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+--- Thread: What are the worst / best things you've done for studying? (/thread-12275.html)
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What are the worst / best things you've done for studying? - vileru - 2014-10-31
Amusing anecdote: I just noticed that, without giving any thought to it, in my head I've been referring to users on language subreddits as "casuals" and users on dedicated language forums as "elites".
What are the worst / best things you've done for studying? - aldebrn - 2014-10-31
vileru Wrote:could someone explain to me the value of reading the news?"While you're here, presidents will change, the world will change, and the media will try to convince you how important it all is. But it's not. None of it matters to you now. Stay in the shed. When you emerge in a few years, you can ask someone what you missed, and you'll find it can be summed up in a few minutes. The rest was noise you'll be proud you avoided." (http://sivers.org/berklee)
What are the worst / best things you've done for studying? - RawToast - 2014-10-31
Best:
Using Lang-8 every day, even for correcting English. The little snippets of Japanese used for explanations are great practice (plus the native text usually provides some simple reading!)
Going to lessons to perfect the basics and practice output.
Creating production conjugation cards.
コーヒー
Using SRS.
RTK
Worst:
Not getting into a habit of writing Journal entries on Lang-8.
Not getting into a daily reading habit (it fluctuates)
Doing Anki reviews late at night...
Relying too much on input, without doing enough input
Attempting to use J Subs far too early (made me stop watching the programs!)
Being scared of making mistakes when speaking/writing)
Not learning points/vocab/whatever before adding Anki cards.
What are the worst / best things you've done for studying? - sholum - 2014-10-31
RawToast Wrote:Worst:Speaking of this, I was going over my stats to show off the Ankidroid app to someone (it finally has all the stats that the desktop has!) and realized that my usual habit of studying before bed (which is often far too late at night) had my correct answers at about 80% while, if I did them during the late morning or mid-afternoon I managed to get about 90% correct. That's a big difference!
[...]
Doing Anki reviews late at night...
What are the worst / best things you've done for studying? - vileru - 2014-10-31
Re: studying late at night
I don't know if there are any studies on language retention and when people study, but given that there's a consensus in the scientific community that sleep consolidates memory, I wouldn't be too quick to discount studying before bed.
At least for me, studying before bed tends to keep my mind fixated on whatever I'm studying. The last thing I study before going to bed often shows up in my dreams, and I'm sure others here have experienced the same. Upon waking, I often immediately recall what I had learned the previous night and continue to think about it as I get ready in the morning. This sort of fixation is helpful for learning languages and many other endeavors.
The problem, I suspect, is studying after you've been awake for 16+ hours. At that point, you're physically exhausted and your body is beginning to crave, or already craves, sleep. As a rule of thumb, your performance with respect to any mental activity (and, to a lesser degree, physical activity) will suffer more and more dramatically after you've been awake for 16+ hours. I don't have the time to post links, but I'm sure it's easy enough to find studies that back what I'm saying.
What are the worst / best things you've done for studying? - sholum - 2014-10-31
Even when I do reviews during the day, I do new cards before bed in the hope that it helps me retain it just a bit better.
But yes, by the time I go to bed, I'm usually exhausted, which is why I don't do as well.
I know first hand what sleep deprivation does to a person, since my insomnia used to be far worse than it is now; sometimes I'd be unable to sleep at all and have to go through a whole day without rest (thankfully, I was still in middle-school when this was at its worst). Even when I only lacked one night of sleep I'd experience hallucinations (one left me with a lasting fear of spiders...) and once, when I finally got to sleep, I was awoken and kept dreaming while I was trying to interact with the real world (it was extremely disorienting). And, of course, my cognitive functions were in the toilet.
Getting away from that, I just thought of another good thing for studying: exercising. I don't know exactly which benefit is the best, but the things I've noticed are:
-Preventing restlessness while studying
-Relieving stress
-Preventing the soreness that comes from sitting around all day.
I remember seeing multiple studies about this, but whether that stuff about improving blood-flow to the brain is true or not (it makes sense, but I haven't studied it enough), performing regular exercise has noticeably improved my academic performance.
What are the worst / best things you've done for studying? - yogert909 - 2014-10-31
vileru Wrote:Re: studying late at nightThis isn't a human study, but it seems to show that melotonin impedes the formation of new memories at night.
I don't know if there are any studies on language retention and when people study, but given that there's a consensus in the scientific community that sleep consolidates memory, I wouldn't be too quick to discount studying before bed.
From my experience, studying when I'm tired, my anki performance is pretty bad and pretty much a waste of time. Studying just before going to bed at a reasonable time however seems to have me thinking about japanese throughout the night and upon waking. I'm not sure if that translates to any improved memory, but I'd bet it does.
sholum Wrote:I just thought of another good thing for studying: exercising. I don't know exactly which benefit is the best, but the things I've noticed are:Again, from experience, about 6 months ago I was doing a lot of cycling and as crazy as it sounds I would stop and do anki reps in the middle of a ride. From this experience I can say that it was pretty helpful. Whenever I did the mid ride reps, it wasn't too hard to stay focused and I'm convinced my accuracy was better. However longer term effects are more difficult to tell if there was a difference or not.
-Preventing restlessness while studying
-Relieving stress
-Preventing the soreness that comes from sitting around all day.
What are the worst / best things you've done for studying? - vileru - 2014-10-31
yogert909 Wrote:Again, from experience, about 6 months ago I was doing a lot of cycling and as crazy as it sounds I would stop and do anki reps in the middle of a ride. From this experience I can say that it was pretty helpful. Whenever I did the mid ride reps, it wasn't too hard to stay focused and I'm convinced my accuracy was better. However longer term effects are more difficult to tell if there was a difference or not.My experience confirms this. I often do Anki reps in between sets when I exercise. I almost always finish all my (Anki) reps for the day when I do this, and I usually have a 5-10% increase in accuracy compared to when I review flashcards at other times. Moreover, I tend to go through flash cards much more quickly too. When reviewing between exercise sets, I average around 190-220 cards/10 min. Otherwise, I average around 150-180/10 min.
What are the worst / best things you've done for studying? - BlackIce - 2014-11-01
Worst:
-Sometimes postponing some anki reviews due to busy schedule.
-Spending time on other things on my free time other than learning japanese
Best:
-Watching japanese media (mostly slice of life anime) and listening to some japanese music.
-Rikaichan, Aedict3 on mobile & googling other Japanese stuff I find interesting
-Read some books regarding japanese culture