About This Guide
This is Andrej Karpathy's (former Tesla AI Director, OpenAI founding member) advice shared on his Stanford personal webpage. These recommendations are based on his years of learning and teaching experience, offering highly practical value for students' exam preparation and study methods.
本文是 Andrej Karpathy（特斯拉前 AI 总监、OpenAI 创始成员）在斯坦福大学个人主页上分享的学习与考试建议。这些建议基于他多年的学习和教学经验，对学生备考和学习方法具有很高的实用价值。
TESTS: PREPARATION | 考试准备
Considering the big picture and organisation is the key. Create schedule of study, even if you dont stick to it. For me this usually involves getting an idea of everything I need to know and explicitly writing it down in terms of bullet points. Consider all points carefully and think about how long it will take you to get them down. If you don't do this, there is a tendency to spend too much time on beginning of material and then skim through the (most important) later material due to lack of time.
从大局出发进行规划是关键。制定学习计划，即使你不完全按照它执行。对我来说，这通常包括了解我需要掌握的所有内容，并明确地用要点形式写下来。仔细考虑所有要点，思考掌握它们需要多长时间。如果不这样做，往往会在开始部分花费过多时间，然后由于时间不足而匆匆浏览（最重要的）后面的材料。
Always try to look at previous tests BEFORE starting to study. Especially if the past tests were written by the same professor. This will give you strong hints about how you should study. Every professor has a different evaluation style. Don't actually attempt to complete the questions in the beginning, but take careful note of the type of questions.
在开始学习之前，一定要先查看往年的考试试题。特别是如果过去的试题是由同一位教授出的。这会给你强有力的提示，告诉你应该如何学习。每位教授都有不同的评估风格。一开始不要真正尝试完成这些问题，但要仔细注意题目的类型。
Reading and understanding IS NOT the same as replicating the content. Even I often make this mistake still: You read a formula/derivation/proof in the book and it makes perfect sense. Now close the book and try to write it down. You will find that this process is completely different and it will amaze you that many times you won't actually be able to do this! Somehow the two things use different parts of the memory. Make it a point to make sure that you can actually write down the most important bits, and that you can re-derive them at will. Feynman famously knew this very well.
阅读理解与复现内容是不同的。即使我现在仍然经常犯这个错误：你在书中阅读一个公式/推导/证明，它完全说得通。现在合上书，尝试写下来。你会发现这个过程完全不同，你会惊讶地发现很多时候你实际上做不到这一点！不知何故，这两件事使用了记忆的不同部分。确保你能够实际写下最重要的部分，并且能够随时重新推导它们。费曼著名地深知这一点。
Always try to collaborate with others, but near the end. Study alone first because in the early stages of studying others can only serve as a distraction. But near the end get together with others: they will often point out important pitfalls, bring up good issues, and sometimes give you an opportunity to teach. Which brings me to:
总是尝试与他人合作，但要在后期。先独自学习，因为在学习的早期阶段，其他人只会成为干扰。但在后期要和其他人聚在一起：他们经常会指出重要的陷阱，提出好问题，有时还会给你一个教学的机会。这让我想到：
Don't only hang out only with stronger students. Weaker students will have you explain things to them and you will find that teaching the material helps A LOT with understanding.
不要只和更强的学生交往。较弱的学生会让你向他们解释事情，你会发现教授材料对理解有很大帮助。
Go to the prof before final exam at least once for office hours. Even if you have no questions (make something up!) Profs will sometimes be willing to say more about a test in 1on1 basis (things they would not disclose in front of the entire class). Don't expect it, but when this does happen, it helps a lot. Does this give you an unfair advantage over other students? Sometimes. It's a little shady :) But in general it is a good idea to let the prof get to know you at least a little.
期末考试前至少去找教授答疑一次。即使你没有问题（编一个！）教授有时愿意在一对一的基础上透露更多关于考试的信息（他们不会在整个班级面前透露的东西）。不要期待，但当这种情况发生时，会有很大帮助。这是否给你带来了相对于其他学生的不公平优势？有时候是的。这有点不光彩 :) 但总的来说，让教授至少对你有一点了解是个好主意。
For things like math: Exercise > Reading. It is good to study to the point where you are reasonably ready to start the exercises, but then fill in the gaps through doing exercises, especially if you have many available to you. The exercises will also make you go back and read things you don't know.
