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Ok folks, so here, I'm going to teach you how to study, which is something that I'm currently learning myself as well. In this guide, things written with non-italic will be the actual guide and things written with italic will be personal bullshitting. I don't think you're going to learn anything from italic part, so you can skip them while reading. This may be will be the great wall of text but this wall will be totally worth climbing up, or down in this case.
Content:
1- How to study at a café
1a- Café study with its purposes
1b- Things to do and not to do while studying
2- Café culture
2a- What to order at a café and what not to with reasoning
2b- What kind of café to choose
2c- What time to study at a café
Introduction: I'm a 19 year old university student who lives with his family and has bad grades. Starting from this term, I decided to skyrock my grades and thus feel more comfortable. I chose myself a certain career path for the future and I'm going for it right now. I have certain problems on focusing myself on something for too long and have never really studied that much for anything. So, I'm completely at the beginning of this thing.
1- How to study at a café:
First, let me start telling you the fact that study at café is not as efficient as study at a library and it will never be. LOL who can study while smoking water pipe and watching a soccer game. Library or other places that people can actually study will fill such requirements. Café study will never. Café study is more of a casual studying. You can study 1 part of a chapter in 1.5-2 hours at a café whereas in library you can study the whole chapter for the aforementioned time. Café study is more of a way to spend your free time.
With that intro made, I can go on with the purposes. Like I've said, café study is the one of the most time-inefficient ways of studying if not THE most. The reason why I'm picking on it over a library is because I'm currently in the first week of the term and it's even before the add-drops. So, anything that I will study will be a pre-study for the course and a warm-up for much more intense studying sessions.
Pre-study is not essential for any course; but despite being optional, pre-study is actually a very efficient thing for you to understand the covered part in the actual lecture that it will be covered by your instructor. Also, if you can't go to the lecture for some reason, your pre-study will pay off and you'll close that gap much faster.
Being off-term for quite some time and not studying at all during that time you'll start to rust. This is just like doing sports. Not studying for quite some time and getting back to studying like before giving it a break will do a similar thing as sports. With that being said, café study turns from the most time-inefficient way to study during the middle of the term to the friendliest way to start a term slowly warming up.
A studying session at a café is totally freestyle. You can choose a random topic from a random course that will be covered at that respective course in the near future. Also, you should totally refrain from choosing a topic that requires some advancement in this course and thus you won't understand shit from it without a background. Choose something basic. In my case, sinusoids&phasors are the one to start with as it only requires some background of complex numbers and basic algebra with complex numbers. Also, you shouldn't be harsh to yourself. Go easy on yourself. Study a little bit and raise it as time progresses. Enjoy your time at the café. I mean, look around, watch the soccer game, use wi-fi and watch some bw-sc2 vods, smoke a water pipe, drink hot beverages, all that good jazz. Listening to music is also welcome in this type of study. About the music, go for something slow with the least possible amount of drums. Drums simply stomp your head with a hammer.
Before closing this part, let me give you my final advice: ALWAYS have the intention of improving your studying schedule and treat café study as a FREE TIME ACTIVITY. Like marauders say: Let's have a plan !!!
2- Café Culture:
Oh yeah, right now we're at the part where all those miscellaneous dumb things will be covered. These things may be dumb, but they also may have a point.
First, we're at 'what to order' point. The sole reasoning of me going to a café is one single thing: Water Pipe. In my country and my city (capital city of a country that shares the name with a bird, guess which one), water pipe is a common thing for cafés to have. Since a day that I went out with a friend, smoked water pipe along with playing chess and having some high level conversations on poetry-music-all that high level intellectual jazz, water pipe is indispensable for me with any kind of books in the mix. But, you need to know your shit. I know mine. Water pipe stomps me too hard on the long run. So, I need something to refresh my head so that i can land back to the ground and get my focus back. Coffee is my bff in this case. Turkish coffee fucking rolls. I'm serious. If you can find it, go for it. I can and will prefer Turkish coffee over any type of coffee that existed. It perfectly serves the purpose and it has a quite fancy taste. Get it with some cold water and of course one and only Turkish delight. Never ever smoke water pipe when hungry. Also, never ever smoke water pipe with all black clothes (your clothes will be stained with gray for some reason that is related to water pipe) on you and never ever smoke ashes. Stop smoking when your coals turn into ashes and ask for new coals. Also, have gloves in case your country also has stupid laws that disallow you from smoking products of tobacco indoors. Gloves with half-fingers of course.
Café of choice. Well, this may be a personal preference, but pick ones with good view. Watching the view never breaks your focus as much as watching a football match-starcraft vod. The reason is, if you watch a football match or a starcraft vod, you can't do anything else until that vod is finished and you should convince yourself on the fact that you shouldn't watch another vod-match. But, a good view is good, because no matter how long you look at it, it stays steady. Nobody baneling busts while terran floats his raxes or scores a sensational goal from 40 yards. You can drink your coffee, smoke your water pipe, listen to your peaceful music and watch the view. Those things synergy with each other perfectly and refresh your mind without breaking your focus.
