/20, don't know how that translates to the US system).

Before that for the two "prépa" years I was definitely not the most studious given how many evenings were spent playing counter-strike, D&D and warcraft III at the dorm (miss you people), what really helped for the competitive exams allowing to get into the engineering school was doing additional exercises for 2/3 weeks beforehand ; this way I got much better grades than I had gotten for the previous two years.

So I'd err on the side of "it's mostly the exercises / homework which are useful"

> 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.

This is a common experience. University can be particularly hard on kids which have a self image of "I'm a good kid because I get straight A's".

Once you're selected to that level, you're in a narrower cohort with other nerds; you're not just going to stand above the crowd with next to no effort.

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?

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.

Most people don't have this luxury. Sad.

If you live in a bright-at-night, or noisy environment, you may wish to consider blackout curtains.

We recently bought a set and it has been a revelation. Darker, quieter room. Better sleep.

I've anecedotedly studied how much sleep is the most efficient before writing an exam, throughout the many I've taken at university. This is a bit different than long term rentention though, as my hypothesis was basically "if you think you're screwed for an exam, what's the optimal crammed studying/sleep ratio the night before?"

1. All nighter is never worth it no matter how little material you think you know.

2. If you're semi confident in the exam, prioritize getting a full sleep over a little sleep.

3. If you're not confident in the exam, definitely still aim for at least 5-6 hours of sleep.

That's what I've noticed when it comes down to cram studying, otherwise my performance goes out the window.

Before any exam, I had a simple rule: I don't study after 6pm the night before.

Instead, I get a good book, or a movie I've been looking forward to, and I veg out and relax.

This always lead to a good night's sleep and a better exam result than if I'd stayed up late studying instead, hoping to learn just one more thing- that I would never remember due to lack of good sleep anyway.

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.

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.

It is the most effective studying technique when you have spent the entire semester doing bong rips.

it really depends on the situation. the gold standard for retaining knowledge is short, active (ie, not just re-reading notes/books) study sessions spread out over many days.

but this takes a lot of time discipline. if you don't care about the material and just want to pass the test, I find dumb cramming methods like retyping all the professor's powerpoints the night before work pretty well. I got lots of As in classes I didn't care about that way. I forgot almost all the material later, but it left me with more time to study properly for stuff I was actually interested in.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Internalizing concepts is the first step to using them creatively.

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.

Can you provide a source for that?

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.

>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".

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.

>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.

Many teachers don't know this information and so can't pass on to students.

I upvoted you since you have acted in the spirit of this thread :-)

But one point needs to be added in the interests of Pragmatism.

- In order to pass an exam always train/solve with past (few years) questions/papers for that exam.