How to study 12+ hours per day without hurting your

[mathboy]

Ehh, I'm not sure how you came up with this, but you may want to check your math :-) What you outlined is not equivalent to full time hours; you would need to neglect the two hours you spent studying during the day, double the four hours you spent in class, and add some travel time in there.

One of my high school math teachers told me that he spends only 4 hours per day with his duties (having to each 3 classes per day) and during his spare period and lunch he would have about 2 hours to do anything he wanted. So today I spent full-time hours by his clock. In essence, he can get 10 hours of math research done per day.

 

[Lucretius]

I have to agree with everyone here when I say: studying 10-12 hours a day is way too much time.

Not only is it wasteful to study that long (not to mention to try it in one sitting), it takes away every other aspect of your life.

You need to make time for socializing and exercise. Look, my dating life is nothing magical either, but I still do it when I get the chance. It's not a focal point in my life, but I don't neglect it, or turn down a date because I want to study 12 hours a day. And without exercise, you will become Jabba The Hut in that chair of yours. Or you might grow into it. You need to maintain your physique.

A mathematician has to be healthy: both physically and mentally. As do all people! Isolating yourself from 99.999% of social contact with others is plain unhealthy, and not exercising isn't a good thing either!

 

[mr_coffee]

And without exercise, you will become Jabba The Hut in that chair of yours.

hah i was picturing the same thing.

 

[ktm]

At first I didn't want to post here, but I'm really tired of all these stupid responses about how mathboy is studying too much and needs to get a life. I would wager that 9 out of 10 of the people who make these posts are academically mediocre. And yes, a 4.0 GPA can still be mediocre; GPA does not determine the rigor of the college or the courseload. Note that I don't plan to respond to any whining about the above comments, as it would be a waste of my time. One last remark about this thread: I think you should ignore the stupid posts in this thread, and save your attention to the thoughtful ones (they're pretty easy to separate). In other words, don't let an inane majority intimidate you.

mathboy, your passion is great. I personally think you should see a doctor about health concerns, especially if you think this lifestyle will persist later into your life. With the doctor's advice, I think you can cover your tracks in terms of health without any significant sacrifice in your study schedule. In the long run, a healthy life will make you more productive, as it may prevent health conditions that would thwart your studies later in life. While I don't think that socializing is essential like health is, I think you should carefully consider it, as even 1hr a week invested in socializing can be very rewarding. I think that there are many happy and successful researchers who do spend some time with family and friends, and that there many who don't.

Some ideas about health and socializing (which don't substitute for seeing a doctor) that I don't think will take away from your study schedule:
1. 20-30 min walk/jog/run around the block every day
2. getting up every once in a while during your studying to stretch (probably will help your sore bum)
3. spending some time with family and friends over breakfast, lunch, and dinner
4. watching a 2hr movie with family or friends on the weekend (since it's the weekend, the 2hrs won't prevent you from achieving the desired time studying)
5. math friend(s), either ones you see in real life every once in a while, or ones that you email every once in a while

Remember, I'm no doctor, and I might be wrong, so I think it's best to see a doctor (and maybe even talk to him or her about the value of socializing). But I'll repeat myself and say that I don't think a doctor's suggestions would take away from your studying, either. It may also be valuable to talk to a math professor of yours who does math research, and ask them their opinion on your schedule, and maybe what their schedule is like as well.

 

[mr_coffee]

At first I didn't want to post here, but I'm really tired of all these stupid responses about how mathboy is studying too much and needs to get a life. I would wager that 9 out of 10 of the people who make these posts are academically mediocre. And yes, a 4.0 GPA can still be mediocre; GPA does not determine the rigor of the college or the courseload. Note that I don't plan to respond to any whining about the above comments, as it would be a waste of my time. One last remark about this thread: I think you should ignore the stupid posts in this thread, and save your attention to the thoughtful ones (they're pretty easy to separate). In other words, don't let an inane majority intimidate you.

I'll admit I am academically mediocre but I have a great body, great job, wonderful girlfriend, and lots of friends to keep me company if I'm feeling depressed or bored.

Frankly I'd take family and friends over a high GPA any day. Some day will come when (insert name here) will look at all his/her books and realize they have nothing but the books to keep him/her company and that will be a lonely day in your life when it hits whoever it may be.

