Study Strategies Quotes

“Let me try to explain to you, what to my taste is characteristic for all intelligent thinking. It is, that one is willing to study in depth an aspect of one's subject matter in isolation for the sake of its own consistency, all the time knowing that one is occupying oneself only with one of the aspects. We know that a program must be correct and we can study it from that viewpoint only; we also know that it should be efficient and we can study its efficiency on another day, so to speak. In another mood we may ask ourselves whether, and if so: why, the program is desirable. But nothing is gained—on the contrary!—by tackling these various aspects simultaneously. It is what I sometimes have called "the separation of concerns", which, even if not perfectly possible, is yet the only available technique for effective ordering of one's thoughts, that I know of. This is what I mean by "focusing one's attention upon some aspect": it does not mean ignoring the other aspects, it is just doing justice to the fact that from this aspect's point of view, the other is irrelevant. It is being one- and multiple-track minded simultaneously.”
― Edsger W. Dijkstra, Selected Writings on Computing: A personal Perspective

“You have to make your own condensed notes. You learn from MAKING them. A lot of thinking goes into deciding what to include and exclude. You develop your own system of abbreviations and memory methods for the information.”
― Peter Rogers, Straight A at Stanford and on to Harvard

“Ambient sounds, especially with words, occupy about 5-10% of your intellectual bandwidth.

By wearing ear protectors, you acoustically isolate yourself. This freed up bandwidth can now be focused on the desired task.

It's a great deal. Just put on some earmuffs and you become 5-10% smarter.”
― Peter Rogers, Straight A at Stanford and on to Harvard

“The mystery of the MAGIC BATHROOM will be revealed unto thee.”
― Peter Rogers MD

“When you’re too busy even to write the eulogy for your free time, you might find resuscitating your schedule is as easy as multitasking more effectively or trying a new study technique.”
― Joel B. Randall, Study, Sleep, Repeat: 130 Tips to Schedule Your College Life