Resources
Resources
Resources
Starter Kit I
Starter Kit I
Starter Kit I
Using The Generalist
Using The Generalist
Using The Generalist
An introduction
An introduction
An introduction
Starter Kit I
Starter Kit I
Starter Kit I
Hi, fellow voyagers! First and foremost, thank you for giving The Generalist a try — we’re doing everything we can to ensure that our website is as tailored to your needs as it can be.
To start things off, we recommend that you take a look at the first piece of the Newsletter and the Essays. Both of these works will be free forever, and you can consider them a rough sampling of the kind of repertoire you’ll be seeing on this platform. That said, both the composition of our content and style of language used are definitely subject to change, depending on your feedback. And such changes can happen in a span of days or even hours!
Currently, the Newsletter and Essays are all you should focus on; when new features are released, you’ll see the news (no pun intended) immediately on our social media. Below are our recommendations for studying the content in these two sections, as well as how you might want to use The Generalist depending on your current grade band. That said, feel free to modify them to suit your own preferences. You know yourself best!
Newsletter
Each Issue of the Newsletter has 7 sections in total, but science tells us it’s a bad idea to read it in one go. Repeatedly coming back to the same material forces your mind to retrieve what you read and learnt the previous occasion — this significantly boosts retention. Also, it’s not really feasible to spend hours in one day doing GP.
Given that each Issue is meant to last a whole week, here’s a possible split*:
Day 1. Article Digest + Executive Summary
Day 2. A&E Point 1 + some of Theses/Hook
Day 3. A&E Point 2 + some of Theses/Hook
Day 4. A&E Point 3 + some of Theses/Hook
Day 5. Complete and look through A&E
Day 6. Summary of Insights
Day 7. Anything you would like to revisit
The Newsletter is also customisable in difficulty. The most important A&E section has been designed such that for each main point (numbered 1, 2…), the analysis gets more complex deeper down the sub points (numbered a, b… and i, ii…), so you can stop just slightly beyond your comfort zone. Moreover, we also offer a “Distilled” version of the entire Issue, which carries the same essential content but with simpler language. This can be toggled at the top of every Issue.
*Applicable to all days: if you encounter a word underlined in orange, study it in the vocab section.
At this point, you might have a question in mind: how can I quickly learn new vocabulary or language combinations?
After internalising the meaning of a new language element, study how it’s used within our sentences, including any pairings or contexts it’s used with. As there will likely only be 1-2 examples on our website, you can search for more examples in the news.
E.g. you came across this phrase in Issue 1: …a stark contradiction to the prevailing scientific consensus surrounding weight loss. The new feature you want to learn is the word ‘prevailing’.
Definition — existing at the current time. In the case of the example sentence, it’s used to describe the current consensus regarding weight loss, at this present day.
Pairings: “prevailing…consensus”
Practice crafting your own sentences or combinations with it. By this point, you’ll start to figure out common pairings and contexts in which this particular word, phrase, or structure can be used.
E.g. “prevailing…norm”, “prevailing…status quo”, “prevailing…idea”, “prevailing…concept/notion”
My own example sentence: In recent years, the SG government has sought to reshape the prevailing notion of success into one that is more diverse.
Imagine possible language features (most commonly, synonyms!) that you already use that can now be replaced by this new element you’re learning.
Instead of the word “current”, “now” or “the ___ today”, I can use the word “prevailing”.
Imagine possible contexts (e.g. one relating to science-and-tech, one relating to the arts) and how you can implement this new element within the context.
Eg sci & tech → prevailing fears about AI, or the prevailing consensus (using the combi we found before) that ethical procedures must be in place for experiments involving live specimens etc.
b. Eg politics → the prevailing world order is increasingly shifting to one where might is right
Writing full essays consumes too much time.
Instead, set time aside to practice writing paragraphs, or simply sub-points within a paragraph (e.g. made up of 1 example, 1 explanation, 1 brief eval), open-book. Refer to your notebook or digital database or any resource, and test out this new element — WITH any combinations that you’ve learnt.
Essays
Right now, the essays alternate between full-length model essays and discursive examiner reports (i.e. not arguing for a specific stance, but discussing possible arguments for both sides).
Since each Essays piece is meant to last two weeks, we encourage you to set aside 2-3 fixed period(s) of uninterrupted time each week where you can read through the exemplar writing as well as our commentary at your own pace. Research shows that reading humanities content in the evening or night is generally more optimal, but we won’t prescribe this as a must-have; whatever works best for your routine!
