Never Multitask

This concept corresponds roughly to what we think of as our mental bandwidth. It can only hold a few items at a time.

The fix is to slow things down. Write out what you’re trying to learn on a piece of paper, and go through each sentence or step in a calculation one-at-a-time.

Whenever you’re struggling to learn anything, always ask if you’ve mastered the basics.

Retrieval practice—where you shut the book and try to recall what you’ve learned without looking at it—is one of the most effective studying techniques.

A clever experimental manipulation found that the students who would have chosen passive review, nonetheless did better when they were forced to do practice instead.

Instead of trying to understand the idea all at once, you need to ask yourself what’s missing to understand it.

Genuine interest can’t be faked, but it can be fostered.

The teacher often learns more than the student. Teaching something, even if just pretending, forces you to confront what you know and don’t know.

If you can be exposed to a fact, idea or procedure multiple times, you’ll retain it far longer than if you experience it only once.