Med School TOPPER’S SYSTEM to Memorising Effectively (Detailed Breakdown)
Summary
TLDRThis video, sponsored by Short Form, offers a comprehensive guide on effective memorization techniques by Zay Yif, a third-year medical student. The script outlines a three-part method to enhance memory retention: associating information by creating connections and value, visualizing complex data into stories and memory palaces, and recalling information through spaced repetition. Yif emphasizes the importance of understanding over rote memorization and provides practical steps to revolutionize the learning process.
Takeaways
- 📚 The script emphasizes the importance of effective memorization techniques for learning and retaining information, especially for complex subjects like medicine.
- 🧠 It introduces the concept that our brains naturally try to discard information, so creating associations and showing value to the information is crucial for memorization.
- 🗺️ The video guide suggests mapping out the entire topic to create a foundational understanding and to avoid information overload on the working memory.
- 🔗 The process of creating 'relation' and 'value' involves linking new information to prior knowledge and demonstrating its relevance, which helps in moving information from working memory to long-term memory.
- 👨🎓 Zay oif, a medical student, shares his personal techniques based on scientific research and his own experiences in medical school.
- 📈 The guide is divided into three main parts: associating information, visualizing information, and recalling information, each with specific steps and techniques.
- 🤯 The video discusses the effectiveness of creating absurd and vivid stories to help with memorization, as the brain is more likely to remember unusual and distinct information.
- 🏠 It introduces the concept of a 'Memory Palace', a method where information is stored in specific locations within a familiar environment to aid recall.
- 🔍 The guide encourages the use of visual markers and stories for complex information, such as tables filled with data or lists of diseases, to enhance memorization.
- ✍️ The importance of writing down or sketching out the stories and memory palaces is highlighted to prevent forgetting and to provide a reference for复习.
- 📝 The final part of the guide focuses on the retrieval of information, suggesting techniques like initial mind map retrieval and spaced repetition for effective recall.
Q & A
What is the main issue the video aims to address?
-The video addresses the issue of ineffective memorization during study sessions, where people read extensively but fail to retain the information.
Who is the presenter of the video?
-The presenter is Zay Yif, a third-year medical student.
What is the purpose of the guide presented in the video?
-The guide aims to provide scientifically-backed steps to understand and memorize information effectively, revolutionizing the way one learns.
What does the video suggest about the relationship between understanding a topic and memorizing it?
-The video suggests that understanding a topic is important but not sufficient for memorization; additional steps are needed to make the brain retain the information effectively.
What are the three main parts of the memorization guide presented in the video?
-The three main parts are associating the information, visualizing the information, and recalling the information.
What is the significance of creating a mind map during the initial study phase?
-Creating a mind map helps in mapping out the entire topic, establishing a foundation, and making connections between different pieces of information, which aids in better memorization.
How does the video suggest making the learning process more relevant and valuable?
-The video suggests creating relations by associating new information with prior knowledge and showing the brain that the information is relevant and important by demonstrating its value.
What role does the sponsor 'Short Form' play in the video?
-Short Form provides book summaries and guides that the presenter uses for research and to simplify concepts before delving into detailed study, which helps in the initial mapping of topics.
What is the importance of creating a 'crazy story' for memorization?
-Creating a 'crazy story' helps in visualizing complex information and processes, making them more memorable through the use of absurd and vivid imagery.
How does the video recommend using a 'Memory Palace' for memorization?
-The video recommends using a 'Memory Palace' by placing visual stories and information in specific locations within a familiar place, which helps in retrieving the information during recall.
What is the final part of the memorization guide about?
-The final part of the guide focuses on recalling the information effectively by using the created visual stories and memory palaces, and spacing out the retrieval practice for better retention.
Outlines
📚 Effective Memorization Techniques for Learning
The speaker, Zay Yif, introduces the video as a guide to improve memorization skills during study sessions. Emphasizing the importance of understanding and memorizing information effectively, the video promises a step-by-step approach based on scientific research. Zay shares his background as a medical student and his exploration of various memory techniques, which he has condensed into a practical method. The video is structured into three parts: associating information, visualizing information, and recalling information, starting with the often-overlooked importance of associating new information with prior knowledge to create connections and show the brain the value of retaining this information.
🗺️ Mapping the Topic for Better Understanding and Memory
This paragraph delves into the first step of the memorization process: mapping the entire topic. Zay suggests creating a mental model by skimming through the material to identify key points and separating the essential concepts from less critical details. He highlights the importance of not overloading working memory and instead focusing on simplifying concepts to foundational basics. The speaker also introduces the sponsor, Short Form, which provides book summaries that helped in the research for the video. The mapping method includes categorizing and chunking big ideas, creating a mind map, and considering the logical backbone of the chapter, all of which are crucial for embedding details into long-term memory.
🤔 Creating Intrigue and Value to Enhance Memory
The speaker discusses the second step in the memorization process: creating intrigue and value. This involves building upon the initial structure of the topic with a deeper exploration, driven by curiosity and interest. Zay emphasizes the importance of attention and emotions in transferring knowledge from working memory to long-term memory. Techniques such as studying deeply, understanding from first principles, and considering the broader context of the information are suggested to make the learning process more memorable. The paragraph also touches on the importance of differentiating between content that needs to be understood and content that also requires memorization.