The not so positive comments about his studying habits are good. He shouldn't ignore them he should realize its going to hit him one day and he's going to be very unhappy if he keeps himself away from any type of social life. It might not be now, it might not be 10-15 years from now, it might be when his passion for his studying dies, that's when it will. If it doesn't ever die then I salute him, but if it does, look out.

This also brings up another great point, if you have no social skills your not going to get hired by anyone. All of my job interviews the first thing they do is see if you will FIT into the company, if you can't even get past that first part of the interview it doesn't matter how much you know. You don't get the 2nd interview. Lots of kids trying to get into IBM were smarting than me, but they had no social skills. When I left the interview the manager said I really like your attitude, you seem like the kind of person who would fit great into this company. The funniest part was, I had NO core computer science courses, he counted them and was like hm..it looks like you have only 2 computer science courses related to this job. My other friend was a senior who had a very similar GPA as me, I have a 3.64 but had much more experience but lacked social skills and didn't get the 2nd interview. So social skills are just as important as technical skills. The best way to get better at social skills are to get out of your chair.

 

[Ki Man]

I would wager that 9 out of 10 of the people who make these posts are academically mediocre. And yes, a 4.0 GPA can still be mediocre; GPA does not determine the rigor of the college or the courseload. Note that I don't plan to respond to any whining about the above comments, as it would be a waste of my time. One last remark about this thread: I think you should ignore the stupid posts in this thread, and save your attention to the thoughtful ones (they're pretty easy to separate). In other words, don't let an inane majority intimidate you.

I don't know anything about being mediocre but I suppose if he loves math enough to study 12 hours a day then there's not much we can do to tell him otherwise. I know I'd jump on the chance if someone gave me the ability to do physics all day It may seem like some of the people are being hard on him, but I think its all with good intentions.

As for the rump: I think just simply getting up every hour should be enough to keep your rump from getting sore. If you can go out for a walk, that's great but if you've not chance, that's OK too. (I'm not saying that you shouldn't walk, on the contrary a good walk would be the best course of action, but sometimes that just isn't an option.) Just stand up, even if its for only a minute or two, make sure there's a little spot in the room where the floor is clear enough for you to move around a little bit (this is only an issue if your room is as messy and unorganized as mine) maybe jump around a bit, pace around, get the blood flowing, do one or two simple stretches. It doesn't have to be much but the fact that you are getting out of the chair as opposed to staying rooted into it for a few hours straight will make a big difference. If possible you may even want to do some quick and simple yoga poses before going back to work. If you're not going to leave your studies, this is the least you should do. Also, if the problem persists, it might be the chair too. In that case you should look into getting one that's more ergonomically correct.

http://www.abc-of-fitness.com/stretching-exercise/leg-stretch.asp"

http://www.abc-of-yoga.com/yogabeginnersguide.asp"

 

[andytoh]

I study more than 15 hrs per day (counting classes). Actually I have to count right now to see how many.

Wake up - finish eating (6am-~7:30 am) no studying yet.
Take the bus to go to school (~7:34-~8:30am) I study while I'm on the bus so (1hr)
Study before class (8:30-10:00am) [2.5hr]
2 classes (10am-12pm) [4.5hr]
Lunh break (12-12:30pm)
Study before class (12:30-1pm) [5hr]
2 classes (1-3pm) [7hr]
go home on bus (3:09-~4:09) [8hr] I study while on the bus.
Eat and spend time with my family (~4:09-5:00)
Do homework/go over notes/study out of some math books (5:00pm-1:00am)[8hr]
Sleep (1:am-6:00am)

So I guess its about 16 hrs per day on MWF. Its about the same on tuesdays and thursdays except I don't have to spend any time preparing lunch between waking up and leaving for school. I'll just eat right before leaving and eat when I come back since those days I only have 3hrs at school and 1hr ar school respectively.

But yeah... sleeping is reduced (I tried to sleep about 8 hrs per day when I was on break) and eating is done when there is time. I als take sandwiches which I eat between classes. I eat some fruit while I am studying for the 8hr block. But it doesn't take anymore than 2 minutes or less from studying just to et my fruit and wash it.

From
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=149938

His 16 hours minus 4 hours of class = 12 hours of studying, just like mathboy.

