/sci/ - Science & Math

I don't know, don't be an idiot maybe?

Genuinely desiring to learn about a subject.

A lot of people don't care about academics, they just want to get the shit over with so they can get a job.

wtf am i reading?
review material until you know it, dipshit

>What is their secret? I know hard work is involved, but quantify/qualify what that means.

Well, I can't speak for everyone. But having a little bit of autism/ass burgers helps. I can literally study for six hours straight.

i guess it involves a strong desire to understand the material, and then the will power to make that happen

>>3457384
This.

When I really really "found" math and physics it basically consumed my life. I study every day, for things I'm not even in classes for, because I really enjoy learning about it.

>>3457405

th...thanks

>>3457405
>>3457405

did you encourage or motivate that desire in yourself or did it just happen randomly?

think carefully

The same way that you learn to sit down and watch a movie for 2 hours, or play a game for 10+ hours. You do it because it's interesting, and the more you do it, the more it makes sense and you connect dots across a wider area until you see the big picture emerge.

When you are truly interested in something, the work is no longer hard, it's exciting. You don't do it because you have to or because you're supposed to. You do it because you fucking want to.

Not many people ever get to that point. Most of us might want to know it but we don't enjoy actually learning it. Often we only want to know it so we can do something else that requires it.

Of course if you lack the intelligence to understand it then all the will in the world won't help you, but there are actually very few things that are truly beyond the average person. We just find them boring, don't make any effort, and they remain forever foreign to us.

I did horribly in school because I had incredibly bad study habits. It just never came naturally to me. My brother could sit in front of a book and finish his assignments and focus--I had to watch TV and think esoteric thoughts.

I'm such a fuck-ass. :(

>>3457422
You know that feeling when you "get" something? When your understanding clicks?

That shit is like fucking crack, I'm guessing.

>>3457373
I gave a shit. The rest was easy.

>>3457446
Probably, chemically identical to religiousity.

>>3457446
>that feeling when you "get" something?

I know dat feel bro...

every time I do math

>>3457373
>>3457373

>get a 3.0 gpa and become an expert

What the fuck are you on?

Motivation and desire to learn and succeed at what you're doing.

I'm not an expert, but I do the best I can in my field and studies. Becoming an expert generally involves you having a genuine interest in what you're doing, and you devote lots of time to it. From personal experience of building and designing robots, I can spend hours and hours working on my projects. For that matter, even though it's summer and I'm not currently employed or taking classes, I still work nearly night and day on my research project.

Last semester in order to get our autonomous ground vehicle running, I would wake up at about 10AM, play around for an hour and eat, and then work all day until generally 4AM. Rinse and repeat. Learned a fuckton and it was exhausting.

I see some of my professors here and there leaving campus late in the evening, and some work on weekends. If you want to become an expert, your work becomes your priority.

As far as how do some people become experts? >>3457384
hit the nail on the head (although interest can only take you so far before you're grouped in with everyone else interested, and then it becomes kind of a intelligence/pissing contest to separate the men from the boys, so to speak).

As for the first part, I think it helps to understand that everything you learn has a purpose behind it (excluding literature, of course). Newton invented his version of calculus to solve problems of how the presence of (say) the earth's gravity affects the objects around it. Without calculus, you have to painstakingly record observations and hope to find some clever pattern (e.g. Brahe's observations, Kepler's clever discovery) to help you try to understand the world around you, but WITH it, describing accelerated motion is simple. And that's the point, everything that was ever discovered, written down, and you learn about now, makes life EASIER than without it. With that in mind, you can look at all the "crap" you have to study and now it has purpose... actually learning stuff is a much more efficient "shortcut", you can go into a test and say "oh, I know the math/physical principles behind this, so this problem is simple, it pretty much works itself." From there you study moar and apply the knowledge you have to make life easier/better.

>>3457491

reporting in.. enjoy your shit tier GPA and community college

Let's find out a way to associate serotonin/dopamine/something release with studying. Fapping to math it is?

>>3457491
>>3457494
still think youre smarter? lol

aside from desire, there are some technical tips you can use to improve studies.

first important thing is to find a place without distractions to study. go to this place the same time every day. (bonus points if it's right after class) for me this is the library.
you'll notice it's difficult to start, but once in the habit it comes easy.

Read each section twice thoroughly. work through examples with the author. (bonus points: do the example without watching the author do it first; not always possible)
Try the pomodoro technique if it works for you. (chunking time into 25 minute work sessions)

Memorization: Memorize things in groups of 5. humans have a hard time memorizing things in groups bigger than that. memorizing 4 groups of 5 is easier than memorizing 20 items.

Ask yourself a question about the text after each paragraph.

..that's all i can think of at the moment. if you do all these things you'll see a lot of improvement though.

>>3457491
>>3457494

Sure is elitist in here...

>>3457494
>>3457491

The fuck?
>Ivy League on /g/

>>3457500
meant to say "a much more efficient "shortcut" than cheating or knowing it "well enough to pass""

>>3457505
>premed faggot detected

>>3457494
>community college
>implying its bad
>mfw

Being an expert is only about claiming you are an expert.

i.e.
>Social Networking Expert

/thread

>>3457494
the fuck are you doing here

>>3457533
nah, I study russian. that's why I added the memorization part

>>3457373
Mandatory study hours force you to learn.
3 hours a day will make anyone learn shit.

>>3457565
Yeah, and then you'll have poor retention and won't be able to apply any of the 3-hours-of-random-shit-daily to your life. It's basically throwing away (I'll be generous and say only half) an hour and a half out of each day just so you can say you study 3 hours a day to try to seem intellectual.

Don't force yourself to study. Some days, you'll really feel like getting a lot done, there have been days where I literally spent all day learning/studying, but I was engaged the whole time, and it was a choice, not a standard I set for myself... it just kind of happened. Then there are some days where I don't really feel like trying to learn anything (at least not through studying, obviously you are constantly receiving and interpreting new information and can't really turn that off).

>>3457446
This. My god, this.

>>3457632
Why would daily studying correlate with poor retention? I don't follow.

Simple fact.

It is impossible to learn something you dont want to learn outside of some Orwellian conditioning, if you dont actively want to learn it you will discard it after it becomes useless.

Basically its ok to float through shitty subjects you will never use, just make sure your learning what you want because it will lead to you doing what you want.

>>3457792
different faggot here

It's not the daily part that will lead to lower retention. It's forcing yourself to study when you're not really up to it. You won't assimilate the material the same way that you would have if you were fully interested and alert. It becomes a chore and the mind is not receptive when it perceives something as a chore.

The problem is that most people need to force themselves to study. Most of the people on here wouldn't be here otherwise.