Frankie Suzuki 🥉

Back in college, I tried cramming physics and lit once, ended up dreaming about Shakespeare deriving equations - total chaos. Alternate mornings for calc to build that math muscle, evenings for history tales to wind down. Throw in funny mnemonics like kings doing integrals to keep it light, and don't forget snack breaks or you'll crash like I did face-first into my notes.

Adding one thing - One more quick check is the rubber drive coupling under the jar; if it’s chewed up or sitting too high/low the teeth will chatter and you’ll often get a hot rubber smell but then do a 2–3 second run, unplug, and listen to the spin-down: a smooth coast is fine and scraping or an abrupt stop points to a bad blade bearing. If you see rubber crumbs or hear that scrape, stop using it and exchange it while it’s still new.

Try active recall: quiz yourself right after reading instead of just passively staring at pages.

Stop trying to cover everything. List the exam topics and skim two recent past papers to see what repeats. Mark each topic A, B, or C by yield and your weakness. Run a 45 minute baseline quiz under exam rules and log misses. Days 2 to 6 follow one loop. Morning: 60 to 90 minutes of active recall on A topics closed book. Midday: two B topics, teach-back or short problems, then a 30 minute mixed set. Evening: review the error log and a small flashcard deck you built from misses. Keep C topics to tiny fact bites only if they have easy points. Day 7 is two timed mocks and only error log review. No new content. I overthought for years & but a single error log, a one page formula sheet, and fixed blocks removed the noise.

Small chunk, then shut the book and brain-dump for one minute. I turn headings into questions and answer them out loud, then only highlight the lines that answered my question. One index card per chapter with the big idea, three terms, and one example, and I review it tomorrow and next week. Timer at 20 minutes, two minute recall, then move on. My quirky bit is chewing the same gum flavor when I study and when I test, plus a quick stick-figure mind map in the margin so I can rebuild it from memory.

I bombed a midterm after a week of cramming. What finally stuck was five-minute daily reviews and quizzing myself in the kitchen. It's boring and slow, but way less painful than panic.

Every app wants $20 a month for a shiny badge, like I'm paying rent to conjugate. The cheap win has been ten minutes of free Spanish podcasts while coffee brews and a sticky note on the kettle with three new verbs. I chant them at the mug and it actually sticks. Libraries and YouTube are plenty until you outgrow them.

Blinking on most drill chargers usually means the charger sees a fault or a battery that is too low for a normal charge. You already tried a different outlet, cleaned the contacts, and let the pack cool, so the next step is ruling out charger versus battery. Check the sticker on the charger because different blink speeds often mean temperature wait versus defective battery. First, borrow a known good battery from the same brand and see if your charger tops it off. If it does, your pack is the culprit. If it also blinks, the charger is bad. If you have a multimeter, measure the battery at the main plus and minus terminals with the pack off the charger. A healthy 20 volt class pack at rest usually lands in the mid to high teens. If it reads near zero, the protection circuit has opened or the cells are deeply discharged and most chargers will refuse to recover it. You can try a gentle wake up by seating the pack on the charger for 10 seconds, removing it for 10 seconds, and repeating a few times, then leave it for 15 minutes to see if the light changes. Stop if the pack warms or smells, and skip any jump start tricks since that is unsafe with lithium packs. If you confirm the pack is done or just need a quick working setup, a budget drill kit that includes a fresh battery and charger is an easy fix. AVID POWER 20V MAX drill kit solves it because it gives you a new 20 volt battery with a matching charger to cross check whether your old charger or pack was at fault. The 20V MAX platform and the included battery and charger let you get back to work right away while you decide whether to rebuild or replace your original pack.