How to Study?

I've done my fair share of reading and have learned a lot from it, but I know there has to be a better way of studying than just reading cover to cover. How does Veeky Forums really get into a book? What can I do to improve my studying skills? Is it enough to keep a journal and record entries after every chapter? Should I respond to every point addressed through several paragraphs? How do I up my learning game?

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Bump for interest

Bumpity I like to read a lot of how to/manuals so learning how to internalize this info would be nice.

You *think* about what you read. What else in the world do you think there is to it? This isn't "study" as it is called in school, which is in truth just cramming to forget.

I've never "studied" a day in my life. I read things, I think about them, I write about them to clarify for myself what I am interpreting. This is what most of my PDFs look like when it comes to Hegel. I don't follow a methodology at all, I simply note what I find of interest and import as I read.

>Antonio Wolf
uh

Always read with a pen. A lecturer I had told me once that “you cannot read without a pen”, which is a rather cringeworthy statement, but it has some truth to it.

Don’t just read, imo. I like to have a notebook next to me where I can write down ideas and I also scribble little notes, annotations, questions, etc. all over the book I’m reading. It keeps me more engaged. I always note down page numbers with my notes, too, in case I want to read it over again or cross-reference. My notes vary from an analysis of the themes of the book to the use of language. For example, I’m reading Infinite Jest right now and the majority of my notes are not even about the themes of the book, they’re more an analysis of how Wallace writes and constructs his stories from a writer’s perspective.

It’s basically the same as what the dude above me does, but I like to use a pen as I get less distracted that way.

Nothing beats talking and arguing about the subject with someone, though. It helps validate your own conclusions, help you make new ones and it helps a bunch with recall.

at least 4h of uninterrupted pure fuggin reading
>law of productivity:
>High-Quality Work Produced = (Time Spent) x (Intensity of Focus)

Do you think it's possible to overdo that? Like bring yourself away from the book so many times that you distract yourself from it?

this

And how does Wallace write and construct his stories?

that book sucks so bad

yes entirely.
Reading with a pen and stoping frequently to think about what you've read is a very different experience to reading in rhythm.
Not really analogous but i'd liken the difference to watching a tv show among company with captions vs watching alone by yourself immersion like (a good movie for this is taxi driver which is so captivating with its imagery and lurid with its soundtrack youtube.com/watch?v=Bx4aK-YsPeU)
Or listening to 21 savage at a party vs laying down closing your eyes and enjoying the entirety of savage mode

I don't like to take notes or highlight while reading, I prefer to write about it after a session. Studying also helps if you keep it regimented and dedicate a specific block of time out of your day to study.

But to answer op i believe the best way to engage with what you're reading and the thoughts you've having is to write about them, put pen to paper. You'll find this excercise both clarifies ideas you've got cluttled together and opens questions and more avenues of thought

i'm more impressed to the fact that you can study via pdfs

eventually you develop a mental rubrick for what sorts of information to look for depending on what you are working on.

there are books that tell you how to study, how to study math, how to study science, but the more you read in general, the better you will get at knowing what combinations of information you need to pay attention to in context

With a pencil in his right hand and a dick in his left

Any other study tips?

Learning how to learn course on coursera

“I should like the reader first of all to go quickly through the whole book like a novel, without straining his attention too much or stopping at the difficulties which may be encountered. The aim should be merely to ascertain in a general way the matters I have dealt with. After this, if he finds that these matters deserve to be examined and he has the curiosity to ascertain their causes, he may read the book a second time in order to observe how my arguments follow. But if he is not able to see this fully, or if he does not understand all the arguments, he should not give up at once. He should merely mark with a pen the places where he finds the difficulties and continue to read on to the end without a break. If he then takes up the book for a third time, I venture to think he will find the solutions to most of the difficulties he marked before; and if any still remain, he will discover their solution on a final re-reading.”
(The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, Vol. I, trans. John Cottingham, Robert Stoothoff, Dugald Murdoch, Anthony Kenny, p. 185.)

Seconding

why?

ancient greeks used the technique of Loci. To memorise an argument or a long talk they imagined to walk in a familiar road and they associated the elements of the road (a tree, a house etc) to a subject-change