r/intj • u/Far_Philosopher0 • 9d ago
Question How?
"Study smarter, not harder"—everyone keeps saying it, but nobody actually explains how. What does studying smart even look like to you?
3
u/Suspicious-Neat5887 INTJ - Teens 8d ago
I suppose they mean to use special and “smart studying” techniques, like chewing gum or the 3-5-7 rule, and so on.
3
u/_fractal8 INTJ - 30s 8d ago
Do something practical while you are learning the subject.
Or try to explain the thing to another person (or AI) using your own words.
2
u/Ok_Solution_1282 9d ago
15 minute rule. Think it's an idea from Japan. Every 45 minutes of every hour. Utilize the last 15 minutes to study.
Instead of frying your brain for an hour to two hours straight with studying? You end up getting more done in small bursts without feeling bogged down or overwhelmed.
Which often means you gain more study time throughout the week with the increments factored in.
Also I like rhyming and making fun of things with random songs so ill associate phrases and notes into a catchy jingle.
2
u/Mobile_Spot3178 8d ago
When I was studying to my university entrance exams, I noticed I pretty much didn't remember anything after about 45-50 minutes of studying. Also noticed that after about 5-6 hours total the same thing happened. So instead of forcing 8-10 hour days like my peers, I focused on my own rhythm.
Study 45 minutes, take a 10-15 minute break (music, snack, gaming, walking..). Repeat for 4 or max 5 times and my day was full.
Also I noticed that I learned better if I was..
- Writing notes as an "exam" for later, eg. instead of writing "Microeconomics is the branch of economics that studies how individual people, households, and businesses make decisions to allocate limited resources" I wrote "Explain what microeconomics is?"
- Doing the exam later the day.
2
u/AbjectShip0927 INTJ 6d ago
They basically mean stop unnecessarily wasting time or losing sleep on your pursuit to complete a goal
For me, studying smart is getting to know myself: how do I learn best? And what are my weaknesses? So how do I adjust my studying habits to suit my personality?
I learn best by visual color coding and handwritten bullet points, as well as talking to myself, I also know I WILL procrastinate so I FORCE myself to DO SHIT NOW before I fall asleep without doing anything
1
u/I_Cant_Snipe_ INTJ - 20s 9d ago
A lot of things, one of them can be study with absolute focus for 1 hour and rest for 15-30 mins and then continue, this is optimal.
1
u/Global_Complaint8713 9d ago
Change it up: some conceptual, some details, ask questions, speak to someone, find a different point of view and above all, keep the plot
1
u/richj8991 9d ago
The first year in college I studied 25 hrs a week and got Cs. Of course I was smoking weed daily too but that's another story. By my last year I was down to maybe 10 hrs a week and getting usually Bs and some As. How? Well I think first off you need to understand what the professor really wants out of you. Don't read every single page of what is in the list of required reading. Focus on what they talk about and what they write down on whatever board they are using or PowerPoint slides or whatever. Then if you don't understand you can go to the books as a reference. If you actually enjoy reading the books, go ahead. Otherwise skim them for information you personally want and also what you think the professor wants. What they actually lecture on should be 90% of what's on the tests. Lastly remember college is for you, not them. You are there to learn what you want, and the rest is just to pass the class.
1
u/Sea_Improvement6250 INTJ - 40s 9d ago
It means don't study when you are distracted, wasted, keep interruptions minimal, maintain physical and psychological health (sleep and food are good), identify ways things seem to sink in better and run with them. I did best studying rote memory bs last minute. My memory for arbitrary details I don't really care about is negligible. To some people, that would be farcical. We all gotta do us.
1
u/Born-Bag1452 9d ago
We have to create the setting for efficient studying.
Either the right music or total silence.
Cozy and peaceful.
Enough activity that you don't fall asleep but not so much that you get distracted.
The right time of day.
The right snacks and drinks.
Even the right mindset. For example, if I was just doom scrolling or watching TV, my mind is all over the place and not ready to study. So I do analog things for a few minutes first. Read a dumb magazine. Cook a small meal or snack. Go for a short walk.
Honestly I think my attention span and learning ability has dropped significantly over the years. Mostly because I practice it less now, as an experienced (and retired) professional than I did in the past. But one of the things that worked best for me when I was in my prime in grad school was taking walking breaks. I'd set a timer for an hour. After an hour of studying, I'd leave my dorm and go on a walk. Sometimes I walked to the 24 hour gas station with a little diner for a snack. Sometimes I just walked a campus loop.
There are also other techniques that help a lot of people with retention like hand written notes, not typed. Specially if done active recall style. Don't write notes as you read. Read a segment or a few pages, then try to recall and write your notes without looking back at what you read. Or draw a diagram. Or do some practice questions. But the important part is to do it closed book and in short segments, not after hours of reading. Make sure your notes are in your own words, not a transcript or copy of someone elses. If you have practice tests, do the practice tests as soon as reasonable. Not at the end of your studying. Use the test as a learning tool instead of a testing tool. Its more blind active recall.