Similar to the Newsletter, the Essays are also adjustable in difficulty — for the Examiner Report, the bullet points of each numeral become more advanced as you move down.
On a related note, we understand that the language used may be seemingly complex at times. However, we assure you that we are not doing this for cosmetic purposes, nor to woo the examiner with linguistic flair. The truth is that complex vocabulary and sentence structures can channel nuances and shades of meaning that simpler alternatives often cannot. At the same time, they give your writing a more professional, journalistic tone — which a reader subconsciously registers as “more persuasive”. This leads us to a fact that many don’t realise: although Language is a separate band from Content on paper, it can actually enhance your Content mark if used right. We expound more on this in Starter Kit II.
Focus Priority based on Grades
If you have hit 35/50 at least twice
Newsletter — all parts of the Issue are highly relevant, including Vocab. Feel free to skip the Theses and Hook section if you already have little issues writing your own. Try to take on the Original version.
Essays — all components are highly relevant.
If you’ve hit 35/50 before, but not consistently
Newsletter — all parts of the Issue are highly relevant, but prioritise the Article, A&E, and Insights. For the Theses section, challenge yourself to lean more towards topic sentences marked with “linguistic flair”. Also challenge yourself to tackle most of the Original version, but when needed switch to Distilled.
Essays — all components are highly relevant, but for the full-length exemplars prioritise the annotations on the right column over the actual language used.
If you’re hovering between 30-35
Newsletter — prioritise the Article, A&E, Insights and Hook/Theses. For the Theses section, first master the “intellectual clarity” versions and try taking on the “linguistic flair” ones if you’re comfortable. For A&E, you can try skipping the last sub-point of each number for now. You can try reading the Article in Original mode, but feel free to toggle Distilled for parts with complex language.
Essays — for full-length exemplars, prioritise the Author’s Commentary as well as the right column annotations; and focus on the examples and evaluative points made in the essay rather than the language. For the Examiner Report, focus on the evaluations accompanying each example.
If you’re hovering between 25-30
Newsletter — prioritise the Executive Summary, A&E, Insights and Hook/Theses. There’s no need to close read the Article; we recommend reading in Distilled mode until you’re mostly comfortable with the language, but treat each section independently (e.g. once you’re comfortable with the language of section A, read A in Original). For A&E, you can try skipping the last numeral, as well as the last sub-point of each number for now. For the Theses section, start with the “intellectual clarity” versions.
Essays — for full-length exemplars, prioritise the Author’s Commentary, followed by as the annotations; and focus on the examples, explanation/elaboration, and evaluative points made in the essay (don’t worry about language, or too many Techniques for now). For the Examiner Report, focus on the examples being used, how they are being explained and the main evaluative insights; also feel free to skip the last bullet point of each numeral for now.
If you’re hovering between 20-25
Newsletter — prioritise the Executive Summary and Hook/Theses first, followed by A&E and Insights. There’s no need to close read the Article; start reading the Issue in Distilled mode until you reach the next band. For A&E, prioritise the first 2-3 subpoints of each numeral, and skip the last 1-2 numerals for now. For the Theses section, start with the “intellectual clarity” versions.
Essays — for full-length exemplars, prioritise the Author’s Commentary. For the annotations, focus on the color-codes for Examples, Explanation/Elaboration and the first Evaluation for each paragraph, and ignore the Techniques for now. For the Examiner Report, focus on studying just the essential facts of each Example being used (without the surrounding detail), and general ideas of how to explain and evaluate them; also feel free to skip the last 2 bullet points of each numeral for now.
If your score often fluctuates more than 5 marks → take the higher band for now.
TLDR, a rule of thumb: whether content or language-wise, pick a difficulty slightly beyond your current comfort zone. This means: you shouldn’t be finding yourself faced with too many brand-new insights in one go, nor having to stop so often to look up a word’s meaning that it’s impossible to read properly.
Enhancements
Remember that everything comes down to the mind. If you want to challenge yourself, here are some complementary techniques to elevate your productivity further:
Mental re-run — before you start reading content for the day, ask yourself: what are the key learning points I learnt yesterday? Even cycling through them once mentally will help you remember much, much faster.
Note-taking — overused by influencers as a platitude, but few know how to harness its true value. 1) do it handwritten, not by typing, 2) use a simple but efficient template; we recommend the Cornell method. 3) feel free to add vibrancy and decoration to your notes, but only if it doesn’t require more than a few seconds of additional effort.
Feynman Technique — Explaining what you learnt to a friend, sibling, parent, or even a plushie (yes, I did this before.) Yes, we know cringe mountain exists. But we also know that what you’re looking for probably lies at its summit.
