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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.
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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.
ReadSubjects
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.
Exams
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.
Study technique
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.
Systems
Focus
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.
AI and learning
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.
Learning science
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.