When exactly to go? Well, up to your schedule and personal preference. I was at this café between 20.00 and 21.30. The most unreasonable hours to be at a café where you can watch UEFA Europa League and there are a lot of couples making love with me being the only nerd in that place who wears glasses, smokes water pipe and has a book and a notebook on his table. Go when there is no football match preferably. You can somehow avoid giving attention to people making love by doing yourself a long speech of privacy. But nothing can get you away from a football match. Get your mp3 player with you in case the place is noisy. If you can find a peaceful place that serves what you desire and doesn't serve what you don't, go there. Before 18.00 is probably the best time as most cafés are quite quiet at that time.
Notes:
1- Porto is defeated by Sevilla by 0-1 at their home venue, but still they got to next round by away goal (2-2 in aggregate). Still, there is no reason why porto won by away goal instead of +5 difference. Besides Sevilla's goalkeeper of course.
2- I can study while smoking water pipe, drinking Turkish coffee, watching a football game and enjoying a slow music with a peaceful view. That's how I roll.
3- What I studied was ridiculously short and easy. In short, it's totally bullshit.
TL;DR: If you didn't read my wall of text and scrolled down to this part, you either got a job or know how to study much better than I do or don't give a jackshit to me. This tl;dr edition of this blog contains no useful information and the only reason I didn't italic this part is because I'm trying to sell you on the fact that my blog can't be summarized into a single paragraph. That fact may or may not be true.
Anyway, thanks for climbing down the great wall of text, either by reading or scrolling all the way.
 
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How to study: have the will to learn
while water pipes are a bit healthier than cigarettes they are doing more harm to your body than good for your studying.
Also I understand you feel "cool" by smoking tobacco and drinking coffee but it really isn't healthy especially with reoccurring uses, moderation is key.
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On February 24 2011 07:52 Terrakin wrote:
How to study: have the will to learn
This is kinda like saying "constantly make probes and units and never get supcapped and you'll be in masters no time". Other than that, it's a good advice.
On February 24 2011 07:52 Terrakin wrote:
while water pipes are a bit healthier than cigarettes they are doing more harm to your body than good for your studying.
Also I understand you feel "cool" by smoking tobacco and drinking coffee but it really isn't healthy especially with reoccurring uses, moderation is key.
Well, moderation of someone's own health belongs to himself first. For me, I regularly do sports and go out for a water pipe no more than 10 times a year. A good moderation it is, right?
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You don't need to study in a cafe, you just need to study someplace that is suitable and comfortable for you.
I study all the time at Reuben's with the bartender I recently met. Love the lighting, love the suave music, smell of fresh gourmet deli sandwiches, love the marble counter and I enjoy cheap, cheap drinks (Soda)
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On February 24 2011 08:38 Torte de Lini wrote:
You don't need to study in a cafe, you just need to study someplace that is suitable and comfortable for you.
I study all the time at Reuben's with the bartender I recently met. Love the lighting, love the suave music, smell of fresh gourmet deli sandwiches, love the marble counter and I enjoy cheap, cheap drinks (Soda)
Exactly. You're damn right about the "suitable and comfortable place" thing. But, the fact that I have stupid habit of not being able to study at a bar or a restaurant and both these places are more expensive than a café in Turkey, so i go for a café. I also enjoy cheap, cheap drinks, tea and coffee are damn cheap here. You can get Turkish coffee at the same price as the coffee in mcdonalds or burger king (I'm not even talking about starbucks or gj). Chairs are damn comfortable, table is good, lighting is good all the time (I've been there in daytime as well), but I eat at other places (kebab rolls dude, if you don't believe it, ask greeks. They wouldn't steal it otherwise  ).
Also, I should find another place that I can study without a water pipe. This one would do, but I need another one because this café is below average without water pipe
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About the music. Listening music with vocals is bad for the actual study'ing in general. Can't focus that much. But since your café studying is more like shirking around as much as you can, things will be fine.
Enjoyed your post!
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Water pipes aren't healthier than cigarettes, they're worse because you inhale deeper.
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I think it's fairly easy to study subjects that you care about. Whether it's a school subject or just something that interests you like graphics cards or flowering bushes or whatever, if you're genuinely in the subject it's going to be so easy to study. I don't really know why this is.
But studying subjects that you have zero interest in, now that's fricking hard. I find that my mind just turns off after a few minutes of reading. I think it's also because I have very small goals. That's why when I see people making fun of Asians for studying hard or downplaying that sheer amount of effort it takes to gets As in school, it kinda pisses me off.
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I like this blog a lot. It feels very right for some reason. I don't have much use for studying right now, but maybe in the future I will. I always found studying in a cafe to be a waste of time, but sometimes a waste of time is exactly what you need. Your wisdom regarding the desire to waste time while pretending to be productive is refreshing.
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Just study in a goddamn library. Studying elsewhere only works if what you are studying is "problem based" where you just do a bunch of problems and the repetition drills it into your head. I find the most effective place to study is in a quiet room with no one around. This is so obvious it blows my mind yet people still write articles about cafe studyiing when it is clearly a shitty place to study.
Why? because it's a cafe, a place you go to have a good time and watch soccer and drink coffee and talk to friends, not cram biology in your mind (which is probably quite small since you are studying in a cafe).
