
Think You Know How To Study? Think Again - fogus
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130728588&ps=cprs
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verisimilitude
As a professional student, I will save you all some time. The secret of
studying is encompassed in three programs:

* Anki[1] (spaced repetition[2])

* SelfControl[3] (avoid procrastination, block websites)

* Pink Noise[4] (block noise to study anywhere, anytime)

[1]: <http://ichi2.net/anki/>

[2]: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition>

[3]: <http://visitsteve.com/work/selfcontrol/>

[4]: <http://simplynoise.com/>

~~~
philfreo
Would love to get your thoughts on Quizlet <http://quizlet.com/>

~~~
whimsy
No computer science in your default subjects on the right? >=p For shame!

Anyway, here's a review from the perspective of someone who currently uses
Anki off and on as his study aid du jour.

Your samples ("Browse by Subject") look like they're targeted at high-school
level education; that was kind of a turn-off. (That is, I was expecting this
section to give me an incentive to switch, but I already know this stuff
pretty well - I was hoping to see higher level physics and chemistry stuff.)

I was worried that I wouldn't be able to insert images, but I found that.

Add LaTeX rendering and I would almost be sold.

For me, the biggest draw for Anki is that it exploits SRS (Piotr Wozniak's
forgetting curve, etc).

If Quizlet did that (and showed me how it did it) and maybe e-mailed me when
it was time to review cards (or maybe a digest of how many cards I need to
study today) that would be enough to get me to switch over, and to recommend
it to friends over Anki.

~~~
philfreo
Point taken on the "default subjects" on the homepage - they were just meant
to show off some of the most common stuff we have, but with 3 millions
flashcard sets it's not easy to show it all :)

LaTeX, SRS, and study reminders are all three on our ideas list. We're making
a big development push on audio first, and then are going to look more into
these.

Our "Learn Mode" keeps track of what you know and what you don't - but only in
the short term. We'd love to have better ways to help you remember things
long-term.

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ihodes
I think the NYT article (linked to in the NPR one) has a better, less
metaphor-rife explanation of the current research.

[http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/health/views/07mind.html?_...](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/health/views/07mind.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all)

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pyre
_Doing practice quizzes can help you retrieve information on test day. "Tests
have a very bad rap as a measurement tool," Carey says. But psychologists have
found self-tests slow down the forgetting of material you've studied. "If you
study something once, and then you test yourself on it," Carey says, "you do
better than if you study it two times over."_

Makes sense. You get the feedback of feeling good when you get answers right,
and you learn from mistakes when you get something wrong (i.e. the memory of
thinking about your wrong answer and the right answer 'sticks' better in your
mind).

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Nemisis7654
These are nice tips. I employ some of them at times, such as testing yourself
and mixing it up, but the other ones I haven't. I tend to study either in my
room at my house or the same desk at the library. Maybe I should try to mix it
up sometimes. And the spacing it out thing...ha. I procrastinate waaay to much
for that. Maybe I should stop that.

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twillerelator
They assume that the purpose of study is to pass tests.

~~~
Pyrodogg
It's not so much an assumption on their part as a realization thats what we've
turned the education system into, at least in America.

In primary, secondary and even advanced schooling, there is a heavy focus on
the students doing well on the (section/chapter/book) test just so they can
drop it all and cram for the next one.

Sure, there is some incremental build up of knowledge or they wouldn't be
getting anywhere. However, there is little focus on cumulative review and
testing.

~~~
bxr
>thats what we've turned the education system into, at least in America

This is in no part helped by NCLB testing. The school stopped normal classes
for a week to spend time teaching us how to take tests so that the school
could perform well.

Who can be surprised that the last thing people are actually learning in
schools is how to best prepare for tests?

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wisty
Well, it looks like some students will be getting a surprise test tomorrow.

