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Learning science, without the folklore
Most study advice is vibes. This is what the evidence actually shows — including the parts that cost us a sale, like the fact that Anki is free and excellent, and that if your exam is tomorrow you should absolutely cram.
49 articles · a new one every day · RSS
How to manage time in an exam so the last question isn't blank
Unfinished papers cost more marks than weak answers. The arithmetic of marks per minute, and the protocol that stops one question eating three.
ReadSubjects
How to study genetics when the problems don't look like the notes
Genetics exams are mostly problems: pedigrees, crosses, mapping, probability. Knowing the vocabulary doesn't help. Here's what does.
Organic chemistry: memorising reactions is why it feels impossible
Hundreds of reactions, or one idea — electrons move from rich to poor — applied repeatedly. Which subject you're studying is up to you.
How to study linear algebra when the computation makes sense but nothing else does
Row-reducing matrices is easy; knowing what a matrix does is the course. How to build the geometric picture that makes the theorems obvious.
How to study physiology by following the loop instead of the list
Physiology is mostly control systems. Learn the loops — stimulus, sensor, response, feedback — and most of the memorisation becomes reconstruction.
How to study calculus when the lectures make sense and the problems don't
Following a calculus derivation and being able to produce one are different skills. How to build the second, and why watching worked examples fails.
How to study microbiology without drowning in organism lists
Microbiology punishes pure memorisation and rewards discrimination. How to structure organisms, link bugs to drugs, and survive the sheer volume.
Pharmacology: learn the class, and the drugs come mostly free
Hundreds of drugs, each with a mechanism, indications, contraindications and interactions. Learn by class and the volume collapses.
Anatomy is a spatial subject, and you are studying it as a list
Anatomy is learned in three dimensions and revised in two. Image occlusion, drawing from memory, and why word-lists fail you in the exam.
Study technique
Active reading strategies for text that fights back
Active reading isn't reading harder — it's inserting output steps into the reading. Five strategies matched to what you're reading and why.
How to remember what you read instead of just finishing it
Finishing a chapter and remembering it are unrelated activities. Four interventions that cost minutes and change what survives the week.
How to make a cheat sheet — the making is the revision
A one-page cheat sheet forces the compression that ordinary note-taking avoids. How to build one, and why it works even for closed-book exams.
How to memorise fast — and what "fast" really means
You can't compress memory the way you compress a deadline, but you can stop wasting most of the time you spend. Six methods ranked by minutes-to-retention.
The blurting method: the crudest study technique, and one of the best
Read a topic, close everything, and write down everything you remember. Then mark what you missed in red. That's it — and it beats almost everything.
The Feynman technique: if you can't explain it simply, you don't know it
Explaining a concept in plain language exposes the exact sentence where your understanding stops. Four steps, and the one everyone skips.
Interleaving: why blocking one topic at a time quietly fails you
Studying one topic until you've 'got it' feels efficient and produces worse exam results. Mixing topics feels worse and works better. Here's why.
Active recall: the technique that feels worse and works better
Retrieving an answer from memory beats reviewing it, by a lot. Here's the evidence, and the reason almost nobody does it despite knowing this.
How to take lecture notes: the more you write, the less you learn
Verbatim note-taking captures more words and less meaning. What to do instead — and why recording the lecture resolves the trade-off entirely.
Cramming vs spacing: and the case where cramming is genuinely correct
Spacing beats cramming decisively for anything you need to keep. But if the exam is tomorrow, cram — and here's how to do it least badly.
How to make flashcards that actually work
Most flashcards are bad, and bad cards waste the review time they cost. Seven rules for cards that test one thing and can be answered without guessing.
How to study for finals without spending six weeks re-reading
A week-by-week plan built on diagnosis, retrieval practice and scheduling — so your hours go to the topics you're actually failing.
Focus
How to start studying again after you've stopped for weeks
The hardest session is the first one back, and it fails for a predictable reason. How to make restarting cheap instead of heroic.
How to study with ADHD when the standard advice doesn't apply
Most study advice assumes intact task initiation and working memory. What to do instead: externalise everything, shorten the loop, use urgency deliberately.
How to study at night without wrecking the next day
Night studying isn't inherently worse — it's worse when it eats sleep and light. How to make the late session work and what it costs you if it doesn't.
