r/studytips

Hi, I made this one. I've played Wordle-likes for years and always wanted to build my own, but I never had an idea that felt like mine.

The push came from a strange place. Half of what I read these days is written by AI, and it's never short. Every email, every doc, twelve words where five would do. At some point I said the phrase out loud, long story short, and realised it was a game.

So: you get a twelve-word sentence. You rephrase it in exactly five of its own words. Real English, same meaning, your job is to work out which words carry the sentence and which are just dressed up to look important. Scoring is Wordle style, blue for right word in the right spot, orange for in the answer but elsewhere, grey for out. Five tries, one sentence a day.

My wife and my brother were the playtesters. An early version let "the" beat proper words in the answer, which felt awful to lose to, so the answers now always favour the concrete word. That one change ate a whole weekend.

I have never really understood how people take notes and study. Whenever I take notes I just writing everything down and memorise and I don't think that is you supposed to do it. I never really understood why or what the concept your supposed to learn is about. If anyone have any advice please do share.

Hi, I’m a sixth-year medical student. Right now, I need to study English, Anatomy, and Internal Medicine/Therapy. For now, I got a summer job so that I wouldn’t just spend my free time doing nothing. Because of that, at the moment, I can only find time for English.

I saw a post recommending some useful apps, and Anki was one of them. I had used Anki a little before, but then I stopped. Right now, I’m using paper flashcards to study English. I’m avoiding Anki because I’m worried that if I use it on my phone, I’ll end up opening other apps and wasting time instead of studying.

I’m also not sure what the best intervals for reviewing flashcards are. For now, I’m following a 1–3–7–14 day schedule.

What would you recommend in my situation?

And if you don’t mind me asking, how did you personally use Anki?

I’d like to preface with the fact that I’m pretty much always against ai. I haven’t used ChatGPT or anything like it in probably a year just for moral reasons.

With that being said I greatly care about my GPA because I’m trying to get into med school for psychiatry. Im starting college soon and I wanted to know if using a study program like that is worth it for people who have them?

I have ROUGH ADHD that I’m pretty heavily medicated for, bad issues I’m trying to work on with focus and self discipline, I was wondering if anyone with similar issues found these helpful or worth the money?

Before secondary school I was told I was naturally smart and just "got things", and for the most part that was true, but it was mostly because the curriculum was not stimulating enough for me. I just remembered the stuff in class long enough to do well on tests, and then never think about it again. When I reached secondary school I felt a bit more resistance in some subjects and knew I needed to learn how to study for real. However, I just ended up writing pretty notes that I never looked at again, and just reread chapters the night before a test. Uni was my "new start" and I have slowly been getting to know my myself better, and understanding how I can actually learn.

And just so we are clear, this is what works for ME. It might help you too, but not all study tips work for every major, personality, or lifestyle. I found this out by trial and error, and encourage you to do the same with my tips and others you find.

So, here is what I have learned about my study habits, and what works (and does not) for me:

1. Time yourself. I used to just sit in front of my computer/ textbook and do very passive learning activities (rereading, looking at slides, taking notes straight from the slides). After an hour of this (with many tik tok brakes) I would count it as an hour of productive studying. Then a few days later when I didn't remember anything, I would just be frustrated and think "why can't I remember this I spent X hours studying that chapter just a few days ago". Now I actually time myself for the real hours of studying I do, when I actually use real studying techniques (which I will discuss later), and I separate them into different categories. For this I have both used a journal and Kairu to keep track. Now I only count the time I am focusing for real and pause the timer when I need a break or get distracted. And on days where I don't feel like studying, I just think that my streak will be broken, and then I get a little wave of motivation to study, even if it is just 30 minutes.
2. Don't exclusively use the pomodoro method for everything. Sure if you struggle with your attention span this is a viable option to build it up and force yourself to be in deep focus for more than 2 minutes (trust me I know how it is). But I do not think it should be used in every situation. For example, if you are writing an essay or some other task that takes awhile, you do not want to be interrupted every 25 minutes to take a break and loose your rhythm. For these types of tasks I usually just start the timer and stop when I feel like my head is getting heavy. Also mini tip, your brain is still working on the task in the background when you take a break, so be nice to yourself and take a little break then come back to your task with a fresh mind.
3. Taking good breaks. Do not just start scrolling on your phone right after a session, this disrupts your brain from working on the task in the background, and for me it greatly reduces the chance that I will sit back down and continue my studying. Stretch, go to the bathroom, take a walk, make tea or a snack, cuddle with your cat, tidy your room, walk outside, or do light exercise. Take brakes that are not too overstimulating or exhausting. To do this you actually need to take the brakes, I used to not feel like I deserved a brake, but If you don't take a break then your short term memory has no chance to sort all the stuff you just read into your long term memory, and you are more likely to forget some / all of it.
4. Test yourself / do active studying methods. One of my professors did this experiment on us in class. He split us into two groups. Group 1 was told to reread a chapter 3 times. Group 2 was told to read a chapter once, but to also try to test themselves on the material right after. Then both groups had to do a test to see which group remembered the most. The result was group 1, but when we were given the same test a week later group 2 did the best. This shows that rereading the same material can help short term, but if you really want to LEARN then you have to test yourself. This can be done in a few ways; doing past exams, pretending to teach it to someone else, making flashcards and testing yourself at intervals, or maybe your teacher gives out quizzes or worksheets you can to.
5. You do not HAVE to study for 8 hours a day. For some time I was under the impression that you had to study for 8 hours a day to be a good student, but personalty I can not handle 8 hours. Most days I can do around 4 hours, on good days almost 6, and on bad days 1 hour is a victory (This can look different for you). As I mentioned your short term memory will get overwhelmed by 8 hours of material in one day, you need brakes and sleep to let your brain rest and to give it a chance to sort and absorb the information. If you use your time effectively and only count the time you actually spent actively studying, it will most likely not be 8 hours and does not have to be either.
6. You have to sleep, and fuel your body. If you are tired you are less likely to start studying or remembering anything you tried to study. Same with being hungry, I HATE being hungry, I can not concentrate if I am hungry. But, don't just eat junk food. I encourage snacks, it can make a study session more barable, but you can not just survive off of snacks. The difference between some snacks and/or noodles, than a fiber and protein rich meal before you study, is really big. (I usually eat overnight oats with chia seeds and raspberries). If you are rested and well fed, your body can focus on learning.
7. Having a strict schedule with no wiggle room does not work in the long term. I have tried time blocking, and it did not work for me. If one thing does not go as scheduled the whole day is ruined, or at least it feels that way. Now I just have a few goals for the day for example: Between breakfast and lunch I will finish task X and start on Y, after lunch I will finish task Y and read chapter Z for class tomorrow. Then after dinner I will see if I would rather continue with some tasks or go for a walk/workout. This type of schedule is easier to follow than something planed down to the hour, and I have room to take breaks when needed and if something else comes up.
8. Your environment has a lot of influence on you. This has multiple aspects to it, the people you surround yourself with and your study space. In my first semester I kind of only had one person I would hang out with at school. She was so negative, not motivated, and distracted me from schoolwork. This will influence you and your attitude towards studying. Find people that have similar goals and motivation to you. Also, your study space is a reflection of your mind. I know it sounds cliche, but it is true for me. That urge that you get around your exams to clean is there for a reason. Your mind is trying to make your space clean and tidy so that your mind feels clean and tidy, ready to learn everything before your exams. If you don't have the time to deep clean your entire space (who does really?) then at least keep your desk clean and free of distractions. It really makes a world of a difference, coming from a chronically messy girl.
9. Spread out your learning. If you just revise chapter 1 in week 1, than you will most likely not remember it well when exams come. If a neural circuit has not been used in a while, your brain will think it is no longer needed, and brake them up/ get rid of them. This is why you forget unimportant things after awhile. But, if you activate this neural circuit every 1-2 weeks it will become stronger, and is less likely to be broken. So, test yourself on past chapters/units or look at your flashcards every once in a while.
10. You do not have to go to every lecture. Unless your lectures are mandatory, you do not have to go to every single one. I used to have this one lecturer who would just babble about nonsense for 3 hours straight and then put on a kahoot where all the choices were just the answer spelled differently (like polycrisis, polecrisis, pollycrize, and polly pocket), and he would complain that nobody seemed to pay attention or participate. After a while I just stopped showing up, and rather spent the time reading the book and doing past exams. In the end I got a B without showing up to 75% of the lectures. So if you feel like your time is better spent doing something else, then just do it.
11. Be nice to yourself. Give yourself some slack, it is not the end of the world if you don't study one day, or even a week for that matter. I struggle with migraines and really bad periods, so on some days I am in too much pain to do anything. And that is ok. If you stretch yourself too thin you will burn out, and then you won't get anything done any time soon. So it is just better to let yourself take a day or two to rest up and get better, you will come back stronger. Also, be nice to yourself if you get a bad grade. When I got an E on an exam, I cried for days. I had never gotten anything worse than a C in my whole life. But I think there is a lesson in just sitting with and accepting a personal "failure". I learned so much about myself and how I handle things not going how I planed, and that is more valuable to me than a better grade.

