Whittle Down Material For Simpler Studying

Disclaimer: this method works best in preparation for large, objective exams that cover a lot of factual material.  The material for interpretive, subjective, exams doesn't lend itself to this kind of studying quite as well.

When you have a big exam coming up and a pile of notes covering a third (or more) of a semester even a couple of times studying straight through can be very time consuming.  In these situations, it's best to focus your studying specifically on the notes which are going to provide the greatest marginal gains in understanding.  Essentially, you need to study the areas that you don't already understand pretty well.  There's no need to keep reading over notes you know well just because they're interspersed between notes you don't know.

Once you've been through your notes enough that you are fairly familiar with them, it's time to start whittling down.  Start on a blank page of a notebook and go through your class notes sequentially, copying over the concepts you aren't comfortable with.  When you get through your class notes, you should be left with a new set, much more concise and manageable than your un-filtered notes.  You now have the time benefit of being able to skip the notes you don't need to study anymore, plus you've copied over the difficult concepts by hand, which is a great way to commit them to memory by itself. Put your old notes aside, and focus on reviewing the stuff you really need to work on.

I've found that if I use this method after two complete times through my initial notes, I can cut the bulk down by about 3/4, making subsequent studying much quicker.  Often, I use the method one more time the day before an exam to create a one-page cheat sheet of the few concepts/facts I'm having trouble remembering.  Then I can hit that one-pager hard right up until the test starts, focusing my last minute efforts on the areas where I need them most.

If you have an obscene amount of notes, or you start with this method early in the study process, you might benefit from more than one "whittle," but I've found that I'm usually most efficient when I keep it two one big cut and then the last minute one-pager I described.  After all, it does take time to copy over notes, even if it's only a small fraction of the whole.  Experiment and find the timing and amount of "cut" that works best for you.

Minimize Friction to Maximize Functional Time

The less time you spend "in transit," the more functional time you have in your day to study, do homework, go to the gym, or relax. In economics, we call transition time "friction." Here are some tips for minimizing friction in order to maximize your functional time.

Stay "on campus"
Don't make unecessary trips back to your dorm or apartment. Even if the trips are short, you can waste a lot of time walking back and forth. If you can stay on campus until your functional day is over, you can save a lot of transportation time.

Use the library
It's close to your classes for a reason - to be convenient. You also study better in a library. Everyone thinks "I can study just fine at home." Maybe. But you study better in the library. I'm not saying you should never study at home. I did some of my best studying on relaxing evenings on my couch with music playing. It just wasn't as efficient as library studying.

Create large chunks of non-commuting functional time
Plan your day so you can maximize your non-commuting time. The fewer location changes you make, even on campus, the more time you have for everything else. When possible, group activities (like meetings, gym trips, etc) together and with classes, rather than with spaces in between them, to maximize the size of your available time chunks. Packing up your stuff, traveling to an activity, returning, unpacking, and refocusing takes a lot of time.


Remember, more functional time means more fun time too. Make the most of your time by reducing your friction!