r/GeminiNotebookLM

These are not typical study tips where I will teach you some sort of techniques or methods. Studying isn't about highlighting all your notes and memorizing flashcards until midnight.

I am a 3rd year liberal arts student. In my first year, I was getting overwhelmed and drowning trying to pull myself together while studying my majors. I followed a lot of study techniques online, but only a few of them worked for me.

However, I eventually found a way to study effectively with the help of my profs, colleagues and seniors while studying here. It brought a big help to my GPA up to a 4.0 and landed me on the dean's list.

• Stop reading to finish, start reading to argue- I realized that reading is not just about reading the whole text, it's about testing your real understanding. I don't just underline and memorize quotes but try to build my own ideas and opinions out of them.

• Learn the art of intellectual synthesis- Stop treating your classes like isolated boxes. Be a student who has cross-disciplinary thinking. For instance, I take a theory from history class and apply it to a literary analysis essay in English.

• Listen to people smarter than you- The world's best thinkers are giving out free knowledge. Take it. I usually watch educational podcasts or TED talks. This really helps in getting a real idea of how to get smarter and it serves as motivation for you to study well.

• Create. Talk. Teach.- I learned that well-educated people do something with what they know. Write, talk, and connect ideas across time. You don’t just absorb knowledge; you remix it.

Getting a 4.0 isn't about having fancy study sessions in a cafe or grinding harder, it's about shifting from a passive recipient of information to an active thinker.

If you are actively recalling what you studied 25 minutes ago and you are still forgetting it, it's not a failure. Our brain is forming new connections from the information we studied and that's the whole basis of active recall.

Reading lecture notes by itself without any reinforcement will cause the information to fade fast. Based on studies, the information that we log every time we study only stays for about 48 hours in our brain.

To turn it into a long-term memory, you need spaced repetition and self-teaching methods. In this way, you create practice quizzes/flashcards and follow 1-3-5-7 day intervals so you don't forget the information you stored in your brain. Other than that, it also helps to improve brain retention and builds mental resilience.