The 35 Hour Rule

I want to share with you a few frameworks that might be useful for studying for your exams.

Most students don't have a set strategy to. In fact, no one strategy works for every class.

When asked what is the highest technique, Martial Arts Legend Bruce Lee responded: "To have no technique." What he meant here is that you need to be flexible and adapt based on your circumstances.

While your study methods should vary from class to class, there are frameworks you can use as guiding principles.

1. The 35 Hour Rule

There are two things you need to carve out time for when studying (1) Reviewing the material and (2) application of the material. Ideally, in STEM courses you will have done practice problems throughout the semester.

If you've read my post on the question log, I outline that you should have marked all the difficult problems that you've done and redo them at finals.

The 35 hour rule suggests that you set aside 20 hours for review and 15 hours for practice problems. While reviewing you condense your notes into key points that you have to memorize/have a solid understanding of. With practice problems you continue to mark and redo only the ones you've gotten wrong until there are none left.

By allocating 35 hours per exam you have a rough estimate of the amount of work that needs to be done and how to use your time.

2 .The 5 Pass Method

Another useful framework is to aim for 5 passes when reviewing the material. The first can be while paying attention during lecture (if you're on Netflix or IG that doesn't count as a pass). The second pass would be allocated towards condensing your notes.

The 3rd pass can be review of the material and the 4th pass can be allocated towards active recall where you try to draw all the material out from your memory to objectively see what you missed. This can be a brain dump of all the material such that you know exactly what you have left to get down.

The 5th pass should focus only on the things you have yet to grasp perfectly.

These frameworks can be incredibly helpful. You may not have the time to follow through on them but using them to guide your efforts can be incredibly helpful.