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Sometimes when I sit down for a lengthy review session I find with many questions that I can't solve, and especially if it's on a weekend I won't have TA/Professors to ask, so I typically bring them here. But I know the questions are meant to "benefit all", so I typically pick the one I have absolutely no clue about and just power through or save the rest...is there a preferred way of asking a series of practice problems? I do filter them of course, spending at least 20 min to try to reason it out on my own but sometimes I have no idea where to start, or sometimes it's 45min+ and I'm just wasting time at that point.

From the existing posts I gathered that it should:

  • Show evidence of effort (don't just post question)
  • Not be a ridiculous quantity (5 in 3 hours was too much?)

I'm wondering if it would help if:

  • I grouped the relevant questions into one post. E.g. If I'm struggling with pieces of the normal distribution, I will combine a proof E(X) question with a computational question etc.
  • Make a post similar to above and ask if anybody wants to take it to chat (do people do that lol?)
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    $\begingroup$ This older post seems related: Posting multiple questions as one? Some of the questions linked there might be worth looking at too. $\endgroup$ – Martin Sleziak Oct 20 at 14:37
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    $\begingroup$ Since your Question presupposes "a lengthy review session", it makes sense to start early. Very often it helps to organize your "many questions that I can't solve" into some categories, so that asking a few Questions can resolve the basic misunderstandings or missing knowledge that gets you started on a broader set of problems (rather than pedantically asking each review question without benefit of solving any of them). $\endgroup$ – hardmath Oct 20 at 15:40
  • $\begingroup$ @hardmath I see what you mean but can you clarify what you mean by "start early"? Like start early in the day? Or start reviewing early in the semester? $\endgroup$ – Five9 Oct 20 at 15:42
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    $\begingroup$ I mean it relative to the length of the review session you are planning. In other words if you were thinking about spending several hours, you will need some time at the outset to look over the material and find the topics you will need help with. That will lead to a more expeditious learning process, as opposed to just going straight through a list of assigned review problems. $\endgroup$ – hardmath Oct 20 at 15:45
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    $\begingroup$ Since you have mentioned chat, I will include also links to List of chatrooms. You can check for yourself which of the rooms mentioned there are active and which have lower activity. $\endgroup$ – Martin Sleziak Oct 20 at 16:21
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    $\begingroup$ And since you explicitly mentioned not posting too many questions in short period, it's worth adding that the software will prevent you from posting more that 6 question per day, 50 questions per month. (The limits count deleted questions, too.) $\endgroup$ – Martin Sleziak Oct 20 at 16:37
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    $\begingroup$ You might want to group things together by concept, but only ask about one concept at a time. And don't just ask the practice questions verbatim, but distill which concepts you're confused about and ask those instead. That way you can make sure your question aren't too broad, but also that you aren't asking too many. Not to mention it helps you learn better. $\endgroup$ – YiFan Oct 21 at 21:57

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