Study Habits

Hello, I am Luciana. Today’s class was given by Natalia Naranjo. She studied Languages in France and has a master’s in Business.

Natalia began the class by presenting a video summary about the book Outliers: The story of Success by Malcom Gladwell. This book talks about the different factors that drive success and how it is not dependent on just one thing. Many things are involved in a person's success, some of them are:

· The year that you are born, because it can have an impact on what opportunities you are presented at an exact period of time.

· Your family and social status.

· Culture.

· The hard work matters that you put in, because in the long run it matters more than talent.

· How much you are willing to practice. (That is the only thing that separates the great from the good).

· Right place and right time.

After this we separated into teams and each team had to argue which of these factors they believed was the most important.

I really enjoyed doing this because Natalia (our mentor) was making the class interactive and fun by asking for opinions and making sure each one of us participated. Each of my classmates had an important point to state and it really made me think of how success is a combination of so many factors, success is never accomplished by one person and it really involves a big part of your community in order for you to thrive. It made me think about how fortunate I am to have my family supporting me in whichever area I decide to pursue, my mentors, like Eric, who makes sure that I focus on the right things and who feeds my ambition even more, and the discipline that I choose in order to keep training.

After this we learned about studying tips, I will definitely start eating chocolate to memorize the information better.

The best scientific study tips

1. Small short chunks: the brain is better at decoding information this way.

2. Highlighting does not really work since they can actually draw your attention to irrelevant information.

3. Flashcards

4. Knowing how to teach a topic will make you understand it better

5. Learning with music can actually make you lose focus.

6. NO PHONE WHILE STUDYING

7. Mind Mapping: Organize your ideas visually

8. Record Yourself. Reinforces memory through auditory playback

9. Pomodoro technique: 25 minute focus then 5 minute break

10. AI study partner: use it in a smart way to help you study

11. Eating chocolate while studying and then having a piece of that chocolate before the test.

These tips were a great tool to have since exams are just coming up and organizing my studies is something that I need to work on. Knowing how to study without causing burnout and making it enjoyable is something that I am looking forward to. Natalia made this class very pleasant and it made me get even more intrigued in the topics.

I believe that all of this information was really interesting because it made me realize how your life is not just shaped by you, there is some kind of fate that you have no power on, shaping the best outcome for you, and that is what for me makes life truly thrilling.

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