When I started studying the art of studying, I wanted to understand the role of book learning. How do we best learn from a textbook, scientific articl

(Trying To) Study Textbooks Effectively: A Year of Experimentation

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2021-06-08 06:30:03

When I started studying the art of studying, I wanted to understand the role of book learning. How do we best learn from a textbook, scientific article, or nonfiction book? What can a student of average intelligence do to stay on top of their homework? Is it possible to improve your annual knowledge growth rate by one or two percent by learning how to learn? Should a motivated student take a maximizing or satisficing approach to their coursework? How many of the skills of a top scholar are strategic, collaborative, psychological, or involve merely a set of habits and technological proficiencies?

Fortunately, I started with the most esoteric of approaches, exploring visualization. I tried using a memory palace to memorize a textbook. It was vivid, fun, and creative. Exploring visualization helped me understand chemical diagrams, led me to invent a math problem, and made learning a lot more fun. But I simply couldn't jam that much detailed technical knowledge into my head. The method didn't help me pass my final exam, and I dropped it.

Posts from this era include Visual Babble and Prune, Using a memory palace to memorize a textbook, The point of a memory palace, Visualizing the textbook for fun and profit, 

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