Year 2 — Ramp (Months 13-24)

Reality: CWO complete. Add a second evening block + longer weekends.

Target: 18 hrs/wk. Two evening blocks weeknights, 4hr Saturday, 2hr Sunday, audio.

Coverage: Finish Block 1B → 1C QM → 1D Stat Mech. ~24-26 curriculum weeks.

Off-ramp work: M13-15 research programs; M16 GRE scheduling; M19 sit GRE Physics; M21-22 submit applications (Dec 1); M24 decisions arrive.

End goals: Phase 1 complete (all UG physics), GRE Physics taken, applications submitted, decisions in hand.

• Anki time (0700-0715 Mon-Fri): 5-7 cards across CWO, Crypto, Physics. Total 75 min/week of spaced retrieval = compounding retention. Skip a day, never skip two.
• Saturday evening REAL REST (1800-2200): non-negotiable. This is your relationship + identity protection.
• Sunday afternoon REAL REST (1700-2030): non-negotiable.

Month 12 — habit + Phase 0/1A complete?

If yes: continue to Y2 as planned. If close but behind: extend by 2-3 months. If far behind: honest reassessment of whether timing works.

Month 18 — GRE Physics result

700+ → apply PhD primarily, MS as backup. 600-700 → apply MS programs (UMD MS Physics ideal). Below 600 → don't apply yet; add 6 months, retest.

Month 24 — admissions decisions

UMD MS Physics admit → accept, negotiate Fall start with terminal leave. Other MS admit → accept best fit, plan transfer or qualifier-sit later. No admits → strengthen 12 months, retry.

1. Retrieval practice (the testing effect)

Karpicke & Roediger 2008, Smith et al. 2016. Trying to recall information from memory — even when you fail — strengthens that memory far more than re-reading or highlighting. The act of struggling to remember is the engine of learning.

Application: close the book and reproduce derivations on a blank page. Every key equation. Every worked example. The recall struggle is the learning, not a sign you haven't learned it yet.

2. Spaced repetition

Ebbinghaus 1885, Cepeda et al. 2008, Dunlosky 2013. Information reviewed at expanding intervals is retained 2-4x longer than information massed at one time. Forgetting curve flattens after a few well-timed reviews.

Application: review yesterday's topic for 5 min. Review last week's topic for 10 min. Review last month's topic for 20 min. The Today tab generates these for you each day.

3. Interleaving

Rohrer & Taylor 2007, Bjork & Bjork 2011. Mixing different problem types within a session improves long-term retention even though blocked practice feels more productive. The discrimination skill (knowing which approach to apply) is what qualifiers test.

Application: in Saturday's 3-hour block, don't do 3 hours of the current week's topic. Do 90 min current, then 30 min from each of three random prior weeks. Counterintuitive but proven.

4. Elaborative interrogation + Feynman technique

Pressley et al. 1992, Karpicke 2012. Asking yourself "why?" and "how?" and explaining concepts in plain English to an imagined non-expert reveals gaps in your understanding faster than any other technique.

Application: the Sunday synthesis sheet is your Feynman explanation. Write the week's central idea as if for a colleague who's smart but not a physicist. If you can't, return to the textbook.

5. Dual coding (verbal + visual)

Paivio 1971, Mayer 2005. Combining language and imagery — sketches, diagrams, mind maps — encodes the same idea in two complementary memory systems. Recall succeeds if either pathway fires.

Application: never read a problem without sketching the geometry. Use diagrams in synthesis sheets. Cover the diagram and re-draw from memory.

6. Worked examples → fading scaffolds (for novices)

Sweller 1988, Renkl & Atkinson 2003. Early in a topic, studying worked examples beats unstructured problem solving. As expertise grows, the balance shifts to independent problem solving. Wrong order causes overload.

Application: for any new topic, work 3-5 examples WITH the solution in front of you first. Then 3-5 with the solution covered until stuck. Then problems with no solution help. Don't skip the first step; it's not cheating.

7. Sleep consolidation

Walker 2017, Stickgold 2013. Memories transfer from hippocampus to neocortex during slow-wave sleep. Problem solving and creative insight emerge from REM sleep. Less than 7 hours and learning literally doesn't stick.

Application: sleep 7-9 hours nightly. Track it. If you skip sleep to study, you erase your prior week's gains. There is no exception to this rule.

8. Mind palaces (method of loci)

Foer 2011 (Moonwalking with Einstein); Maguire et al. 2003 fMRI study of London cabbies + memory champions. Spatial memory is the most evolutionarily ancient memory system humans have. Linking abstract content to imagined locations recruits the hippocampus + parahippocampal place area + retrosplenial cortex — a much more powerful storage substrate than verbal memory alone. World memory champions ALL use this technique; none use raw rehearsal.

Application: for any fixed body of facts you need to recall on demand (CWO doctrine, IEEE radar bands, equations, crypto algorithms) — build a mind palace. See the comprehensive section below.

