Teach me how to study!

There's some really good advice about studying in http://ask.metafilter.com/127987/Going-back-to-school-at-29#1829114.

You really really really need to read this blog: http://www.calnewport.com/blog/ Wonderful advice that I wish I'd had during my undergrad years.

I liked the articles on the http://www.studygs.net/ website. (straight-A student here ;))

To pass my law papers I have found the mnemosyne program mentioned above super helpful - the act of formulating stuff from your notes into question/answer format helps it get into your memory, and if you practice with the program reasonably often you will know everything you've entered into it off by heart in no time. I enter info into the program straight after lectures. Not all info is best learned like this though - other than this I just write my notes out a few times, or I make mind maps with colored pencils on big a2 pieces of paper which can be as simple or as complicated as you need them to be, and are good for understanding how complex information fits together.

Thanks, everyone. I think I'm going to try using Anki for a while and see how that works. To the suggestions that I should be taking notes with pen and paper- that's what I used to do, and it didn't work AT ALL. I spent more time trying to write down what was being said or looking at my paper than really grasping the concept...I can type my notes, not have to look down all the time, and concentrate on what's actually being said. It's the same reason rewriting notes doesn't help- I concentrate on the act of rewriting, not what I'm actually writing. I'm going to check out some of the links too and see if they help.

+1 http://www.mnemosyne-proj.org/. It uses a modified version of the http://www.supermemo.com/ algorithm (which itself can be thought of as a modified version of the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashcard system. The idea is, if you put in everything you need to know in a question/answer format & study it every day, the program will determine how often you need to be asked each question. More frequently for questions whose answers you're not sure about - less frequently for questions whose answers you are sure about. Step 1. As soon as you can after class transcribe your notes into a flash card program. At home, on your laptop, whatever, do it as soon as you can. Chunk it down into tiny chunks so you're testing yourself on one concept at a time. Step 2. After you transcribe the notes, transcribe the reading in the textbook. If your teacher assigns the readings before class, then it doesn't have to be right after you transcribe your notes. This is tedious work & you can split it with someone else who's taking the class if you want - they do the textbook, you do the notes, or v.v. Step 3. Review the flash cards every day. Religiously. Every day. Did I say every day? Step 4. Make sure you have current backups of your files! Step 5. Relax - you've put in a lot of work & you're doing a lot to learn the material. Take a few practice tests (even put them into a flash card file if you like). You may think that this isn't good for conceptual stuff like Biology or Math, but you'd be wrong. You may have to figure out more complex ways of asking the right questions to test yourself on the material, but there's a lot to be said for rote memorization, even when it comes to understanding things. You're shoving new information into your brain & whether it's conceptual or fact based, the best way to make it stick is through repetition. It may seem like learning about cars by memorizing the location of each bolt rather than getting the general idea that there's an engine & an axle, but trust me, this works even on complex material. I "grok" the whole so much better when I've thoroughly familiarized myself with each of the parts.

I learned best by listening in college so here's how I usually handled things: read before class so you know what the professor is talking about - having the context of the chapter in mind helps you place the professors lecture in a defined relative space in your memory. Listen to the lecture and take minimal notes - my notes used to be in lists of single words or short phrases that I felt were key words in the lecture As soon as you can after class (such as during a break between classes or while eating) elaborate and write about the keywords you jotted down during class Always take notes by hand with pen and paper - something about the motion and focus of it all cements things in my memory. Also, it allows you to draw pictures, charts, arrows pointing to related concepts, etc. as you wish. I used to actually just buy a ream of plain unlined paper and use that for notes. They looked messy with arrows and lists all over, but teh important thing was I understodd them and they helped me. (Substitute "you" for "me".) keep 9-5 hours for school if you can. leave schoolwork alone outside of these hours. It takes some discipline to get yourself in this schedule, but once in it you will realize how much free time you now seem to have since you aren't spending half the day worrying and procrastinating.

I'm a bit like you. I hate studying. I hardly did it in high school and in college it was really straight forward since almost all my classes were math/science/engineering: 1. Do practice exam 2. Review problems that were toughies from the homeworks 3. Write cheat sheet based on homeworks and notes Many times I only did #3, if the class allowed for it. If it was an open book, exam, I would only do #2 or nothing (bad habit from grad school).

As a student of Chinese, I'm Nthing spaced repetition. I use Anki. Currently, I have to learn and digest about 2-300 characters a week. It is grueling work, but would be utterly impossible without Anki.