That's all for this article; let the odyssey begin!
Hi, fellow voyagers! First and foremost, thank you for giving The Generalist a try — we’re doing everything we can to ensure that our website is as tailored to your needs as it can be.
To start things off, we recommend that you take a look at the first piece of the Newsletter and the Essays. Both of these works will be free forever, and you can consider them a rough sampling of the kind of repertoire you’ll be seeing on this platform. That said, both the composition of our content and style of language used are definitely subject to change, depending on your feedback. And such changes can happen in a span of days or even hours!
Currently, the Newsletter and Essays are all you should focus on; when new features are released, you’ll see the news (no pun intended) immediately on our social media. Below are our recommendations for studying the content in these two sections, as well as how you might want to use The Generalist depending on your current grade band. That said, feel free to modify them to suit your own preferences. You know yourself best!
Newsletter
Each Issue of the Newsletter has 7 sections in total, but science tells us it’s a bad idea to read it in one go. Repeatedly coming back to the same material forces your mind to retrieve what you read and learnt the previous occasion — this significantly boosts retention. Also, it’s not really feasible to spend hours in one day doing GP.
Given that each Issue is meant to last a whole week, here’s a possible split*:
Day 1. Article Digest + Executive Summary
Day 2. A&E Point 1 + some of Theses/Hook
Day 3. A&E Point 2 + some of Theses/Hook
Day 4. A&E Point 3 + some of Theses/Hook
Day 5. Complete and look through A&E
Day 6. Summary of Insights
Day 7. Anything you would like to revisit
The Newsletter is also customisable in difficulty. The most important A&E section has been designed such that for each main point (numbered 1, 2…), the analysis gets more complex deeper down the sub points (numbered a, b… and i, ii…), so you can stop just slightly beyond your comfort zone. Moreover, we also offer a “Distilled” version of the entire Issue, which carries the same essential content but with simpler language. This can be toggled at the top of every Issue.
*Applicable to all days: if you encounter a word underlined in orange, study it in the vocab section.
At this point, you might have a question in mind: how can I quickly learn new vocabulary or language combinations?
After internalising the meaning of a new language element, study how it’s used within our sentences, including any pairings or contexts it’s used with. As there will likely only be 1-2 examples on our website, you can search for more examples in the news.
E.g. you came across this phrase in Issue 1: …a stark contradiction to the prevailing scientific consensus surrounding weight loss. The new feature you want to learn is the word ‘prevailing’.
Definition — existing at the current time. In the case of the example sentence, it’s used to describe the current consensus regarding weight loss, at this present day.
Pairings: “prevailing…consensus”
Practice crafting your own sentences or combinations with it. By this point, you’ll start to figure out common pairings and contexts in which this particular word, phrase, or structure can be used.
E.g. “prevailing…norm”, “prevailing…status quo”, “prevailing…idea”, “prevailing…concept/notion”
My own example sentence: In recent years, the SG government has sought to reshape the prevailing notion of success into one that is more diverse.
Imagine possible language features (most commonly, synonyms!) that you already use that can now be replaced by this new element you’re learning.
Instead of the word “current”, “now” or “the ___ today”, I can use the word “prevailing”.
Imagine possible contexts (e.g. one relating to science-and-tech, one relating to the arts) and how you can implement this new element within the context.
Eg sci & tech → prevailing fears about AI, or the prevailing consensus (using the combi we found before) that ethical procedures must be in place for experiments involving live specimens etc.
b. Eg politics → the prevailing world order is increasingly shifting to one where might is right
Writing full essays consumes too much time.
Instead, set time aside to practice writing paragraphs, or simply sub-points within a paragraph (e.g. made up of 1 example, 1 explanation, 1 brief eval), open-book. Refer to your notebook or digital database or any resource, and test out this new element — WITH any combinations that you’ve learnt.
Essays
Right now, the essays alternate between full-length model essays and discursive examiner reports (i.e. not arguing for a specific stance, but discussing possible arguments for both sides).
Since each Essays piece is meant to last two weeks, we encourage you to set aside 2-3 fixed period(s) of uninterrupted time each week where you can read through the exemplar writing as well as our commentary at your own pace. Research shows that reading humanities content in the evening or night is generally more optimal, but we won’t prescribe this as a must-have; whatever works best for your routine!
Similar to the Newsletter, the Essays are also adjustable in difficulty — for the Examiner Report, the bullet points of each numeral become more advanced as you move down.
