How do some people study for 6+ hours a day?

[sundizz]

I've been going to this study room/library and I struggle to get to 3 or 4 hours a day. I take plenty of breaks, etc and it is still a struggle. I see this guy here everyday and he studies like 6 or 7 hours a day (assumedly...he is always here before I get here and bounces after I do).

[Bandito]

For some its just fun I guess.

[dunksby]

Always wondered how that was too, even when writing my Masters thesis I couldn't do more than 4 hours a day, weekends excluded :lol

[nathanjizzle]

Some creatures are like that i suppose

[KobesFinger]

They're not necessarily being productive

[sundizz]

They're not necessarily being productive

That's what I always think - but they do a good job of looking like they are intensely studying the whole time. :confusedshrug:

I really wonder what they are learning...and whether they just suck at actual learning, but are good at sitting in one place that long.

My observations are skewed though since I'm in Korea. Kids go to school from 9 am to 10 pm basically from 4th grade on up. They are mentally conditioned for the studying I guess.

[DukeDelonte13]

you gotta work your way up to it. Practically necessary in graduate school.

[sundizz]

you gotta work your way up to it. Practically necessary in graduate school.

Myth. I just graduated at the top of my class - 3.97 (Masters of Accountancy). There is no reason to ever study that much. Possibly with projects etc it may come out to 4 hours a day max. As long as you get in a concentrated two hours a day tho it should not need to be that much. People confuse quality study time with quantity of time spent studying.

[$LakerGold]

Motivation to succeed.

[DukeDelonte13]

Myth. I just graduated at the top of my class - 3.97 (Masters of Accountancy). There is no reason to ever study that much. Possibly with projects etc it may come out to 4 hours a day max. As long as you get in a concentrated two hours a day tho it should not need to be that much. People confuse quality study time with quantity of time spent studying.


not a myth. you really can't get away with 4 hours a day for law school and especially the bar exam.

My brother recently finished med school. You aren't putting in 4 hour days for the boards either.

Yes i'm sure there are exceptions, but there are plenty of programs where you literally have to study as a full time job on top of your classes.

[senelcoolidge]

I couldn't do that either. If it's a subject I enjoy than I can retain the material very easily. But when studying material that I don't like it's a drag. I have to take breaks. I start to doze off. I used to study 2 hour at most and luckily could retain enough. I don't know how I was able to pass some classes when I barely studied at all. Like read for 30 minutes and than go watch the basketball game for the rest of the night.

[GimmeThat]

how are there so many subjects and threads?

[russwest0]

take some adderall

[DeuceWallaces]

not a myth. you really can't get away with 4 hours a day for law school and especially the bar exam.

My brother recently finished med school. You aren't putting in 4 hour days for the boards either.

Yes i'm sure there are exceptions, but there are plenty of programs where you literally have to study as a full time job on top of your classes.

It's a myth in any field. You can only speak to your experience. Possibly you're just not as good at it? My best friend got his law degree at Case Western and I guarantee he was not doing anything near 4 hours a day.

That being said you should define "studying." Science graduate students are paid to work 40 hour weeks while registered. I guess one might call that studying, but I'm sure as hell not reading books to remember theories for oral or written examinations 6 hours a day.

Either way, those are not very healthy habits. Much better to spend less time more consistently than trying to cram several hours a day for a 1-2 week period in preparation for some type of exam. And that goes for nearly any skill you're trying to develop.

[BigBoss]

Motivation and knowing HOW to study. If you're reading word for word each page then your not studying the right way.

[Horde of Temujin]

Theyre Asian

[MavsSuperFan]

Myth. I just graduated at the top of my class - 3.97 (Masters of Accountancy). There is no reason to ever study that much. Possibly with projects etc it may come out to 4 hours a day max. As long as you get in a concentrated two hours a day tho it should not need to be that much. People confuse quality study time with quantity of time spent studying.
you are the exception then.

Most people need to study alot come finals time.(in order to do well)

[Dresta]

you are the exception then.

Most people need to study alot come finals time.(in order to do well)
He did accountancy :roll: .