🎨 Visualizing Information for Enhanced Memory Retention
In this paragraph, Zay introduces the concept of visualizing information as a method to transform complex data into a format that the brain can quickly understand and absorb. He explains the process of creating a 'crazy story' by associating each piece of information with a vivid, absurd image or scenario. This technique leverages the brain's ability to remember images more effectively than words. The speaker also discusses the use of memory palaces or loci, a method of associating these visual stories with specific locations in a familiar environment, to aid in recall. The paragraph concludes with practical advice on applying these visualization techniques to memorize dense information.
🏠 Utilizing Memory Palaces for Advanced Memorization
The speaker provides a nuanced approach to the memory palace technique, adapted for complex study material. He suggests creating a path through a chosen location and placing visual stories in specific 'micro stations' within that location. By clustering stories related to the same topic in the same room, or 'macro station', the speaker demonstrates a method to efficiently store and retrieve large amounts of information. The paragraph includes practical steps for implementing this technique, such as sketching the location and testing one's memory of the space, to ensure the stories are effectively placed and retrievable.
💡 Recalling Information with the Aid of Memory Techniques
Zay discusses the importance of recalling information and how memory techniques can make this process feel like having a photographic memory. He shares personal experiences of how these techniques have impacted his ability to remember complex medical information quickly. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of understanding the information intuitively, rather than relying solely on rote memorization. He provides examples of how he uses stories and memory palaces to recall specific medical conditions and their characteristics, highlighting the efficiency and effectiveness of this method.
🔄 Spacing Retrieval Sessions for Long-Term Memory
The final paragraph focuses on the retrieval of memorized information and the concept of spacing effect for efficient learning. Zay explains his method of initial mind map retrieval before starting a revision session, which helps to jog the memory and identify knowledge gaps. He also discusses the use of recall questions to test oneself, suggesting the inclusion of cues that trigger the associated visual stories and memory palaces. The speaker emphasizes the importance of spacing out retrieval sessions to optimize memory retention, recommending different intervals for easier and harder topics, and concludes by encouraging viewers to provide feedback on the memorization guide.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Memorization
💡Working Memory
💡Long-term Memory
💡Mind Maps
💡Relevance
💡Value
💡Visualizing Information
💡Memory Palace
💡Active Recall
💡Spacing Effect
💡Intrigue
💡First Principles
Highlights
The video offers a comprehensive guide on effective memorization techniques for better learning.
Zay Yif, a third-year medical student, shares scientifically-backed steps for memorizing complex information.
The importance of associating new information with prior knowledge to create connections and value is emphasized.
Mapping the entire topic before studying is suggested to avoid information overload and create a mental model.
Sponsor Short Form is introduced for its book summaries and guides that help simplify complex concepts.
The guide is divided into three parts: associating, visualizing, and recalling information.
Creating intrigue and value while studying helps in transferring knowledge to long-term memory.
The method of creating a memorization filter to differentiate content that needs understanding versus memorization is discussed.
Visualizing information through creating crazy stories and linking them helps in better absorption and recall.
The modified Memory Palace technique is introduced to store complex stories and information in a spatial format.
The benefits of using visual stories and memory palaces for difficult to understand or remember information are highlighted.
The process of recalling information involves initial mind map retrieval and practice questions.
Spacing out the retrieval sessions is crucial for effective long-term retention of information.
The guide concludes with a summary of the memorization techniques and a call for feedback from viewers.
A special offer for Short Form is provided to the viewers with a link in the description for a free trial and discount.
The video encourages viewers to apply these techniques for improved memorization skills and exam preparation.
