Reddit reviews Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning
We found 59 Reddit comments about Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Belknap Press
We found 59 Reddit comments about Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
For grad school, I took a class called principles of learning. In it, I read Make It Stick which basically spells out what you observed as the ideal method of learning. I highly suggest it. The book gave me a ton of methods to learn more effectively.
Thinking, Fast and Slow is one of the best books I've ever read. While the beginning was a bit dry, it covers a wide swathe of topics and presents technical topics in a very layman-accessible way.
Since this is /r/DecidingToBeBetter, I would also recommend Make It Stick, a book about how to improve your learning and memory. It is a very practical book that summarizes proven, repeated studies and tells you their conclusions and offers advice on how you can improve your learning ability.
Hey, I was in your shoes. Didn't really appreciate college, for many of the reasons you mentioned. I can tell you with confidence and hindsight that it's a perspective thing. It really is. It's hard to see that when it's all bearing down on you and you feel like you need something to blame (our egos tend to want to protect themselves by any means necessary).
The thing about college is it's a bit of a mindfuck for someone coming out of high school without the proper strategies and frame-of-mind. For most of us, I think it's fair to say that nobody really teaches us how to do well, they just expect us to figure it out. Sucks, but that's the reality of it.
The #1 strategy for technical courses is to practice problems. DON'T READ THE TEXTBOOK. Nobody gives a flying fuck if you passively scanned your eyeballs over some words in the textbook in a technical course. But you do need to be able to see a random problem from the material and know which strategy to use to solve it. Just passively reading the text doesn't give you that ability. You need to solve problems.
Whether these are homework problems, extra problems, labs, whatever, they are basically a training ground for you to learn to wield weapons that you can take into battle (exams, projects, etc).
Solving problems entails struggling with problems. DO NOT RELY ON INTUITION. DO NOT RELY ON INSPIRATION. I did and it fucked me. I thought "well, I don't truly understand it, nor do I care, so I'll focus only on the things that seem fun and interesting, because that's all that matters". This is wrong. Your immediate gratification is not the end-all be-all of your existence. You can get a little further if you can learn to wait for the 2nd marshmallow. It's more of a marathon than a sprint. Sorry to lob platitudes at you, but they're kind of true. Struggle for a solid 1-1.5 hrs, take a short break (go for a short walk, do some pushups), and repeat. You'll get there before you know it. You'll have little eureka moments and you'll feel like you're winning. But you must be ready to struggle first.
ADVICE:
Slog through this semester - try to get comfortable with asking questions and not knowing the answer. Be humble. Be proactive. Finish strong.
Over the summer break, read these:
The tips are solid. "Straight-A" has some good general advice for both technical and non-technical classes, and he offers some dead-simple strategies for staying organized without being overly organized. They work.
"Make it Stick" talks more about how to meaningfully remember things and truly learn.
What I said about practicing problems is found in both books. In fact, I think what Newport writes is based on the same research. Anyway.. it's good stuff.
MORE ADVICE:
Forget about your GPA. You can't undo mistakes. And luckily, if you put the energy in to develop skills, it will quickly fade away once you get out of college and into your first job.
Many people focus on the "downward spiral" in life, but they forget to mention or think about the "upward spiral". You can be at very low points in your life and have a way out at any given moment.
Try to stop thinking about the big things you can't control - that right there is a recipe for being stressed all the time. It sucks. Give yourself props for making positive moves whenever you make them, and try to clear away obstacles that don't matter.
I'll share my reading list for the next 12 months as it's how I plan to become a better learner:
 
Learning
Improving Maths
Improving Reading Speed
Algorithmic thinking
Understanding the Mind
Productivity
It's an ambitious reading list for the next 12 months as there is some heavy reading in there but hopefully you can get one or two useful suggestions from it!
If I were you, I would approach this in a practical way. I'm assuming that you are a monoglot English speaker with maybe the equivalent of a US High School introduction to Spanish or French. You number one problem right now is that you don't know how to learn a language on your own. It doesn't matter if it's Spanish or Mandarin, it is most likely that what you will do is what you know: get some books, sit down an hour each day studying like you did in school, maybe use an app and after 6 weeks you'll start to question the process you are making. At first the voice will be small and in the back of your mind. And then one day, you'll come home form a bad day at work or school and you won't feel like studying so you'll skip a day. And your downward spiral to giving up will have started. By your 12th week you might still make token efforts to study, maybe you'll use an app (Duolingo, Memrise) for 15 minutes or reread one of the chapters in the book you bought (a chapter you've already read, so you should review it). At this point you are all but done as a language learner. Plug in your Chrome Cast and fire up Netflix because you aren't making the progress you thought that you would. You'll conclude that learning a language is hard, or Arabic was too hard, or that you are not good at languages, and you'll start binging on Supernatural because if you start now, you might be done with seasons 1 - 9 just in time for season 10 to be released on Netflix.
>A poor craftsman blames the tool for what his hand cannot do.