对于数学之类的科目：练习 > 阅读。学习到你合理准备好开始做练习的程度是好的，但之后通过做练习来填补空白，特别是如果你有很多练习题可用。练习题也会让你回去阅读你不懂的东西。
Make yourself cheat sheet. Even if you're not allowed to bring it to the exam. Writing things down helps. What you want is to cram the entire course on 1 or more pages that you can in the end tile in front of you and say with high degree of confidence "This is exactly everything I must know"
给自己做一份备忘单。即使你不被允许把它带到考试中。写下东西有帮助。你想要的是把整个课程压缩在一页或多页上，最后你可以把它们摊在面前，并以高度的信心说"这正是我必须知道的一切"。
Study in places where other people study as well, even if not the same thing. This makes you feel bad when you are the one not studying. It works for me :) Places with a lot of background noise are bad and have a research-supported negative impact on learning. Libraries and Reading rooms work best.
在其他人也在学习的地方学习，即使不是同样的东西。当你是唯一一个不学习的人时，这会让你感到不好。这对我有用 :) 有很多背景噪音的地方是不好的，并且有研究支持的负面影响。图书馆和阅览室效果最好。
DURING THE TEST | 考试期间
Always use pencil for tests. You want to be able to erase your garbage "solutions"
考试时总是使用铅笔。你希望能够擦除你的垃圾"解答"。
Look over all questions very briefly before start. A mere 1-3 second glance per question is good enough. Just absorb all key words, and get idea of the size of the entire test.
开始前非常简短地浏览所有问题。每个问题仅看 1-3 秒就足够了。只需吸收所有关键词，并了解整个测试的规模。
On test, do easy questions first. Do not allow yourself to get stuck on something too long. Come back to it later. I skip questions all the time... Sometimes I can complete as little as 30% of the test on my first pass. Some questions somehow become much easier once you're "warmed up", I can't explain it.
在考试中，先做简单的问题。不要让自己在某件事上卡太久。稍后再回来。我总是跳过问题……有时我第一遍只能完成 30% 的测试。一旦你"热身"了，有些问题不知何故变得容易得多，我无法解释。
Always try to be neat on the test. Surprisingly few people actually realize this obvious fact: A human being will mark your test. A sad human being gives low marks. I suspected this as undergrad student and confirmed it strongly when I was TAing and actually marking.
总是尽量在考试中保持整洁。令人惊讶的是，很少有人意识到这个显而易见的事实：一个人类会批改你的试卷。一个悲伤的人类会给低分。我作为本科生时怀疑这一点，当我做助教实际批改试卷时强烈证实了这一点。
Always BOX IN/CIRCLE the answer Especially when there is derivation around it. This allows the marker to give you a quick check mark for full marks and move on. Get in the mindset of a marker.
总是用方框框出/圈出答案 特别是当周围有推导过程时。这允许批改者给你一个快速的对勾满分并继续前进。进入批改者的思维模式。
NEVER. EVER. EVER. Leave test early. You made a silly mistake (I guarantee it), find it and fix it. If you can't find it, try harder until time runs out. If you are VERY certain of no mistakes, work on making test more legible and easier to mark. Erase garbage, box in answers, add steps to proofs, etc. I have no other way of putting this-- people who leave tests early are stupid. This is a clear example of a situation where potential benefits completely outweigh the cost.
永远。永远。永远。不要提前离开考试。你犯了一个愚蠢的错误（我保证），找到它并修正它。如果找不到，更努力地尝试，直到时间用完。如果你非常确定没有错误，那就让试卷更清晰，更容易批改。擦除垃圾，框出答案，为证明添加步骤等。我没有其他方式来表达这一点——提前离开考试的人是愚蠢的。这是一个明显的例子，潜在收益完全超过成本。
Communicate with the marker. Show the marker that you know more than what you put down. Ok you can't do a particular step, but make it clear that you know how to proceed if you did. Don't be afraid to leave notes when necessary. Believe it or not the markers often end up trying to find you more marks-- make it easy for them.
与批改者沟通。向批改者展示你知道的比你写下的更多。好吧，你不能完成某个特定步骤，但要清楚地表明如果你做了，你知道如何继续。必要时不要害怕留下注释。信不信由你，批改者经常最终试图为你找到更多分数——让他们轻松。
Consider number of points per question. Many tests will tell you how many marks every question is worth. This can give you very strong hints when you are doing something wrong. It also gives you strong hints at what questions you should be working on. It is, of course, silly to spend too much time on questions worth little marks that are still relatively hard for you.
