The science of studying

>tfw taking an American course
>finals come up
>study for all of 15 minutes(maybe) the day of
>get an A
>girl that sits next to me studies her ass off
>gets a B-
Such a satisfying feeling, but a bad habit nonetheless

American History*
God damn it.

If you don't like maths overall and find it boring, then perhaps you're in the wrong field?

This. Exception made for a few geniuses, if you didn't have to study hard for your exams, the most probable reason why is that your exams were a joke.

Yeah this.

No one gives a fuck if you can pass some liberal arts class without putting much effort in.

Le smart but lazy morons have never achieved anything of note.

>When I was in school, I knew people who would study a single topic

let me tell you a small secret. When people say that they study 4 hours a day and 1 complete week before the test in school(high school and aplicable to university to some degree) they are full of shit.

They never touch the book to begin with.

>reading the book the night before the exam

so you read an entire textbook the night before the exam?

wow

>The science of studying.

Is 'The science of X' the same as /g/'s 'X is technology' meme. A mere excuse to make stupid retarded threads about stupid retarded shit that is not related to the board?

If so then this is the first time I see it and I am happy to be part of retarded meme history.

well, 'an hour of studying' could be very different from different people

it could be an hour of undisturbed and efficient work
it could be an hour of sitting in a study area with your mates and doing 15 minutes of actual work, or the same at home just interrupted by your phone and social media

furthermore, the technique used and how well it fits the person also does a shitload of difference

then there's the difference in learning ability, general intelligence, as well as what kind of information you're learning and how well you feel like remembering it in the long-term

> t. Brainlets
Got my STEM degree by studying the night before, sometimes two nights.
I usually picked up a new hobby every exam week to kill all the extra time

>Full of shit.

See? Nothing new under the sun.

>taking classes that aren't challenging
>says that's being smart
>doesn't see the irony
I know it's a bait, but you see this kind of shit happen all the time in real life

ITT: buttmad brainlets

>When I was in school, I knew people who would study a single topic, weeks on end, only to still get bad grades.

That's because the quality of their study methods sucks, Einstein. I also knew those kind of people. Turns out that if you guide their study they can get results as good as yours.
Also it's not like you could derive the topics in the test, you still had to read them or heard them in lectures. You can also learn how to get the most out of lectures and personal study, you knew how to, the others didn't, but it's not like they can't learn it.
In short, you knew how to study, the others never cared about this or didn't find the best method, but still, with proper guidance, they can achieve almost the same results as a natural. It's all about working smart.

I require a lot of time because I have depression and brain fog is a bitch to overcome.
I wish there was a fucking cure, honestly.

Good luck! It's horrible to read though..

1/10 because I wrote a post for you.

8139147 here, I'm not OP, first post in thread, sry for not clarifying

>, I was capable of obtaining top A+ marks by simply reading the book the night before the exam.

That works because you are taking baby-tier classes. This fails when you take course in proof theoretic mathematics beyond baby calculus.

>Germany
>STEM (here it's called MINT) program
>you have to take about 30 credits a semester
>if you don't follow a strict schedule (like needing 8-9 semesters) or don't have a specific course completed 1-2 semesters later, you're out
>suspended for a life time ing ermany for this degree

>We don't have grade curves, 90% failrate is not unheard of
>We just have 2-3 attempts a course until we get kicked out
>material is rather deep and a lot of transfer
>many people spend months PRIOR to finals/exams studying daily, allday

Just studying few days before won't do the trick here. It's a lot different than most US college programs and I'd even say it's a lot harder here.
On the other side, we do not pay really much for a degree but the pressure is really, really high nevertheless.
>

>>material is rather deep and a lot of transfer
>Just studying few days before won't do the trick here
Fellow German here. You're just a retarded brainlet and those programmes were made exactly for that reason, i.e. to keep idiots like you out. You don't belong in a university. Courses here are trivial. If you disagree, you're simply too dumb and don't deserve to waste a professor's time.

Alright Fachhochschule. I keep that in mind when I have to tackle HM3, Regelungstechnik and Thermo in one semester.