 

[Upgrayed]

put some soft pillow on the seat u will be fine

 

[jackinoffjill]

to not hurt your bum i suggest you do kegal exercises as in what women do they squeeze their bum cheeks. don't sit forever on your bum u will get athritis and hemmorhoids so you won't be able to relieve that from your bum. OK

 

[Alixia]

oh no, you can't be a legend by spending 12 hours per whole day just to study XD
go out shoot some deers with your dog, man XD

by the way, what is the standard numbers of hour to study in a day? 6? that's my limit lol

 

[JasonRox]

If you need to study 12 hours a day to get a 4.0, that is NOT good. That is mediocre. You ain't smart if you need that much ****ing time. Get real.

 

[BioCore]

If you need to study 12 hours a day to get a 4.0, that is NOT good. That is mediocre. You ain't smart if you need that much ****ing time. Get real.

I agree with Jason here. I mean if your seriously doing that much studying in one field to get a 4.0, then there is something wrong with the way you study.

But then we also have to think about what course your studying. I think when it comes to math, I probably would also do about 10 hours not 12 of studying. The reason being that I tend to get the theories of math but don't do a lot of problems, thus on test time I don't do too well when harder questions appear. Although in my Biology course (first one in my first year of uni) I got a 4.0 average with only about 2 to 3 hours of studying Bio each day I would say.

I am still taking calculus as it is a full year course, and my last math hopefully.

@ Mathboy:

Do you mind if I ask whether you study more than one course in those 12 hours? Seems to me that a lot of people think you only study one course, although you probably study only one subject but what about the number of courses? Do you give time to all of them or just focus on one every day?

 

[Cyrus]

At first I didn't want to post here, but I'm really tired of all these stupid responses about how mathboy is studying too much and needs to get a life. I would wager that 9 out of 10 of the people who make these posts are academically mediocre.

Are you serious? If so, I feel sorry for you. PS, the people posting here are probably much smarter than you give them credit for. That being said, be thankful the next time you open your mouth and ask for help and one of us provide you with an answer. Otherwise, its in bad taste for you to waltz in here and make claims on our intelligence with your entire 9 posts.

Its quite hypocritical of you to be tired of 'stupid responses' and then sum them up our very responses in bullet form yourself as if they were your ideas.

 

[BioCore]

At first I didn't want to post here, but I'm really tired of all these stupid responses about how mathboy is studying too much and needs to get a life. I would wager that 9 out of 10 of the people who make these posts are academically mediocre.

I would also like to say that ktm, you should first study these forums closely to understand what type of people you are dealing with before you claim something. Another thing, most of these posts are not saying that he should get a life, well at least not in the sense that he is a loner! But rather that the human mind is made/fashioned in a way that you have to have human physical (speech) contact, or else you could go crazy!

Not only that, I have heard about a lot of people who have actually studied almost their whole lives and then finally in the end they just cracked. The brain was not made for very long continuous stretches of work. You can train it, but even then you need to give it some rest. Besides, I know a lot of people who had awesome social lives, studied enough (and I know this because my mom's cousin is currently doing his PhD. and he never gave up the chance to socialize).

 

[binzing]

Don't EVEN, try to pull the Asbergers/Autism BS. I technically have PDD( I think its BS, and my mom just uses it as an excuse to yell at me(along with my bastardry)) and I couldn't study like that for money. So don't pull that crap.

 

[rocomath]

He obviously just wants attention, gj feeding it to him.

If you need to study 12 hours a day to get a 4.0, that is NOT good. That is mediocre. You ain't smart if you need that much ****ing time. Get real.

Lol, couldn't agree more!

 

[Cyrus]

Actually, I think he's telling the truth. He has a lot of posts in the math subforums.

 

[ktm]

I reviewed the thread and realized there were only a few posts that bugged me. It seems these few posts set the atmosphere for me in this thread. I'm sorry if I gave the wrong impression.

I was also bugged that it seemed like posters here were persuading the OP to change his lifestyle. I think it makes sense for the OP to ask a research math professor how much time he or she spends on math every day, as well as a doctor concerning the health issues. I have no problem with advice stated here, and I think it can be valuable, but I don't think he should make his decision off of this thread alone.

I will take some time to criticize one post that followed my own:
"If you need to study 12 hours a day to get a 4.0, that is NOT good. That is mediocre. You ain't smart if you need that much ****ing time. Get real."

