Ask HN: How Did you hack your education?
This is a broad question but in general i wanted to look at ways of getting ahead in school etc.
So how did you hack your education?
12 comments
A lot of what I did to hack my education was specific to my particular circumstances, but two pieces of general advice should apply to anyone:
1) Choose classes based on the professor, not the subject. Ask around to find out who the exceptional professors are-- you'll find out, quickly-- and take whatever they are offering. A good professor can make the dullest subject come to life; a bad professor can suck the life out of the most fascinating topic.
2) Treat studying as a job. Set aside a couple of hours a day, preferably at a fixed time, to do focused, head-down, no nonsense studying. I used a study carrel in the library, every day for two hours. Two hours a day was all it took, to stay ahead of the pack in all subjects, and still have endless time for a very active social/extra-curricular life.
1) Choose classes based on the professor, not the subject. Ask around to find out who the exceptional professors are-- you'll find out, quickly-- and take whatever they are offering. A good professor can make the dullest subject come to life; a bad professor can suck the life out of the most fascinating topic.
2) Treat studying as a job. Set aside a couple of hours a day, preferably at a fixed time, to do focused, head-down, no nonsense studying. I used a study carrel in the library, every day for two hours. Two hours a day was all it took, to stay ahead of the pack in all subjects, and still have endless time for a very active social/extra-curricular life.
I did the minimum required to not fail out of high school. In the massive amounts of time that I freed up by not doing homework, I taught myself to program C and Java and Perl. I made sure I understood the material I was not doing the homework for, so I could ace all the standardized tests. I took (and aced) the AP tests even though my school didn't offer AP courses. I (barely) graduated high school, then worked for a year at a tech startup. Evidently some admissions officer found that impressive, so I got into a top college.
Then I did the minimum required to not fail out of college. (Actually, I cut it really close, flunking two courses in my major and at one point having it look like there was no conceivable way I could fulfill the graduation requirements.) In the massive amounts of time that I freed up by not doing homework, I redid the database system for a 100k-user website, wrote the school's course evaluation system, and taught myself Lisp and Haskell. I had no trouble finding jobs after college, despite my dubious graduation status.
Remember that no matter what you're "supposed" to be doing, you always have a choice in what you actually do. There're lots more paths to an impressive resume than doing well in school.
Then I did the minimum required to not fail out of college. (Actually, I cut it really close, flunking two courses in my major and at one point having it look like there was no conceivable way I could fulfill the graduation requirements.) In the massive amounts of time that I freed up by not doing homework, I redid the database system for a 100k-user website, wrote the school's course evaluation system, and taught myself Lisp and Haskell. I had no trouble finding jobs after college, despite my dubious graduation status.
Remember that no matter what you're "supposed" to be doing, you always have a choice in what you actually do. There're lots more paths to an impressive resume than doing well in school.
Research experience (4 years under a well known international experiment), and I utilized everything resource I had available to me at a public university. I taught myself a lot of things, I got free instruction from advisers, I figured the ins and outs of this and that... sometimes at the expense of my actual grades. And the most important thing... I was good at it and people liked me. Ironically, not many physicists are very good programmers, and that's exactly why I got hired for a job.
I graduated with a 2.5 GPA (no thanks to ADHD) and now I'm a Software Developer at Stanford. I initially had a hard time finding a job near where I lived (Utah), and no money so I took a part time job for a bit.
Oh, and as for the actual courses: Find out who your professor is and what your book will be. Check the course website from the offering professor (or any other professor at your school) the end of the semester before you take it for homework and test solutions. I wrote some data mining scripts that basically googled "book name" + syllabus + test|homework|solutions|answers and scoured the answers for pdfs. This will get you both homework solutions and possible test problems (most professors are unoriginal) Also, search "ism" occasionally as well, as you may get lucky and find the instructors solutions manual. Buddy up with professors and find out where there offices are, as well as your major's library and search for old course books they are throwing away. For non-cs in math/physics/chemistry, if you have a unix account don't be too shy to go ahead and ls -lR ~professor/public_html > jnk.txt.
I graduated with a 2.5 GPA (no thanks to ADHD) and now I'm a Software Developer at Stanford. I initially had a hard time finding a job near where I lived (Utah), and no money so I took a part time job for a bit.
Oh, and as for the actual courses: Find out who your professor is and what your book will be. Check the course website from the offering professor (or any other professor at your school) the end of the semester before you take it for homework and test solutions. I wrote some data mining scripts that basically googled "book name" + syllabus + test|homework|solutions|answers and scoured the answers for pdfs. This will get you both homework solutions and possible test problems (most professors are unoriginal) Also, search "ism" occasionally as well, as you may get lucky and find the instructors solutions manual. Buddy up with professors and find out where there offices are, as well as your major's library and search for old course books they are throwing away. For non-cs in math/physics/chemistry, if you have a unix account don't be too shy to go ahead and ls -lR ~professor/public_html > jnk.txt.
I utterly failed in school after realising that it didn't matter that much. Unfortunately I discovered girls, booze and fun just in time for my A-Levels and after finding more to life than studying hard cut back massively. I picked subjects I was already way ahead of my class in and dropped out as they were wasting my time, then went back in just in time to find that two thirds of my graduation would be based on maths (a course that I never signed up for, but essential for A-Level Physics) and Microsoft Access (I'd used DBase, FileMaker and even Oracle, but this made no sense to me).
It was only when I flunked my A-Levels that I realised how little they mattered. Pretty much everything I'd learnt about computers I'd learnt off my own bat (exception: Microsoft Access). I thought about going back, but the prospect of graduating from University at 26 just seemed like a waste of time, so I got myself a job as quick as I could and tried to work my way towards games development.