If you don't want to follow the cycle I described above, you should take some time out to learn how to learn and to understand that there are certain tricks and traps that your mind is going to use in an attempt to get you to put in minimal effort while making you think you are making maximum progress. Before I go on, I want you to understand that there is a reason why the first paragraph seems strangely specific. It was my story with a number of languages (Russian, Welsh, etc). I think the best advice that I can give you is to get Make it Stick and read it before you pick a language. Then buy Fluent Forever and read it. Then pick your language and start studying and remember this: value people over process, process over goals, and goals over material. What I mean is that the course or books that you use are the least important factor in your success and that people with whom you surround yourself are the most important factor. Too many people emphasize finding the "right course". It just doesn't exist. Find some decent material and be done.
And now for the science so you know I'm not just making this all up:
Learning Painting Styles: Spacing is Advantageous when it Promotes Discriminative Contrast
LEARNING VERSUS PERFORMANCE
Learning Concepts and Categories from Examples: How Learner's Beliefs Match and Mismatch the Empirical Evidence
HOW STIMULUS SIMILARITY IMPACTS SPACING AND INTERLEAVING EFFECTS IN LONG-TERM MEMORY
Spacing enhances the learning of natural concepts: an investigation of mechanisms, metacognition, and aging
Video is for beginners.
I've been through med school and used all of these approaches and nothing new to see here:
Spaced repetition, mnemonics, method of loci (roman rooms/memory palace).
Would get just as much out of looking at Wikipedia page on this. Or you'd get a fair bit more out of investing a bit of time into reading a book like "Make it stick".
I got you! Make It Stick! This right here is a very, very good book if you want to learn...just about anything!
Practice questions. Lots of them. If you have a hard time finding questions, start making your own questions, then quiz yourself on flashcards using delayed recall methods. It's all laid out here.
I think you're approaching this with the wrong attitude. Getting an engineering degree is not about being good at math. Getting an engineering degree is about being able to wade into a subject you know nothing about and saying "I don't know anything about this, but I can learn it". Treat struggling with fractions the same as struggling with any other subject. Find out the sources of your confusion, do problems, ask questions and make use of all the resources available to you.
If you've been out of school for 10 years your study skills could probably use some work. Make it stick is a good read with some very practical advice. There's also a coursera course on study skills running at the moment which might be worth a look.
No, but learning how to do things by hand teaches you how they work and give you more insight about the concepts than just plugging data in. Knowing, actually knowing, concepts and how they the relate to other concepts is more important than being able to parrot information or mechanisms for a test that you will forget in a month. The difference between someone that really knows a subject and someone who followed a checklist about the same subject is that the first person is able to make intuitive leaps onto somewhat related tracks, while the second person is still doing A, then B, then C... I would suggest [Make it Stick] (http://www.amazon.com/Make-Stick-Science-Successful-Learning/dp/0674729013/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418320344&sr=8-1&keywords=make+it+stick+the+science+of+successful+learning) as a starting point to better explain what I mean about really knowing a subject.
Aside from that, I think we are starting from different places. For me, it is more than just getting that piece of paper. It is also about obtaining a well rounded education about the world around me. That is the point of college having a core curriculum which largely has nothing to do with your major. If it were otherwise, university would be more like many technical certificate programs which provide just enough testing/education outside the focus of the program to insure the student can do work at a level required for the course and nothing more.
I think striking a balance between engagement and release is key, with an emphasis on engagement (because your threshold is usually higher than you think it is, and it is vital for any growth to occur).
With a lot of programming, even after years of experience, I still find that my general approach to learning and implementing new things inevitably rests upon my tolerance for bullshit, frustration, and delayed gratification (be it poor documentation, my own slowness to grok things, bad decisions on my part that I need to back out of, time constraints, life getting in the way, people getting in the way, etc.)
Some things I do:
I can't speak for how it's happened to you, but many kids are told their entire lives "you're smart." They develop a sense that intelligence/cleverness is innate. Truth is, success is obtained through hard work. You still can do this - find your college's tutoring center and ask about time management skills. Far too many students don't know how to study and they should be able to point out best strategies.
I've also started reading Make It Stick. It seems to be a good overview of the right ways to learn.
https://www.amazon.com/How-Become-Straight-Student-Unconventional/dp/0767922719/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2LL4YEAVGNTVP&keywords=how+to+become+a+straight-a+student+by+cal+newport&qid=1563466968&s=books&sprefix=how+to+become+a+stra%2Caps%2C133&sr=1-1
https://www.amazon.com/Make-Stick-Science-Successful-Learning/dp/0674729013/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2VIVRORI88FP0&keywords=make+it+stick&qid=1563466981&s=books&sprefix=make+it+st%2Cstripbooks%2C133&sr=1-1
https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Numbers-Science-Flunked-Algebra/dp/039916524X/ref=sr_1_1?crid=104N13CQNSD4K&keywords=a+mind+for+numbers&qid=1563466992&s=books&sprefix=mind+for+number%2Cstripbooks%2C142&sr=1-1
damn i need to save this thread. great stuff in comments
If you have the time, I highly recommend reading these two books:
The first is a book about studying techniques and covers common misconceptions as well as some pretty solid advice for learning. The second book focuses on ...well, the mindset needed to progress in learning (among other things) and made it onto Bill Gates' book recommendation list either last year or the year before.
