Comments on: Monday Master Class: How to Solve Hard Problem Sets Without Staying Up All Night

By: Courtney

Courtney — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 03:54:09 +0000

This also relates to other kinds of work I think designing buildings is like one GIANT problem set. You can never tell exactly how long it is going to take to tackle the different organizational and compositional problems of architecture. I love it, but it’s been very hard to organize my time well. I’m really curious to try some of these techniques, so thank you.

By: titanium_geek

titanium_geek — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:06:17 +0000

@Golden Bear : I got better marks in maths when I copied my stuff over to a nice clean sheet, including workings. The TA can quickly see that I’ve done the work, know how it works, and got the right answer, without deciphering scribbles and crossed out numbers.

By: Study Hacks » Blog Archive » Monday Master Class: How to Build a Paper Research Database

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 20:39:16 +0000

[…] How to Solve Hard Problem Sets Without Staying Up All Night […]

By: Golden Bear

Golden Bear — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 10:40:49 +0000

What are your logistics of actually writing your problem sets?
Do you initially just do everything on “scratch paper”, and once you work out the problems transfer the correct solns nicely to the page you will eventually turn in?

Or do you just turn in everything you’ve worked on? And if so how do you deal with leaving enough room to work on a hard problem when you skip it to tackle another problem first?

By: Study Hacks

Study Hacks — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:07:58 +0000

this was exactly the process I was following to solve problem sets, in higher level math courses, like cryptography and algorithms.

It’s cool to hear others have found use with a similar process. There must be something fundamental lurking here…

By: Jimmy

Jimmy — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:06:32 +0000

@Cal
I’ve only just recently stumbled upon your blog, and this article really surprised me, because this was exactly the process I was following to solve problem sets, in higher level math courses, like cryptography and algorithms. I’ve just never took the time to write or think it through, or even to realize that this was process I was using. The only difference was that I had breakthroughs while swimming.

By: Study Hacks

Study Hacks — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:14:10 +0000

Just as a personal question, these techniques ended up getting you straight A’s in your undergraduate technical classes, and even in your MIT technical classes?

Yep. A lot of factors go into technical class performance, but without efficient strategies like the one above I would have either: (a) done worse; or (b) been a lot more stressed out.

By: Lee

Lee — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 08:36:18 +0000

@Cal:

Just as a personal question, these techniques ended up getting you straight A’s in your undergraduate technical classes, and even in your MIT technical classes?

If so, that’s really amazing..thanks!

By: Study Hacks

Study Hacks — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 14:20:28 +0000

@TRM:

Good catch. I made the edit.

By: TRM

TRM — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 16:03:47 +0000

Just an editing thought as I quickly skimmed this … and you can delete this comment if you choose.

In the paragraph beginning Step 3: Meet with your Problem Partner

The “smart kid” is often wrong, and likes the group because it boosts its self-esteem.

You probably wanted to say “his” self-esteem.