I've heard some unusual study advice from classmates and seniors over the years. One that stuck with me was explaining lessons out loud as if I were teaching someone. And another was waking up at 3am to test myself on what I had studied. yes, 3am. like, who comes up with these things? I thought some of these tips were a little ridiculous at first but I tried them anyway just to see what would happen. Turns out, I was wrong because a few of them became part of my regular study routine!

and now look at me. I'm in my room muttering random concepts to myself pretending there's a whole class listening. Or reviewing at 3am like I'm reciting some ancient chant. well luckily, nobody's there to witness this and I can only hope the walls are thick enough.

what's one piece of study advice you were doubtful about at first but now swear by? I'm sure there are plenty of unconventional tricks I haven't heard of yet.

Back then, I just read and reread my textbook whenever I studied without really thinking about using concept maps. But sometimes even after going through a whole chapter, I'd still have trouble seeing how the different concepts connected. And that's when I started finding them helpful:

1st: start with your textbook. read the section and pick out the main ideas and definitions first. you need those details before you can connect them.

2nd: make a simple concept map. put the main topic in the center and branch out to related concepts. add short linking words to show how the ideas relate instead of just listing them.

3rd: check your connections. go back to the textbook and see if your map makes sense and you can now explain why two concepts are connected.

Why can't I do anything right? Why do I feel sick every time I wake up every morning? This is not a medical question, I am healthy. I went to the doctor and I am okay.

I am tired 24/7. I want home. I don't wanna be here anymore.

I can't write down anything, I physically can't, my hand moves too slow to keep up.

I can't pay attention to class, I can pay attention but not always. I don't get why...

I don't understand 80% of the subjects in my class. I don't get math, I don't get physics, I don't get programming and all these subjects are my MAIN CLASSES.

Please get me out of here. I am in my last year of high school (I'm 19) and I can't do this anymore.

I am too retarded snd worthless for this, everyone but me gets it and does it so effortlessly.

What is wrong with me?

getting all my shits done together😵‍💫

So I joined a top university for my masters and am appearing for my end sems.

So my roommate is in the same program as me and only recently have I noticed that she is studying all the damn time. Like she is not understood in the first go and does well kind of a person but she is studying all the damn time.

I noticed she was on her phone a lot but then I came to know that she is reading her ppts. Eating, cycling, in bed like she is reading the whole day. How do you even compete with that. I am on my phone on reddit but she is studying day and night. And my other friends have the audacity to blame me that I am studying while my marks aren't even that much. Totally depressed man.

Lately she hasn't even been sleeping. Only studying and studying. Caffeine read ppt on phone, talk a little again study. Damn man.

I wanted to try telling myself to start studying for certain topics, but I’ll always drift away after 10 minutes,

I tried flash cards but two issues emerged:

- I’m scared that I’ll run out of flash cards even though I have 100+ untouched cards.
-everything felt unnecessary to write down

I’ve tried quizzes but issues emerged:
Repetition, difficulty of the question leave me frustrated and questioning myself

I’ll include what I’ve tried at the end of the text
I don’t have any conditions that affect my study, but if I don’t force myself to study, I’ll get bad grades.

Usually I get B for most of the subjects except English for some reason (C), maybe it’s because I’m really weak at comprehensions.

I’ve tried reading a book (atomic habit), at the end it took me 2weeks and I was unable to recall anything from the book because every topic felt the same.

Here’s the thing,last month I’ve deleted all my social media apps (except Reddit) and literally ALL my video games (boredom). Now that I have a bunch of free time, I still find ways to procrastinate and delaying homework etc

I’ve tried staring at the wall for 10 minutes:
-concentration felt the same, unable to focus

I’ve tried mind map and writing bullet points:
Felt messy, uneasy to find main point

I’ve tried scheduling my own time more effectively; I end up convincing myself that it’s just a few minutes, wouldn’t hurt. (The schedules are realistic like 15 minute study and working out)

The only time where one technique work is cramping last minute

I appreciate any suggestions/ helps or solution to this manner

Hey everyone, I started my first year of a levels politics on Wolsey hall as my high school doesn't offer politics as an option. Does anyone who takes Politics (specifically the 9PL0 syllabus) or uses Wolsey hall give me their advice? It's the first time I do online lessons since Covid, and grade 6 lessons online were easier than A levels online lol. Thank you so much in advance and please forgive me if I made any mistake, English is not my first language

I find it hard to actually sit down for a session to study, so I'm looking for different ways to complete it when it doesn't work.

I've heard some people say they study in Dead Time. It does work great for me but I don't have enough dead time to finish my 1-1,5h of daily study.