Transcripts
this video is sponsored by short form
more on them later if you're the person
that reads and reads and reads for hours
but never ends up remembering anything
it's because you don't do the incredibly
important steps that you need to be
doing during the study sessions to
memorize effectively my name is Zay oif
I'm a third-year medical student and in
this full guide we are going through the
exact steps one by one every single
specific scientifically backed action
that you need to be taking in order to
not only understand information but to
memorize it and in Rin it in your head
in a way that revolutionizes the way you
learn these last few weeks I've gone
through six different scientifically
backed memory books I've explored the
nuances of exactly how our brain
memorizes information I've experimented
with these techniques from my own
studies in medical school and condensed
it all into a digestible easy to follow
method for all of you but here's the
catch as always this isn't like any
other video because this is an active
guide filled with practical steps of
things that you can do right now to
improve your memory skills and to
actually memorize the topic with me in
real time and I know most videos just
show you a list of unrelated words and
then show you pictures in order to
memorize them but what's the point in
doing that it's completely different
from the content and the information
that we actually have to memorize for
our exams so pick an actual topic that
you are studying a complex process of
multiple equations and follow along the
steps in this video to perfectly
memorize it this detailed guide is going
to be broken up into three parts one
associating the information two
visualizing the information and three
recalling the information part one
associate ing the information this first
entire part is always invisible to the
normal person not a lot of people do it
not a lot of people realize that I do it
and when people catch me memorizing
stuff like this in the next sections
they all say oh my God how are you so
fast as learning how do you remember so
much when it's not really the same thing
if you haven't done the first main big
step so let's get into it we all think
that if I understand a topic well enough
that it'll just magnetically stick in my
head but the funny fact is the way that
our brain and our memory works that
we're literally trying to discard and
forget as much as possible in any given
moment and yes if you read and
understand a topic it does create a good
base but to actually memorize
information to make your brain think
that this is worth keeping you need to
be able to create number one relation
and number two value relation means that
you need to associate the new
information you're learning to your
prior knowledge to create connections
between this information and your strong
basic foundation and then creating value
means to show your brain that this
information is relevant and important
you're literally screaming at it please
don't throw away it is worth keeping and
both of these relation and value can
both be created through very practical
techniques and that's what we'll achieve
with these next steps step number one
map the entire topic the only way we can
create relevance to the information we
want to learn is by first mapping out
the entire topic this means sitting down
and creating a foundation a mental model
of all the basics separating The Logical
backbone of the chapter from the fluff
both Barbara Oakley and Olaf Shu I.E big
neuroscientist in the space they say in
multiple books that most students while
reading information actually choke up
their working memory or in other words
overloaded with information too quickly
giving no actual attention to the
individual pieces of information which
means very little connects from their
working memory to their long-term memory
and the solution that they always
mentioned was to make time before you
start learning to simplify the concepts
to the absolute Basics the applicable
rules the key big overarching themes and
topics that sometimes people even ignore
because they're too simple and the
reason we do this is because it'll
become much much easier to embed the
details into our memory if we can relate
them back to this foundational web of
Basics that we're creating while we do
this mapping step and the Practical
steps to do this initial mapping is to
Step One skim the entire chapter
starting with the absolute Basics this
means looking at the main headings the
definitions the keywords simplifying
them and trying to vaguely understand
every big point being discussed but no
memorizing you're just going through the
book and kind of marinating your brain
you're going through the book and kind
of of marinating your brain becoming
familiar with the content this step
usually takes me around 20 to 30 minutes
per big topic but it usually depends on
the content and add a tip here is to not
think too much about how everything is
structured just yet so don't focus on oh
this is the title this is the subtitle
this is the main heading the way we
think about and structure information
while we take it in is highly highly
important in the long term to how we
remember it so leave the structure until
you've skim through and have a basic
understanding of all the topics skimming
through information however is quite
tough when you have a 100 page books and
multiple books on the same topic and you
don't know which to actually spend time
reading but don't worry because the
sponsor of today's video short form has
God us covered they are the very first
sponsors I've ever accepted and it's
because their book summaries and their
guides are exactly what I use before I
read most books in fact it's what I use
for all of the research I did for this
video as well instead of spending hours
reading through all these bigname memory
learning books searching for things that
would only be applicable to us students
I simply went through their onepage
summaries and searched for the specific
things things in the books that were
actually useful and the reason they're
so good is because they're not like most
summaries they're like full guides the
guy who writes them compares the key
ideas of these books with other books
with other prominent research with
conflicting theories so the just this it
gives you all the information you need
and short form has thousands of books on
learning personal development Finance
business and a lot of other genres and
if you want a book that they don't have
yet then you can actually vote for books
and they upload new books every week as
well so if you're interested click on
the link in my description short.com
szan that's all it is short.com Za n
Zane my first name you get 5 days of
unlimited free access and then another
20% off the annual subscription as well
and if you use the specific link I get a
little bit of Kickback as well which
really helps support this channel so
thank you for listening let's get back
to the mapping method the second step of
this method is to think about how all of
these big ideas that you've read about
and understood the basics about can be
now categorized and chunked together how
can these big Ideas be put into
categories and subcategories and how can
they all be linked together don't look
at your text book for this think in your
own head what is the main trunk of that