If you study a proper subject then there is no limit of material to familiarise yourself with, even if the actual degree courses are easy enough to pass or do well in without expending much effort. That is just a sign of declining academic standards really. But if you go to uni and only study the material you are directly taught then you are doing something wrong imo (or don't really belong there).

[Swaggin916]

For me it's a reward system. Study for 1 hour then relax for an hour and have a treat. Or just take an adderall.

[shlver]

Motivation to succeed.
This

He did accountancy :roll: .

If you study a proper subject then there is no limit of material to familiarise yourself with, even if the actual degree courses are easy enough to pass or do well in without expending much effort. That is just a sign of declining academic standards really. But if you go to uni and only study the material you are directly taught then you are doing something wrong imo (or don't really belong there).
and this.

[DukeDelonte13]

It's a myth in any field. You can only speak to your experience. Possibly you're just not as good at it? My best friend got his law degree at Case Western and I guarantee he was not doing anything near 4 hours a day.

That being said you should define "studying." Science graduate students are paid to work 40 hour weeks while registered. I guess one might call that studying, but I'm sure as hell not reading books to remember theories for oral or written examinations 6 hours a day.

Either way, those are not very healthy habits. Much better to spend less time more consistently than trying to cram several hours a day for a 1-2 week period in preparation for some type of exam. And that goes for nearly any skill you're trying to develop.


I'm happy you could put your two cents in on something you really know nothing about. Shame on me for my "unhealthy habits" of putting some old fashioned hard work in. I'm glad that I now know that studying hard = you're stupid.

Law isn't science. There is no real right answer. It's completely subjective on top of everybody being graded against each other. Those that don't put the time in simply don't do as well.

The bar is a 3 day marathon that covers 12 practice areas. You get one shot, and if you fail, you are f*cked for the next 6 months. You can't practice without passing and nobody wants to hire somebody that failed. Failure is a sign that you f*cked around instead of putting your hours in. Smart people don't chance it.

[Mr. Jabbar]

Motivation

that

[JEFFERSON MONEY]

JEFFERSON MONEY'S FREE STUDY TIPS FOR THE WORLD AFTER YEARS OF MEDIOCRITY AND FINALLY ... EXCELLENCE


Pre study routine (30 to 40 minutes of cardiovascular exercise with a green smoothie)

Study Session 1 (30 minutes)
Prime yourself to understand why you seek the material.
For each major key term sentence or concept digested, encode a movie scene with all senses which illustrate or perfectly.
If you are able to analogous the systematic relationship between a train of thought and another one. .. then quickly link then (this is stored in your hippocampus loop)
Create a story which anthromorphizes the ideas or makes it into a rap in an effective poignant way.

Brisk walk for five minutes


REPEAT.


REPEAT until 1 hour ends in your designated study time.

An hour to the end of your stay recap.

Then formulate it into questions and answer them.

NOW PLAY

GO TO SLEEP WITH THE STORY OR SONG YOU MADE AND DO IT IN THE MORNING.


GOOD LUCK.

[Cali Syndicate]

Taking 10 minute breaks every hour at the hour is a must. Stand up, stretch, walk around...stay away from electronics. Proper fueling is also key...none of that red bull, monster, sugar/caffeine binging either. Black coffee(some creamer is ok), lots of water and proper snacks (pb&j on whole grain, protein bars, fruits, salads, nuts, etc.) large meals will make you tired, save that for when you finish.

[Swaggin916]

JEFFERSON MONEY'S FREE STUDY TIPS FOR THE WORLD AFTER YEARS OF MEDIOCRITY AND FINALLY ... EXCELLENCE


Pre study routine (30 to 40 minutes of cardiovascular exercise with a green smoothie)

Study Session 1 (30 minutes)
Prime yourself to understand why you seek the material.
For each major key term sentence or concept digested, encode a movie scene with all senses which illustrate or perfectly.
If you are able to analogous the systematic relationship between a train of thought and another one. .. then quickly link then (this is stored in your hippocampus loop)
Create a story which anthromorphizes the ideas or makes it into a rap in an effective poignant way.

