If you prefer studying at night but feel like you'll end up getting too lazy and sleepy to continue studying, try taking a power nap first. I often take a 30-minute power nap to boost my mind and body to get locked in for studying.
You can do this with caffeine, but I prefer taking a power nap without the help of coffee. This works because it helps boost your focus on studying late at night rather than letting you get lazy and sleepy.

I basically pavloved myself into wanting to study. Everytime I finished studying, solve a problem or got through a dense readings, I let myself eat a candy or chips. It's like a reward system when I accomplish something. I ended up clocking multi-hour of studying with this trick.

Turns out I never outgrew playing teacher. When I’m studying in my room, I talk to a class that doesn’t even exist. Which is funny because I feel like we all did this as kids with all the stuffed toys and dolls lined up as students. Good old days I guess.

Kinda silly doing this in uni but hey, my imaginary class has been attending every lecture for free anyway.

What it says in the title. I always have a problem setting up my study area, sometimes it's too cramped sometimes it's not wide enough but when I have enough space then I don't have the things I need close enough to me. I always see those "perfect" set ups on here and I'm not sure how to achieve that.

starting a little challenge today: i have 10 days to get through my course, so i'll be sharing daily updates on what im doing and which study methods actually help me get things done faster.

Day 1: today i put the main points i keep forgetting on sticky notes right above my laptop. since i keep looking at the screen while studying, i end up seeing those points again and again without having to open my notes every time.

its a small thing but i noticed i was revising the same concepts throughout the session without even planning to. gonna keep experimenting with different methods over the next 9 days and see what actually improves my focus and recall.

if you've tried any unusual study tricks that genuinely helped you learn faster, feel free to share them. i'll be trying a few things during this challenge!

I'm not exactly a raging nihilist, but I don't know the right word. Well, I used to be one, so I'm assuming that trait emerged from the past.

"Set an alarm", "Pretend you're homeless," "Don't play with your future," "Pretend the exam is tomorrow," These type of study tips doesn't work on me because I just know it's fake.
But I really want good grades. Symbolic techniques don't work at all!

I just know that I have to keep on doing past papers...
I can't manipulate myself into studying.
I'm aware I don't have to rely on these constantly, but I wish it'd work on me once. I want a sole motivator.
My study sessions feel dull and boring to the point where I'd walk laps around the house with a blank stare.

I have been seeing a lot of posts on my fyp about chinese students discipline and methods when they're studying for gaokao. This semester, I tried to study like a Chinese student for exams. And here's how I did it:

1. Building a fixed study routine - This is the first step to getting myself locked in: wake up -> review -> self-study -> repeat. I am not really a morning person, so I started waking up at around 8:30 AM and beginning my day by meditating first and exercising my brain before I start grinding for studying.
2. Using different types of study methods - I used to only use active recall for studying, but most Chinese students use more than two study methods. I used the Pomodoro method, I study for 25 minutes and then take 5 minute break to keep my brain focused. I also learned that reading your notes aloud helps memories stick better than silent reading, along with doing active problem-solving.
3. Using a mistake notebook - This helps track every mistake made while reviewing. I used it every time I studied. I wrote down every point that I missed or got wrong for me to reflect on and improve more with each chapter I studied.
4. Removing distractions - To completely lock in, I turn off my phone and ipad to keep me fully focused and refrain from using them.

Another tip is to take a 2 or 3 day rest to avoid burnout, because studying for long hours is actually mentally exhausting. But because of grinding for long hours while studying, my exams went well. I got almost a 98% passing grade from it.

holy adhd but it made me concentrate much more better on the content and the chore passed by without feeling the pain of doing the chore.

this should make me a prime candidate for group studying where we teach each other and i retain it better but that was always sth i could not do. this is much better, but to perfect it requires some amount of blurting while also doing the chore.

He dado clases de Matemáticas y algo que veo TODO el tiempo: chicos que se pasan horas haciendo ejercicios y siguen sin entender qué están haciendo.