tree what is the main topic what are the
main big branches coming off what are
the subtopics and what are the small
leaves that you want to attach at the
end in my previous full study guide I
know I did say to write out everything
all the keywords and topics onto one big
list and put everything on there but to
start studying a topic when doing that
when you have zero basic understanding
is quite annoying and difficult to do
with a lot of topics and what I've
actually found useful is to start with
doing that basic overview and then
come up with my own wellth thought out
structure of all the topics and make
that mind map I think doing it that way
makes the topic stick out more in your
memory and it's because once you have a
decent basic understanding you can link
it all faster and start to create
relationships right off the bat and just
skip that extremely nonsense mindmap
that you'd be making with absolutely
zero knowledge which then just gives you
more time to strengthen everything
overall in the process step number three
is to actually now create that initial
mind map this is what this initial
mapping method is all about you have the
basics you can simply kind of Define
most aspects and processes of the topic
now and you've created a general idea of
how to link the subtopics and topics
together so now put all the main
Concepts on paper use your previous
knowledge and read Around the topic to
then create relationships between
everything helpful questions to think
about when structuring and creating
those connections between different
topics and subtopics you can ask
yourself how do these main topics fit
together if they were puzzle pieces how
are they related to each other can I
compare them are there similarities
differences are these cause and effect
are these smaller parts of a big hole
I've talked about this method before and
I know that this mapping priming stage
in the start seems extra but overall
everything takes around 45 minutes and
now you've not only gone through all the
topics Basics but you've also created a
full structured mindmap or mental model
of the topic that you can now build upon
most people wouldn't be able to do this
even if they had hours with the normal
study method like you don't understand
how much easier the entire memorization
process is after doing this step when
you now read the textbook and watch
lectures you're automatically linking
and anchoring this information to your
previous knowledge and this previous
knowledge is that wellth thought out
mindmap with all the basics of the topic
and this is a summary slide for the
initial mapping
method quick pause in the video Guys
these guides honestly take so long to
make and structure and plan out and
research for but I do them because I
know it helps people so much it helps me
as well to be honest but please could
you uh click off the video leave a like
spam comments help me out with the
algorithm click on that short form link
you get a 5-day free trial and then you
get an annual 20% off the annual
subscription anyways thank you let's get
right back in the guide step two
Intrigue creates value now obviously as
you continue to read you will be
building upon that initial structure of
the topic correcting it seeing what your
gaps are but instead of aimlessly
reading through the chapters like
everyone else because you did that
initial mapping you will be skipping
around and jumping to the subtopics that
you actually want to learn more about
and that's because you already have the
basics so once you have those Basics you
will want to think how this works and
how this connects to this and you'll
want to jump to certain specific
subtopics you'll be forming the interest
through your own learning this saves a
ton of time and it adds that interest
based exploration and that is
immediately what gives this topic value
because once something becomes
interesting it becomes important in our
brain and it's much more likely to stick
Oakley's model badly in hitches working
model of memory all tell us that our
attentional control system is actually
responsible for transferring our
knowledge from our working memory to
then our long-term memory I.E the more
attention and emotions that you give to
the new information that you're learning
the stronger the connections will become
between this new information and the
previous information that you have
number one studying deeply and to be
honest the best way to give this
information more attention is to create
Intrigue to have aha moments to
understand the information as deeply as
possible to understand it from first
principles this means you can't just be
normally reading through and just
accepting things as facts it means
assessing your understanding of the
information as you go through it for
example if you read about
anti-coagulants don't just accept what
it is and how it works and then read
about the examples think deeper H how
does this Doak help stop the cloting
what does it specifically work on
instead of just accepting the facts as
it is you think deeper about the
information ask yourself questions and
that'll allow you to remember more
anyways it's basic but this is the sort
of stuff thinking this way when I'm
studying is the reason I remembered most
of my studying before I discovered all
these great techniques I always asked
why to the point that where I was being
annoying I never took things at face
value and I always informally kind of
tested myself on what I was learning
that's how you'll actually remember more
when you can talk about things from
first principles talk exactly about why
this happens and what causes this to
happen the one caveat here is to know
the limits to being super curious
there's a lot of content to get through
and if you become curious about
everything then you'll never end up
actually covering it so become learn to
become satisfied to with a good level of
understanding I think a good limit to
have is if you can teach it to someone
that is is enough number two studying
broader your brain mainly remembers
things that are different so if you just
read about yet another disease and then
just move on you won't remember much
obviously but if you can assign meaning
to it if you can say why something is
relevant that is when your brain goes
like Oh wait hold on hey hey hey this is
important pay attention so as you read
through the information focus on
thinking about one why something is
important to you and number two why this
information is important for the real
world for number one you think selfishly
why do I need to know this information
for which section of which topic how
does this fit in with my own mental
structure of what I'm learning and then
for number two think with an open heart
where else in the world does this matter
who does it matter to imagine the
patient with the disease think about why
what you're learning is important that's
the key takeaway this second step was
the easy non-complicated ways of
actually making the things that you're
learning more memorable the first bit of
this is number one studying from first
principles I consistently asking why and
then number two studying with the
broader context I consistently asking
why is this important step three is to
create a memorization filter after
building the basics creating a good
mental model and then while you're
reading also creating Intrigue and then
making the content relevant there is one
