No Bullsh*t Studying Techniques
N. Monk, Futurist and Philosopher
With finals not far on the horizon, many know that the early mornings and late-night studying hours are sure to follow. However, despite that most people are not familiar with how to study, and online there are so many tips one cannot help but wonder how many of those tips are nonsense. Here are some hardcore study tips.
1. Operant conditioning. The first thing that needs to be done for the future is to condition or trick our brains into study mode. One can do this by using something from psychology known as operant conditioning. For the first part, get a lamp or some light above your study area, and then only turn on this light when you are studying. That way after a while of doing this through reinforcement when you turn on the light your brain will automatically think “it is time” and you find it quite easy to get focused into studying. But this is not all one can do. If you are used to studying with music, you can use this to your advantage. You can strategically choose to listen to certain music while studying certain fields. For example, when I study chess, I listen to Cyberpunk. When I am doing a physics or mathematics assignment, I only listen to Japanese Maths Rock. When I write an article or essay, I listen to Rachmaninoff and Liszt. When I study philosophy I listen to dubstep, and so forth. Like the light, after a while, you will have a certain behaviour reinforced. So, when you listen to that particular music your brain will automatically start thinking about those areas associated with it.
2. Active recall. This one is probably the most effective on this list. When you read something, let’s say I had to remember what “komorebi” means, the first step is to read and understand what komorebi means, then cover up the answer and try to recall what komorebi means, the next step is to check your answer with the true answer and write in simple terms no fancy words what komorebi means, so I would write komorebi is light shining through leaves. Lastly, cover up your notes and try to recall what you just wrote. One can do this technique with pretty much anything.
3. Verbalisation. One usually does not know convoluted their thoughts are until they try to speak them. When you are trying to remember and explain what something is do not just think them, speak what it is out loud. This forces one to conceptualise their thoughts into proper sentences. This technique can also be done with active recall more specifically with step two.
4. Hardcore problem-solving. Mathematics, physics, and logic students will most likely be familiar with this one. Solve as many problems as you can without looking at your notes. If one can get access to old test questions and exams, then do all of those problems. This will get one used to similar questions. If the questions are similar or taken from the textbook, then do all of the problems in the textbook. A little side note from me, do all of the hard problems first then the easy ones. Remember no notes while solving! If you somehow manage to do all of the problems, then this next tip from Hans Tikkanen will be useful.
5. The Woodpecker Method. This study technique is going to drill patterns of whatever you study into your brain. Step one: solve as many problems as you can in one or two weeks. Step two: go back and do all of the same problems and do them in half the amount of time, in other words, if you did x number of problems in one week do all of those problems again in four days. Step three: repeat the previous step until you can do all of the problems in one day. By final cycles, you should focus more on spotting patterns, themes, and motifs. Once you finish you should have a reasonably strong pattern recognition and good intuition for identifying how to solve most problems. Pattern recognition is a big key to being good at mathematics.