Unpopular Opinion: Studying 8 hours a day is mostly useless

Most people boast about "putting in 8–10 hours a day," but if you look closely at what actually happens in those 8 hours:

• 2 hours spent re-watching lectures at 1x speed that they already understood
• 1.5 hours finding the "perfect" notes or organizing Notion templates
• 1.5 hours zoned out staring at a solution without actually solving it
• 3 hours of actual, active cognitive effort

Sitting at your desk with books open is not the same as high-intensity active recall. 3–4 hours of aggressive problem solving, timed sectionals, and ruthless error analysis will consistently beat 8 hours of passive reading.

Are long study marathons actually moving the needle for you, or is it just study theater to ease guilt? What’s your honest take?