If you get through both, you'll have learned how to learn, which'll be helpful to you very generally as well as in your effort to learn programming. Best of luck to you.
I actually just finished Make it Stick and thought it was a great distillation of the science of learning. The book explains what learning looks like and doesn't, as well as gives practical methods and tips, for students, life-long learners et cetera.
I disagree.
People have their own ways of expressing information and I definitely have my own niche way of doing so. As such I will be paraphrasing instead of merely transcribing information. Anecdotally that makes typing better as I have terrible handwriting and I can not write as fast as I type my thoughts.
Secondly, managing paper and pen is difficult in being organised and staying on top of information. Course material goes back and forth - it's vital to continue expanding your knowledge so you have a firm grasp on the topic. As such inserting information between topics is easier digitally than on paper.
Additionally I'd like to note that there is a difference between note-taking and recall - hence I've added Anki to reinforce the content that I need to know. OneNote (or any note-taking style that you use) is merely a database for relevant course material and transcribed information that is ready to be added to Anki.
As much as we'd love to be idealistic and use free recall over Cloze deletions, pen and paper over digital solutions, this is getstudying - a place I imagine is composed of mainly students that have trouble with procrastinating and rather would be socialising or playing computer games..I also imagine a small subset of those people (like me) procrastinate because they are frustrated with their academic workflow which leads them to slack off with their work as the task of attacking coursework is difficult in the face of wasted time in keeping information coherent and organised, both in brain and on the computer/paper. We have to strike a balance with uptime, downtime and efficiency. For me, that would mean a digital solution over pen and paper.
This blog and also this blog has a lovely post on handwriting vs. typing and the comments are worth reading as well. Additionally, Make It Stick is a must-read for anyone that wishes to excel in their learning as the best way happens to be the least intuitive (as explored in the book).
EDIT: That is to say that I don't have a place for using pen and paper. Doing math, making diagrams, chemistry and any form of content that is more arbitrary and less structured is when I find myself using it.
The answer to your question and any other questions you might have is addressed in a great book called, 'Make it stick'.
If you are a student, I highly recommend it.
Also, this course on Coursera: Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects is fantastic.
Since your grades are obviously important to you, you should consider investing $20 in this book (and read it, of course): https://www.amazon.com/Make-Stick-Science-Successful-Learning/dp/0674729013/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1518275286&sr=8-1&keywords=make+it+stick
Before pursuing the "disability" thought, you might just need to go about it differently. This book cites scientific research done in the area of learning and recall and challenges many common study techniques that feel right, but don't produce the expected results in research studies. This is only a suggestion. It is enlightening, though. The book is co-written by a professional story teller, which helps to bring the many case studies to life. You might want to skip to the last chapter about Tips for Students to see a couple of case studies that might encourage you.
I wish I had this information available to me when I was in school. I teach a programming class now, and I see a lot of success in the students that are unwittingly doing some of the things described in this book to improve recall. I also have students who "read and re-read the lecture materials" who don't actually do as well when it comes to sitting down and programming something simple at the keyboard.
EDIT: I am in no way affiliated with the authors of the book. It was given to me as a gift for Christmas and it has made a difference in how I go about learning and teaching.
I highly recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0674729013/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1500978530&sr=8-1&pi=SL75_QL70&keywords=making+it+stick+the+science+of+successful+learning
It's science based learning strategies. Be careful that you don't use it as a form of creative procrastination but it's serious gold. It will make the learning process more efficient.
This helped me IMMENSELY. It involves a bit of work, and I wouldn't be able to explain it here as well as the Author.
Read: Make It Stick by Peter C. Brown.
I've read it, and it has changed everything!
The whole "repetition, repetition, repetition" method is simply mundane. I mean... let's be honest, if your trying to remember your General Orders, you've tried that method. It didn't work, and now someone came on with a bit of pep, and a little push of motivation to get you to do what you already know doesnt work. At least, not very well.
Reading this book could very well be the best thing you will have done for yourself.
Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning https://www.amazon.com/dp/0674729013/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_GtPTDbE7K8A66
Not sure how to make a link using Mobile..
Good luck OP
I never get tired of mentioning these two books:
After you read them both, I'm sure you will be able to start developing your own study method according to your needs.
Try searching for things written in this sub-reddit as well; specially topics about "spaced repetition" and "active recall".
I hope this will help you! : )
There are a variety of ways to go about this.