Brisk walk for five minutes


REPEAT.


REPEAT until 1 hour ends in your designated study time.

An hour to the end of your stay recap.

Then formulate it into questions and answer them.

NOW PLAY

GO TO SLEEP WITH THE STORY OR SONG YOU MADE AND DO IT IN THE MORNING.


GOOD LUCK.

Legit... I do mantras every night to help me dream... no reason I couldn't do the same thing with the visual story on replay until I go to sleep. Good call

[DeuceWallaces]

I'm happy you could put your two cents in on something you really know nothing about. Shame on me for my "unhealthy habits" of putting some old fashioned hard work in. I'm glad that I now know that studying hard = you're stupid.

Law isn't science. There is no real right answer. It's completely subjective on top of everybody being graded against each other. Those that don't put the time in simply don't do as well.

The bar is a 3 day marathon that covers 12 practice areas. You get one shot, and if you fail, you are f*cked for the next 6 months. You can't practice without passing and nobody wants to hire somebody that failed. Failure is a sign that you f*cked around instead of putting your hours in. Smart people don't chance it.

Actually I know quite a bit about it. I myself have been a natural science grad student many years, and I lived with and have been best friends with a Case student for many many years.

The only person bullshitting certainties on study habits, was you.

If you had to study for hours on end through law school and the bar, well, congratulations, but as I stated, that's only your experience and you should probably draw back on the hyperbole.

[Jailblazers7]

A lot of people I know who put in really crazy study hours did it more out of anxiety than anything else.

[Yoda]

Control, control, you must learn control!

[Ratnik]

Maaaan i cant even study for 30 minutes straight. Goddamn im gonna fail this year :facepalm

[Velocirap31]

Maaaan i cant even study for 30 minutes straight. Goddamn im gonna fail this year :facepalm

When it's the night before and failure is certain, your adrenaline will power you through a ten hour cram session.

[The_Yearning]

take some adderall

Who'd knew one of the biggest idiots in ISH with the most sound answer here.

[glidedrxlr22]

Myth. I just graduated at the top of my class - 3.97 (Masters of Accountancy). There is no reason to ever study that much. Possibly with projects etc it may come out to 4 hours a day max. As long as you get in a concentrated two hours a day tho it should not need to be that much. People confuse quality study time with quantity of time spent studying.

http://i.qkme.me/363j3e.jpg

[SupermanOnSteroids]

it is possible to study 6+ hrs a day. when i was in college i never studied during down time, but when it was test time, i was pulling all nighters studying 20+ hrs a day, provided breaks for eating and bathrooms. once you get you zone into a job, its hard to tear away from it. unfortunately for me this didn't happen until i was nearing a deadline and i found this to be the best way to do things for me. studying on the regular just didn't give me the urgency or the necessity to learn things for me. throw in a test deadline and all bets are off.

still did pretty well in college.

[Bandito]

I seldom study now and unless it is something that is gonna be useful to me in the future I will just zone out of it. I am sdoing a degree in Comp Science so you can guess what are my favorite classes. But for humanistic classes or crap like grammar and stuff I just barely do the work. Still have a 3.95 GPA though in case you're wondering.

[tmacattack33]

not a myth. you really can't get away with 4 hours a day for law school and especially the bar exam.

My brother recently finished med school. You aren't putting in 4 hour days for the boards either.

Yes i'm sure there are exceptions, but there are plenty of programs where you literally have to study as a full time job on top of your classes.

Yeah but Med school and law school are probably the two hardest programs out there.

An average graduate program probably isn't even half as intense.

[Velocirap31]

I should have studied more in university just out of pride. I still got by with C's and B's and got the degree, but my transcript isn't impressive by any means. My first two years were partying and having a serious girlfriend that I chose to hang out with over going to class. The next two were just playing video games too much. I was in Civil Engineering btw.

It's relatively easy to get hired with an Eng degree, but the best paying out-of-school jobs wanted a transcript, so I didn't get those.