• Hippocampal spatial cells (O'Keefe Nobel 2014) form spatial maps that are evolutionarily older than language. Storing abstract content "in" these maps recruits a higher-bandwidth substrate.
• Dual coding (Paivio). Visual + semantic encoding compounds. A formula linked to a vivid image at a specific location is encoded three ways.
• Chunking (Miller, Chase & Simon). Each "location" in your palace becomes a chunk that holds one chunk of content. Chess grandmasters chunk board positions; memory athletes chunk facts.
• Elaborative encoding. The bizarre/vivid imagery you create at each location strengthens the trace.
• Forced retrieval at use. Walking the palace IS retrieval practice. You can't access the content without mentally re-walking.
• Maguire et al. 2003 fMRI: memory champions show no structural difference vs controls — same brains. Difference is hippocampal activation patterns. Trainable.

These techniques complement each other:

• Anki = drill atomic facts with spaced repetition (formula → result, name → definition)
• Mind palace = structured curriculum-level recall (all of Maxwell\'s equations in order, all of CNSA Suite, all IEEE radar bands)
• Synthesis sheet = Feynman explanation of the central idea (week\'s topic in your own words)

Daily 0700-0715 Anki time can include: 5-7 Anki cards + 1 palace walk + 1 prior synthesis sheet re-read. ~15 min total, three retention modes simultaneously.

The 3-year plan is uncomfortable for anyone sharing your life. Three commitments to make explicitly:

1. Quarterly check-in conversation with your partner. "Is this still working for you?" Real answer, not deflection. Adjust based on it.
2. One full day per week is family/partner protected. No physics. Probably Sunday afternoon + evening.
3. You announce the recovery weeks in advance. "I'm taking next week off physics" — partner knows it's not negotiable to push through.

If you're single now but expect that to change in the next 36 months, build the conversation into the relationship from day one. A new partner finding out 6 months in that your evenings are spoken-for is harder than one who knew from the start.

Pre-filled from your DFAS deposits and AmEx + USAA transactions. Edit if anything changes.

Your actual data (May 2026): DFAS deposited $7,504.34 (mid + end of month). If this calc returns close to that, the assumptions are good. If lower, your TSP allocation is below max — check MyPay. Your Roth IRA via Schwab is currently $466/mo ($233 × 2); raise to $583/mo (~$7,000/yr) to fully max for 2026.

Decision 1: Traditional vs Roth TSP allocation

At O-2 you're in the 12% federal bracket. By O-5/O-6 (or post-PhD physicist salary), you'll likely be in 22-32%. This is the cheapest tax bracket of your career.

Action: if you're currently 100% Traditional TSP, switch to 100% Roth TSP. Pay 12% now, withdraw tax-free in retirement when you'll be in a higher bracket. The difference compounds to $100k+ over 40 years.

Same logic for Roth IRA: keep maxing post-tax Roth, not Traditional IRA.

Decision 2: M20-M24 cash acceleration (optional)

If your monthly surplus (after maxed retirement + expenses) is <$1,000, you may need to reduce TSP to 5% (match only) for the final 4-6 months before separation to build the transition cushion in liquid cash.

Math: dropping TSP from $1,958/mo to $290/mo (5% match) frees ~$1,668/month. Over M20-M24 (5 months) that's ~$8,300 additional liquid cushion at the cost of $8k less in retirement.

Recommendation: only do this if (a) your current monthly surplus is too low to build the $32-40k transition cushion by M22, AND (b) you can't bridge with existing Roth IRA contributions (which can be withdrawn penalty-free for any reason, anytime).

Decision 3: HYSA + Roth IRA contributions as transition cushion

The Roth IRA contribution rule is your secret weapon: your contributions (not earnings) can be withdrawn penalty- and tax-free, anytime, for any reason. By M25 you'll have ~$40k of contributions in Roth IRA accessible if needed.

This means the "$32-40k cushion" is less critical than it looks for someone in your position. Between accumulated brokerage/HYSA, plus Roth IRA contribution access as emergency lever, plus GI Bill MHA at separation, you have multiple safety nets.

Recommended target by M22: $20-25k in pure HYSA (cushion + transition logistics) + $5k brokerage emergency fund. Roth IRA contributions remain a backup-of-last-resort but should not be your primary plan.

Decision 4: Brokerage account (taxable) — consider opening

If you don't already have a taxable brokerage at Fidelity / Vanguard / Schwab, open one in M1-M3. Direct any surplus beyond emergency fund here.

• Allocation: 50% high-yield savings (Treasury-backed, 4-5% yield in 2026), 50% short-duration treasuries or 1-2 year bond ladder. Goal is liquidity in 18-24 months, not long-term growth.
• Don't: put transition cushion in equities. The 2008/2020/2022 lesson — you can't time it. If the market drops 30% in 2027 right when you're separating, your transition becomes a crisis.
• Tax efficiency: if you hold for 12+ months and sell in the lower-income transition year (most of M27-M36), capital gains are 0% on the first ~$48k of long-term gains for single filers in 2026.