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Just my 2 cents, this is what I find working for me: - I found that I can retain much better if the course has readings. It can be lecture notes in textbook form (not presentation), or just a textbook. I found that without this, if all they provide are presentations, or blackboard work, then it is very hard to retain what I learnt long after the semester ended. (You could say I should create my own notes, but paying to learn is essentially to be more time efficient. I really don’t have time to create my own “textbook” from their blackboard work. I envy those that can transcribe in LaTeX in real time.)
- creating cheat sheet (even if the exam don’t allow them and just for personal reference) is useful to keep the big picture, make you be successful in the semester, and can be useful in the long run. But especially if you are page limited due to exam requirement, the cheat sheet can becomes cryptic for your future self. I think this is a must for any course.
- I lately also creates personal wikis to hold my knowledge. Basically Wikipedia is a very successful medium even for stuffs you know, you can look it up there to retain your old stuffs. Personal wiki is basically try to recreate the Wikipedia experience tailored for personal use, meaning only for relevant stuffs (say san history), or even links to various useful sections and other site such as math world. One tip is that in Chrome there’s an extension to force MathJax on Wikipedia, and with that you can click on a Math equation and copy and paste LaTeX in your personal wiki. (As it is personal, there’s no copyright issue, but if you share make sure the license is compatible and cite.)
- 2nd brain: the last point about personal wiki may be similar to what some might call a 2nd brain. I still didn’t attain it (my “database” is fragmented in various places.) But I should learn more about that and may be one day I can build one. What I said is more about being able to retain knowledge in the long run. Eg the real world doesn’t care if you make a search to find stuffs. So what I said is more about how not to let what you learnt be wasted because you can’t retrieve them. Lastly, I find teaching very useful too. Being about to teach makes sure you truly understand a subject, and even reorganize it in a manner that’s easier to understand. But often you can’t control what you teach. You can’t say today I want to master Stochastic Differential Equation and let’s teach a course about that. But on the other hand, try to spend some time teaching some concept you find hard to grasp can be useful (audience and feedback like questions can provoke your mind to finally click.) |