考虑每个问题的分数。许多测试会告诉你每个问题值多少分。当你做错事时，这可以给你非常强的提示。它还为你提供了关于应该做什么问题的强烈提示。当然，在仍然相对困难的问题上花太多时间而它们只值很少的分数是愚蠢的。
If there are <5 minutes left and you are still stuck on some question, STOP. Your time is better spent re-reading all questions and making absolutely sure you did not miss any secondary questions, and that you answered everything. You wouldn't believe how many silly marks people lose this way.
如果剩下不到 5 分钟，而你仍然卡在某个问题上，停止。你的时间最好花在重新阅读所有问题上，确保你没有遗漏任何次要问题，并且你回答了所有问题。你不会相信有多少人以这种方式失去了愚蠢的分数。
Congratulations if you got all the way here!
Now that you are here, here's my last (very important advice). It is something that I wish someone had told me when I was an undergraduate.
如果你一路读到这里，恭喜！既然你在这里，这是我最后（非常重要的）建议。这是我希望有人在我还是本科生时告诉我的事情。
Undergrads tend to have tunnel vision about their classes. They want to get good grades, etc. The crucial fact to realize is that noone will care about your grades, unless they are bad. For example, I always used to say that the smartest student will get 85% in all of his courses. This way, you end up with somewhere around 4.0 score, but you did not over-study, and you did not under-study.
本科生往往对他们的课程有隧道视野。他们想要获得好成绩等等。需要意识到的关键事实是，除非你的成绩很差，否则没有人会关心你的成绩。例如，我总是说最聪明的学生会在所有课程中获得 85% 的成绩。这样，你最终会得到大约 4.0 的分数，但你没有过度学习，也没有学习不足。
Your time is a precious, limited resource. Get to a point where you don't screw up on a test and then switch your attention to much more important endeavors. What are they?
你的时间是宝贵的、有限的资源。达到在考试中不搞砸的程度，然后将注意力转移到更重要的事业上。它们是什么？
Getting actual, real-world experience, working on real code base, projects or problems outside of silly course exercises is extremely imporant. Professors/People who know you and can write you a good reference letter saying that you have initiative, passion and drive are extremely important. Are you thinking of applying to jobs? Get a summer internship. Are you thinking of pursuing graduate school? Get research experience! Sign up for whatever programs your school offers. Or reach out to a professor/graduate student asking to get involved on a research project you like. This might work if they think you're driven and motivated enough. Do not underestimate the importance of this: A well-known professor who writes in their recommendation letter that you are driven, motivated and independent thinker completely dwarfs anything else, especially petty things like grades. It also helps a lot if you squeeze in at least one paper before you apply. Also, you should be aware that the biggest pet peeve from their side are over-excited undergrad students who sign up for a project, meet a few times, ask many questions, and then suddenly give up and disappear after all that time investment from the graduate student's or professor's side. Do not be this person (it damages your reputation) and do not give any indication that you might be.
获得实际的、真实世界的经验，在真实的代码库、项目或问题上工作，而不是愚蠢的课程练习，这是极其重要的。认识你并能为你写一封好的推荐信的教授/人，说你有主动性、热情和动力，这是极其重要的。你在考虑申请工作吗？获得暑期实习。你在考虑攻读研究生吗？获得研究经验！报名参加你学校提供的任何项目。或者联系你喜欢的研究项目的教授/研究生，要求参与。如果他们认为你足够有动力和积极性，这可能会奏效。不要低估这一点的重要性：一位知名教授在推荐信中写道你有动力、积极主动、思维独立，这完全超过了其他任何东西，特别是像成绩这样的琐碎事情。如果你在申请之前至少挤出一篇论文，也会有很大帮助。此外，你应该意识到，从他们的角度来看，最大的烦恼是过度兴奋的本科生，他们报名参加一个项目，见面几次，问很多问题，然后在研究生或教授投入大量时间后突然放弃并消失。不要成为这样的人（这会损害你的声誉），也不要给出任何你可能是这样的人的暗示。
Other than research projects, get involved with some group of people on side projects or better, start your own from scratch. Contribute to Open Source, make/improve a library. Get out there and create (or help create) something cool. Document it well. Blog about it. These are the things people will care about a few years down the road. Your grades? They are an annoyance you have to deal with along the way. Use your time well and good luck.
除了研究项目，参与某个团队的副项目，或者更好的是，从头开始自己的项目。为开源做贡献，制作/改进一个库。走出去创造（或帮助创造）一些很酷的东西。好好记录它。写博客。这些是几年后人们会关心的事情。你的成绩？它们是你必须沿途处理的烦恼。好好利用你的时间，祝你好运。