I know this was a lot lol, and some/most of it had been said before, but this is what I have learned about my studying in the last few years. I hope it was helpful for some of you. And please remember to adapt any tips to fit you, because we all function differently. Good luck with this semester everyone!

so my uni is cracking down on ai-written essays rn and I genuinely don't wanna get flagged for something I actually wrote myself. tried a couple free checkers online and they gave me wildly different results on the SAME paragraph which is kinda unhinged tbh

anyone got something that's actually decent and not just vibes-based guessing? doesn't need to be free, just don't want it to roast my normal writing as "67% ai generated" when I literally wrote it at 2am fueled by energy drinks

bonus points if it's something profs actually trust too, kinda need it to double check my stuff before submitting lol. any recs appreciated 🙏

I've seen many times here that people complaining about it. Is it true? How do you avoid it?

I have been trying to get back into a decent study routine before classes get busy again and wanted to share a few things that helped: Put my phone across the room If it’s next to me I’m gonna check it so putting it across the room works better

Study in shorter blocks

I get way more done with 30-45 minutes of actual focus than sitting at my desk for three hours pretending to study

Do practice questions early

I used to save them until I felt ready, turns out getting stuff wrong early shows me what I actually need to study.

Stop relying on another coffee

I still have my morning coffee but I’ve been keeping Neurogum in my backpack for later and two pieces has been convenient when I need to lock in without getting another drink.

Know when to call it

There’s a point where staring at the same page does nothing but getting some sleep and coming back usually beats forcing another hour. What study habits have actually worked for you?

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It's been 5 months since I last studied seriously (for my 12th grade) now I want to get back on track and all my life I feel I have the potential to do better but in the end all I had was regret of not studying more. What I struggle with is consistency and revision, like I can complete lectures, practice questions and learn effectively but it happens in a way that either I'm studying for hours or not studying for weeks. Same goes with revision I complete all of my syllabus yet during revision I feel that I've lots of time and certain things don't need to be revised. So my question is how to get back on track and this time stay consistent and revise regularly??

Hey all. I am deeply ashamed to be writing this post. But it’s just the title. I find I need another person to bounce my thoughts off, especially when I’m developing essay premises. I have so many ideas and things I want to discuss but lack the focus to synthesize them all or cut what’s unnecessary sometimes. In high school i had my awesome teachers and that was enough. But now that im doing uni remotely with lecturers who are borderline useless I don’t know what else to do. No one else that I live with has enough context to discuss things with me.

I can think of several ruts I don’t know how I would have pulled myself out of without chat gpt. I never ask it to write stuff for me. I always clarify that i do not want it to do the work for me. My questions are always to help clarify my lecturers super vague instructions or along the lines of “what are my blind spots in arguing this perspective for my essay” or things like that.

This is becoming a political point of contention within myself. Any input is appreciated.

Everything is so overwhelming I’m hearing a bunch of different things 😭 any programs or apps or just tips that made college easier? I’m shooting for a 4.0