last very important and kind of obvious
thing that you need to be doing before
you start to memorize everything from
your textbooks you need to differentiate
between the content that needs to be
understood versus the content that needs
to be understood as well as memorized
the things that you can only remember by
memorizing them and not it doesn't
really work with just understanding them
the fact is that memorization techniques
need to be the last resort being in med
school where there's a whole lot of
information to actually go through and
study we've now created a good mental
barrier for the things that can be
directly intuitively understood versus
the things that need to be just wrote
memorized the reason I'm putting so much
emphasis on this is because
understanding the concept is the best
way to memorize it and then remember it
long term if you can understand why
something happens and work through the
logic even if you don't know all the
details you can still look at the exam
question and work through the through
the the thing the concept one by one
work through the logic and get to some
sort of an estimated answer if you can
logically understand something you win
logic is King if I smash my laptop with
a hammer I know it will break that is
logic I don't need a Memory Palace to
remember that and because most of us
don't want to spend useless time
memorizing things that we can just
intuitively understand that's why we use
this filter to filter out the
information that actually needs to be
fully memorized me putting effort into
the memorizing equals to Long processes
plus difficult and sporadic details plus
extremely Niche diseases those are the
three main types of information that I'm
aiming to memorize make your own filter
for the information depending on the
degree and what you study it's important
so that you don't just waste time
stupidly using brain power on active
memorizing techniques when you can
simply do your recall questions and
attain deeper understanding also note
that around 80 to 90% of that
information does not fall in this filter
for memorization but for the specific
lengthy processes with a million steps
and so many byproducts and the illogical
sporadic Niche information this is what
I suggest doing to memorize
them part two visualizing the
information see the point of memorizing
here is to transform the information
that you're studying into a format that
the brain will quickly understand and
absorb I.E images and places because we
are incredible at forgetting words
instantly whereas we are profoundly good
at keeping mental images if you close
your eyes and think of the best
vacations the best food the best people
that you've ever met you need need
visual images to recall those detailed
faces and places so after a lot of
research and using my own experiences
over the years I've modified a mix of
techniques and strategies that a lot of
memory books and scientists swear by but
I've made it applicable to the type of
content that us students have to learn
which isn't usually all the digits of pi
or a random list of objects that most of
these books are teaching us to memorize
so this visualization method isn't just
to visualize the information it is the
way that you will ingrain it all in your
mind keep in mind that all the steps
with within the first part of this guide
associating the information all need to
be completed for this to work as well as
it can step one creating the crazy story
the very first step is to visualize like
a crazy man and then create a story now
this is difficult to explain so listen
carefully replay bits if you need our
brain loves the Absurd so when studying
a step-by-step process for example
replace all the words that you need to
memorize with visual graphic images it's
obviously easy to do with organs like
the heart or the gall L and imagine all
the complex processes happening within
them but something like AO blastoma that
is very hard to picture so in my mind it
becomes the Goblin from Harry Potter or
potassium that element you can't really
think of that so that becomes bananas I
don't know why it's bananas that's just
how it is in my head you get the gist
and so for a step-by-step process I will
imagine a story unfold in my head with
each element each step happening in 3D
but exaggerated remember the story has
to be absurd because our brains will
only remember it if it's different and
weird I knew about this before I do this
a lot with my learning anyways and I
know a lot of us probably do but what I
didn't realize or didn't think about was
the fact that you can do this
visualizing method with any information
with tables filled with difficult
information with rare diseases that are
difficult to imagine with all the
pneumonics that you have to learn you
can visualize and create a crazy story
about anything that you need to memorize
for example let me show you how you can
use it to memorize a huge table of brain
cancers with all of their
characteristics self types Etc very high
yield technique for exams by the way
because with big tables you're usually
given them because the exam questions
are going to ask you to differentiate
between the different things in that
table if you're trying to remember the
hystopathological findings the cell
types the tests for all of these cancers
the best solution is to chunk all of
these cancers together into one story if
you have like 10 20 cancers to memorize
each with different tests pneumonics
cell types it's very very easy to let
one or two of them slip or to to confuse
one or two of them but if you have them
linked through a story it's much more
logical and you're way less lightly
tached to forget anything so for the
brain cancers the Goblin from Harry
Potter I.E for the gleo blastoma breaks
through a big uh brick wall because that
tumor actually crosses the midline in a
CT scan and there's a butterfly on top
of that wall because the tumor is
usually shaped like a butterfly
classically and then continuing with the
story the other side of the wall is a
big gym with only men from enoma and
when this big abnormally looking Goblin
breaks through that wall all the men in
there get scared and start doing some
weird Samoan War dance which I then
associate with the Sima buddies
typically found in momas and on and on
and on you can keep going with the story
keep adding diseases keep adding
information to your mental picture that
story that you made you can even link
another big table of neurological
cancers for children for example and
Link them together using the story that
way you've now memorize two big tables
together visualizing vividly means that
you are creating an endless way to
organize the information in your head
and to be honest it all sounds a lot
harder than it actually is so
practically this is how I want you to
apply the technique one create visual
markers one by one for each of the
information pieces that you are
memorizing two outline the story in
extreme levels of detail going through
things in a sequential order
continuously chunking the similar
information or the things that are
related to each other together and
number three write the story or do some
rough drawings of the story in your
notebook if you actively use this method
a lot and especially if you have a lot
of things to mem Iz in your degree then
you're going to have a lot of short
