r/Gemini_Notebook

I used to think I had to sit down for hours and finish one subject before moving on. Turns out, that just made me stare at the same page for 40 minutes 😭

What helped me was studying one topic for around an hour, taking a proper break, then switching to something else. I also stopped rereading my notes over and over and started closing them and trying to explain the topic from memory.

The biggest thing, though, was keeping track of what I actually got wrong. Those ended up being way more useful to review than going through everything again.

Still figuring out what works for me, but these made studying feel a lot less painful lol.

I learned these tips last year from my auntie, who completed her master's degree at Cambridge. I asked her for tips on how she studied and survived her university journey at Cambridge without burning out.
Here’s what she actually did and these study methods were literally changed how I study:
9-5 mindset. I learned that Cambridge has only 8 week terms, so students treat studying like a full time job. I used to just sit and read notes passively for three hours, but I barely retained anything. Once I adopted the 9-5 structure and studied during office hours (9:00 AM to 5:00 PM), I had a clear cutoff point in the evening to rest and do my hobbies without any guilt.

Practice past papers and active recall. I never thought this would actually help me get A+ grades on my tests/exams. I read through past papers 2-3 times and used active recall by writing down everything I remembered, then checking back against the past papers and notes to fill in the gaps.

Cambridge balance. This was the main reason my aunt survived Cambridge without burning out from studying. She maintained a strict division between work and rest: on workdays, giving full effort was non-negotiable, but on rest days, she relaxed completely. Having this strict division helped avoid the procrastination that leads to all-night cramming sessions, giving my brain the sleep it needed to consolidate study materials into long-term memory.

These tips helped me stay locked in, avoiding procrastination and study far more effectively. Because of structuring my time and studying smarter rather than harder, I managed to consistently study at my best. Honestly it helped me and have a massive change on my study method and got me a 3.9 GPA last semester.

I tracked my study hours and I studied for 36 hours over 4 days (9 hours every day) preparing for my physics exams and got a score of 97%. Studying for long hours sounds like an easy way to get burned out and mentally exhausted, but here’s how I studied for long hours without burning out while maintaining better retention.

Having 3 notebooks. I used a digital notebook for memory notes and the other 2 notebooks were for questions and mistakes.

I write down questions that I don’t really understand in my notebook, and once I read the material (I don’t study all of the material at once; instead, I study it section by section), I write down from memory what I read in my digital notebook.

I review what I got wrong or missed and write down each point in notebook 3. This helps me check what I need to focus on when recalling information or formulas that I missed.

I usually repeat this cycle at least 3 times until I remember and understand it. This method helped me pass my exams by reciting from memory and reviewing what I got wrong through repeated practice.

I try to get an online course in Bookkeeping. I'm still now int the middle of the course but if feels like my head can explode any moment from this Assets,Lia,Equity etc. any tips on how to love numbers and soon the balance sheet??🤣🤣🤣

I went from 2.8 GPA in highschool to 3.9 in college. I really struggled to find right way to learn especially i am pursuing a pre-med course. Not until, I figured out how I can study with my own. I am no genius but this helped to have a massive difference on my grades.

1. I schedule "non-study time". This might sound contrary but planning time not to study actually helped me to focus better when studying. I block a few hours every evening but I don't go for just doomscrolling, instead I read, go for walk and relax.
2. The 25 minutes rule. I realized that I am only productive for 25 minutes, this is like a promodoro technique where I study for 25 minutes and 5 minutes break interval. This helped me a lot get back my focus and not fully burned out myself from studying for long hours.
3. I used Feynman Technique. I usually record myself and imagining that I am teaching someone on what I learned. This surprisingly made a difference when I am studying, I can fully retain what I just studied. If I ever got stuck then I will just need to review more.
4. Creating summary notebook. Right after I study, I'd write a list on concepts that I studied and wrote down things on NotebookLM that I kept getting missed and forget. This way, I will learn what should I need to keep over again until I fully retain it.

Honestly, this habits made me to study effectively and create a massive change on my GPA. It really showed me that studying smarter rather than just studying longer is what gets results.

Hope these tips help anyone who is trying to turn their grades around.

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?

I like to read, but I easily get burned out if I also need to study and understand the material in a short time frame. For my exam, we are told to read a 1,236 page textbook for just 2 weeks, and the problem is that the maximum pages that I can only read is maximum of 50 for 7 hours of time.

I feel nauseous at the idea that I need to push my limits in reading this material for my finals. This is going to be sucks.

I came up with this solution that helped me finish reading and studying the whole textbook.

I started reading from 10 AM to 8 PM. To make it easier for me to study the textbook, I used Goodnotes while reading to take down notes. I summarize my notes and get the main idea per page of the textbook. Each day, I use this method to simply understand the context of what I am reading, and I really made progress from 50 per page to 88+ pages per day.

With every day of 10 hours spent reading the textbook, I finished 618 pages per week, with a total of 1,236 pages reading and studying of the book.

I kind of burned out from nonstop reading for 2 weeks but it was all worth it. I was able to take notes and retain all the information during my finals exam on the book that I read.

Do you guys think this is an effective way of studying textbooks that are over 1,000 pages? If you have more tips to share that work for you, help this student right here.