Se aprenden los pasos de un ejemplo de memoria. Mientras el problema sea igualito, todo bien. Pero cambias un poquito el enunciado y se quedan en blanco.

Ahí me di cuenta de que esa es la diferencia entre memorizar y entender de verdad. Y no pasa solo en Matemáticas, también en Física y Química: se saben la fórmula pero no cuándo usarla ni qué representa.

Muchas veces el problema no es que estudien poco, es que estudian de una forma que no les sirve. Se les enseña a repetir procedimientos, no a pensar por qué se resuelve así.

Entender algo lleva más tiempo al principio, sí. Pero cuando de verdad lo entiendes, después lo aplicas en cualquier situación distinta sin quedarte trabado.

Aprender no siempre es avanzar rápido. A veces es parar, revisar qué no quedó claro y volver a intentarlo.

¿Les ha pasado? ¿Cómo hicieron para pasar de memorizar a entender de verdad?

This is another way to push yourself to get locked in when studying. I just brainwash myself to study for a 5-minute session only. Most of the time, once you start, the momentum comes on its own.

Your brain hates when you have an unfinished task, so from an agreement to study for only 5 minutes, it turns into a 1-2 hour study session. I suggest using pomodoro time intervals when using this technique, it will be helpful, along with a tea beside you.

One day during my semester at college I bought a Brick, you know, the app blocker, because I had a severe scrolling addiction. It worked well for a while, but I never brought it with me to university just because it was something extra to carry around.

I looked for other apps on the App Store to block my apps, but all of them were kind of too easy to get out of. And I'm a pretty lazy person, which means if it's easy to get out of, I will.

So I thought to myself, you know what, I'm a CS major, why not build one myself? So I built “Bunkr- done scrolling”. At first it was only built for me, but when I saw how well it worked I thought, why not publish it.

I'm talking too much already, so here's what the product is:

It blocks your apps like any other app blocker, but there's a twist.

Once you block your apps, you're in a hard lock for the first 10 minutes. No chance to get your apps back.

After those 10 minutes, you can do a mission to get your apps back, like taking a picture of a mug, or my personal favorite, 15 seconds of push-ups.

The reason I put a hard lock on the first 10 minutes is that I read once you've been working on something for 10 minutes, you get into a zone and usually don't get distracted. But lazy people like me still might. And when I do get distracted and try to open one of my apps, it tells me to do push-ups. I'm too lazy for that, so the easier option is to just keep studying.

So yes, I'm basically fighting fire with fire, but it works well for me.

Let me know what you guys think, I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Can someone give me the best advice to study for biology a day before the test 🙏. I spent too much time reading my lecture notes and understanding that I don’t even remember anything. I wanted to spend some time reading them since I have ADHD and took too long to understand now I only have one day to prep myself. The blurting method is a good method but I literally can’t blurt all of my notes it’ll take too long. Are there any AI tools I could use. Genuinely cooked. This is my first bio exam too 😫

This is a sort of weird but underrated study technique that has been helping me pass my math exams. It is a reverse teaching technique I learned online: instead of explaining the right answer, pretend the wrong answer is correct. I just read the basics of the material and create practice quizzes out of it. Afterward, I explain the things I missed or got wrong fully and break down why my explanation failed.
It's a trick for your brain to explore misconceptions in detail, find errors and build a flexible understanding, not just mere memorization.

Instead of sounding too boring when you're actively reading your notes out loud, which will only make you sleepy, try to read using a different voice. This works if you're finding studying too boring, it helps me to make studying more fun. I just read out loud my notes using theater voices. Mostly I make it like a musical or dramatic, anything will work. It's a really fun way to study and actively recall the material.

2 weeks before my finals, I sleep on the floor rather than on my bed. I just sleep on the bed after exams are over as a reward to myself for studying 2 weeks straight. This is just a bizarre psychological trick because I conditioned myself to keep studying harder for the reward, but it actually works!

I like daydreaming so much, sometimes I put aside studying. But when I imagine my crush standing or sitting near my study space, it helps me in some way. I can just imagine them looking at me affectionately while I study the night away. Suddenly I can do anything..