stories holding a lot of dense
information which is an amazing thing
that our minds can do but actually
leaving that much to your memory is
quite risky so a good solution that a
doctor recommended recently was to
actually have a memory book of all the
visualizations the creative stories that
we create all the pneumonics that we use
in med school a memory book of all the
things that we can't just leave to
understanding and it makes sense if
we're doing this visualizing this much
then why leave it to chance why don't be
organized about it so spend like 10
minutes of your session you actually do
this drawing out the Doodles or the
mental story that you went through for
that table for that huge table by the
way that you're summarizing in this
small little drawing or for that rare
disease that you didn't know about so we
can at least look back to the stories
that we created if we forget them again
I'm repeating this understanding the
information the topic is the hack do not
do this uselessly visualizing and
creating these stories is very active
and helpful but nothing beats just
logically intuitively naturally
understanding the medicine and the
processes step two the modified Memory
Palace the second part of taking this
visualizing technique to the next level
is involving the method of lokai or
memory palaces which by the way is a
memory of a real place or location that
you remember really well like your
school or old home and the simple
technique that most of these books talk
about is to leave different objects in
different locations within your big
Memory Palace so that when you do need
to remember the list you can just walk
through the your memory Palace and
remember those objects and it's a very
smart use of the spatial urenus in our
brain but I never really used this
technique in the past because it wasn't
going to help me with all the content
that I needed to study for actual med
school I don't need to memorize this
list of objects the content is a lot
more complicated than that however after
reading through all these books and
looking at the research of the best
memory scientists I've kind of created a
really effective way to Nuance this
ingenious method for my own studies and
the way to be honest that anyone can do
this is by first doing that step where
you're creating all these stories
visualizations pneumonics for a big
topic and then second you take all these
big stories and store them in that
memory castle of yours and I know it
sounds complicated like how are you
expecting me to store these full stories
with a lot of den content in themselves
in multiple locations within one room of
one house and to be honest initially it
is a big thing to wrap your head around
but there is a logical smart way to do
it and at the end of it you will not
only just remember all the amount of
content that you stored in that one
short visual story but you'll also be
able to create multiple short stories to
do with one topic and then store it all
in that that one room for that topic and
then you have multiple topics in that
same location that same house now for
the Practical technique this is
obviously going to be after you've
created those good visual stories of
yours to do with the tables the
difficult information in them the uh
rare diseases that you can't possibly
remember the long processes once you
have these stories in your head at least
one or two of them now you can start to
actually place them in your memory
console and for that you need to number
one create a path through your location
where you're going to place your stories
your pneumonics Etc this means planning
and sketching it out on paper you need
to draw the location out on paper all
the big furniture inside each of the
rooms it'll take less than 15 minutes
and you need to test your memory of the
how well you remember the location
anyway so draw a quick outline of the
location on a piece of paper think about
all the rooms all the furniture within
those room those Furniture pieces or
very prominent aspects will be used to
as micro stations for you to then place
your visual stories on top of the Second
Step here is to now picture placing
those visual stories one by one in those
microl locations and what's smart is if
you Clump all of these similar stories
to do with the same topic in the same
room so micro stations one story on the
chair one chair one story on the bed one
on the mirror and that'll just allow you
to remember that all of these different
stories to do with the same topic are in
the same room or macro station I hope
this is all making sense so far this
probably text somewhere explaining the
process as I speak about it re-watch
this last bit if you don't understand so
for example for microbiology which is a
huge Topic in medic that is mainly based
on Ro memorization have a couple rooms
or macro stations for Grand positive
bacteria have a couple rooms or entire
floor or whatever for GR negative
bacteria have a different house for
fungi have a different house for viruses
my point is plan everything as well as
possible before you start to do this
stuff don't Clump everything together in
the same room or the same house the
technique is to actually space out the
markers for the stories or pneumonics or
whatever as much as possible in the room
space out the rooms as well it makes it
easier to remember and also it's very
challenging to do all of this as you
make up the stories and just start
storing them in places plan it out as
much as possible creating the stories is
actually the easy fun part but actually
thinking about the location actually
that's why I said sketch the locations
up because you need to think about where
exactly each story is going to go and
that is the thing that will actually
help you remember it and it's honestly
insane you're doing a little bit of work
to then just locate these stories and as
soon as you when you need to rejog your
memory you think about the topic you
think about the room you think about
where in the room this particular
concept you stored and then you go into
that and remember all this information
and after some practice it'll honestly
feel like you have some photographic
memory a cool thing I've also been doing
is creating stories from those initial
mind maps of the topic and by creating
stories about the different subtopics
and the topics and the way they link
together on that mind map they've been
sticking in my head for longer because
once I create a full story for this
whole topic I can then picture it as a
mind map or a big poster in in a room of
one of the of one of the locations I
have I could go into a lot more Nuance
here about this entire process but just
start creating the stories start
creating multiple stories to do the same
topics uh that hold information like
tables information like pneumonics and
place them in the rooms of your memory
Castle the more you do it the more
you'll slowly start to develop your
method as you go forward the reality of
using these memory techniques now
obviously this is all quite Advanced and
a lot of you might not need to use it so
really don't stick to good study
techniques I talk about all of the good
study techniques to understand
information really well in my guide
right here definitely definitely do
everything in the first part of this
guide associating the information
incorporate the visualizing and thinking
of some stories for difficult
