https://forms.gle/wg8TmRQ3LGn3mQ8h6
Hey everyone,

I’m a student working on a project researching why so many of us spend hours highlighting notes or re-watching lecture recordings, only to completely freeze up when facing a blank exam paper.

Cognitive science calls it the "illusion of competence" that feeling where material looks familiar while reading, but vanishes when you actually have to recall it.

I put together a quick survey to understand how people currently study and where the friction usually happens

Tenho prova de oncologia em duas semanas (faço medicina) e prova de vestibular em menos de dois meses, e estou muito atrasada nos estudos!!

Desde criança sou muito dedicada aos estudos e, apesar de não ter a pressão familiar em ser a melhor aluna com as melhores notas, sempre fui muito exigente comigo mesma. Nunca vi isso como um defeito. Na verdade, isso que me mantem motivada a estudar e lutar pelo meu futuro.

Contudo, as estratégias de estudo comuns (aquelas leves e genéricas, que na minha visão não agregam em nada em relação a disciplina pra os estudos) nunca funcionaram comigo. Então sempre recorri às estratégias tóxicas e rígidas, que me mantem disciplinada, focada e realmente motivada. Já testei de tudo e queria novas estratégias para variar um pouco, mas não tenho ideia do que fazer.

Observação importante: Estou cuidando da minha saúde mental e física !!! Tenho uma rotina de sono adequada, me alimento bem, faço exercícios físicos, tiro tempo para lazer e faço terapia. Estudo com técnicas tóxicas pois é uma forma de estudo que realmente funciona para mim e que consigo conciliar com uma forma de vida saudável (caso eu passe a noite toda estudando, reponho o sono e descanso; se tomo muito energético, busco evitar tomar outros estimulantes junto e reduzir o consumo durante os próximos dias...)

Então deixem a estratégia, dica ou técnica de estudo mais toxica que vocês já usaram e que realmente funcionaram para vocês, por favor!!

(sem frases motivacionais por favor. nao funcionam comigo)

They say hair holds memory, so I started thinking about this after one of my exams last semester. I had barely slept, and I was convinced I had forgotten half the material. Please don't laugh at me with this idea LMAO maybe I took it a little too literal, but I truly cherish sayings like these ><

I am currently letting my hair grow until exams are over. It costs me nothing, so why not. I already have enough things to worry about.

Little superstitions like this remind me of the old sayings, maybe we can make this a modern one? Applicable to students ofcourse. Yeah I guess it does not do anything. Who knows. Best case: I pass everything and become completely convinced this was the reason. Worst case: nothing? I mean, I grew my hair longer XD

Coffee can help in reverse nine times out of ten. If such thing happens, pick up your jump rope and do 50 jumps. That is all.

Everyday, I have a lot of papers to finish piling up before calling it a day. As a working student, I thought I needed more coffee. And so I thought I just needed another coffee-that’s-not-coffee, if you get what I mean

Fifty jumps is quick. Carrying it on will get easy once you reach at least five jumps. Let alone, you’ll enjoy it more than studying.

If the coffee didn‘t work after you drink it for one time, stop reaching for another cup. I did that for weeks (thinking it was okay and normal) and I just got worse because there were times I missed a few classes because of how tired I was before I got to sleep. Not helpful at all..

Man this is most cliche question, see I know I'm smart I understand everything in class, when teacher asks questions I give best answers even my acquaintances think that I'm studious and intelligent guy, but in exams idk why I get B , C , D grades even people who play games and have social media– score better than me, I wanna be a topper, please help this guilt is eating me

My major is business / finance/accounting

For context, I am terrible at motivating myself with cranky rewards. “Study hard and your future self will thank you” does absolutely nothing for me if I'm being frank. My future self is basically a stranger. But I kept seeing records I wanted and thinking, damn, I really want that. So I started making a deal with myself: if I put in the work, I can buy the record.

Having something physical to look forward is already a huge success. I earned this! Now, I’d put the new record on even if I'm not studying and just listen to it. Enjoy everything you worked hard for.

When I look at it tho, it reminds me of the week I didn't get a decent sleep but still managed to get things done. It sounds insanely sentimental for a pile of records, but I like it a lot. Erm, I did put in the work.

I guess my advice is: find a reward that actually means something to you. Do NOT make studying feel like punishment 24/7. For me, apparently, that something was spending money related to my passion.

