Doing well in your courses: Andrej's advice for success (2013)

Value of University and Exams

• Split views: some see university as a “scam” where they learned more via self-study and projects; others say courses, mentors, and peers were crucial, especially for networking and life-long friendships.
• Many criticize exams as arbitrary, curve-driven, and easy to game; others argue you must still play the game because GPA matters for early jobs and grad school.

Studying and Test Strategy

• Broad support for: working problems (not just reading), revisiting material repeatedly, and re-deriving proofs/solutions.
• Several endorse exam tactics: first-pass triage of questions by difficulty/points, braindumping formulas at the start, never leaving early and doing multiple review passes.
• Strong disagreement on “cram intensely right before the test”: some see last-minute study as essential; others find it counterproductive and stress-inducing.

Lectures, Notes, and Environments

• One popular technique: actively predict what the lecturer will say/write next to stay engaged; contrasted with heavy note-taking as another effective but opposite strategy.
• Many criticize slide-heavy lectures; preference for chalkboard or annotated slides that show real-time thinking.
• Study-environment advice is contested: quiet libraries help some; others need semi-busy cafés with music and find silence distracting.

Group Study, Office Hours, and Networking

• Group study is widely praised as a “force multiplier”; teaching weaker peers deepens understanding.
• Regret from some who skipped office hours; others find using office hours as a way to “game” the prof ethically dubious.
• Several emphasize that making friends and building a network is as important as grades.

Grading Curves, GPA, and Fairness

• Much debate over grading on a curve: some see it as empirically unfair and distortionary; others say it corrects for varying exam difficulty and teaching quality.
• Strategic implications: in “easy” high-attendance courses you must outperform more students; in hard niche courses, lower raw scores can curve to high grades.

Discipline, Consistency, and Metacognition

• Consensus that time management, daily practice, and persistence matter more than clever hacks.
• Comments highlight spaced repetition, small daily progress, and “compound interest” in knowledge.
• Skepticism toward faddish “learning methods,” but broad agreement that metacognitive strategies (knowing how you learn, adjusting environment/technique) are powerful.