Salience: This means "standing out." In this case, in your mind. If you're trying to memorize a list of really boring stuff, try to visualize or mentally attach it to not-boring stuff. Don't be PC. Don't be kind or gentle in your mind. Be shocking and graphic. To memorize the sequence "Ortho, Meta, Para" in Chemistry, don't use your teacher's lame phrase, "Ortho met a pair of hot ladies." Instead, imagine a person named Ortho, a cruel mockery of the fact that he had to wear orthopedic shoes as a child--he was bullied, beaten, urinated on, by the horrible thugs he called classmates. These wannabe cavemen claimed that his nickname was "So meta" because he actually was ortho! Get it? Huh Huh Huh. He was miserable until he met a paralegal, whose name he could never remember, so he called her "Para." She seemed like the one for him, until one day, in bed, while doing it doggy style, she cried out, "Oh, Ortho!" And he lost it. Killed her with his orthopedic shoes. Then beat himself to death with them.
All because Ortho Met a Para. Or something.
Mnemonics: These are tricks to memorize things. One simple mnemonic is the "One, a bun. Two, a shoe. Three, a tree..." type of thing. You first memorize a simple sequence like this, then to memorize other content you tie it to the easy-to-remember sequence. Another mnemonic technique, as described by /u/The_Cantigaster, is the method of loci.
Let's say you needed to memorize these facts: (a) The first psychological laboratory was in Germany; (b) Titchener, Wundt's student, brought Wundt's ideas to the US, and (c) William James made psychology popular through easy-to-understand books and lectures.
Using the first method, you might spend time vividly imagining:
(a) A wound (sounds like Wundt?) in a delicious German bun (maybe it has sausage in it?), oozing blood.
(b) A twitchy student with a twitchy shoe--really twitching like crazy--traveling from Germany to the US ('twitchy' sounds kind of like Titchener?)
(c) A tree with huge branches shaped like a "W" and a big swing hanging down, shaped like a "J" (William James) planted in the dead center of the US, being chopped down to make popular psychology books.
OK, so YMMV.
Repetition: In itself, it's not very good as a memorizing strategy; however, if you leverage it right, you can get some serious gains. Hermann Ebbinghaus (sp?) started research on "forgetting curves," which are just line graphs of how much you remember about stuff you've tried to memorize, over time. You can find literature online about how to use that research to maximize memorization, mostly by setting a schedule of exactly when to repeat your study of new material. The key to really efficient memorizing by this method is to refresh your memory/studying, multiple times, at just the right point in the forgetting curve. See the next point.
Get this book: Make it stick. The second author (Roediger) has been leading a bit of a large leap forward in the science of how to learn things. He uses cognitive psychology methods, rather than traditional educational theory or more fancy stuff, which has sometimes made him unpopular in certain fields--but overall his stuff has been well received. Don't be fooled by the casual tone of writing (the first author's doing); Roediger and colleagues have racked up an impressive, well-thought-out mountain of empirical research that has led them to some great insights about how to learn. Notably, he has sort-of based a lot of his research on Ebbinghaus' original "forgetting curves" studies. This book--or rather, the research it's based on--will help pretty much anyone improve their learning of pretty much anything, a great deal. Another reason Roediger's work has been pooh-poohed by some is that he focuses on memorizing, not fancy higher-order learning. However, he has found that memorizing well actually promotes that higher-order critical-thinking type of learning, and that the techniques for doing both kinds of things are not terribly different, anyway, if you want to do them efficiently and well.
Going from pure memory here (my copy of the book is lent out), Roediger suggests some overall principles:
Hope this gives some ideas. There's a perfectly enormous amount of work that has been put into answering your question over the last... um... few thousand years. And there have been great leaps forward in the last ten or twenty.
Sorry for going off-topic here, but this is still slightly relevant, since this thread is about memory and learning.
You don't have to jump to conclusions.
The whole 'learning style' credo is not supported by science; it's one of those ideas that has caught on because enough people said it. Individuals may have preferences, but they can all learn effectively from many different methods. There isn't enough good evidence that points toward people learning 'better' (for some definition of better) when material is catered to their preferred learning style.
Here's a review of learning styles literature from 2008 by 4 psychology professors. Their results: None of the studies they reviewed met their standards, and those that did meet them actually contradicted the 'learning styles' hypothesis.
It's possible that 'learning styles' is a thing, but there isn't enough good evidence for it in studies to be accepted by the scientific community.
Unlike learning styles, mnemonic techniques like the Memory Palace (also referred to as the Method of Loci) actually have a heap of evidence demonstrating its effectiveness, and is one of the key techniques among competitive 'mnemonists' such as David O'Brien, 8-time World Memory Champion. You may be interested in the publications of cognitive psychologist and Stanford professor emeritus Gordon H. Bower to read more about this.
I don't have a psychology degree, but I've read a bit about learning and memory association. One of my favorite books on the subject is Make it Stick, written by more psychology professors.
I can't help with the particulars of the subjects but heartily recommend you make sure you're making the most effective use of your study time.
To that end, if you haven't yet read Make It Stick I strongly suggest you do.
