If I have not understood it, I have not learned it

It matters to me that I feel a topic completely through. There is pleasure in the logic behind a thing — not in collecting answers. Short-term memory is never the option. Only complete understanding stays.

I study mostly from handwritten notes. I bought an iPad for the online version and barely use it for that. The hand has to move. Mechanical memory is not old-fashioned. It is how an idea becomes physical.

Because I am a musician, I often remember well when I hear. Sometimes in an exam I hear my teacher’s voice in my head. That is not cheating and it is not theatre. Sound is one of the ways my mind files things.

I think many students do not try hard because motivation is missing, not because they are unable. You have to find it yourself, even in small things. You need a spine of ideas you will defend, and enough flexibility to change them when something significant happens.

When I am stuck, I go and think. Even if I am not sitting at the desk, the brain is still working. Eventually a solution arrives. A good day is when happiness is not a side effect — when everything else is in its place.