There is definitely variability to how we learn. It's just not nearly as varied as some people believe. That said, it bears mentioning that every single year we have the same large number of threads in the same order. First they start with "I'm studying so hard blah blah blah" and then we learn that they aren't actually studying the time they are saying. Then, a few months later, we proceed to the "I'm so burnt out and not performing well" threads where we learn that they are doing what I mentioned above or reading textbooks or listening to lecture and furiously taking notes the whole time on the same things that are on the powerpoint slides already or something else silly lol.
I'll repeat again that I don't think you need anki although I personally use it. I just think it's important to bring up that M1s need to be sure they aren't killing themselves because they didn't get out of their sophomore year history class studying style.
You bring up a few different things here. First is how varied different learning styles can be. It may not seem like they could be too varied, but just from looking at my kids I can tell you they can be.
My one kid will not remember **** if you just tell her. Like literally will forget it a few minutes later. If you have her do something physical while she’s learning, like jump up and down or use physical objects to learn math, etc., she will learn really fast.
My other kid gets nothing out of the physical stuff. She is very auditory. She doesn’t need to move around or anything while she’s learning, and if she does it makes it less likely she’ll retain it because it’s distracting. But if I tell her something while she’s paying attention to me, she’ll remember it for a long ass time.
So while I agree that learning really is not that varied in that we need spaced repetition to solidify things, the way that it gets into your brain best can be pretty different from person to person.
The second thing you bring up is study efficiency. That, I 100% agree with. A LOT of people think they are studying really hard and for a long time, but they are not studying efficiently. But that isn’t because they are taking notes and taking notes isn’t efficient. It might be because they are taking notes and that isn’t the most efficient way for them, but it could also be because they are trying to watch lectures but are a more kinetic learner who needs to be jotting a couple things down as the lecture goes on. Or maybe they need to be pacing around the room repeating things and talking them through.
I’ve even seen someone struggle really hard until he started making physical models of things out of paper (not like origami or anything, just like little cutouts), and then it all clicked and he started studying way more efficiently.
And for the record, I use anki. I use cheesy lightyear, and I love it. Way better and more efficient than making my own cards.
