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Cheat sheet
How to study: cheat sheet
The summary, key terms and the trap to avoid for every lesson, in order. Print it, or read it, cover it, and say it back.
- Testing yourself makes memory do the work, and that makes it last.
- Rereading feels easier but fades faster (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006).
- Practice testing is one of two "high utility" methods (Dunlosky et al., 2013).
- Try hard before you peek; checking after a wrong try still helps.
- retrieval practice
- recalling information from memory, e.g. by testing yourself
- rereading
- going over material again; feels familiar but builds little lasting memory
- high utility
- Dunlosky's top rating for study methods that work widely
Watch out: Peeking too soon. If you look at the answer the moment it feels hard, you skip the struggle that does the work. Give yourself a real try first, even if you get it wrong. Getting it wrong and then checking still helps you learn.
- Memory fades fast after first learning; each spaced review slows the fade.
- Spaced study beats cramming across hundreds of experiments (Cepeda et al., 2006).
- Space your reviews out. A simple schedule is day 1, 2, 4, 8, 16. It's a rule of thumb, not a tested optimum.
- Make each review a self-test, not a reread.
- spacing effect
- learning lasts longer when reviews are spread out over time
- forgetting curve
- how quickly memory fades after learning, first measured by Ebbinghaus
- cramming
- studying everything in one long session just before a test
Watch out: Spacing by rereading. The gaps help most when each review is a test (see the lesson before this one). Spaced rereading is better than cramming, but spaced self-testing is better still.
- Interleaving mixes problem types, so you must choose the method each time.
- It feels harder and scores lower during practice, but wins on the later test (Rohrer & Taylor, 2007).
- Use it once you have met each type at least once.
- Studyfern's timed practice already shuffles questions for you.
- blocked practice
- doing many problems of one type in a row
- interleaved practice
- mixing different types of problem in a random order
Watch out: Mixing before you know the basics. Interleave once you have met each type of problem at least once. On day one of something brand new, a short block of practice is fine.
- Brief, occasional switches to a different task kept performance steady on a long, dull task (Ariga & Lleras, 2011).
- Work in short focused blocks with one clear goal each.
- Keep the phone out of sight.
- Rest away from screens in your breaks.
- Pomodoro technique
- 25 minutes of focused work, then a 5-minute break; a longer break after four rounds
- vigilance decrement
- the drop in attention during a long, steady task
Watch out: Spending the break on your phone. Scrolling keeps your mind busy and makes it hard to stop after five minutes. A break that rests your eyes and body is likely to rest you better than scrolling.
- A good plan says when, where and what.
- If–then plans are kept more often than goals alone (Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006).
- Start small enough to keep, then grow.
- Combine the path: test yourself, space, mix, focus.
- implementation intention
- an if–then plan: "If [situation], then I will [action]"
- habit
- a behaviour that starts automatically from a cue
Watch out: Planning too much. A plan for three hours a day that lasts one week likely does less than twenty minutes a day that lasts three months. Start small enough that you will keep it, and add more once it is a habit.