But I have done it! i didn't do to well on the assignments/tests I studied there for though 
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Less of a guide and more of a "I like to do this, maybe you guys will like it too!"
Not that there's anything wrong with that, that's what the blogs section is for - sharing anything you feel like. But really, what's the difference between this 'guide' and telling people "hey I like to study in the cafe because it''s refreshing and I like spending my free time like that. how bout you guys?"
Besides not trying to make a 'guide' out of saying 'it's good to have some enjoyable recreational studying.'
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On February 24 2011 09:31 AllNight wrote:
About the music. Listening music with vocals is bad for the actual study'ing in general. Can't focus that much. But since your café studying is more like shirking around as much as you can, things will be fine.
Enjoyed your post!
Actually, despite music being bad, it's essential in a café as there are lotsnlots and lotsnlots of noise. Vocals make you want to join the song by singing together, but it's not nearly as bad as 50 people talking to each other.
On February 24 2011 09:32 Herpadurr wrote:
Water pipes aren't healthier than cigarettes, they're worse because you inhale deeper.
Actually, water pipes are 8 times more harmful then cigarettes if you smoke a pack of cigarettes everyday and smoke water pipe for 2 hours everyday. But, if you smoke once in 5-6 weeks, I don't think it's that harmful actually (I don't think there was 5-6 weeks between last time and this time actually, but whatever).
On February 24 2011 10:42 buickskylark wrote:
I think it's fairly easy to study subjects that you care about. Whether it's a school subject or just something that interests you like graphics cards or flowering bushes or whatever, if you're genuinely in the subject it's going to be so easy to study. I don't really know why this is.
But studying subjects that you have zero interest in, now that's fricking hard. I find that my mind just turns off after a few minutes of reading. I think it's also because I have very small goals. That's why when I see people making fun of Asians for studying hard or downplaying that sheer amount of effort it takes to gets As in school, it kinda pisses me off.
You're right on the "interest" thing, which is something that I am trying to create right now. That's why i studied at a café instead of a library. And, it helped quite a lot.
On February 24 2011 10:58 Cauld wrote:
I like this blog a lot. It feels very right for some reason. I don't have much use for studying right now, but maybe in the future I will. I always found studying in a cafe to be a waste of time, but sometimes a waste of time is exactly what you need. Your wisdom regarding the desire to waste time while pretending to be productive is refreshing.
Like I said, café study is more of a free time study and it shouldn't be included in study hours, and that makes it a waste of time, as you said. Also, "wasting" some time on studying is quite an accurate decision as it helps you get used to studying and growing an interest on that as well.
On February 24 2011 12:06 Hypnosis wrote:Just study in a goddamn library. Studying elsewhere only works if what you are studying is "problem based" where you just do a bunch of problems and the repetition drills it into your head. I find the most effective place to study is in a quiet room with no one around. This is so obvious it blows my mind yet people still write articles about cafe studyiing when it is clearly a shitty place to study. Why? because it's a cafe, a place you go to have a good time and watch soccer and drink coffee and talk to friends, not cram biology in your mind (which is probably quite small since you are studying in a cafe). But I have done it! i didn't do to well on the assignments/tests I studied there for though
That was the purpose of this great wall of text. Don't EVER rely on a café for studying for something important like assignments and tests. Besides that, I actually had quite a good time and most of the things I studied are still in my mind.
On February 24 2011 12:27 ieatkids5 wrote:
Less of a guide and more of a "I tried this for this amount of time and if you want to try this too, you should know what to expect and under what circumstances you should do this!"
Not that there's anything wrong with that, that's what the blogs section is for - sharing anything you feel like. But really, what's the difference between this 'guide' and telling people "hey I like to study in the cafe because it''s refreshing and I like spending my free time like that. how bout you guys?"
Besides not trying to make a 'guide' out of saying 'it's good to have some enjoyable recreational studying.'
Bold part has my fixes. Like you said, it's less of a guide, but a guide which is that extended would most likely start with teaching someone how to read properly. What I'll write on this kind of things will be my experiences on studying at various places that people actually DO go and study (for example, I'll probably not blog on studying at a slaughterhouse) and thus what to expect and what to get.
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On February 24 2011 17:11 Djagulingu wrote:
Actually, despite music being bad, it's essential in a café as there are lotsnlots and lotsnlots of noise. Vocals make you want to join the song by singing together, but it's not nearly as bad as 50 people talking to each other.
Music isn't bad. Music with vocals is bad. And pounding drums, as you indicated.
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On February 24 2011 20:27 AllNight wrote:Show nested quote +On February 24 2011 17:11 Djagulingu wrote:
Actually, despite music being bad, it's essential in a café as there are lotsnlots and lotsnlots of noise. Vocals make you want to join the song by singing together, but it's not nearly as bad as 50 people talking to each other. Music isn't bad. Music with vocals is bad. And pounding drums, as you indicated.
Vocals are not that bad actually, there are songs with good vocals and still don't distract you more than songs without vocals as well. But, music isn't that useful if the place is not that noisy.
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EPT