And yes, I disagree. Een the professor said people in our department should expect putting in 70 hours of work each week into studies. At first we were laughing but in the end they were right. Savantism isn't for everyone and going full aspergers here won't do the trick here as well "fellow german".

Zumindest gehe ich wieder davon aus, hier mit einen 1. oder 2. Semestler zu quatschen. Aber im Netz haben wohl alle ein PhD.

this. That guy is arrogant if he thinks that geniuses don't also work much harder than average people.

>and those programmes were made exactly for that reason, i.e. to keep idiots like you out

I believe they were made to have some sort of quality. He did not even mention once he was struggling or they keep him out. If he works hard and is doing fine everything seems to be going alright for him.

>That guy is arrogant if he thinks that geniuses don't also work much harder than average people
id go as far as to say that geniuses work way harder than the average person

I went to college and got C's and D's then dropped out in 1997.

I'm back to college now and I'm maintaining a 4.0 gpa with ease. I've aced some of the same courses that shitted on me back in the 90's. I honestly can't remember what I even had trouble with back then because it all seems exceedingly simple now. Meanwhile I see kids "working hard" to get B's and C's in the same courses.

It's like this: Over the years, I've figured out how to remember things.

To me this suggests that more important than "being smart" is "knowing how to study."

Similar to you but it seemed to happen sometime between my 2nd and 3rd year in college when I was in my Bachelor's program.

You know what I think it is? I started taking it more seriously. I stopped cutting corners. I started doing every assignment. I would often go "Well I can skip this assignment and still pass with a certain grade. Why do it?"

I see a lot of other students have this mentality too. I'm not sure when most grow out of it or realize it's a mistake.

Unfortunately I'm paying for my early carelessness and maintaining just about a 3.0 instead of something better.

this, i hope american on this board understands how different grading system is outside usa. Getting C in many Europe countries is same as getting A+ in usa. took me a while to realize this and never understood how people from movies got straights A's.

getting good grades in usa is expected. and you should also do things on the side and get some letters of recommendation etc , and also your school should be ivy league. so getting lots of americans A's like OP describes isnt that impressive really. and he is obviously not learning much if he just spends a few days reading. i hope he at least in some prestigious schools

>Why do some people require such ruthless studying?
You're probably thinking of people who actually had lives and were used to spending time socially instead of sitting inside in isolation all day like you.

When you're distracted/depressed by knowing you're missing out on what your friends are doing because you have to study for a pointless test, it's pretty hard to focus.

A lot of "smart" kids in school are actually kids who A) have quiet, healthy, non-distracting homes or B) haven't experienced the socializing they could be doing otherwise and don't feel like they're wasting their time.

A lot of people in STEM are interested in studying more efficiently, so it is sort of a meta thread, but still related to the board.

They aren't paying attention.

I have to study at minimum two nights before a difficult test in order to do well. I also suspect myself of having a mild attention disorder.

My former roommate would study for 2 weeks before a gen chem test only to pull a B. I can tell you based off of knowing him that he was not paying attention for more than an hour if that each night he studied.

So, how do you wizards study?
I did pretty well with Ochem by reading the book and transcribing its notes, at the same time, but it was way too time-consuming, and I never know which details to leave out. There have been many times where I've been one of three people in a class of 200+ that got a question right, simply because I read and transcribed a minute detail in the book that wasn't covered in class.

There has to be a more efficient way.

I started reading "Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman!" today (great book by the way, definitely a recommendation for peering behind the scenes) and maybe found the answer to exactly that question:

“I don’t know what’s the matter with people: they don’t learn by understanding; they learn by some other way—by rote, or something. Their knowledge is so fragile!”

Now most knowledge about how we actually learn is pure mumbo-jumbo, but atleast for me this quote has a lot of validity and seems to fit in with what I've observed. That being that there are different depths to "grasping" information, and the deeper the data is anchored in, the less time the brain has to use to climb up and search for it in the upper areas upon wanting to retrieve it. "Intelligent" people just put their expertse in the deeper regions, as opposed to the norm. Surely there are many other variables that influence it like forgetting or rewriting knowledge but you can get the general idea, I think.