I never quite got there (after flirting with the games industry I saw it was just as bad as Infosec, but even more full of idiots at the time), but overall I think I did ok.
It was only when I flunked my A-Levels that I realised how little they mattered. Pretty much everything I'd learnt about computers I'd learnt off my own bat (exception: Microsoft Access). I thought about going back, but the prospect of graduating from University at 26 just seemed like a waste of time, so I got myself a job as quick as I could and tried to work my way towards games development.
I never quite got there (after flirting with the games industry I saw it was just as bad as Infosec, but even more full of idiots at the time), but overall I think I did ok.
I graduated with a slightly above average score by not studying for the whole semester but cram everything in the last two weeks before exams. I used my free time (> 25 hrs per week) to run an entrepreneurs club at uni that I cofounded, learned a huge lot about networking, raising money, marketing, teamwork, leadership etc etc... The club did a lot of impressive things.
Sadly none of the skills I learned from my extra curricular activities counted on my resume because the HRs treated it as a standard non-commitment student club thing. Truth be told now I'm having trouble finding jobs, and I wish I actually studied during my uni years because I felt I learned nothing from it... But that I don't really regret, what I regret was not starting up an actual business whilst still a student because after you graduate social pressure start to come from every direction to force you find a job (girlfriend, parents, friends, etc)
Sorry, I didn't hack my education. This is more of a not-to-do
Sadly none of the skills I learned from my extra curricular activities counted on my resume because the HRs treated it as a standard non-commitment student club thing. Truth be told now I'm having trouble finding jobs, and I wish I actually studied during my uni years because I felt I learned nothing from it... But that I don't really regret, what I regret was not starting up an actual business whilst still a student because after you graduate social pressure start to come from every direction to force you find a job (girlfriend, parents, friends, etc)
Sorry, I didn't hack my education. This is more of a not-to-do
I got a job tutoring first year students (I'm a masters student), which has really forced me to understand the course material thoroughly. Answering the same questions over and over about report and essay structure, referencing, and the importance of reading the assignment outline has made me a lot more aware of these when working on my own projects too. Also, it's not officially part of my job (i.e. I don't get paid for it), but I always offer to review drafts and critique students' structuring, language use, and grammar, which really reinforces good habits when I have to write something myself.
Drivers Ed was taught by an old irish ex cop who was obsessed with talking about how much alcohol you could drink before you should not drive. His best piece of advice? Keep a jar of peanut butter in the glove compartment so when you get pulled over, put peanut butter in your mouth and it will cover the smell of alcohol on your breath.
I would work on my robot after school and my favorite teacher would write me a late note, so I only spent the last 10 minutes of every class in drivers ed.
Robot got me into college. 20 years of driving and not one speeding ticket or accident.
I would work on my robot after school and my favorite teacher would write me a late note, so I only spent the last 10 minutes of every class in drivers ed.
Robot got me into college. 20 years of driving and not one speeding ticket or accident.
I became a full-time college student at 15 and had the state pay for it.
A limited number of "middle colleges" (such as Washtenaw Technical Middle College in MI) allow students to become full-time college students. The state paid for my college tuition and books and all of my classes counted for both high-school and college credit.
So, at 18, I graduated with a HS diploma and a community college Associate's Degree.
A limited number of "middle colleges" (such as Washtenaw Technical Middle College in MI) allow students to become full-time college students. The state paid for my college tuition and books and all of my classes counted for both high-school and college credit.
So, at 18, I graduated with a HS diploma and a community college Associate's Degree.
I found a way to access last year's exams by doing some url magic in the course catalog so I could access the Blackboard page of previous years the course was offered. Same type of questions came up every year so I knew where to focus on. It's no longer working though since they upgraded Blackboard. Also, googling for the solutions manual has worked for me a few times.
I learned that many professors had favorite books where they got their test questions. I would go to professors' offices and check out what books they might have on their desks or book shelves, then take a quick trip to the library.
I got obnoxiously high karma on Hacker News.
No matter how many different classes require a paper to be written, always write one paper and reuse it for all classes. US Profs love creativity and when you come to them and ask if you can write about the "History of Religion" for your history paper they will always say yes. Then go to your religion professor and pitch the same paper. Et viola. Two classes with one paper. And since you'll have a little more time to write the one paper it will usually be better.
Also, always do the readings _before_ the class, not after. By offsetting your reading one week sooner then everyone else you'll have an advantage.
Also, always do the readings _before_ the class, not after. By offsetting your reading one week sooner then everyone else you'll have an advantage.
The same can be done with a project but writing two papers. I was taking courses in graphics and parallel programming at the same time. I took my graphics project and modified portions of it to run in parallel. Then I submitted one paper on the graphics and another paper on the transformation of serial->parallel and the performance gains.
But always get permission first. If professors find out that you're reducing your workload like this they aren't always pleased. However, if you're talk to them (and they're reasonable) then they'll almost certainly accept it.
But always get permission first. If professors find out that you're reducing your workload like this they aren't always pleased. However, if you're talk to them (and they're reasonable) then they'll almost certainly accept it.
> write one paper and reuse it for all classes.
Careful with this. My school, at least, treats this as academic fraud unless you have agreed in advance with each professor that you will be multiple-submitting that piece of work.
Careful with this. My school, at least, treats this as academic fraud unless you have agreed in advance with each professor that you will be multiple-submitting that piece of work.
This depends on the school's plagiarism policy - at my university, you're not allowed to reuse your own work. Auto-plagiarism. It's acceptable to cite previous work if relevant, but not to submit the same paper twice.