On a related note, we understand that the language used may be seemingly complex at times. However, we assure you that we are not doing this for cosmetic purposes, nor to woo the examiner with linguistic flair. The truth is that complex vocabulary and sentence structures can channel nuances and shades of meaning that simpler alternatives often cannot. At the same time, they give your writing a more professional, journalistic tone — which a reader subconsciously registers as “more persuasive”. This leads us to a fact that many don’t realise: although Language is a separate band from Content on paper, it can actually enhance your Content mark if used right. We expound more on this in Starter Kit II.
Focus Priority based on Grades
If you have hit 35/50 at least twice
Newsletter — all parts of the Issue are highly relevant, including Vocab. Feel free to skip the Theses and Hook section if you already have little issues writing your own. Try to take on the Original version.
Essays — all components are highly relevant.
If you’ve hit 35/50 before, but not consistently
Newsletter — all parts of the Issue are highly relevant, but prioritise the Article, A&E, and Insights. For the Theses section, challenge yourself to lean more towards topic sentences marked with “linguistic flair”. Also challenge yourself to tackle most of the Original version, but when needed switch to Distilled.
Essays — all components are highly relevant, but for the full-length exemplars prioritise the annotations on the right column over the actual language used.
If you’re hovering between 30-35
Newsletter — prioritise the Article, A&E, Insights and Hook/Theses. For the Theses section, first master the “intellectual clarity” versions and try taking on the “linguistic flair” ones if you’re comfortable. For A&E, you can try skipping the last sub-point of each number for now. You can try reading the Article in Original mode, but feel free to toggle Distilled for parts with complex language.
Essays — for full-length exemplars, prioritise the Author’s Commentary as well as the right column annotations; and focus on the examples and evaluative points made in the essay rather than the language. For the Examiner Report, focus on the evaluations accompanying each example.
If you’re hovering between 25-30
Newsletter — prioritise the Executive Summary, A&E, Insights and Hook/Theses. There’s no need to close read the Article; we recommend reading in Distilled mode until you’re mostly comfortable with the language, but treat each section independently (e.g. once you’re comfortable with the language of section A, read A in Original). For A&E, you can try skipping the last numeral, as well as the last sub-point of each number for now. For the Theses section, start with the “intellectual clarity” versions.
Essays — for full-length exemplars, prioritise the Author’s Commentary, followed by as the annotations; and focus on the examples, explanation/elaboration, and evaluative points made in the essay (don’t worry about language, or too many Techniques for now). For the Examiner Report, focus on the examples being used, how they are being explained and the main evaluative insights; also feel free to skip the last bullet point of each numeral for now.
If you’re hovering between 20-25
Newsletter — prioritise the Executive Summary and Hook/Theses first, followed by A&E and Insights. There’s no need to close read the Article; start reading the Issue in Distilled mode until you reach the next band. For A&E, prioritise the first 2-3 subpoints of each numeral, and skip the last 1-2 numerals for now. For the Theses section, start with the “intellectual clarity” versions.
Essays — for full-length exemplars, prioritise the Author’s Commentary. For the annotations, focus on the color-codes for Examples, Explanation/Elaboration and the first Evaluation for each paragraph, and ignore the Techniques for now. For the Examiner Report, focus on studying just the essential facts of each Example being used (without the surrounding detail), and general ideas of how to explain and evaluate them; also feel free to skip the last 2 bullet points of each numeral for now.
If your score often fluctuates more than 5 marks → take the higher band for now.
TLDR, a rule of thumb: whether content or language-wise, pick a difficulty slightly beyond your current comfort zone. This means: you shouldn’t be finding yourself faced with too many brand-new insights in one go, nor having to stop so often to look up a word’s meaning that it’s impossible to read properly.
Enhancements
Remember that everything comes down to the mind. If you want to challenge yourself, here are some complementary techniques to elevate your productivity further:
Mental re-run — before you start reading content for the day, ask yourself: what are the key learning points I learnt yesterday? Even cycling through them once mentally will help you remember much, much faster.
Note-taking — overused by influencers as a platitude, but few know how to harness its true value. 1) do it handwritten, not by typing, 2) use a simple but efficient template; we recommend the Cornell method. 3) feel free to add vibrancy and decoration to your notes, but only if it doesn’t require more than a few seconds of additional effort.
Feynman Technique — Explaining what you learnt to a friend, sibling, parent, or even a plushie (yes, I did this before.) Yes, we know cringe mountain exists. But we also know that what you’re looking for probably lies at its summit.