Honestly I just read the relevant textbook chapters before an exam, with no other preparation. That's why I think OP is confused, because most people it seems can't learn this way. Might also depend on subject matter, I don't know about OChem, but I went through undergrad in physics and math and so far one year of physics grad school literally just reading as my only preparation (don't show up to lectures).

I'm also quite socially awkward. Might have autism.

What do you mean by general intelligence?
I have 144-149 IQ and for me it takes ages to memorize something.

Some people have to revise a lot because their revision isn't productive.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magical_Number_Seven,_Plus_or_Minus_Two

At any one time the brain can hold 5 to 9 items in working memory. To remember something bigger you need to remember different parts separately then remember how to piece them together, at least to begin with.

books.google.co.uk/books?id=DIIfCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA129&lpg=PA129&dq=short term memory long term memory remembrance times reinforcement&source=bl&ots=rC-X46ZREk&sig=3Lznp9SsLPfL-217Yoy7A9HQxig&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwizlsS7z6XNAhWDJMAKHW9lAbcQ6AEIRDAF#v=onepage&q=short term memory long term memory remembrance times reinforcement&f=false

Short term memory lasts 30 seconds. If you can remember it with your eyes closed it has entered short term memory. If you can remember it after being distracted by something else for 30 seconds then it has entered long-term memory.

Periodically reinforcing long term memory strengthens the memory and you can wait a longer period before needing to reinforce it again. A good schedule might be to reinforce your memory several times on the first day, study it once a day for a week, then twice a week for 3 weeks, then once a week for 4 weeks then once a month, if you make an error you should increase the frequency of how often you study for a while.

me to XD 140 on mensa online test XD

feels good to be superior X:DD:DXD

I think the main difference between people studying for hours and people just reading something is that the people just trying to read somwthing also try to memorize it reading it the first time while studycucks think they need to repeat something a lot of times to memorize it. Which of course works. Repition is how you becomw better at things. It's just that all they memorize is words. They don't memorize context or try to put things in their own words, they just try to memorize but don't try to understand. That's why they usually still get a bad grade because the majority of score is gained by solving the transfer task.

When you read something the night before the test you probably think stuff like "HOW can I memorize this quickly?" "What kind of question would you ask about that?" "Is there an easy way for me to memorize this?"

You also automatically only filter for the important information while those who just stupidly memorize stuff try to keep everything. You probably think "I don't need to memorize that" MANY times when studying and you're mostly right.
You have the ability to put things into a logical string and I actually believe everyone actually has that ability.
In our school we even had a optional course that was called "learning how to learn". It sounded boring and I only chose it because all other optional course were even more boring, but it was probably one of those lucky decisions that made my school life so incredibly easy.
More school should teach children HOW to learn first. Kids are left all alone with their homework and once they started learning the wrong way, they'll do it for the rest of their life.

Ikr xD
Isn't it amazing how the enire 0.0000001% of the intelligent world population is here on Veeky Forums xD

Because you paid attention during class and the others did not.

I'm the same way. I can get away with skipping lecture, studying for 2 - 3 days straight for a final exam and get A's in that class. University really isn't that hard, you just need to know how to study. I personally retain more information on a short term scale by either drawing it in diagrams or writing out paragraphs of it in my owns words. So many unsuccessful university students fail to realize that the repetitive process of "memorization" isn't taking into account your own understanding, rather the understanding of the source material you are getting it from. As soon as you start to ask more questions, the materials becomes more interesting and therefore is easier to understand and remember on an exam. For instance, when I took organic chemistry, we had to know a lot of chemical reactions. I found it way easier to remember these reactions by relating to compounds you hear about in everyday life. I would create synthesis reactions for pharmaceutical drugs or even street drugs which helped me retain the information better. Sounds stupid, but it worked.

I would also add that a lot of people are terrible test - takers. Multiple choice tests are a breeze when you read everything very carefully and weed out improbable answers. This gives you a higher probability of getting the right answer, if you haven't already made a choice already.

