r/studying

I used to believe I comprehended everything I studied however, when I reread it, it all made sense but during exams, I couldn’t recall it.

That’s when I realized that recognizing something isn’t the same as knowing it.

If you only understand it while looking at it, it’s not fully learned yet and what truly matters is being able to recall it without assistance.

Hi everyone,

I'm a student currently studying for my A/Ls, and I recently realized that I spend way too much time organizing and building my 'productive' study planners or schedules, just for the sake of it to look 'aesthetic'. I’m using Notion for notes, Anki for flashcards, Notion Calendar for my schedule, and a random Pomodoro timer in a dscord channel. It’s a mess. Instead, I would like to get right into studying rather than customizing my Notion pages and calendars. In my opinion, it's an unnecessary hassle.

I'm building a platform to solve this problem. My goal was to create a zero-hassle, co-pilot sort of thing for learning. For example, if you're studying for an exam, all you have to do is input your exam date and all the notes or syllabi, and whenever you open the platform, it'll tell you what to study and for how long, based on the difficulty of the subject or if it's something you're about to forget based on active recall.

So I have a few questions to make this UX the best it can be:

1. Would you rather have a clean, minimalistic dashboard that directly tells you what to study at a particular moment or a very advanced and heavy interface?

2. How important is it to be able to import from Notion/obsidian/anki and any of your other apps you currently use?

3. Do leaderboards and study groups actually help you study, or are they just a whole other distraction where you put your energy into?

4. What is your biggest friction point you face in your current study system? (missing a session, having to manually adjust study blocks if you don't feel like studying, etc.)

5. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you enjoy setting up a new study system (organizing folders, making cards, etc.) vs the actual studying?

6. If you had previously used a study application and quit, what was the reason for it? Was it too complicated or did it not help you at all?

7. and finally, What specific features would make you pay for a subscription?

You don't have to answer all these questions at all, instead you could also give me suggestions which would help out massively, Thank you for taking your time to read this.

This is not a promo, I just want to know what features users prioritize.

In 17 days, I have a pharmacy exam that I must pass or I will be removed from the course. I have around 50 lectures that I’m not familiar with, but I’m aiming to achieve at least 60% to improve my GPA. What is the best way to approach this?

I built a Chrome extension called Answerly AI and it's actually cool for Canvas.

It has a Quiz Solver Mode that detects every question on your Canvas quiz automatically and gives you AI powered answers one by one as you go through it, a Solve All button that answers every single question on the page at once with one click, a Screenshot Tool for when the question is an image or graph that it reads and still gives you the answer, and a Stealth Mode that hides the entire extension UI so nothing shows up on your screen if someone is watching or you're on a video call.

The best part is it is completely undetectable and foolproof, it stays inside your tab the entire time so there is no tab switching which means teachers cannot log any suspicious activity, and the stealth mode on top of that is actually insane. Works directly inside Canvas.

https://getanswerlyai.com/

I used to plan study sessions and stress about how much energy I'll have for it. Block off an hour, sit down, get focused, push through. When the hour didn't happen (and it often didn't), I'd feel guilty and skip the day entirely. All-or-nothing.

What actually moved the needle for me was the opposite: stop trying to study, and start making it impossible not to.

The trick I've found for myself to put your study material somewhere you already look. I waste a stupid amount of time glancing at my phone, so that's where I put the friction. A flashcard or quiz widget on my home screen means every time I unlock my phone, I see one card. I don't have to "decide to study." I just see it. Sometimes I tap through three cards. Sometimes ten. Sometimes I ignore it. But over a week it adds up to more practice than I expected.

The app I have for this is Glimpse, but the principle works with anything that puts material in front of you passively.