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Hi! I'm Al Khan.

Helping serious learners build their dream careers using a "3-step study workflow". If you're a serious learner yourself, this newsletter will help you become a top-performing student and get into your dream job while having loads of fun studying :)

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Featured Post

How to use Anki to get better at any skill (ALP update)

Hello Reader, If you're trying to learn a new language, learn programming for your big career shift, or just become better at problem-based subjects so you could get into your dream school... Anki could help. But it's not in the way you'd expect — most people would use it in this way: memorize an entire freaking dictionary and drown doing reviews with 9000 cards try to remember the entire python documentation cram a ton of math formulas into their head ...and then wonder why it's not working....

7 months ago • 1 min read

Hello Reader, When I was staying in Manila to prepare for my Board Exam, I often missed the food at home. I always craved for the homemade filipino Adobo or Sinigang made by my grandma — instead of the regular, mass-produced fried chicken & tortang talong (eggplant omelette, I think) at nearby carenderia. (eatery) But there was a problem... Commutes were such a hassle! I mean, how am I supposed to go home and bring back my sanity if I couldn't afford to lose 2-3 hours of otherwise studying...

about 1 year ago • 2 min read

Hello Reader, Yep, the programming deck you're looking for probably doesn't exist... (or should I say 404 not found???) But it's not the end of the world, because not only are programming cards easy to make — you also only need just a few of them. I'm saying there's no need to create cards for every damn function! If you're constantly forgetting how arrays work because you keep on jumping from language to language, why not create a card that asks you about it? Like this: Still confused?...

about 1 year ago • 1 min read

Hello Reader, As you know, there's this AI hype train going on, and I'm really not convinced about its utility...especially when it comes to Anki. It's just like when the "second brain" note taking apps came out: Everyone in the space thought these Zettelkasten apps were magical and would "do all the work for you" or "remember 300 books forever" — only to realize that all the tool has ever done is help people create surface-level content faster and accumulate a bunch of notes you couldn't...

about 1 year ago • 2 min read

Hello Reader, Like I said in the past emails, I'm going to share you some of my best tactics... Specifically, one of each component of your study workflow: Focused Attention Encoding & Storage Retrieval These should help you get that snowball rolling as quickly as possible. We'll start in reverse order — a tactic for Retrieval. Why? Because Retrieval is the BIGGEST weak link I see in 99% of students' study process. So in this lesson, you’re going to learn “Active Recall 2.0” that will help...

over 1 year ago • 5 min read

Hello Reader, It's me, Al Khan. If you want to make the BEST use of all your newfound motivation this year, this email is for you. Random question: Why in the world do all motivation only appear in January, and 2 days before the exam? Pretty bizarre, and makes you wanna sigh when you realize it. In psychology, there is something called the "fresh start effect" where it's most likely to have high motivation during fresh beginnings — start of year, month, or week. I find this to be true even at...

over 1 year ago • 2 min read

Hello Reader, Just wanted to share something I did for fun. But first, backstory time: I remember when I was trapped in an endless cycle of procrastination back in college... I kept on cutting classes, smoked and drank like a mad delinquent — even when I knew I had to study. "Why are you so lazy? That's the only thing we expect you to do," my father would always tell me. In my mind, the only thing I could say was, "Who WOULDN'T lose the motivation to study? The more I get poor grades out of...

over 1 year ago • 1 min read

Hello Reader, I've been researching about student life lately, and I've been finding some common themes similar to my experience before: can’t start on studying unless it's the night before the exam wanna study for more than 8 hours, but always gets distracted after 15 minutes can’t stay consistent don’t know where to start don't know how to plan a sustainable study routine What struck me was that there's this surge of students constantly attributing their poor concentration or study habits...

over 1 year ago • 1 min read

Hello Reader, Today I'm gonna try this format of a super lean email newsletter broadcast. Straight to the point, minimal frills. The topic: Effective note-taking. Note-taking has become a kind of new "industry" filled with promotions of note-taking apps and Study With Me videos of all these YouTubers who have all this time to make their beautiful highlighted, color-coded notes. But here's the thing... Effective note-taking is NOT about: taking complete, detailed notes using the perfect...

over 1 year ago • 1 min read

Hello Reader, One SSS student, Pascal, asked: How can I get things done on a day that I am not motivated at all? ...and I wanted to share my answer with you: Motivation is not the only way we get things done! We're not like cars that need fuel called "motivation" — we're more like supercomputers that work better when we have higher specs (mastery/perceived ability) and clear instructions. (i.e. clarity!) Okay, I cannot insert where motivation comes in, so maybe I cannot really extend that...

over 1 year ago • 2 min read
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