u/Hannah_Malfoy17

I saw a video on my fyp about how Chinese students have a strict study discipline. And I really want to get locked in myself for very long hours (realistically 10 hours a day). So, I wanted to intentionally push my limits academically.

I tried to study and discipline myself like a Chinese student. Been studying like that for 2 years now consistently (I study like that when I have crazy exams on my majors). Here’s how I did it:

• They build a fixed study routine. This is the first and foremost step to get myself locked in: Wake up -> review -> self study -> repeat. I start waking up every 5 AM. I often start my day by meditating to exercise my brain before I start studying.

• Use different types of study methods, don’t stick in one. Before I only used active recall for studying, but most Chinese students use more than 3 study methods. I used the pomodoro method. I usually study for 25-50 minutes and then take 10 minute breaks to keep my brain still focused. I also learned that reading your notes aloud helps memory stick rather than silent reading, along with doing active problem solving. These three literally helped me a lot to remember all the chapters that I studied when I was taking exams.

• Use a mistake notebook to track every mistake they made in reviewing. I used it every time I studied. I wrote down every point that I missed or got wrong for me to reflect and improve more each chapter I studied.

• To study effectively, I removed distractions like my phone and Ipad to keep me fully focused and refrain me from using them.

Another tip is take a 2 or 3 days rest to avoid burnout because studying for long hours is actually mentally exhausting. But because of grinding for long hours in studying, my major exams went well. I got almost a 98% passing grade from it and even got a 4.0 GPA from last sem.

For people that are studying for exams, do you think it is reasonable to study for 10 hours or more?