HTH
My last favorite book was [Make it Stick] (https://www.amazon.com/Make-Stick-Science-Successful-Learning/dp/0674729013), and I've been seeing it on a lot of my colleagues' bookshelves. It's a pretty decent addition for anybody interested in what learning science has been saying lately.
What works for me is to look for some information on every new name that pops up a few times.
For instance:
If I've seen MEAN mentioned a few times, I find some information about it on Wikipedia, on some blog, and depending on my interest maybe I look for something on YouTube. Only to the point to have an idea of what that is and how it relates to something I already know, so I can store it somewhere in my memory.
Say that sometime later I see LAMP and I don't know what that is. Then I repeat the process again and I see that it's just another software stack, like MEAN, so I can relate them in my memory.
Make It Stick is a great book with many techniques like this. There's also an audio book version.
Apart from this, reading the programming forums in Reddit, reading Hacker News, and listening to programming podcasts helps to understand better the concepts and the whole software development environment. At the very beginning there are lots of concepts that you don't understand, but slowly they start to make sense.
The more concepts you understand the easier it becomes to understand new ones.
I'm reading and enjoying Make it Stick
Anyone really interested in how this stuff works and some better strategies for learning in general should check out this book. I read this last year and really enjoyed it.
https://www.amazon.com/Make-Stick-Science-Successful-Learning/dp/0674729013
This helped me with my studies. My cognitive psychology professor had us read this and it’s changed the way I study. Super helpful. If you don’t have time to read this I’m sure you can find summaries online.
OMG yes.
Two big themes I'll discuss:
----
Before we get into that, I highly recommend a few good books for you to read NOW so they can sink in:
The first book will teach you essential study techniques that you may have forgotten, or that your schools up until now have not emphasized.
To add on to that, one of the huge concepts you hit when you enter college, which is very likely to hit you like a ton of bricks like it does most people, is that college is harder, a little bit more "dry" and less "fun" like high school was, it's a bit less light-hearted, and it asks you to suddenly grow up fast and take on challenges that aren't as straightforward.
The second book talks about skills and principles that would you do well to start thinking about and working on now. Things like "be proactive, instead of of reactive", "start with the end in mind", "seek first to understand, then to be understood". These are hugely beneficial ideas that will help you become a person that others want to be around and can depend upon, but also someone who can lead themselves through life and commit to their own vision for where they want to go instead of being led through life by others.
One other book (that I don't recommend buying) is "How to read a book". I would instead find a summary online. He drones on and on and repeats himself a lot, but the concepts are fundamental. The basic idea is that there are four levels reading. The first is just being able to read the printed words on the page and decipher grammar and symbols and what not. The next step is being able to inspect a book in, say, 15 minutes - what is it about? What are you going to get out of it? What's in the Table of Contents? What's the overall message - can you tell? What does the intro or preface say? The third level is analytical reading - being able to get the most out of the book and get the author's overall message, exactly what points they are making and how they are back it up, etc. Only when you have "come to terms" with a book and understood what's being said can you make a serious judgment about the book. The fourth level is called "syntopical reading" and it's an essential activity right from the beginning in college, but especially later on if you pursue a master's, PhD, or post doc - it's the ability to analyze several books on a subject and take in the opinions, views, facts, and theories established by many people. What you should learn in college is that the stuff you read isn't gospel - one PhD paper may be very intelligent and well-researched, but humans are also fallible - so, 1) if you wanted to get to that level you can, researchers are not gods, and 2) you shouldn't take any one person's research as automatic truth. At the same time, don't let your skepticism fool you into believe you already know enough. The mark of a mature mind is the ability to entertain a thought without automatically believing it.
----
Back to the themes.
Sitting through lectures and taking notes will be much easier and more laid back if you've already read and understood the material.
DON'T treat lecture like it's where you're actually learning anything. Treat lecture more like a [mandatory] supplement to your reading. The instructors will often go over concepts in class, as a way to bolster your understanding and also help answer questions that may have come up during your reading or homework.
It's a bad feeling you get when you haven't read the material, and you're sitting through lecture scrambling to take notes on things you maybe half-understand. Even worse... when you start slipping behind on homework and not doing well on tests, because you didn't overwhelm the task with your sheer amount of reading and independent learning.
Oh, I forgot one thing: From 7 Habits..., this is an example of his "Time Management Matrix". Really useful mental model for how we can spend our time. Some of the stuff we don't want to do but have to do is Q1. The stuff we really should be doing whenever possible is Q2 - but often times it's put on the back-burner because Q1. Q4 we usually make excuses for ("I just want to get a little further in Dark Souls 3 and then I'll start studying.") - take caution, reduce but don't feel like you need to eliminate completely and live like some sort of monk. Q3 is sometimes stuff we do for others that they are trying to delegate to us (their Q1 stuff, sometimes).
Study systems seem stupid or unnecessary at first glance, so it's not surprising that students don't pay attention when they're being told about them.
