How to Study STEM

Usually in the second term of first year, and nobody warns you. You read the chapter and understand it, revise the notes and feel fine, then walk into the test and can't start question two. The material makes sense when you look at it. It just isn't there when you need it.

That's a mismatch between a study method and a kind of knowledge. School subjects are made of facts and drilled procedures. A STEM degree is made of methods you have to select and apply to something you haven't seen, and the techniques that work for one are close to useless for the other.

So the fix isn't working harder. It's changing what the hours contain.

Two PDF editions are included

Your order includes the complete book in both layouts. Use the 6 × 9 edition when you want the paperback reading experience or a compact printout. Use the A4 edition for a larger screen page and easier home or office printing.

• 6 × 9 print edition: 121 pages
• A4 screen edition: 93 pages
• Both files are DRM-free PDFs
• Both editions contain the same complete book

What this book helps you do

• Retrieval, spacing and interleaving rebuilt for methods, not facts
• The ten minutes after a lecture that do the most per minute
• Four artefacts you build in five-minute pieces and revise from
• Why blocked practice feels productive and trains the wrong half
• Three complete worked weeks, including one that goes wrong
• An honest account of what the evidence supports, and what it doesn't

Table of contents

The downloadable editions include the complete chapters and toolkit listed below.

Why It Stopped Working

1. The Method Is the Unit
2. Why School Study Skills Fail
3. The Illusion of Fluency

The Mechanics

4. Retrieval, When There's Nothing to Recall
5. Spacing
6. Interleaving, and Why Blocked Practice Lies
7. Desirable Difficulty
8. Worked Examples, Used Properly
9. Elaboration: Asking Why It Works

The Artefacts

10. The Problem Log
11. Method Cards
12. The Error Log
13. Summary Sheets and Method Maps

The Week

14. Before the Lecture
15. In the Lecture
16. After the Lecture: The Forty-Eight Hour Rule
17. Problem Sets Without Suffering
18. Study Groups That Work
19. Office Hours

The Term, and the Years

20. Planning a Term
21. Slumps, and Getting Back
22. Labs, Projects, and Coursework
23. Handing Off to the Exam

Toolkit

1. Three Worked Weeks
2. The Problem Log Template
3. Method Card Templates
4. The Error Log Template
5. What the Evidence Actually Says
6. Further Reading, Honestly Annotated

Edition details

• Title: How to Study STEM
• Subtitle: A Working System for Problem-Solving Subjects
• Author: Gaurav Tiwari
• Publisher: Gaurav Tiwari Publications
• Formats: 6 × 9 PDF and A4 PDF
• Language: English

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