[ILLsmak]

I've been going to this study room/library and I struggle to get to 3 or 4 hours a day. I take plenty of breaks, etc and it is still a struggle. I see this guy here everyday and he studies like 6 or 7 hours a day (assumedly...he is always here before I get here and bounces after I do).

depends on what you mean by study. I dunno why anyone would want to stare at a book for 6-7 hours a day, but if your mind is right you are always thinking about shit, putting shit together, and you might reach over and pick up a book to reinforce.

If you're studying the information 6-7 hours a day I'd argue you don't understand it at all.

I can spend hours consuming information, though, if it's something that interests me.

-Smak

[DeuceWallaces]

A lot of people I know who put in really crazy study hours did it more out of anxiety than anything else.

This is very true. Many people who study too much suffer from general anxiety. It just feeds their mental state; not necessarily benefiting them.

[triangleoffense]

People who can afford to do that are either on a crap ton of loans or on daddy's dime. I'm among those lucky few and you either need a lot of downtime afterwards to recooperate so you can actually soak in the information or adderall :oldlol

[oarabbus]

It's a myth in any field. You can only speak to your experience. Possibly you're just not as good at it? My best friend got his law degree at Case Western and I guarantee he was not doing anything near 4 hours a day.

That being said you should define "studying." Science graduate students are paid to work 40 hour weeks while registered. I guess one might call that studying, but I'm sure as hell not reading books to remember theories for oral or written examinations 6 hours a day.

Either way, those are not very healthy habits. Much better to spend less time more consistently than trying to cram several hours a day for a 1-2 week period in preparation for some type of exam. And that goes for nearly any skill you're trying to develop.

Any field? Not sure. Most fields, yes. For example I'd love to know how many people you know in med school who are "not doing anything near 4 hours a day" though.

I'm not saying they're studying 7 days a week. People will take their Fridays or Sundays or whatever off. But 5 days a week? I think so. Medical school isn't intellectually demanding the way a graduate science program is, it's not as conceptually difficult, but the volume of information is absurd. To the point that at least 25% of the students are putting in 4 hours daily, and not the bottom 25% or anything, but a good number of successful students.

[DeuceWallaces]

Two of my high school friends are surgeons. They studied a fair amount, but they were never that smart to begin with and I'll be damned if I ever let them operate on me.

I don't really hold medical or law degrees in such a high regard. Three years for a JD is a ****ing joke. Of my high school friends the dumb ones became lawyers and surgeons.

[Joyner82reload]

take some adderall

Pretty much this. I have a script and I don't even really have the disorder, got my sister to "diagnose" me.

I can sit down and study for 14-18 straight hours on addy.

[Shade8780]

Two of my high school friends are surgeons. They studied a fair amount, but they were never that smart to begin with and I'll be damned if I ever let them operate on me.

I don't really hold medical or law degrees in such a high regard. Three years for a JD is a ****ing joke. Of my high school friends the dumb ones became lawyers and surgeons.
You sound bitter.

Let it go.

[dannywpt]

I'm having trouble studying at all. Writing a master's thesis, but it's not due until mid may. Don't know how to motivate myself to get started.

[DukeDelonte13]

Two of my high school friends are surgeons. They studied a fair amount, but they were never that smart to begin with and I'll be damned if I ever let them operate on me.

I don't really hold medical or law degrees in such a high regard. Three years for a JD is a ****ing joke. Of my high school friends the dumb ones became lawyers and surgeons.


Everybody thinks lawyers are stupid, especially scientists and engineers. My sister is a post-doc biochemist working for NIH and my brother is a medical doctor. I have these discussions all the damn time.

This is the deal; in science the subject matter is much more difficult. In law, the study and practice is far more demanding, while the subject matter is a bit less dense. (Complicated areas can be very very difficult but most people don't get into those fields.)

