What study strategies did you use to manage such a demanding workload across many disciplines at MIT? originally appeared on Quora - the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world.
Answer by Salman-Khan, founder of Khan Academy, on Quora:
My best tip is to try to learn the material well before you have to know it in class.
Classes move at a fixed paced. This tends to be ok most places since the pace is reasonable. MIT, on the other hand, intentionally keeps the pace much faster as a kind of challenge. That is why is not unusual to see 1600 SATs or Valedectorians fail classes there.
I was able to get my first exposure to rigorous classes like multivariable calculus, differential equations, partial differential equations, linear algebra and programming as part of a joint program between my high school and the University of New Orleans. Then when I saw the saw topics (at a more rigorous level) at MIT, it was much more digestible.
Another tip is to really question whether a lecture is the best use of your time. If you have the discipline to go to the library and study intently for that hour (or work on a problem set), you'll probably find it is a better use of your time than falling asleep in a three hundred person lecture.
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