new methods of doing [school] work?

mxk · January 25, 2019

I'm like a lot of people in my generation (I'm 15 turning 16 soon) and I get distracted really easily with all this tech around me. This, in the past month or two has hit my grades a little and I was wondering what other people do when they work and try not to get distracted. Even right now, my last final is tomorrow for my AP (Advanced Placement, it's for college credits to save money when I go to uni if I pass a national test) class. I'm going to log off after I post this, but I was hoping I could get some other suggestions about some stuff I could try out or what other people do.

thank ya

captain_to_fire · January 25, 2019

Mastery by repetition. Whether it’s math or science, you master it by constant repetitions until you perfect it.

Also, you can try audio recordings and use it as your podcast which is what I do but you have to ask permission first.

Amazonsucks · January 25, 2019

6 hours ago, captain_to_fire said:

Mastery by repetition. Whether it’s math or science, you master it by constant repetitions until you perfect it.

Also, you can try audio recordings and use it as your podcast which is what I do but you have to ask permission first.

By repetition you mean, once you already have a fundamental understanding of the subject right? Thered be no point simply repeating knowledge to pass tests unless you fundamentally understand it. Unless the only goal is to pass tests to gain credentials... Usually those people get weeded out by a skilled interviewer when they apply for a job though, since theyre only good at passing tests and not thinking on their feet.

Incentivozing the memorization of facts to pass tests is a huge failure of western education. Its produced a lot of people who are over qualified on paper, but have no actual capability once they need to do something that requires originality and critical thinking to find novel solutions to unsolved problems.

Maximum efficiency for studying should probably take time into account. I would think that finding information that allows for quick but fundamental understanding, either via a teacher or autodidactically, would be preferable to continuous and time consuming repetition.

Unless one is training to be a sushi chef, athlete, mechanic or other manual dexterity based profession. Those kind of muscle memory skills can only be mastered by repetition but they are very different from academic studies.

To the OP:

Eliminate distractions. Eat healthy and exercise. Exercise is proven to help maintain cognitive ability throughout ones lifetime. Get plenty of deep sleep as well. You wont be able to remember shit if you dont get proper sleep. That means using the blue light filter, night light setting, f.lux or whatever, on your screens before bed so it doesnt disrupt your circadian rythm(via the suppression of melatonin secretion from blue light triggering the intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells).

People underestimate just how much cognition is affected by diet, exercise and sleep. At your age you should be the healthiest youll ever be and itll be easier for you to get that way.

At 15 your brain also has amazing neuroplasticity, so if you eliminate distractions and take care of your body's physical needs, you can learn things so much easier than someone in their 20s or 30s.

Also remember that not everything being taught is important. There's a lot of BS filler in school so refining it down to what you really need to know is important. Critical thinking skills and logic arent really taught in school(for various reasons) so you need to learn how to think and how to learn on your own, rather than simply thinking that an education is a collection of facts to retain.

It also depends on what kind of learner you are. If youre visual, make sure to use visual tools to help, same for auditory or which ever method you find easiest to learn with.

captain_to_fire · January 25, 2019

2 minutes ago, Amazonsucks said:

Thered be no point simply repeating knowledge to pass tests unless you fundamentally understand it.

I don't know what you do in life to say mastery by repetition isn't true but to be a doctor, you need to constantly study in order to retain the fundamentals of M1 through clinical applications of M4. I mean, could you honestly believe that a post grad intern can immediately learn how to do tracheotomy just by one sitting? No.

Same goes for professions requiring a lot of math like physicists and engineers. Do you really think one can study math especially differential/integral calculus and recall everything after ten years if not practiced constantly? Absolutely not. Repetition allows for long term memory.

11 minutes ago, Amazonsucks said:

since theyre only good at passing tests and not thinking on their feet.

If you're talking about blind memorization then yes.

Amazonsucks · January 25, 2019

6 minutes ago, captain_to_fire said:

you need to constantly study in order to retain the fundamentals of M1 through clinical applications of M4. I mean, could you honestly believe that a post grad intern can immediately learn how to do tracheotomy just by one sitting?

Thats why i asked. Theres a difference between constant study and simply memorizing facts to take a test and pass, which is what i was referring to.

And the tracheotomy thing is kinda like the sushi chef thing. Its a skill that requires practice. Learning about a process in biology, chemistry or physics requires a fundamental understanding. Theyre two different things that require a different approach to learning.

Someone could memorize the answers to questions they know will be on a test and not fundamentally understand anything. In such a case all their repetition and memorization is utterly useless, since theyd lack a fundamental understanding of the subject.

Fundamentally understanding x concept should only take one instance where the concept becomes fundamentally understood by the one studying. Thats kind of the nature of understanding a concept. There is a point before one understands it and a point after. Either the concept is understood or it isnt. Repetition doesnt make a difference for those sorts of things.