JD programs aren't about teaching you the law or how to practice, it's a 3 year stress grinder where everybody is pitted against each other trying to cram the most information into their brains for one exam worth 100% of your grade. Factor in the inherent subjectiveness and arbitrariness of how exams are graded, and you wind up with an extremely demanding program. In science, A + B = C. In law, A + B = Whatever the professor, judge, or jury wants. (it's your job to convince them that they want what you do)

The curves are terrible too. Case grades on a B curve which is nice for them, but most schools grade on a C curve. Harvard doesn't even give grades.
So in a class out of 100 only a handful will get A's, 20 or so maybe B's and the vast majority get C's. C's devastate your GPA. I'm glad my 3 years of hell are over. I don't miss those weeks leading up to exams.

[FKAri]

Ask engineering students.

[Joyner82reload]

I live with 2 senior engineering majors, one is aero and another mechanical. It's awful how much time they put into studying, it's literally 8+ hours a day. The material is terrible and that's coming from a biochem major with a 3.7 GPA. And you get absolutely nothing out of it, while the vast majority of my studies are at least interesting to a certain point. Fluid Dynamics on the other hand? That shit is a joke, glad I only had to take Physics 1 and 2.

[oarabbus]

reported by the site include:
Two of my high school friends are surgeons. They studied a fair amount, but they were never that smart to begin with and I'll be damned if I ever let them operate on me.

I don't really hold medical or law degrees in such a high regard. Three years for a JD is a ****ing joke. Of my high school friends the dumb ones became lawyers and surgeons.


I've heard the stereotype that surgeons are the "frat boys" of medicine, so that checks out. Doctor worship is a bit ridiculous, but those that specialize tend to be pretty smart. I wouldn't blindly hold a MD to a high standard, but it is still impressive. If a guy is a cardiologist or neurologist, I'm going to assume he isn't a dumbass. But I think it's generally understood that except perhaps the most intensive specialties becoming a doc (in terms of rigor and difficulty) doesn't compare to someone who has a PhD in applied physics, cell biology, physical chemistry, etc. A hard science or engineering PhD is the most difficult degree to obtain (again, purely in terms of conceptual difficulty) in my opinion.



I live with 2 senior engineering majors, one is aero and another mechanical. It's awful how much time they put into studying, it's literally 8+ hours a day. The material is terrible and that's coming from a biochem major with a 3.7 GPA. And you get absolutely nothing out of it, while the vast majority of my studies are at least interesting to a certain point. Fluid Dynamics on the other hand? That shit is a joke, glad I only had to take Physics 1 and 2.


I'm not sure how intelligent your roommates are if they are putting in 8+ hours a day into their engineering program. I received my bachelors in an engineering program at top 50 nationally ranked school both the engineering program itself and the overall undergraduate ranking (not that that shit really matters, especially for engineering... Rando State U still teaches the same thermo, analytical/numerical methods, heat transfer, fluid dynamics, etc that is taught at Harvard, and in the real world the best engineers can come from anywhere) and I was definitely not putting in 8+ hours a day. That's an ABSURD amount of time to be studying. Maybe if they are 4.0 students I'll give them a pass. If they're putting in 8+/day and don't have better than a 3.9 they are doing something wrong. Engineering is very difficult though, no doubt.

[ace23]

I'm not sure how intelligent your roommates are if they are putting in 8+ hours a day into their engineering program. I received my bachelors in an engineering program at top 50 nationally ranked school both the engineering program itself and the overall undergraduate ranking (not that that shit really matters, especially for engineering... Rando State U still teaches the same thermo, analytical/numerical methods, heat transfer, fluid dynamics, etc that is taught at Harvard, and in the real world the best engineers can come from anywhere) and I was definitely not putting in 8+ hours a day. That's an ABSURD amount of time to be studying. Maybe if they are 4.0 students I'll give them a pass. If they're putting in 8+/day and don't have better than a 3.9 they are doing something wrong. Engineering is very difficult though, no doubt.
Yeah but it's obviously taught on a simpler level...

[JEFFERSON MONEY]

Deuce is right.

[ace23]

No, its really not. You pay at those schools for the name, and to be around certain groups of people.
I'm not going to argue with you. Just know that you're wrong.