Recently I started using reddit, answering all those students who look for extra advantage in their classes. Soon I understood that speedreading and memory technique alone will not work. I ended up giving this advise:
(1) Be healthy. Eat healthy food, sleep 6-8 hours per day, drink ~3 cups of coffee, meditate/do sport.
(2) Be creative. Ask yourself questions, play around with material, think how other people address the subject. Do not forget to have fun.
(3) Communicate. Talk to your teachers, fellow students, students in classes above and below you. You will get lots of valuable tips and if you are lucky some good friends. I got a PhD position this way.
(4) Be efficient. I read very fast, remember almost everything and I can teach anyone.
Generally I think that this is a good advise, but it is missing one key ingredient: thinking.
I remember reading this article and thinking: that’s how I learned before becoming a superlearner, and it was quite effective! Speedreading, memorization, creativity, prioritization – all these tricks I teach simply speed-up the process of learning. True learning experience is THINKING about the subjects you learn, solving examples hands-on, simulating equations on Matlab and dealing with home assignment. When I was a student it was OK to forget stuff and use notebooks, to make short summaries and use them, to use ready solutions from previous exams – just as long as they allowed to solve the newly presented challenge. So it is OK under the stress to start subvocalization and loose a mental markers – as long as your hands-on skills kick in.
So probably my best advise would be: think, and do it hands on,
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