That's all for this article; let the odyssey begin!
Hi, fellow voyagers! First and foremost, thank you for giving The Generalist a try — we’re doing everything we can to ensure that our website is as tailored to your needs as it can be.
To start things off, we recommend that you take a look at the first piece of the Newsletter and the Essays. Both of these works will be free forever, and you can consider them a rough sampling of the kind of repertoire you’ll be seeing on this platform. That said, both the composition of our content and style of language used are definitely subject to change, depending on your feedback. And such changes can happen in a span of days or even hours!
Currently, the Newsletter and Essays are all you should focus on; when new features are released, you’ll see the news (no pun intended) immediately on our social media. Below are our recommendations for studying the content in these two sections, as well as how you might want to use The Generalist depending on your current grade band. That said, feel free to modify them to suit your own preferences. You know yourself best!
Newsletter
Each Issue of the Newsletter has 7 sections in total, but science tells us it’s a bad idea to read it in one go. Repeatedly coming back to the same material forces your mind to retrieve what you read and learnt the previous occasion — this significantly boosts retention. Also, it’s not really feasible to spend hours in one day doing GP.
Given that each Issue is meant to last a whole week, here’s a possible split*:
Day 1. Article Digest + Executive Summary
Day 2. A&E Point 1 + some of Theses/Hook
Day 3. A&E Point 2 + some of Theses/Hook
Day 4. A&E Point 3 + some of Theses/Hook
Day 5. Complete and look through A&E
Day 6. Summary of Insights
Day 7. Anything you would like to revisit
The Newsletter is also customisable in difficulty. The most important A&E section has been designed such that for each main point (numbered 1, 2…), the analysis gets more complex deeper down the sub points (numbered a, b… and i, ii…), so you can stop just slightly beyond your comfort zone. Moreover, we also offer a “Distilled” version of the entire Issue, which carries the same essential content but with simpler language. This can be toggled at the top of every Issue.
*Applicable to all days: if you encounter a word underlined in orange, study it in the vocab section.
At this point, you might have a question in mind: how can I quickly learn new vocabulary or language combinations?
After internalising the meaning of a new language element, study how it’s used within our sentences, including any pairings or contexts it’s used with. As there will likely only be 1-2 examples on our website, you can search for more examples in the news.
E.g. you came across this phrase in Issue 1: …a stark contradiction to the prevailing scientific consensus surrounding weight loss. The new feature you want to learn is the word ‘prevailing’.
Definition — existing at the current time. In the case of the example sentence, it’s used to describe the current consensus regarding weight loss, at this present day.
Pairings: “prevailing…consensus”
Practice crafting your own sentences or combinations with it. By this point, you’ll start to figure out common pairings and contexts in which this particular word, phrase, or structure can be used.
E.g. “prevailing…norm”, “prevailing…status quo”, “prevailing…idea”, “prevailing…concept/notion”
My own example sentence: In recent years, the SG government has sought to reshape the prevailing notion of success into one that is more diverse.
Imagine possible language features (most commonly, synonyms!) that you already use that can now be replaced by this new element you’re learning.
Instead of the word “current”, “now” or “the ___ today”, I can use the word “prevailing”.
Imagine possible contexts (e.g. one relating to science-and-tech, one relating to the arts) and how you can implement this new element within the context.
Eg sci & tech → prevailing fears about AI, or the prevailing consensus (using the combi we found before) that ethical procedures must be in place for experiments involving live specimens etc.
b. Eg politics → the prevailing world order is increasingly shifting to one where might is right
Writing full essays consumes too much time.
Instead, set time aside to practice writing paragraphs, or simply sub-points within a paragraph (e.g. made up of 1 example, 1 explanation, 1 brief eval), open-book. Refer to your notebook or digital database or any resource, and test out this new element — WITH any combinations that you’ve learnt.
Essays
Right now, the essays alternate between full-length model essays and discursive examiner reports (i.e. not arguing for a specific stance, but discussing possible arguments for both sides).
Since each Essays piece is meant to last two weeks, we encourage you to set aside 2-3 fixed period(s) of uninterrupted time each week where you can read through the exemplar writing as well as our commentary at your own pace. Research shows that reading humanities content in the evening or night is generally more optimal, but we won’t prescribe this as a must-have; whatever works best for your routine!
Similar to the Newsletter, the Essays are also adjustable in difficulty — for the Examiner Report, the bullet points of each numeral become more advanced as you move down.