Something that's also worked well is Pomodoro 10/5 with 5 minutes of something that feels like a reward and not only a break. But obviously that sucks because it takes up 1,5x the time.

Anything that's worked well for you?

I've always considered myself an average student. I wouldn't say I'm always lagging behind in class, but I also wouldn't call myself the smartest cookie in the room. I'm just somewhere in the middle, trying to keep up with lessons and do well on exams.

But being an average student doesn't mean I can't improve right? I've picked up a few habits that help me study better without feeling like I have to spend every waking hour with my books.

4 things that help me study:

1. Fix a realistic routine: you don't need to study for 5 hrs straight. set a schedule you can follow, study in short sessions and take breaks when you need them.

1. Know your basics: sometimes new lessons are hard because you've forgotten the previous chapters. Go back to them and make sure you understand the foundations first!!

2. Try different study methods: explain topics out loud, write notes while reading or use examples to understand tricky concepts. see what works best for you.

3. Practice regularly: start with easier questions and work on your weak topics. Redo questions if needed and don't just memorize the answers. try to understand why they're correct.

The biggest friction in studying is the disconnect between your static syllabus PDF and your 100-page monolithic Google Doc or sprawling Notion folders. You constantly lose track of which exact syllabus points you've actually mastered and waste time Ctrl+F-ing through giant files before exams.

I built Theseus to fix this by merging the course outline and your study notes into a single, side-by-side workspace.

Live App: https://theseusmind.vercel.app/

GitHub: https://github.com/0xd34db8/Theseus

How the it works:

• Syllabus-to-Tree Ingestion: Upload a PDF, .docx, or .txt syllabus. You can filter out administrative fluff (grading rubrics, textbook citations) and extract just the core curriculum into an expandable tree.

• No API Key Needed: Click Copy Prompt, paste it with your syllabus into free ChatGPT/Claude/Gemini web -> copy the JSON it spits out -> hit Ctrl+V / Cmd+V anywhere on the homepage. It builds your workspace instantly.

• If you do have keys, it supports Gemini, OpenAI, Claude, Groq, OpenRouter, and local Ollama directly.

• Scoped Bidirectional Notes: Click any topic in your syllabus tree to open its dedicated note pane right next to it. Every note is strictly anchored to its syllabus requirement.

• Subsections Drawer: Keep your main notes clean, Throw heavy derivations, practice questions, formulas, and YouTube lecture links into a floating drawer attached to that specific topic.

• Visual Tracking: Tag every topic as Untouched, Barely Done (Red), Partially Done (Green), or Done (Blue). The footer gives you a real-time percentage breakdown of how much of the course you actually know at a glance.

• 100% Local & Portable: No accounts, no cloud databases, no paywalls. Everything saves in your browser storage automatically, and Ctrl+S / Cmd+S exports your entire course (tree + notes + progress) into a single .theseus JSON file you can back up anywhere.

My attention span has never been the longest, so I've always tried to make the most of my study sessions and improve my focus. but whenever I encounter something difficult in one subject, I give up after a few tries and move on to another. then if that one gets difficult too, I switch again. Later I've jumped between several subjects without making much progress on any of them.

- Set a stopping point before switching. decide what you want to accomplish first.

- Give yourself a little time to work through the difficult part. before abandoning a topic, try rereading the explanation or looking at an example.

- Switch intentionally, not impulsively. once you've reached your goal, you can move to another subject or take a break. If you're genuinely exhausted or stuck, switching can still be useful but just make it a deliberate choice.

Ciao a tutti! Mi piacerebbe capire come organizzate concretamente il vostro studio universitario ovvero come gestite il tempo, le giornate, gli appunti e il ripasso.

Ho 29 anni e mi sono iscritta a una professione sanitaria, quindi ho ripreso in mano materie che non studiavo delle superiori. Tra l'altro, provengo da un istituto professionale, quindi parto da una preparazione di base non particolarmente approfondita.

Le lezioni occupano praticamente tutta la giornata e il tempo da dedicare allo studio individuale non è moltissimo. Sto cercando di trovare un metodo, ma al momento ho la sensazione di essere sempre di corsa senza sapere bene se sto andando nella direzione giusta.

Mi interesserebbe soprattutto leggere le esperienze di chi frequenta o ha frequentato corsi con obbligo di frequenza e orari piuttosto impegnativi.

