[jgamman]

I try and write a tutorial about a subject-chunk - the kind of tutorial that i think would have made sense to me if I'd read it before writing it. you have to suspend the obvious fact that by writing the tutorial you've learnt more and probably wouldn't have understood it at the beginning anyway but let that go for a while.

part of writing the tutorial is exercises - i like a stripped down flash card system. i try and do random-10 as regularly as possible. at the beginning, there's lots of jargon with scripted answers (ie, what is a blah?) but after a while you can move those to the back and you're left with some multi-step questions - over time (because i'm not trying to memorise the answer pattern) i find that i internalise a kind of narrative that uses the concepts/jargon to grope my way to the answer ie, hmmm looks like an aqueous equilibria question, probably need the equilibrium expression (jot that down) and HCl is a strong acid, so i can ignore those two terms and oh look... there's the answer if I just do this and that. Over time, it's the 'groping for an answer' that sticks as a habit of thought and seems to be quite robust. having said all that, i'm craphouse at maths but i'm hoping to get into one day.