Comments on: Crowd Wisdom: Your Best Study Hacks Revealed

By: Candice D.

Candice D. — Sun, 03 May 2009 21:06:08 +0000

Dear Cal,

I was trying to apply the quizz-and-recall method for my Virginia’s environment class, with clustered quizzes, but reviewing detailed information bore me out of my mind. And suddenly, yesterday, three days before the final exam, I got the light: I am doing maps based on ideas associations. Basically, I put the word that summarizes the main concept at hand (e.g, atmosphere) and draw arrows to every single detail associated with this word. It probably is very similar to the hack 3# idea, if not the same thing, but actually the thing that inspired me was your post about notebook and pen and the advice 7# of the yellow book. So now, I am ready to ace my exam with this method.

Candice

By: Study Hacks

Study Hacks — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 21:34:20 +0000

@Leigh:

This is a good idea. It’s definitely one of the additions I’m planning for an upcoming blog overhaul.

@Kayla:

Really cool. I could that being applicable for any history class. A thematic map to help organize the main events…

By: Kayla

Kayla — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 18:58:04 +0000

My history teacher gave us a cool way to study for our history exams. We brainstormed as a class the huge themes that came accross during the 400 years of so of history we covered in the semester.

What you did then was make a chart. Make a column for the theme then one column is pre 1500ish then the next one was about 1500-about maybe 20 yrs to the present and the last one is the present. Then under each column in a row that has the big theme that you picked you basically put down notes of what happened in each section.

It’s really cool because it makes a map that allows you to see how a theme was evolved over time.

By: Leigh Newton

Leigh Newton — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 18:45:24 +0000

Have you ever thought of posting your best blogs at the bottom of your page as in the manner of Zen Habits? Leo on that site also lists the best blogs for the month as he see it. The great thing about this approach is that it makes it easy for newcomers to your blog get a sense of the quality of the material you generate.

By: Study Hacks

Study Hacks — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:57:38 +0000

@Jenny:

Whoops! Sorry about that. I guess it’s my secret hacker gender bias showing through.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 17:53:59 +0000

@Study Hacks:
I’m “jlb,” whose post you featured as “HACK #1.” There’s no way you could have known this, since I only used my initials, but I’m a “she” not a “he.” In the future, I think I’ll post as “Jenny” to avoid confusion. Thanks a lot for featuring my post!

By: 3.06.08 Featured blogs of the day «

3.06.08 Featured blogs of the day « — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 06:11:52 +0000

[...] reader-submitted study ideas are featured in Study Hacks, including – my favorite – create a fictional character to study as. For [...]

By: Study Hacks

Study Hacks — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:07:23 +0000

@David:

Good clarification. It’s hard to flow when you’re just doing random, unfocused review.

By: David

David — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:03:15 +0000

I should have also mentioned that a very critical aspect to achieving the flow state using my method (or even Michael’s for that matter) is actually being able to state your purpose so clearly that you can see what done looks like. This ties back to Cal’s idea of never using the word “study” to describe one’s activity. Like a vector, a good study session has magnitude (the “relaxed intensity” of being in the flow state) and direction (achievement of a specific purpose). If purpose is missing, you may have a hard time maintaining focus or you may get a lot of irrelevant things done.

By: Study Hacks

Study Hacks — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:05:21 +0000

@Vincent:

Thanks for the addition. I love that idea of living big as a route to memorizing strong. A good excuse to go sky diving.

@Nikki:

They are creative!