How to study effectively

Productivity

Chaos, productivity and lint.

Some mornings I wake up with an air of calm self-assurance that carries me through my day. Other mornings my dignity is dead on arrival....

No list is a good list

Today, writing about productivity makes me feel like a fraud; I spent this afternoon trying to convince a co-worker that his Sunday roast could be...

What eating brussel sprouts as a child taught me about motivation

Until I ate sprouts I didn’t know that body odour could be a flavour. I can only assume that, like the spikes of a hedgehog,...

Roll and reward your way to productivity

Over the long term rewards become expensive and can keep you focused on checking off tasks rather than engaging with them, but they are still...

Write your own mnemonic in five minutes

Acrostics are the most common mnemonics that we encounter in day to day life. A good example is the sentence ‘Richard Of York Gave Battle...

Why students shouldn’t rely on mnemonic systems for numbers

If you need to memorise a few, short, numbers: It can be tempting to invest time mastering an advanced mnemonic system, but this can eat...

The numbers game – mnemonic devices for large numbers

When memorising numbers, a lot of memory athletes use approaches built on two main systems – the Major system and the DOMINIC system. The Major...

Mnemonic devices for remembering short numbers

Memorise only what you need Often, for an exam, you only need to remember a handful of short numbers. Even if you’re trying to remember...

The fundamentals of good study skills

Laws of the internet #415 Every new scientific study must spawn an avalanche of self-help articles, regardless of how impractical or downright freaky the resulting...

Why writing summarised notes is for chumps

Summarised notes are made from distilling down the contents of a textbook into what you believe are the key elements. The process repeats until, eventually,...

How to study effectively: a no bullsh*t guide

This isn’t one of those articles promising a list of ten study hacks that will ‘turn you into an instant genius, ninja assassin and sexual...

How to get dangerously good at studying

“This is not some half baked, quickly thrown together for a buck book on Amazon. This book is a labor of love toward studying.”...

Can you study to pass a GCSE exam in just 10 hours?

The saying “eat your own dog food” isn’t taken from a government pamphlet for dealing with austerity measures (any savings are likely to be offset...

How to make your own flashcards super sticky

My recent holiday to Cuba was so luxurious that it came with a butler service. I confess that this didn’t quite live up to my...

Testing yourself on a mind map

As a student, how should you consume a mind map? Tear it up and cram it into your mouth like a wide-eyed lunatic? With enough...

BBC finds error riddled study guides

One April fool’s day in my childhood, I caught sight of my brother filling the sugar bowl with salt. I then watched the diminutive, demented...

Learning techniques: projects vs tutorials vs flying dogs

There’s a great article by Yaphi Berhanu on SitePoint about how using projects to learn can be counter productive. It’s specifically about learning JavaScript, but the...