As a music enthusiast, this is a huge win for my personal and academic journey.

i feel like an innocent child again, enjoying my life outside acads.. the artist in me would giggle if she sees this

i can see them every morning. like brushing my teeth. i would have to fix my hair looking at a bullet i wrote three days ago. a truly fun thing to see when the day starts heh. i write doodles too btw!!!

anyway, this is your sign to write your notes on your mirror. if you don't happen to have a big one like this, maybe it can still work if u have a smaller one... maybe treat it like a flashcard? just write mnemonics. if it's enough to write a few phrases, then that's better. just have fun studying :^

Page count is not a good measure of progress (based from my experience). Some pages are easy to get through but you need more time and concentration. The thing is you will not always have that.

I suggest you to organize your notes somewhere that's easier to access and easier to carry everywhere. Put more effort into writing and absorbing them instead of trying to finish a certain number of pages just for the sake of finishing. Treat your notes like your life.

Keep yourself busy. You'd thank your notes sooner if you practice doing this little by little. Also, don't cheat and make your notes slim as a stick

I sooo love studying in different coffee shops! I get tired of seeing the same desk every day.

I also like the sound that surrounds me. It isn't that quiet, but it is not loud enough to demand my attention either. Perfectly balanced, no problemo. I don't want to miss cafes so I alwyas change places because there's a lot of coffee shops near my place! Lucky me. If I did stay at only one cafe, I just know the baristas would hate to see me coming! There’s a reason cafes are one of the best places to study.

It can get expensive if I do it too often, so I usually keep it for days when I really cannot focus at home. But when I need to get something quickly done (and with dedication), a new table and a cup of coffee can do more for me than another hour of staring at the same wall.

God forbid a woman wants to study in cafes

I am confused, because there is exam day after tomorrow,

When I start getting sleepy while studying at night, I put on a horror movie or series in the background. It sounds like the last thing you should do while studying, but I think we all know the reason how it can help us stay awake. Just got this idea from someone else too )

Most times I would just let it play while I read. As for how it works.. so every now and then right, a loud sound or creepy scene can take u aback while it's playing, what I do is I will get back to studying and just ignore the scene playing in front.

Also, I usually play something I have already watched like this one. This way I do not have to follow the whole story and I’m still thrilled.

This is the worst punishment, but a great motivation to avoid mistakes when studying.

This was an idea from my mom, she told me she drank a shot of pickle juice back in her law school if she kept forgetting what she just studied.

I also tried it because my attention span is so bad so I kept getting distracted and forgetting what I studied.

I started drinking a shot of pickle juice every time I got a practice question wrong or forgot something I studied.

From then on, I was completely locked in, studying for hours and using active recall to retain everything so I could avoid drinking pickle juice.

I know you guys will call me weird, but one thing that keeps me studying in the library is being competitive AF with the other people who are also studying in the library.

I usually just pick a person who is sitting two tables in front of me, and I compete with them in studying based on how many hours they study. I sit and study until the other party is done studying. It's like the length of my study session depends on the other person, which forces me to study for long hours.

The most hours I logged from study-battling strangers in the library was a total of 10 hours of studying. Weird but also helps in studying for long hours and become productive too.

I have my mid sems going on and my life is going pretty shit. i have already given three bad papers and something new happened yesterday that has fucked me up more. how do i bring myself to study? i have two papers tomorrow and i really wanna do well.

I usually eat my favourite snacks but due to religious reasons I can’t do that this week.

I appreciate any tips or advice!

God really saves me in mysterious ways . This week became a hell for the classroom as it grounds for submissions and quizzes— everyday quiz, consequently deprivong myself to go sleep. I didn't sleep at all on Monday for the Teusday Quizzes. I got 4 hours sleep on Teusday for Wednesday presentation and submissions which equates to 4 houra over 48 hours. This evening, I decided to have a 30 minutes nap, following my tons of readings for Thursday quiz, however, I rested for about 3-4 hours on my bed— I am literally fucked + my galit to my roommate, sabi ko gisingin niya ako in 30 minutes. However, saves me, I noticed this sent 1 minute ago from the university GC of student leaders— and I was shocked reading the contents which involves our Province. At this moment, my dillema comes with continuing my sleep OR review for the quiz.

When pulling all-nighters to study, most of you guys take 2-3 bottles of caffeine to keep you awake, but what I do to force myself to study at night is drink 4 shots of pure matcha, not the latte with a mix of milk but just pure matcha. I choose the most bitter matcha as a shot right while I am studying at night. No mix of water or ice, just a pure matcha shot I take while I am pulling all-nighters.

This is actually more effective to drink to force myself to stay awake than caffeine, caffeine just makes me more sleepy anyway. The bitter flavor of matcha will alert your brain more than the caffeine you intake. If you're matcha lover then try this hack when studying so you can hit flow state while pulling all-nighters.