information and maybe that memory cost a
bit may be overkill for you my point is
be the judge for yourself for courses
like medicine law info dense subjects I
can see these memory techniques be so
useful it excites me literally for me
I've only just started creating these
stories and using memory palaces I've
only just started to actually do enough
of this to now get a hang of it I've
just started to draw a few sketches but
the thing is I can already see the
impact they've had on my ability to
remember things random times a professor
or doctor has asked me something and I
can now jump to my respiratory building
I can go into the restrictive disease
Corridor get to the place for
sarcoidosis which I represent with a
story of a a young African-American
female playing football soccer socer
reminding me of sarcoidosis and that
specific stereotype is because
sarcoidosis is common in those people
and of course she loves her cardio
health so she never smokes because
sarcoidosis is not typically found in
smokers it's found more in non-smokers
her teammate is also there on the pitch
using a squirty bottle to drink water
and that is to remind me of the Bal
technique to use using bronchoscopies
where um I think they they squirt water
into the lungs and then collect that for
examination and The Story Goes On and On
obviously but through this quick
thinking of this story I have now
recalled all the facts to do with
sarcoidosis which but would have usually
taken me ages so it's it's a disease I
don't know much about I think this
specific story was heavily influenced by
a sketchy video I was watching for USM
but again my own thought process and my
own way of remembering it however
overall even though it's been really
helpful in the way I'm studying doing
these added memory techniques in my and
adding them to my revision has added
that extra level of processing in my
head and to extra work to do on paper as
well which has kind of been taking extra
time to get through the topic and
initially that was worrying me because
of course I was spending too long on
these topics but the thing that is
important to to remember is that we are
only doing this for the information that
is difficult to 100% understand and then
remember in your head I'm basically
doing it for conditions I haven't seen
in real life the rare diseases I'm doing
it for organisms and the details of
specific cancers and things like that
and because I'm doing it this way I am
spending a lot more time in those study
sessions but I'm doing very I'm doing a
lot fewer of those repetitions than to
remember that knowledge the main benef
benefit is that it's not root
memorization anymore and to be honest
finding and developing these complex
memory techniques into something simple
that I can use for my own education was
the entire reason that I actually wanted
to make this video and do the research
for this video it was because I started
to realize that I was now just rot
memorizing the hard Niche details
whereas creating stories creating Visual
pneumonics and then storing them in
different locations for example my
locations are mainly in med school and
schools it's all been a very nice
natural way to remember the information
for much much longer like I'm not even
joking a little bit of triggering a
little bit of doing and it's ingrained
in my head I can jump to the stories
immediately and fish out the
information part three recalling the
information but that being said creating
these stories and just storing them in
places isn't going to be enough the
third big part of this memorizing guide
is actually recalling the information
but doing it cleverly and I'm not only
going to summarize how I do this for the
rest of my studies but I will also give
you a method for how I do this involving
these memorization techniques before I
get into this there's a reason these
memory techniques feel like magic and it
comes down to the three Arts of
remembering record retain and retrieve
we initially substituted a word or a
phrase for an image we're trying to
record this way we're using this image
to encode what we need to remember us
linking all these images and creating
graphic characters and stuff out of them
and linking them in a story is US
retaining and at the end of the day
thinking through these visual stories
looking through the memory palaces is
the best form of retrieving well I don't
know if it's the best but actually going
through these stories and automatically
just remembering things that you need to
know that way of retrieval is just much
easier and more fun compared to actively
trying to recall information and
retrieving information like this is much
easier because of all of the cues and
connections we created compared to us
going in and trying to active recall the
information in a normal way but anyways
for the Practical aspects of this
recalling step this is what I've been
doing Step One initial mind map
retrieval before starting to revise a
big topic I've now started to do two
things first I sit there for 10 minutes
and try to recall my entire skeletal map
of the topic then the second thing I do
is do like 15 practice questions which
I've mentioned before in my previous
full study guide and I've talked about
why pre- testing is important but let me
expand on the first thing how and why I
recall the whole mind map this is the
Mind map that I created initially during
that mapping skimming section where I
chunk the big topics together make
connections and associations and Link
them all together and really deeply try
to understand the basics of the topic
which by the way regardless of whether I
did this or not fuels the rest of my
learning in but let's start with how I
actually remember these mind maps and
the way I do it is I link the individual
topics and subtopics on the Mind map and
just create a short story of the whole
thing this short story is then stored in
the in the room that is to do with this
topic as a poster on the wall or
something of that nature in my memory
costole and the reason I try and recall
this mind map from memory in the first
place is a it re jogs the entire
structure of the topic that I initially
used to think about and the way I
learned it in the first place n b this
is the second time I'm going through and
reading about this topic so I should be
able to recall this mind map better and
actually add things to it improve the
structure of it as well either way I'm
using my time to actively think about
the topic to think about the structure
the basics to really understand it
before even starting I've seen that
doing the small practice before my study
sessions really enhances the amount I
end up remembering it increases how fast
my brain works in the study session how
quickly I can remember what I learned
and then it also increases how quickly I
can see where my knowledge gaps are and
fill them up simply because this mind
map is all in front of me on a poster in
a room of some one of my memory ciles
and I can see exactly where I need to
fill in the blanks and I know this kind
of sounds like photographic memory which
I trust me I don't have but it's just
that these story techniques and memory
ciles make retrieving information that
is in some part of your mind so so easy
and to be honest all you really need is
a little bit of a practice round with
doing this that's why I suggested you
doing this with your own topic because
