My Study System

Learn

Get a first pass through the material. Understand it well enough to explain it badly.

The goal of the first pass isn't mastery. It's getting the shape of the topic into your head so there's something to build on.

Read, watch, listen. Keep notes short. If you're copying the textbook word for word, you're transcribing, not learning.

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Your real process for this step goes here: tools, timings, what's working and what isn't.

Close the book. Put the notes away. Explain the concept from memory.

Rereading feels productive because the material looks familiar. Familiar isn't the same as remembered.

Recall is the uncomfortable part: pulling the idea out of your own head with nothing in front of you. That effort is what makes it stick.

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Your real process for this step goes here: tools, timings, what's working and what isn't.

Use it. Work problems, answer questions, apply it somewhere it wasn't taught.

Knowing a fact and using it under pressure are different skills. Practice questions build the second one.

Mix topics when you can. It's harder, and that's the point.

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Your real process for this step goes here: tools, timings, what's working and what isn't.

Find exactly what you got wrong, and why. Be specific. "Chemistry" isn't a gap.

Every wrong answer is information. Write down what you missed and what you were thinking when you missed it.

A gap you can name is a gap you can fix.

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Your real process for this step goes here: tools, timings, what's working and what isn't.

Come back to it on a schedule, right before you would have forgotten it.

Spaced review turns short-term wins into long-term memory. Tools like Anki handle the scheduling so you don't have to.

Review the gaps first. The things you already know can wait.

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Your real process for this step goes here: tools, timings, what's working and what isn't.

Simulate the real thing. Timed, closed book, no excuses. Then start the loop again.

A practice test under real conditions tells you where you actually stand, not where you hope you stand.

The results feed straight back into step four.

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Your real process for this step goes here: tools, timings, what's working and what isn't.