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How to Study: A Brief Guide

cse.buffalo.edu

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Re: How to Study: A Brief Guide

#21

Post by coolg54321 »

terminalcommand wrote: post #5

I think that this kind of advice can be detrimental to people like me. It basically says force yourself to study 5 hours a day no exceptions. If you get a job or other extracurricular activities don't count it as work time. Well, I lived that lifestyle in high school. I studied 4 hours a day, limited every extracurricular activities to not interfer with my study time. At the end I believe I have missed a great portio…

> There is only so much willpower you can tap into. Once that is over you basically drift not being able to do anything. It is much better to live a balanced life and never put yourself into impossible workloads for a prolonged time.

I am a victim of this, Because of the competitive nature of things in my part of the world, I had to skip the extra curricular activities and dedicate all my free time (4-5 hrs a day) for studies and I am completely out of balance now. It's very difficult for me to find a balance or enjoy the activities now.

Re: How to Study: A Brief Guide

#22

Post by baby »

Taking notes is the worst advice you can give to someone. I've had this argument here on HN before, but taking notes distract you from the actual class. The best people I've been studying with were never taking notes, they were listening. If you need to know something after class, you can just google it or look in a book for it.

Re: How to Study: A Brief Guide

#23

Post by baby »

e19293001 wrote: post #11

If you are an emacs user, please take a look at org-mode. Most of the advice had been implemented in org-mode. I hope someone will find it worthwhile because org-mode helps me manage everything in just a text file. And, if you like it, here's an example set-up that I used: http://doc.norang.ca/org-mode.html Please don't be discouraged on the complexity of the tool. Just learn one at a time and soon you'll be used to…

Or just write notes/lists in your favorite text editor, no need to learn emacs or org-mode to start being efficient :)

Re: How to Study: A Brief Guide

#24

Post by crististm »

baby wrote: post #22

Taking notes is the worst advice you can give to someone. I've had this argument here on HN before, but taking notes distract you from the actual class. The best people I've been studying with were never taking notes, they were listening. If you need to know something after class, you can just google it or look in a book for it.

I've seen recommendations for not taking notes in class as well.

But your position suggests that taking notes is indeed the worst thing to do in class. How can that be? No qualifications or downplays like "for most people" or "bad"?

What I mean is that unless you have the results of Cal Newport or Jordan Peterson your extreme position does not carry the same weight as theirs.

Re: How to Study: A Brief Guide

#25

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

schuke wrote: post #4
sixhobbits wrote: post #3

My Comp Sci lecturer always said you could get a lot by coming to class 10 minutes early and reading the relevant material and leaving 5 minutes late to read it again. I tried this method for a third-year compilers course and it was a very efficient way of getting a high frequency of "Gotcha" moments of understanding. As an aside, I really love how responsive and friendly web pages in this plain HTML style are. It's…

text.npr.org is a good example.

This is beautiful, thank you for sharing.

Re: How to Study: A Brief Guide

#27

Post by UweSchmidt »

karles wrote: post #17

I went through university not knowing how to study, and as a result, I now have a "worthless" degree. One thing is, that the university and the degrees I took was a joke. 3-6 hours of "class" (100+ people crammed into an auditorium), no graded homework or feedback during semesters, and examns was just handing in 12-15 pages of analysis, and then getting a grade on my report sheet. No contact with educators, no counse…

No one has all the answers as they are starting out.

Your degree probably isn't too bad if you add some practical skills. In IT people are in demand, you are in demand. Add Programming, QA, or some kind of analyst, product owner skills and your soft IT degree will be the frame around the picture.

Re: How to Study: A Brief Guide

#28

Post by MIKarlsen »

UweSchmidt wrote: post #27
karles wrote: post #17

I went through university not knowing how to study, and as a result, I now have a "worthless" degree. One thing is, that the university and the degrees I took was a joke. 3-6 hours of "class" (100+ people crammed into an auditorium), no graded homework or feedback during semesters, and examns was just handing in 12-15 pages of analysis, and then getting a grade on my report sheet. No contact with educators, no counse…

No one has all the answers as they are starting out. Your degree probably isn't too bad if you add some practical skills. In IT people are in demand, you are in demand. Add Programming, QA, or some kind of analyst, product owner skills and your soft IT degree will be the frame around the picture.

I'm just stuck with this thought: I spent 6 years "accomplishing" very little. Others (programmers eg) will have 5 years advantage on me, or even more, as a lot of people will have been programming from an earlier age.

I realize I've spent too much time playing video games, hanging out with friends and so on, to realistically be able to compete with someone who has been on a track and dedicated for 5+ years.

So the thought of "You only just have to start _now_", after I've been through 20 years of education completely paralyzes me. I wouldn't want to hire me. And I can't concentrate or focus enough to actually learn programming (been trying for 4 years now), since the negative thoughts just keep returning, and I have a hard time convincing myself that I'm wrong.

It feels like I'm just waiting for things to get worse, and what scares me is, that this thought doesn't even bother me anymore, because I feel that my situation is justified.

Re: How to Study: A Brief Guide

#29

Post by muzani »

baby wrote: post #22

Taking notes is the worst advice you can give to someone. I've had this argument here on HN before, but taking notes distract you from the actual class. The best people I've been studying with were never taking notes, they were listening. If you need to know something after class, you can just google it or look in a book for it.

I have been both: the non note taker and the excessively detailed note taker.

I would say note taking a skill, and one that's honed through years. It's not something you only learn when you start college and there is an art to it.

What a lot of people do is similar to what the page tells you not to do - people would highlight everything, or write everything. This is very bad, because the best place to learn is in class, and by doing this, you reduce the class to a textbook.

I think the best thing to do is write a glossary or write down definitions. You'll notice the class repeating a few concepts several times. This is when it should be noted, or when a concept is too big or contains too much jargon to understand.

Re: How to Study: A Brief Guide

#30

Post by UweSchmidt »

MIKarlsen wrote: post #28
UweSchmidt wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one has all the answers as they are starting out. Your degree probably isn't too bad if you add some practical skills. In IT people are in demand, you are in demand. Add Programming, QA, or some kind of analyst, product owner skills and your soft IT degree will be the frame around the picture.

I'm just stuck with this thought: I spent 6 years "accomplishing" very little. Others (programmers eg) will have 5 years advantage on me, or even more, as a lot of people will have been programming from an earlier age. I realize I've spent too much time playing video games, hanging out with friends and so on, to realistically be able to compete with someone who has been on a track and dedicated for 5+ years. So the t…

Very few people have been "on track" their whole life and workplaces are full of "average" people (by definition), nothing to worry about. Self study can be daunting, I know from experience. Maybe seek some counseling for your psyche (you alread know your own thoughts about yourself are kinda off right now, right?) , join a coding bootcamp. IT needs lots of people to solve lots of problems, the vast majority doable by ordinary people. Hope that helps :-)
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