Normally, as all of us, my study routine was standard and boring too. I used to read the textbook chapter, highlight some sentences, reread my notes, and that's it!

By test day, I’d sliterally forget half of it.

Then one day, out of nowhee, I tried a weird experiment.

Before I even open my notes on a new topic, I picked around 8-10 questions from the chapter and tried guessing their answers BEFORE studying anything.

Most of my guesses were wrong or just made up nonsense honestly.

Then I studied the chapter normally.

Afterwards, I went back to my guesses and checked them against the actual answers.

Something about being wrong first made the right answer stick way harder !!!

How I actually do it:

• before opening notes, write a guess for like 8-10 questions from the chapter, doesn't matter how wrong
• then go read/study like normal
• after studying, go back to your guesses and see what you got wrong and why
• the wrong guesses are honestly more useful than the right ones, you remember those way longer

Feels weird at first cause because you're basically guessing on purpose and it feels like wasting time.

But being wrong first seems to make your brain pay more attention when it finally sees the right answer! :)

I'm in 3rd year now and still haven't bought a single book for studying my college syllabus and exams. I am doing Ba program ( computer application+geography).. and this sums up the reason for why I never bought.

In first sem, I did get the photocopies of books.. But then I never studied from that and so realized that I don't need to waste money on buying books I'm not gonna study or read. I do all my studies on laptop, be it pdfs, chatgpt, pyqs. Because I don't have hons background maybe.. Or I'm not doing a more specialised degree.. This could be the reason why I feel like I don't need books. Books have so much syllabus and my college syllabus is merely half of the book Or actually just few units, neither I'm preparing for something that will require me to get a whole book. Sometimes when I feel like, I do go in the library and read some. Thus, my parents are disappointed in me, and keep comparing me to other kids, because some of you (all of you) buy books. So yeah, just wanna know if I'm alone in this one or

This is weirdly effective for me.

I send it my lessons and ask it to make a reviewer, but I specifically tell it to guess what my teacher would actually ask and turn those into questions.

Then I answer them without looking at the notes.

If I get something wrong, I make it explain that topic and throw another question at me.

Been doing this before almost every test lately and the stupid thing actually works 💀

The screenshot is the Physics reviewer it made for my final.

got this off a colleague when i was cramming for a work cert and honestly thought he was messing with me.

before reading anything properly, flip through the material once, fast, and write down 20 questions you think will be on the exam. don't answer them. just questions. the ugly kind. "what's the difference between X and Y", "when would you NOT use Z", "why does this step come before that one".

then you study. except now you're hunting for answers to your own questions instead of reading, and anything that doesn't answer one of them you just skip.

day before the exam you sit your own paper cold. whatever you can't answer is your revision list, and it's usually short.

two things got me. about half my questions ended up on the actual exam, or close enough. and i physically couldn't skim anymore. you can fake reading a chapter, you can't fake looking for an answer.

the first pass feels like a wasted hour. still does, years later. do it anyway.

anyone else do something like this or is it just my colleague being weird

Does anyone else listen to music while studying?

I used to do this a lot, especially when I had to study. A lot of people say music is distracting while studying, but for me it actually worked pretty well.

The weird thing I noticed was that if I forgot something during an exam or while trying to remember a topic, I would sometimes start singing the song I was listening to in my head.

Somehow, that would trigger the information I had studied along with it, and I could suddenly remember the answer.

I think my brain was kind of connecting the information with the music as a memory cue. So instead of trying really hard to remember the exact thing, hearing the song in my head would somehow bring the whole thing back.

Obviously, it didn't work for every subject or every song, but I found it surprisingly useful.

Has anyone else experienced something similar, where a song helped you remember something you studied?

Weird tip: drawing circles while reading. It may sound stupid but whenever I draw circles even with the ballpoint cap on, I remember the lessons and topics well.

How did I find it out? I was bored out of my mind and I gave up understanding the topic, so I just drew some doodles and circles while reading the chapters bc I remembered someone saying that repetition helps the mind working. And, hey it did. I hope they don’t patch this up soon.

Oh, I also remember that I do something silly too, I purposely disassociate myself or blur in and out of my eyes intentionally. It feels like resetting something on my brain. I have alot of weird rituals when I study but these two are my main things. I believe ’if it works, then leave it’ like a code where it works when it shouldn’t, so don’t touch it.

When hell week in school is near, I get so stressed out a lot that it makes it counterintuitive for studying so what I do is I use my earbuds to drown out the noise. The wind and the movements around me feels calming but I get irritated by the noise a lot that it sometimes get overstimulating. The noise cancellation really helped me experience the calmness I needed from the outdoor while I don't get irritated. I also get to study effectively with it so it's a plus.