>Today
>Study for 7 hours Control Theory
>Get distracted by the text, read a lot.
>Only made 5 problems

Another fucking day wasted. Sometimes I rekon is not about intelligence but about focus and productivity. If for these 7 hours I were to dive in the problems I would have made a much better, productive day.

I was one of those guys in college who could study just enough to pass the tests and got straight As

All of the smartest people I know, however, routinely study for 8 hours or more at at time.

>en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magical_Number_Seven,_Plus_or_Minus_Two
Shit I need to read this, I've been thinking a lot about intelligence and how it differs between people and why, and I kind of came to the same conclusion about how the brain seems to handle information in vague 'chunks'. Are people who are often thought as genius those who (among other things) can handle much larger chunk sizes, ie normal people can handle single words as chunks but a genius might handle an entire paragraph as one chunk and process it just as efficiently?

You must be right. Doesn't it mean we can train our brain though, with chess or something?
What is exactly wrong with brains of people who can't be taught complex concepts?

they are lazy and wants dopamine faster after action is taken, i think its many personality traits that can work against it.

Immer dieses Palaber... Ich hab nen MSc in mech-eng und bald nen Doktor.
Ich bin wiss. Mitarbeiter an einer Uni und ich sehe wie die Studenten hier lernen. Am Montag von 8 bis 18 in der Uni in der Vorlesung sitzen und sich dann auf die Schulter klopfen dass man 10 Stunden "gearbeitet" hätte. Dabei schwätzen sie 80% der Zeit und nach- oder vorgearbeitet wird auch nicht.

70 Stunden...wer das glaubt ist ziemlich dämlich und macht massiv was falsch.

Geheimtip: Selbst lernen >>>> Anwesenheit und dann hat man sogar noch Zeit für Partys.

>When you're distracted/depressed by knowing you're missing out on what your friends are doing because you have to study for a pointless test, it's pretty hard to focus.

So much this. Every time I have to study I get the sensation that I losing something if I spend the time isolated doing the work.
I get so much social anxiety from this.

>Veeky Forums laughs at psychology
>Veeky Forums laughs at statistics
>Veeky Forums laughs at biology
>Veeky Forums wonders why it can't figure out what "makes some people better at things than other people"

Man, that's a real tough one right there.

>When I was in school, I knew people who would study a single topic, weeks on end, only to still get bad grades.
Yeah, people told me that too. Most of their "studying" consisted of playing Everquest or fucking around online with a book open next to them.

Biology is good (and hard).

Natürlich musst du dich in die Illusion flüchten, mit einem Studenanfänger zu quatschen. Die rote Pille ist noch zu schwer zu schlucken für dich. Ich habe meinen Master-Abschluss in Mathematik mit besten Noten auf dem Zeugnis und ich habe nie etwas dafür tun müssen. Hab im Prinzip die meiste Zeit nur in Selbstmordgedanken geschwelgt oder mich mit irgendwelchem sinnlosen Scheiß abgelenkt. Studium war stets ne Nebensache. Ich verachte Kleingeister wie dich, die glauben ein Studium sei etwas schwieriges oder anstrengendes.

>German universities
>quality
Choose only one.

>no other prep
Not even problems? What the hell?

> t. University if Mississippi biology grad

mechanical engineering
:^)

>Why do some people require hours and hours of relentless studying?

Because they were lazy all their life before that point when they decided to start studying and:

a. they don't have a solid background like others.

b. they don't have the experience of studying - but doing it often will eventually normalize them.

An welcher uni biste tätig. Studiere grad ein ingenieurfach an der tu darmstadt. Das niveau hier ist schon sehr hoch. Aber für fächer wie technische mechanik oder mathe bracuht man auch nur ne woche effektiv lernen um die prüfung zu bestehen. Das was du sagst stimmt schon das leute denken, die vorlesung sei lernen oder son quatsch. Die meisten verschwenden eh ihre zeit in der uni dumm rummzusitzen.

This. Some are simply smarter and better at learning.

Pls don't gas me dudes, I swear I'm not a Jude.

Nope. Just a read-through to learn the material, and then why would I need to do problems if I understand the material?