to be honest even I don't have that much
practice I've just been doing this for a
few weeks I'm still learning as well
step two retreat retrieving stories
during the recall questions overall the
primary way I revise is I go through and
answer my recall questions about a
certain topic that I made the first time
when I went through it as I probably
mentioned in around 80% of my videos is
that I convert all the information that
I study into recall questions the first
time I go through the the topic and then
the next time I go through the topic I
actually sit down and test myself on
these questions and yeah for most of my
studying I don't usually create huge
visual stories and memory ciles and
things like that but for the topics that
I actually do need to do that for and
memorize I try in one add a few
questions to do specifically to do with
the visual stories that I've thought of
for example in a question about the
histopathology of sarcoidosis I'd add a
bracket saying think about the soccer
balls in a cage which would then
immediately cue me to think about these
well- inflated tightly packed balls in
these cages which is how the sarid
granas are kind of placed together and
then that will trigger me to the rest of
the cells in there and on and on and on
obviously having this bracket is kind of
a big hint when you're trying to answer
these recall questions run to Rack your
brain and force your brain to recall but
initially I think it's quite useful
because it's quite hard to change the
way that we retrieve information and
adding that bracket in there reminds me
and hits that cue of oh there is I do
have a story about this and this is what
it was and this and this and this the
second thing I do while I try and answer
these recall questions is to think
specifically about the answer in a way
that it takes me back to the visual
story within the memory costle that I
created because when I read a question I
automatically start getting reminded of
the visual stories I created I then dive
into the location the specific room the
specific place in that room I'm going
through the story one by one in
chronological order and eventually
getting to my answer but as you can see
I've also now through this process run
through the entire structure of the
topic I've looked at the location the
topic the room the specific space I've
ran through some of the series of events
within this story which is reminded me
of the other bits of information that I
are related to this if the question is
about men and goomas I'm thinking oh
yeah that only men's gym that the wall
get bro got broken down into the men
were doing the siman Don yes I remember
that they have the men andas and the
Sima bodies of the men and gomas but I'm
also remembering the glioblastoma the
goblin that broke the wall down and I'm
also thinking through the fact that the
gastas um cross halfway through the CT
that there's a butterfly and that's how
they're typically shaped I'm running
through all the surrounding information
in my head like just going through and
having these stories in my head means
I'm thinking about the rest of the
associated information in a very quick
efficient way as well I'm not just
answering one specific question for one
specific piece of knowledge that I made
I'm going through all the surrounding
Associated information as well getting
context and reviewing all of it in a
very nice fun efficient way which is a
humongous benefit when doing these
sessions and trying to retrieve you not
only do it better but you also do it
faster you're literally able to retrieve
entire classes of disease and huge
tables with complex information with a
few simple stories honestly it still
surprises me how cool it is once you put
a little bit of effort into it step
three spacing that retrieval now that
you have all the information stored at
specific stories within the memory
console and you've also practiced
recalling it the way i' suggest that you
space your recall sessions out is how I
typically recommend you space it all out
this is the formula that I use generally
that works for me for the easier topics
I only tend to review them maybe once or
twice recall them on day one and then
day four to five and for the harder
topics I tend to do it around 2 or three
times I recall it in day one day four
day 14 to 15 and that's about spacing
out this retrieval of the memorized
information is extremely important if
you know the information you know the
story well if you have the time before
your exams then obviously add more space
repetitions but the benefit of all the
steps of this guide and all the study
techniques and efficient ways of
learning that I mentioned on this
channel is that they really focus on
maximizing the first initial study
session this every single study session
that comes afterwards so that you're
maximizing the amount of information you
retain so that at the end of it you just
have to study less and do less
repetitions I always try and focus on
creating the those layers of information
connecting everything together in each
session so that I don't have to then
practice everything like six times
afterwards it's just too much so that I
can go through the information create my
questions retrieve it one or two times
maybe three times maximum and then no 80
to 90% of it front to back of course add
more study sessions for each topic that
you need but I would really suggest just
trying to optimize the individual
studying of the topics that's the entire
reason why I make videos like these why
I made this guide even so that we can
learn to study and then memorize the
information that we need to do in a
handful of times rather than spending
ages doing every single topic doing this
endless amounts of times for Endless
amounts of
information anyways that was the entire
memorizing guide where we first went
through associating the information in
our head creating relevance and creating
value through natural intuitive Intrigue
then we focused on how to visualize the
information which focused on combining
all these complex memory techniques that
everyone talks about that all these big
authors have researched for ages about
and then creating a simple method for
ourselves to implement to create visual
stories to store them in our mental mind
maps and palaces then we focus on how to
visualize the information which combined
all these complex memory techniques that
all these big authors talk about into
one simple method that any student can
use to memorize information of all kind
and lastly we talked about how to recall
all this information how to recall these
visual stories all this complex dense
information stored in these stories in
these memory palaces of ours and how to
actually space out this recall as well I
really hope that most of it made sense
to you and at the minimum that you've
taken some ways to improve your
memorization skills I'd really love some
feedback on the guide please let me know
down in the comments let me know what I
should make the next guide about check
out the link in the description for
shortform again short form.com
szan click on it get the 5day free trial
and then you get 20% off the annual
subscription as well thank you so much
for watching please leave a like spam
the comments help me out with the
algorithm and I will see you in the next
one
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