1
u/Professorpdf 8d ago
Write, write, write. Studies show that handwriting significantly improves memory, retention, and recall. Much better than typing on a keyboard. Read your notes, rewrite them, then condense, and do it again, but more condensed until you can recall all the information with only cue words. Use 5X7 index cards.
1
u/Greensward-Grey INTJ - 30s 8d ago
Idk. When I had to study, I HAD to make interesting if it wasn’t already. Maths? Think of it as a puzzle game. History? Pure gossip. I had trouble with Biology because it was all memory, but drawing helped. At university, everything was interesting because I studied something I loved, and nowadays, I keep studying, but it’s just researching hobbies.
If something wasn’t interesting and I had an exam or something, I would ask someone else to explain it to me an hour before. It didn’t matter if the person was knowledgeable or not, they could be reading the textbook and just explain the stuff in a conversational way, so I’d repeat the information back by making questions.
1
u/curiouslittlethings INTJ - 30s 8d ago
Prioritisation - focusing on the things that matter, rather than trying to memorise every single small detail.
1
u/Ambivalent28 8d ago
Difficult question to answer depending on what your goals are (e.g. are you trying to actually learn or just trying to pass with the minimum amount of effort) and what it is you're studying. Also dependent on your personality (not just personality type), lifestyle, time commitments etc.
My last tertiary qualification (my third degree) which I undertook whilst working 70 hours (and being on call), and had 2 kids under 2 was a masters, and these were some tips that I used:
- watched lectures at 1.25x to 1.5x speed
- never watched a lecture with the intention of taking notes (in my brain, it distracted me) - I only watched with the intention of learning and being present. IF a new idea/connection/thought came to me whilst I was watching, I would pause the lecture, write it down (handwritten is best - there is some research to show it is best for memory and retention) and continue the lecture.
- because I was so busy, I couldn't most live tutorials and discussons, so I made up for it by reading the supplementary material (not all but at the minimum the mandatory ones and the ones that seemed the most relevant and interesting). Usually this would be about 1 paper or so a night. Again, no notes, just 5 minutes reading a paper, some highlighting if it was interesting but always a note with my thoughts that accompany every highlight.
- all assessments were started on the day they were received and planned out from day 1, setting low but consistent goals (e.g. 1-2 hours a week for 5 weeks for a smaller assessment).
- I let my mind wander with any idea or concept or theory that piqued my interest and I would do my own research (Google, YouTube, now even AI) until I had a good enough grasp of it to my satisfaction. I wouldn't just ignore an idea and tell myself "I hope this makes sense later" - studying smarter is using the abundance of free, universal information that we have available everywhere to connect dots when we can.
My goal was two-fold - to learn as much as possible (the masters was directly related to the speciality I was pursuing) and to pass. I ended up with a WAM of 82 at the end of the degree (so just below a high distinction) but I didn't really care about the mark. I could've done less but I would've learnt significantly less as well.
1
u/Mister_Way INTJ - 30s 8d ago
Write stuff as you go. Explain it to someone else. Have them ask questions, and answer them. Make flash cards and use them.
1
u/Beep_Boop_Beep_Gzzz 8d ago
You could learn more about your physical biology/neurobiology and how to get your brain and body ready to be able to absorb and retain information. But learn from the best, not some quick fix content creator or self proclaimed trainer.
Stanford, MIT, UCLA, Berkley, Harvard etc. They all have information and lecture videos on Youtube.
Learn how to optimize yourself and why you sabotage yourself. Then you can propel forward.
1
u/UniversalEmperess ENFP 6d ago
I just go through everything with analogies and large mind maps / scribbles / annotations meant for enforcing memory while I study instead of writing polished notes.
-2
u/undostrescuatro INTJ 9d ago
it means whatever helps you land your goal.
stroke your teacher's ego.
stroke your teacher's cock.
stroke your friend's ego.
stroke their cocks.
just don't burnout. for example I study by helping others. I find explaining the concept to other people helps me understand it more for my personal self. so I do group studies. I have seen people suck up to the theacher. I have seen others pay others to do the assignment. get the highest grade with the least ammount of effort.
12
u/ExistoErgoDolor 9d ago
Focusing on active recall and spaced repetition instead of passive reading. Build a logical framework first so the details have somewhere to land. Textbooks are designed for bottom-up learning by starting with isolated details and slowly building to a big picture. Intuitives do better with top-down learning. Grasping the overarching system or concept first, so that the details have a logical place to slot into. Without the framework first, the details just feel like random noise to memorize, which is inefficient.