This post makes the faulty, rather shallow assumption that he's only studying to get a 4.0. Does this poster not understand the idea of studying for the purpose of learning and doing math? He could in fact be studying materials outside of his classes. He could also be doing problems or chapters in his textbooks that his professors doesn't assign, There are also situations where a student gets permission from the dean to take more than the maximum number of credits allowed in a semester, and hence has an unusually heavy course load. In fact, the entire persuasive power of this post (which merits none) lies in its obnoxious attitude, which combined with a few other posts in this thread could fluster the OP and affect his decision without any good reason. It could also make him feel unwelcome on these forums. IIRC, he hasn't posted in this thread for a while, has he?

I assume someone is going to say that my post had a similarly obnoxious attitude. But 1) my post was not devoid of content like that above and 2) there were only a few people whom I was reacting to in my post, and I apologize to those who felt targeted but were not meant to be targeted.

 

[Coto]

The effectiveness of retaining information when studying for long periods of time go down. Especially when you're only studying a single subject. Switching from calc to lin. algebra to analysis to geometry over the course of a day is an extremely inefficient way of studying. Inspiration comes from living in general, and as other's have already pointed out, it yields more harm than good to focus on solely a single thing for day after day, hour after hour.

I'm not saying it's required that you go get a "life". What I'm saying is, if you focus too narrowly on a single thing (hobby), you will be an inefficient learner, and the wisdom that you would normally obtain over the years is lost in the hours of surplus time (which may seem productive, but your mind just does not work as quickly or efficiently when you do this) that you spend per day to study more.

Don't get me wrong. I've finished up my physics degree now, and for a few semesters I was working my ass off just to finish assignments and keep on top of the material each week. I understand how easy it is to become a 12hr study day, but I can't stress enough how much time you are truly wasting when you do this. Perhaps if the workload warrants that you have to do it, then so be it.. but otherwise, get your 8hrs of sleep, enjoy a couple hours of music and entertainment, get into the habit of doing some sort of exercise every day, and you'll find that a balanced day will cause you to accomplish as much studying as you are doing now in half the time.

 

[Saladsamurai]

If you need to study 12 hours a day to get a 4.0, that is NOT good. That is mediocre. You ain't smart if you need that much ****ing time. Get real.

He obviously just wants attention, gj feeding it to him.

Lol, couldn't agree more!

Well, we can't all be naturally brilliant like you guys

 

[mathboy]

Ok, over the past week or so I have been enjoyably studying for about 9 to 10 hours per day (outside of class time). What I do is I study from textbooks that I'm not even taking courses in. I don't study just for marks, but to learn. And I would do the same thing even if I wasn't taking any courses. That's why I need so many hours to study.

 

[BioCore]

Ok, over the past week or so I have been enjoyably studying for about 9 to 10 hours per day (outside of class time). What I do is I study from textbooks that I'm not even taking courses in. I don't study just for marks, but to learn. And I would do the same thing even if I wasn't taking any courses. That's why I need so many hours to study.

After Reading this post all I can say is keep at it then. I know a lot of students like you who actually did well in school and social life. It is good though that you cut down your study time by a bit, good to take a break once in a while. Seeing a you have an interesting method of studying for math courses, I was wondering: when you say you do all the exercises from the chapter your studying; do you mean you do all the questions from that chapter?

I am required to take one calculus course for my Life Science program, in my first year and I am trying to find a way to efficiently study and get all the theories understood. Some people have told me to do this very thing, as in do more than what is assigned. Would you recommend for someone like me that will only take one math course to also do this, as in do all the questions from a section/chapter?

 

[mathboy]

I do every question offered in my textbook, and if I feel I need more, I go into another textbook. Doing every single question takes a lot of time, so do it only if you are willing to sacrifice hours for other things.

 

[BioCore]

That is actually one of my main concerns. I want to try and find a way to study efficiently, just so much that I can understand the theorems and be able to use them in any manner that comes in a test or exam. The reason is that this is the only math course I will take in my whole 4 years of university, and seeing as a lot of it I will not be using would be better that I spend my time on other more important courses such as Biology and Chemistry.

 

[bmm9]

My desk at home is really small and uncomfortable so i tend to stand up and use my white board when I'm working out problems. If you go to Lowe's, they sell sheets of white board material for $10. The only down side is my feet hurt from this, but I need new shoes. You might want to try to get into some research with other people - it can be fun and you don't feel like the time could have been better spent.

