The YSR Studies blog
Study guides that start with the evidence
Free guides on how to study, the methods that work, math, science and writing explained, Ontario and first-year courses, exams, and AI that teaches. Each one names its research and works on paper first.
Five sections
- 16 guidesHow to study
What the research says moves marks, and the problems in the way: tests in a week, cramming, procrastination, nerves, plans.
- 14 guidesStudy methods
The methods with evidence behind them, each taught so it works on paper: active recall, spacing, Cornell notes, interleaving.
- 19 guidesMath explained
Every idea students search for in functions, calculus, vectors, matrices and statistics: one worked example marked line by line, the common wrong line, and the course it belongs to.
- 26 guidesScience explained
Chemistry, physics and biology idea by idea: stoichiometry to redox, kinematics to modern physics, respiration to genetics, each worked through and placed in its course.
- 7 guidesWriting
The essay's parts and the sentence faults, each with an example and its repair: thesis statements, paragraphs, rhetoric, fallacies, citing, the lab report.
- 9 guidesAI for studying
AI that makes you learn against AI that hands over answers: what to ask of a tutor, a solver, a note taker or a flashcard maker.
- 11 guidesCourses
Ontario Grade 12 and first-year courses, idea by idea: what each covers, what it leads to, how to study it.
- 14 guidesExams
SAT, AP and IELTS, and the practice-test method that works for any exam.
Newest guides
- WritingHow to write a lab report: the sections, what goes in each, and a marked example (a pendulum measures g)
How to write a lab report, section by section: what the marker checks in each, with a pendulum experiment worked from the raw times to g and its error.
- WritingComma splices, run-on sentences, fragments and the passive voice: the four sentence faults and their repairs
A comma splice is two sentences joined by a comma alone. Three ways to mend it, then the run-on, the fragment and the passive voice, each broken and fixed.
- WritingCiting sources: MLA vs APA side by side, the annotated bibliography, and avoiding plagiarism
MLA 9 and APA 7 side by side: a book, an article and a web page in both styles, in-text citations, the annotated bibliography, and where plagiarism begins.
- WritingLogical fallacies: the fifteen a student meets, each with a sentence that commits it and the honest version
Fifteen logical fallacies, each in a sentence that commits it and the honest version that makes the same point, plus the counterargument paragraph.
- WritingEthos, pathos and logos: the three appeals with examples, and the rhetorical analysis essay
Ethos, pathos and logos in one line each, three passages that use them, how to tell them apart, and how to write the rhetorical analysis essay.
- WritingTransition words, topic sentences and paragraph structure: how a paragraph holds together
Transition words grouped by the move they make, the topic sentence that gives a paragraph one job, and a paragraph with no topic sentence repaired.
- WritingThesis statements: arguable, focused, and the test that tells a claim from a topic
A thesis statement is one sentence a reader could disagree with. The three-question test, six weak theses fixed, and when a three-part thesis helps.
- ScienceRedox reactions: oxidation numbers, balancing by half reactions, a galvanic cell's voltage and what an electrolytic cell deposits
Redox worked end to end: oxidation numbers by rule, balancing in acid by half reactions, a galvanic cell’s voltage, and Faraday’s law for electrolysis.