study habits people here look down on but i want to keep/develop
i was studying but this thought isn't getting out of my head therefore i will write it down before continuing, i will complete writing this before 6:30pm because after all there's only 6 days left until finals and i have to get straight A's and i promised my english teacher that i would get 교과우수상 (when you top the school for one subject; it's way easier than an outsider would think cuz all you need to do is get perfect scores and a lot of people do that here) in at least 3 subjects (edit 2025-12-11: one subject done!). anyways lemme write abt what i said in the title.
questioning the heck out of everything
questioning is genuinely the coolest thing to do when studying imo, it shows that you actually understood the subject and are willing to go further, like fuck the "심화탐구" private education forces students to do in a very unoriginal and inauthentic way, you know what's real 심화탐구. having a question in class and going on rabbit holes.
students and teachers find it pretty annoying, i was asking whether morphemes were like words and said how to attach to other morphemes. (ok how do i say this in english or in any language, do i need to word my question better but anyways thats not the point im not going to write a whole paragraph on what i was asking) the students were like 'SHUT UP youre disturbing the class, ughh just end it there ok?' and the teacher told me i did not understand the material correctly which yes i do not understand it, but i do not think it means i am behind everyone else.
anyways despite everyone hating it cuz it disrupts the class, (i have found an alternate way and it is writing the question down and asking my teacher before class or during break, if that doesn't work i can just google / ask chatgpt, usually i make sure to do that first and only ask the teacher when the internet doesn't tell me or i need confirmation that the material agrees with the class) i always feel obliged to ask some question to know i understood the class, when i ask a question and get an answer, whether it be a clear one or 'idk what you are asking'/'cuz [the national institute of korean language (or other authoritarive source, i get this a lot for korean grammar)] says so', i feel really good.
trying to define things as precisely as possible
i do this a lot for math, science, and korean grammar, ever since i watched there are 48 regular polyhedra by jan Misali, i have been fascinated by how definitions can impact things significantly.
a few days ago i was reviewing concepts for my math test and i showed my notes to a classmate i'll call 24 here, 24 focuses a lot on solving problems for subjects that are traditionally not 'memorization subjects'(암기과목) and memorizing everything that need memorizing a few days before the tests. in my notes i defined a lot of things that were pretty basic, like 'polygon'. 24 said, 'ok but we all know what a polygon is, it would be way more useful to solve problems featuring polygons instead of defining 'polygon'' which yes i kinda get, solving problems quickly is what matters in a test, but i've solved enough problems for 3 years i can definitely refresh my memory 3 days before the test and solve all the problems on the test if they're easy. and if they're not easy or expected? well guess what it goes back to? understanding of basic concepts! also long term, to learn more things and to solve more problems, you have to understand why things are the way they are, and especially in high school there are harder and more unconventional problems that you can't just solve by having solutions to common problem types memorized in your head. you know what 정승제 said, paraphrasing a lot cuz i dont remember the exact video in which he said it (if you do know pls email me)? 'the biggest problems with high schoolers in korea doing math is that they can't admit they don't know things from elementary school, let alone middle school. and why don't they remember middle school math? because korea has this atmosphere of not letting middle schoolers doing middle school math.'
wow that took 15 minutes more than what i expected cuz dinner, but that was a good rant, lemme now go back to studying. also after finals i will not be conventional with studying extra math, no i will not be limited by the label of 'doing Nth grade level math', i will challenge myself to write down how all math in middle school is related to each other because i think that will help me where to go when i am stuck with understanding anything and that happened a lot, there's a hole in my understanding i just don't know where, and it is happening right now.
edit: how did this end up with me being frustrated about my math studies and high school again. yes all this stuff is relevant with high school grades, but the more important thing is that if i don't question things or review basic concepts i will lost my enthusiasm in learning i have rn. i lost it before with math and is on the way to finding it again, and it is hard. my enthusiasm in learning is one of my greatest values in life, therefore i am not giving it up for grades.
another edit: apparently i have a habit of writing 'relevant with' informally (instead of the more standard 'relevant to') which i assume is a korean calque (~와 관련있다). cool.
another another edit: apparently 'relevant with' has a slightly different meaning from 'relevant to' and my intuition is taking this into account.