Your Study Routines

[Stinkweed Imp]

Since Naveed has already leaked my secret carding session, I might as well post the thread I've been meaning to asking people to share their study routines. I'm more interested in hearing tales of legendary study binges than looking for advice (except maybe how to stay motivated during legendary study binges), though people with experience at the college nats+ level are encouraged to be specific.

[A Dim-Witted Saboteur]

It doesn't directly involve quiz bowl, but once in Undergrad my eligibility for FLAS (a fairly substantial and no-strings-attached federal grant you can get for studying certain languages which I was at the time using to pay rent) had run out for the language I was receiving it to study, so I needed to find a new one fast. I figured given my plans for the future that it was probably a good idea for me to learn Swahili. Unfortunately, they only offered FLAS for second-year Swahili students, with the result that by February I had a week before a meeting with the head of Michigan State's Swahili faculty to impress him with my knowledge enough to let me skip a year. I responded by remembering some legends of quiz bowl study binges past, checking out a British language textbook from the 60s from the library, then locking myself in my apartment until I knew Swahili. I filled a notebook with notes, did every grammar exercise in the textbook, probably lost a little bit of my sanity, and I felt ready. When I got into the professor's office, he said "good morning" and I froze and didn't remember how to respond-- I had never actually spoken to another person in the language. He did, in the event, agree to tutor me in his office hours until I could talk. Anyhow, that's probably the most I've actually applied myself to studying for anything-- my quiz bowl study methods are usually reasonably casual.

[Stinkweed Imp]

Anyhow, that's probably the most I've actually applied myself to studying for anything-- my quiz bowl study methods are usually reasonably casual.

I'd also be interested in hearing about more casual methods, especially when they've been proven to work well. Top players' tendency toward self-deprecation definitely extends to understating how much work they put into the game, and one of the reasons I made this thread was to try to counteract that.

[Tejas]

I'd count myself as one of the more casual studiers. My last year of school when I decided to learn history, I mostly started by reading through hard sets (at the time CHBB, CO History, CO, ACF Nats) and basically getting a sense of what the hard canon is like and what types of areas to focus on.

After graduating, I've mostly just studied by doing basic things like reading through newer sets, writing questions, listening to podcasts, and reading books (mostly leaning towards popular history books by actual historians). I've never really gone on a study binge or anything, I've mostly just incrementally gotten better by being involved in writing and playing to keep my knowledge base up to date while spending a moderate amount of time learning new things.

My main advice if you're looking to improve is:

• Figure out what study methods both keep you interested and produce tangible improvement. Try different things and then test yourself by playing the subject on QBReader or reading through newer packets of the appropriate level.
• Writing questions is the often the best way to retain information as long as you spend time researching to polish a question instead of just writing down stuff you know.
• Improving takes a lot less time/effort than you think. You can get much better just by incorporating a relatively small amount of studying into your daily routine.