But once you study how the human brain learns and forms memories, it becomes clear that "instinctive" learning methods — reading a book once, trying to listen to a lecture but not taking notes or elaborating, cramming frantically before a test — are just not effective. As you're discovering the hard way.
If you're interested, a book called Make it Stick does a great job of accessibly explaining how memory and learning works from a neurological perspective.
Since your thinking about putting some time and learning material and concepts that will help improve yourself, I recommend reading this one:
Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning https://www.amazon.com/dp/0674729013/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_1x21AbKZZ3XGE
Not that these were necessarily written earlier, nor that I would have been in the right state of mind to really appreciate them:
Wherever You Go, There You Are
So Good They Can't Ignore You
Make It Stick
The Brain That Changes Itself
Haven't read that one, but I'd like to piggyback off your comment and provide another great resource for learning to learn (somewhat geared towards adults). Make It Stick.
https://www.amazon.com/Make-Stick-Science-Successful-Learning/dp/0674729013/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1484165611&sr=8-1&keywords=make+it+stick
Lang's book is good. I also really like "Make It Stick" by Brown and colleagues.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0674729013/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i0
Nate Kornell also has some really good blog posts (and published studies) on maximizing study effectiveness:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/everybody-is-stupid-except-you/201803/have-lot-study-in-limited-time-evidence-based-help
It's a bit contrary to the guy in your linked video, but this book has some pretty good info. Not exactly a dedicated subreddit but it's a good start.
Here is a great study tip I just learned
Those of you still in school, or out of school, find this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Make-It-Stick-Successful-Learning/dp/0674729013
Read it.
It just blew my mind about all the studying papers etc I did not know how to properly approach in school.
If you have a short attention span, only ready chapter 8 then.
But you should read the whole thing.
I expect those of you in school will thank me in years to come if you check it out.
Proper use of "your" would also help :P
(Honestly though, people won't read a blog that's supposed to be about academic success if the author doesn't use proper grammar/spelling).
In all seriousness, I'd read a study blog that put a big focus on scientifically backed study tips.
People tend to be fond of sexy quick-fix life-hacks. So you'll probably get a following no matter what you post, as long as it's under the guise of study tips. But if you want to set yourself apart from all the other click bait that's nothing more than someone spitballing untested ideas, thoroughly research the stuff that's been shown to work and do write ups on that.
That being said, there's nothing wrong with posting tips that haven't been tested. There may very well be plenty of tips out there that do work, but have not yet been tested. But if you do write about that stuff, I think it'd be important to disclose at the beginning of the article that there haven't been any studies done on that particular technique, and at minimum only write about untested tips if you've tried them yourself. That way there's at least some anecdotal evidence supporting it.
Make it stick is a really good source you can get started with.
I also recommend taking a page from Thomas Frank's youtube
He has some pretty high quality stuff.
Special Ed teacher, learning specialist, ADHD coach, and person with ADHD and shit-tastic reading skills here!
USE SCIENCE IN YOUR FAVOR
I've done that Coursera course too and thought it was really good. I also recommend the book Make It Stick if you want a good overview of the science behind successful learning and how to apply the findings in the real world.
Having embarked on L2, seems the curriculum is very interesting and should be useful. Keep in mind, practice problems (so research tells us, v. good book by the way) do more for learning than re-reading
I'd also suggest Make it stick!
I've read a lot of posts on here where individuals state that you will get "real-life" experience on the job, once you're an accountant.
I agree with your sentiments, book-learning is different from "on the job" learning. Perhaps, a lot of this theoretical knowledge that you pick up from the books will be solidified once you begin working in accounting. I'm not sure, because I haven't started working yet, but this is what I assume and what many others have said.
However, I tend to agree with your method of learning. At the end of the day, after reading: [Make it Stick] (https://www.amazon.com/Make-Stick-Science-Successful-Learning/dp/0674729013), A Mind for Numbers and several other similar books, you are learning properly. Reading a textbook gives you more of a baseline knowledge/framework to then apply to practice questions. Practice questions then reaffirm your framework constructs or let you know where you need to fill in knowledge gaps. Then, you must fill those gaps. The Feynman technique is excellent for this. Just make sure you are not wasting tons of time on anything that isn't "Active Learning." Active learning is the basis of all true learning, at least as far as doing well on exams go and in life.
Edit: Check out this video featuring Cal Newport on "Active Learning." Skip to time stamp 19:20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppvVsSQa9gc
I can't really offer you any direct advice, but what I generally tell students is to think about how they are studying, not how MUCH. Here is a book that has a lot of really great tips for learning that I show to students in some of my more technical classes at the undergraduate level:
https://www.amazon.ca/Make-Stick-Science-Successful-Learning/dp/0674729013
I haven't read all of it and I'm sure it's probably a simplification of more nuanced ideas, but check out Josh Kaufman's The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything Fast. It seems to be about how to maximize certain skills and habits to create an ideal brain environment for processing new information. Other books that may relate to the goal you described include How We Learn, Make It Stick: The Science of Successfully Learning, or perhaps even something like Robert Greene's Mastery. There's even a Coursera course out called "Learning How to Learn" that probably delves into a lot of the ideas explored in the aforementioned books, and a guy named Cal Newport has a whole blog that investigates what study habits are actually useful and which are not.