On a related note, we understand that the language used may be seemingly complex at times. However, we assure you that we are not doing this for cosmetic purposes, nor to woo the examiner with linguistic flair. The truth is that complex vocabulary and sentence structures can channel nuances and shades of meaning that simpler alternatives often cannot. At the same time, they give your writing a more professional, journalistic tone — which a reader subconsciously registers as “more persuasive”. This leads us to a fact that many don’t realise: although Language is a separate band from Content on paper, it can actually enhance your Content mark if used right. We expound more on this in Starter Kit II.
Focus Priority based on Grades
If you have hit 35/50 at least twice
Newsletter — all parts of the Issue are highly relevant, including Vocab. Feel free to skip the Theses and Hook section if you already have little issues writing your own. Try to take on the Original version.
Essays — all components are highly relevant.
If you’ve hit 35/50 before, but not consistently
Newsletter — all parts of the Issue are highly relevant, but prioritise the Article, A&E, and Insights. For the Theses section, challenge yourself to lean more towards topic sentences marked with “linguistic flair”. Also challenge yourself to tackle most of the Original version, but when needed switch to Distilled.
Essays — all components are highly relevant, but for the full-length exemplars prioritise the annotations on the right column over the actual language used.
If you’re hovering between 30-35
Newsletter — prioritise the Article, A&E, Insights and Hook/Theses. For the Theses section, first master the “intellectual clarity” versions and try taking on the “linguistic flair” ones if you’re comfortable. For A&E, you can try skipping the last sub-point of each number for now. You can try reading the Article in Original mode, but feel free to toggle Distilled for parts with complex language.
Essays — for full-length exemplars, prioritise the Author’s Commentary as well as the right column annotations; and focus on the examples and evaluative points made in the essay rather than the language. For the Examiner Report, focus on the evaluations accompanying each example.
If you’re hovering between 25-30
Newsletter — prioritise the Executive Summary, A&E, Insights and Hook/Theses. There’s no need to close read the Article; we recommend reading in Distilled mode until you’re mostly comfortable with the language, but treat each section independently (e.g. once you’re comfortable with the language of section A, read A in Original). For A&E, you can try skipping the last numeral, as well as the last sub-point of each number for now. For the Theses section, start with the “intellectual clarity” versions.
Essays — for full-length exemplars, prioritise the Author’s Commentary, followed by as the annotations; and focus on the examples, explanation/elaboration, and evaluative points made in the essay (don’t worry about language, or too many Techniques for now). For the Examiner Report, focus on the examples being used, how they are being explained and the main evaluative insights; also feel free to skip the last bullet point of each numeral for now.
If you’re hovering between 20-25
Newsletter — prioritise the Executive Summary and Hook/Theses first, followed by A&E and Insights. There’s no need to close read the Article; start reading the Issue in Distilled mode until you reach the next band. For A&E, prioritise the first 2-3 subpoints of each numeral, and skip the last 1-2 numerals for now. For the Theses section, start with the “intellectual clarity” versions.
Essays — for full-length exemplars, prioritise the Author’s Commentary. For the annotations, focus on the color-codes for Examples, Explanation/Elaboration and the first Evaluation for each paragraph, and ignore the Techniques for now. For the Examiner Report, focus on studying just the essential facts of each Example being used (without the surrounding detail), and general ideas of how to explain and evaluate them; also feel free to skip the last 2 bullet points of each numeral for now.
If your score often fluctuates more than 5 marks → take the higher band for now.
TLDR, a rule of thumb: whether content or language-wise, pick a difficulty slightly beyond your current comfort zone. This means: you shouldn’t be finding yourself faced with too many brand-new insights in one go, nor having to stop so often to look up a word’s meaning that it’s impossible to read properly.
Enhancements
Remember that everything comes down to the mind. If you want to challenge yourself, here are some complementary techniques to elevate your productivity further:
Mental re-run — before you start reading content for the day, ask yourself: what are the key learning points I learnt yesterday? Even cycling through them once mentally will help you remember much, much faster.
Note-taking — overused by influencers as a platitude, but few know how to harness its true value. 1) do it handwritten, not by typing, 2) use a simple but efficient template; we recommend the Cornell method. 3) feel free to add vibrancy and decoration to your notes, but only if it doesn’t require more than a few seconds of additional effort.
Feynman Technique — Explaining what you learnt to a friend, sibling, parent, or even a plushie (yes, I did this before.) Yes, we know cringe mountain exists. But we also know that what you’re looking for probably lies at its summit.
That's all for this article; let the odyssey begin!
Best,
Jiarui
Best,
Jiarui
Best,
Jiarui