How to study when you're too tired to study
Tired studying isn't worthless — it's just good for different work. Which tasks survive exhaustion, which don't, and how to stop wasting the hour you have left.
Motivation follows action. Waiting for it is how you lose the term
You are waiting to feel like studying before you study. That's backwards — and it's why the feeling never arrives.
You don't procrastinate because you're lazy. You procrastinate because it hurts
Procrastination is an emotional regulation problem, not a time management one. Which is why every time management fix has failed you.
The Pomodoro technique, and the case for ignoring it
Why timeboxing beats willpower, why 25 minutes is arbitrary, and when a rigid timer is actively harmful to the thing you're trying to do.
Does music help you study? Mostly no — with one useful exception
Lyrics hurt reading and writing. Background sound helps mainly by masking intermittent noise. Here's how to use sound deliberately instead of by habit.
Exams
How to sit a mock exam so the three hours are actually worth it
A mock is a diagnostic, not a rehearsal. How to sit it, how to mark it, and why doing it too late makes the whole exercise pointless.
How to answer an essay exam question when the clock is running
Essay exams reward structure and argument over content volume. How to plan in five minutes, and why the first paragraph decides your band.
Open book exams are harder than closed book, and students find out too late
When everyone has the notes, the notes are worth nothing. Open book exams test application under time pressure — and reward preparation you can't improvise.
How to revise in one week when you've left it late
Seven days is enough to pass and not enough to cover everything. A day-by-day plan built on triage, past papers and deliberate abandonment.
Multiple choice exams reward recognition — so stop practising recognition
The trap of MCQ revision: you study by recognising right answers, which is exactly the skill the exam is designed to make easy.
The MCAT study schedule mistake: months of content review, weeks of practice
Most MCAT plans front-load content review and leave practice to the end. The evidence says invert it — and here's a schedule that does.
AI and learning
How to prompt AI for practice questions worth answering
Ask for ten questions and you'll get ten definitions. The prompt details that produce exam-shaped questions instead — and how to check them.
How to turn lecture slides into notes you can actually revise from
Slides are prompts for a talk you've forgotten, not notes. How to reconstruct the missing explanation and turn a deck into revisable material.
Why an AI study tool without citations is unusable for coursework
A confident wrong answer costs more than no answer. What real citation looks like in a study tool, and how to test whether a tool has it.
How to turn a PDF into flashcards you'll actually review
Generating 300 cards from a PDF takes a minute. Getting 60 cards worth reviewing takes ten more. Here's the filter that separates them.
AI detectors don't work, and it's students who get hurt by that
Detectors produce false positives on innocent writing, especially from non-native speakers. Being wrongly accused is the real risk here.
Is using AI cheating? The line is clearer than people pretend
Not a disclaimer. A usable test for where the line sits, why institutions draw it there, and what actually happens when you cross it.
Why AI hallucinates, and why students are the worst possible victims
A confident wrong answer is bad for everyone. For someone studying a subject they don't yet know, it's uniquely dangerous — and spaced repetition makes it permanent.
Systems
The weekly review: the hour that stops a term quietly collapsing
Terms don't fail suddenly, they drift. A structured weekly hour catches the drift while it's still cheap. Here's the exact checklist.
How to build a study system that survives a bad week
Motivation-based studying fails the first time life interferes. What a real system looks like: capture, process, review, and one weekly hour that repairs it.
Every semester has one terrible week. Find it in week one
Deadlines don't arrive evenly. Map them on day one and the collision becomes a scheduling problem instead of a crisis.
The best note system is the one you can still be bothered with in week nine
Elaborate organisation systems collapse under coursework. One folder per module, everything in it, searchable — and no more than that.
Learning science
Rereading vs retrieval practice: the comparison that changes everything
Rereading produces higher confidence and lower recall. Retrieval produces the opposite. Why students consistently pick the method that loses.
FSRS vs SM-2: why the algorithm most apps still use is wrong
SM-2 has scheduled flashcards since 1987. FSRS models memory with three variables and a power-law curve, and needs meaningfully fewer reviews for the same retention.
Spaced repetition, explained properly — and why most apps fake it
How spacing actually works, why the forgetting curve matters, and how to tell a real spaced repetition scheduler from a fixed reminder ladder wearing its name.