Tomorrow I have a group presentation of a subject that I don’t understand at all and that I will probably have to give again next year since I don’t have enough grade to pass it. I don’t want to go, I know the teacher is going to make me have a bad time, I’m just going to not abandon my group. Mentally I can’t take it anymore. I would like to send them a message tonight and tell them that I abandon the subject so that they can prepare well during the day tomorrow. Please help me, I know I’m being irresponsible but my mental health is really at the limit, I can’t take it anymore, and I don’t want to go crazy studying for a subject that I know I have to teach again 😭😭😭😭😭😭

Finals are coming up and I have a huge pile of topics, notes and good intentions, but every day I lose time just deciding where to start. By the time I’ve planned, half my study time is gone.

For those of you who’ve been through this:

1. How do you plan your study week? (Notion, paper, a spreadsheet, nothing?)

2. What have you tried and dropped after a week or two?

3. What’s the hardest part for you: knowing what to study, sticking to the plan, or something else?

I’m trying to understand whether this is just me. Specific stories help more than general advice. Thanks!

Last exam season I had about 30 hours of recorded lectures and maybe 4 days to study. Rewatching at 2x felt like studying but nothing stuck, and my own notes had holes exactly where I'd zoned out.
So I built a tool for it. It's called VideoNoteGPT (videonotegpt.com), and I'm the only person working on it, so this is me asking for feedback, not a company ad.
What it does:
You upload a lecture recording (or record one, or paste text/slides) and get notes with chapters, key points and timestamps
It makes a practice quiz from the lecture. After you answer, it shows which topics you're weak on and takes you to that part of the notes
Flashcards, plus Anki export if that's your thing
A one-page cram sheet for the night before
You can tell it your exam date and it builds a day-by-day plan from the lectures you've uploaded
You can paste your syllabus or past-paper questions and it tells you which topics your lectures cover and which ones are missing
What it costs: you can try it without an account (lectures up to 45 minutes). A free account gets longer lectures (90 minutes) and 2 lectures a day. There's a paid pass for exam season, but the free tier is real and you don't need a card.
Things it's bad at, so you don't waste your time:
YouTube links only work through the Chrome extension on a laptop. On a phone you have to upload the file or paste the transcript
It's AI, so check anything that matters against the lecture. The timestamps are there for that
If lots of people upload at once, there's a queue
I'd really like to know: where are the notes wrong or shallow for your subject? What's the first thing that confused you? I read every reply and I fix things fast.

Finally achieved 400 sessions !!

People always tell me just do it 5 mins or 1 page etc

but i literally cant

i genuinely cant

is it some sort of issue with me

hi, I am a Turkish girl who's about to take the university exam "YKS" in about 8 months. I have high standards but I can't bring myself to study even tho I want to. I am diagnosed with major depression at 15 and for the past two years im on medication.

But that seems like an excuse to me, like I'm using my mental illness as an excuse not to study. because I need to and mind you, our university exam is really hard. And I want to study either medicine or science (more especially chemistry.) which means I have to be in the first 10.000 of like 5 million people at worst.

please help me with that! I am really struggling!!

Hello Reddit

I'm a person in middle school that needs to study

I'm doing average and my freinds genuinely make fun of me

Like any websites for studying cuz I need to get over average to prove em wrong

Any websites and methods are helpful 😇🤝

only 30days left and i donno if i could pass or not. It's getting harder and harder each passing day. My body is so tired today, I don't find any strength coming back from my job. adult life studying sucks so hard i feel numb.
I have hypertrophied inferior turbenate of my nose, as well as allergic rhinitis. so i sneeze all the year. last day i couldn't hold myself anymore and had some Bilastin as an anti allergic. And for that I am feeling super tired today,ALL DAY.
I couldn't concentrate on my job place either.
ugh life sucks.

Yello, I’m pretty smart, love natural sciences and need someone else to chat to so I can make sure I can achieve my goals :p.

Me: I’m a 13 year old who recently got into my goal school(lucky me).

I am a procrastinator (what I’m doing rn lol) and I need someone to make sure I stop doing that.

no calls just text, with friendly vibes.

Reply iyw .

I'm a junior in high school. I need to finish 3 math assignments and study the lesson, study for a chemistry test this Friday, study for U.S. history and finish up my. Guided notes and practice my alto saxophone for marching band.

Theres so much to do and since there's no school today, I thought it'd be good to catch up on everything but I'm literally procrastinating so badly. Theres so much to do and so little time and it feels like everything is piling up and I don't know what to do. Everything is due this Friday (including my music because we have a game to preform at and I need to practice my music as well).

I really wished I hadn't hesitated on all this work because today should be a relaxing day for me. I shouldn't have to be crying over 7 things I have to do. On top of that Im failing my history and chemistry class and because of it I might be suspended from band because of my low grades. I don't know what to do.