 

[mathboy]

I always type out my work and save it, because people always forget later on what they learned. This way I can always review my work later on, and perhaps modify it as I become better.

 

[bmm9]

I record my results in a notebook, since typing up work in TeX usually takes too long. I like to keep it neat so I do my work out on the board or on scrap. If you write carefully your notes should be legible, but it tends to take a lot less time to write notation than type it (maybe not in LaTeX?).

Try to make the most of your time. I used to try to do every problem, but now if the problems are just calculations, I'll pick a few, and if I get stuck on something that isn't essential, I'll move on. Also, I used to copy down theorems before I proved them, and copied down definitions before making examples, but now I usually just write "proof of theorem... ", and I only write out a definition if they give it to you in words (to get quantization right).

 

[mathboy]

I use Mathtype to type out my work. No coding necessary, and quick keyboard shortcuts available. It's super fast. In fact, it's faster than writing down the solution by hand because you can easily copy and paste many expressions. Plus it's easy to edit solutions when you later realized you made a mistake somewhere.

 

[Werg22]

I think it's much better to spend time thinking and fine tunning our conceptions than absorbing raw information for several hours.

 

[mathboy]

I think it's much better to spend time thinking and fine tunning our conceptions than absorbing raw information for several hours.

What do you mean by thinking and fine-tuning conceptions? You mean just reflecting over what you've learned and rereading current notes?

 

[leon1127]

This is how i studied when I was taking 31 credits.
Wake up at 0800
drive to school
class until lunch.
drive to other school and have my lunch, meanwhile I do mild reading for the afternoon class.
after class, I study at library for a little.
I go play pool for an hour.
Drive to starbucks and continue my study.
go home and do some bed time studying.

Have you tried go different places to study during a day? Sitting at the same place for a long time is not a very good environment to study.

Now being in grad school, my reading has gotten more intensive and yet study at different places during the day is still a very sufficient way to study for me.

 

[PowerIso]

Hmm I guess I just don't see a real point in 12 hours of studying known information. It just seems like you are trying to jump the gun and get ahead really quickly. Slow down and turn some of that study time into research time. I can promise you that if you spent your time researching a topic, it will prepare you better for a future career in academics and challenge your brain more than doing problems with known solutions. Talk to a professor for some easy research ideas. Research it, write an abstract and present it.

Not only will you grow as an academic, but you will also improve your status as a serious learner. No one can really see if you study 12 hours a day, but people can see if you have done research. Use your time wisely.

 

[mathboy]

I am doing research, for my current level. I'm only in first year university where only Calculus 1, Linear algebra 1, Analysis 1, Physics 1 are offered to me. Right now I'm studying the Linear Algebra 2, Calculus 2, and Topology, which is pretty much research to me because no one in my classes knows those stuff.

 

[cristo]

I'm amazed that one can find enough time in a day to study for 12 hours, let alone have the drive to do so. The only time I was ever spending anything like that amount of time on studies was during exam periods, and then I had to cope with hardly any sleep. I just don't understand how you can study for 12 hours, having only one 15 minute break for lunch. I mean, what about breakfast, or dinner? What about random afternoon breaks for tea, or watching your favourite TV show, or chatting on the phone, or in person, with friends. If I planned a 12 hour day of study I would probably actually get around 7 or 8 hours done; and I'd be pleased with that!

Many people have said this, but you don't really seem to listen: it's your prerogative. But, at least for me, university is not just about learning your subject, but it's also about learning things about yourself. It's about increasing your social skills, and maybe trying things that you will never have the chance to do again. After all, if you want to get a "real" job, then you will need some social skills. How will you answer questions at interviews without them? Whilst top grades are important, so are other things. I will guarantee you that whatever job you will go up for there will be candidates whose record is as academically sound as yours but who have other, extra curricular things on there. Who do you think will get the job?

 

[Substance D]

If you want a good stretch that will help you after sitting for awhile and you can do it using a chair...

stand up, and put your left or right leg on the seat of the chair (doesnt matter how high the chair is, but your flexibility level could prevent you from doing this on a higher chair), keep both your legs straight, keep your back as straight as you can and try and touch your toes on the foot that's on the chair, make sure you bend from the hips. This will stretch out your hamstrings and your butt muscles really nicely. Then switch feet. I hope this description makes sense :)