Also, I don't think the idea should be to obtain knowledge as much as have a solid foundation in thinking critically and learning how to learn. Your original post implies that you seem to view learning as stuffing your brain full of (hopefully factual) ideas to produce something recognizable as "knowledge"; a better way to conceptualize this process is that you develop skills in learning, processing information, and thinking in general with the hopes that it will enable you to draw on a wider range of knowledge and ideas when they crop up. Hence why I suggested books that are about learning and information processing; if you can end up making learning, studying, and reflecting a habit that you naturally come to do, perhaps you can begin a fuller mental life in general instead of simply becoming a walking encyclopedia.
I'm not an expert, but the guys who wrote this are. It's refreshingly humble and without leaps of speculation.
I read Make It Stick. It basically talks about how retrieval (testing yourself) is the best way to learn. The absolutely best way is learn is to do interleaving retrieval. That consist of testing yourself on a bunch of different topics or even subjects back to back. Those were the main take always.
OH YES! All great advice (I'm a math teacher also). Let me also suggest that you immediately get David R. Johnson's three books: Every Minute Counts; Making Minutes Count Even More; and Motivation Counts. The books clearly were written some years ago, but his advice is still relevant, as he speaks from experience.
The big thing that needs to happen these days is to teach the students how to learn and how to study!
With that in mind, let me recommend:
Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions
Method for getting students to engaged in their own education and owning their own learning - through questions on the material that THEY generate.
Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning
Oh, I wish I had this book years ago. I've been harping on the research that formed this book (which was just published) ever since I read about the findings in a New York Times article in 2010. It basically says that most of what people believe about learning is wrong and ineffective (Ok, one exception: flashcards (and Quizlet) work). The book then details what you can do in your classroom and what you can teach students to do that will increase their learning effectiveness and retention of the material. This truly is THAT BOOK that I wish every teacher and administrator in the U.S. would read and implement. The nice thing shown in some of their studies is that you can introduce just one or two of these strategies and get improvements - a complete overhaul of our system is not required [although let me do my "Carthago delenda est" and say that I wouldn't shed a tear if NCLB were dismantled tomorrow!]. Inspiring, hopeful, and practical - read it as soon as you can.
By the way, I got the Kindle version and I echo one of the reviewers who said it's perfectly fine. I love a paper version more than the next person, believe me, but the price difference was enough for me to go Kindle, and I'm satisfied.
If you have the money to spare, this is a fun one:
100 Commonly Asked Questions in Math Class: Answers That Promote Mathematical Understanding, Grades 6-12
The book Make it Stick: The Science of Successful Learning should be helpful to you.
What are the main points of that book? Is that book similar to Making it Stick ?
Here are a couple of books written by psychology researchers who study learning and memory:
Make it Stick
https://www.amazon.com/Make-Stick-Science-Successful-Learning/dp/0674729013/ref=pd_sim_14_66?ie=UTF8&dpID=41ckcnLp1jL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR107%2C160_&refRID=CSG98W00JRWN79WYHZD8
Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise
https://www.amazon.com/Peak-Secrets-New-Science-Expertise/dp/0544456238/ref=pd_sim_14_37?ie=UTF8&dpID=41rJVsU7tJL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR107%2C160_&refRID=CSG98W00JRWN79WYHZD8
Read the book Make It Stick. Seriously. It will change your understanding of how memory and learning work, and make you a better medical student. https://www.amazon.com/Make-Stick-Science-Successful-Learning/dp/0674729013
> Honestly, I don't think we will agree on this. But the debate is the fun part and allows us to explore and strengthen our own ideas.
You're probably right, though I'm sure we'd get closer in person. And I agree, the debate is interesting, and that's why I originally asked. I believe I sort of understand the issue, but I definitely want to understand it better. But I'll keep this one short:
Where these solo forms exist in the sources, you definitely should study and perform them. Where they don't, I'd be really careful about making up your own and thinking/claiming they represent the art in question.
If you wish to read more about what modern cognitive science has to say about how a more average person might learn most efficiently, the book Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel seems like a good quick overview.
For a more in-depth look there's Google Scholar, providing us with gold like the 1992 Schmidt & Bjork article New Conceptualizations of Practice: Common Principles in Three Paradigms Suggest New Concepts for Training,
which you can find at http://hp-research.com/sites/default/files/publications/Schmidt%20%26%20Bjork%20(PS,%201992)_0.pdf.
Thank you for this.
I am struck by the likeness with the main points in Make It Stick. (I teach math in a college, and have often noticed a similarity between teaching the two subjects.)
LPT: Small "hacks" won't make you a way better student. Read this book which applies the latest science on the psychology and neuroscience of successful learning if you really care to do better in school.
>The decks are divided by subjects as is the exam.
This is suboptimal. Let me illustrate the problem by using made up numbers. You have eight decks and study 32 new cards a day. You've set it so that each deck gives four new cards day. (4*8 = 32.) Your repetitions will look like something like the following:
AAAABBBBCCCCDDDDEEEEFFFFGGGGHHHH
Anki goes one deck at a time before it advances to another. Each repetition has context that serves as a cue for you. This kind of a cue is bad: the only context you should be using is the front side of a card. Everything else should be as random as possible. Otherwise, what's the point of recall practice using flash cards? While your exam might be in themed sections, it's a solid idea to introduce desirable challenges into your studying as much as possible. If you can play a piece on the piano faster than required for performance, you're more likely to nail it by then. Similarly I've nailed multiple choice exams by practicing free recall Anki cards before hand. I will brag: I felt like the king of the world by doing the bare minimum and being the best exam taker.
Another problem is interference. Let's say that you were to learn vegetables in French. It has been shown by research that learning words in sets slows down learning considerably and may double or triple learning time. Why that is so? One reason is interference: learning very closely related words in a session makes you mix them up together, which means you end up learning them wrong. The same threat is present when learning or reviewing anatomy, terminology etc. as well. (Even the similarity of jargon can be a problem: avoid learning and reviewing the definitions of 'absorption' and 'adsorption' close to each other. This is a very wrong deck of flash cards and is an example of what you definitely shouldn't be doing.) This kind of challenge is not desirable and should be avoided. Don't confuse your brain for no gain!
Now consider the following order:
GBGAEADABFHFBAECCBDFHEGHGDEHDCFC
This is better! But Anki doesn't do this unless you merge all of the eight decks together into a single one. Btw, this links to the notion of varied practice I mentioned before. All I've said so far in this post can be thought of application of it.
>The exam is not completely random questions but themed mcqs and emqs.
What are themed mcqs and emqs? I no a jack shit about medicine tbh, not my field at all. If you mean that the exam consists of themed sections, this only influences your practice exams and not your Anki study. The cards itself should be simple. They should be really easy if you know the answer and very hard otherwise.
>Some subjects like say gastro are more important for this exam than say haematology. SO essentially I wish to cover all the gastro deck properly and am not as concerned about the haematology deck but I would want an overview.
Identify all important decks and tag each card in them with 'high'. Identify all the cards in the least important deck(s) and tag them with 'low'. Tag the rest of the cards with 'medium'. Also tag each card by subject. Then merge decks either by priority or all of them together. If you go the latter route you need to do a little bit of tinkering afaik, but in the best case you would have mastered the cards already, but the world ain't perfect.
>I will using anki as an adjunct to my revision to imbibe a lot of info in a certain amount of time.
I don't understand what you mean by that. Like at all. But I suspect it's not terrible relevant.
>The cards are good - and have been made with cloze and graphic cloze deletion.
That's good!
>When you say you practice several times a day - if you have a hundred new cards do you sit down and do all 100, then later in day have another session where you review, and do more? Or do you mean you keep the default settings and just do a couple of cards, take a break do some more, etc?
I'm not sure if I follow, but I suspect it's the latter one that is closer to my intention. But since long posts are what I excel at, what I mean is to
You can review about ten cards per minute so you need about an hour to do 600 card reviews. But doing them all in one session is both suboptimal, it's also exhausting. Much better to break it up to 10 sessions or more.
I really recommend reading the book Make It Stick. You'll be way better at applying the principles of distributed practice, varied practice and recall practice to your study after reading it and everything I've said should be utterly demystified. I've applied them to golf and piano practice with quite good results, learning French and Swedish vocabulary and try apply it to all of my school work as well. They are really widely applicable and results are noticeable from days to weeks, depending on the task.
Also: this advice pertains to your particular situation. You don't need to chain yourself to Anki for the rest of your life, but going this far for a very important exam is perhaps necessary. You will suffer anyway so it makes sense to make it at least worthwhile. If you find your sanity compromised, you could make it your goal to finish all Anki reviews before 5 pm or 6 pm so that you have a couple of hours when you don't need to think about flash cards at all and can relax. Constant stress isn't good for either you or your learning, in any case.
about those books recommendations: i have some
Neuroscience: exploring the brain is a very good textbook about the "circuitry" of the brain
Memory: From mind to molecules is interesting because it tries to "draw the line" between the laws which dictate how atoms and molecules work and abstract concept of "memory"
Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning is a very layman directed read and is more about "how to remember more things when studying" but it have some good explanations on why some memories are "clear", some are "diffuse" and some memories fade out
The Neurobiology of Learning and Memory offers an integration between the neuroscience of memory and some behavorial analisys, it also have some very interesting topics on the plasticity of our mind
All I can say is, buy this book