Med School TOPPER's SECRET to Studying Effectively (Detailed Breakdown)
Summary
TLDRThis comprehensive guide offers a transformative approach to efficient learning, particularly for students struggling to retain information. The speaker, a third-year medical student, introduces a four-part method encompassing priming information, absorbing, retrieving, and spacing information. Key strategies include creating mental models, active recall through self-testing, and layered absorption of concepts. The guide emphasizes the importance of active learning over passive rereading, leveraging spaced repetition for long-term retention, and balancing active study with relaxed learning to maintain motivation and consistency.
Takeaways
- 📚 The script emphasizes that most people struggle with studying because they haven't been taught how to learn effectively.
- 🔄 The guide introduces a four-part method for efficient learning: priming the information, absorbing the information, retrieving the information, and spacing the information.
- 🧠 Priming involves creating a mental model before diving into a topic, which helps in understanding and remembering the material better.
- 🔍 Absorbing information is about layering the learning process from easiest to hardest and creating recall questions to test oneself.
- 🗣️ Teaching oneself by explaining the topic to a '5-year-old' is a technique to reveal gaps in understanding and solidify knowledge.
- 📝 Retrieving information through active recall, such as answering self-made questions, is more effective than passive rereading or note-taking.
- 📈 Spaced repetition, where revision is spread out over increasing intervals, helps in long-term retention of information.
- 📉 The script also discusses the 'forgetting curve' and how spaced repetition interrupts this curve, leading to better memory retention.
- 🔄 The importance of balance in studying is highlighted, suggesting 70% active studying and 30% relaxed learning to maintain consistency and motivation.
- 📚 The guide encourages the use of various resources like Google, textbooks, and videos for a comprehensive understanding of the material.
- 🤓 The speaker shares personal experiences and insights as a medical student, adding credibility to the advice given in the script.
Q & A
What is the main issue the speaker identifies with people's study habits?
-The speaker identifies the main issue as people's inability to remember what they study, largely due to not being taught effective learning strategies and instead expecting to learn passively through reading.
What does the speaker claim is the key to efficient learning?
-The speaker claims that the key to efficient learning is creating a mental model of the topic before diving into the details, which serves as a foundation for understanding and remembering information.
What are the four parts of the learning guide presented by the speaker?
-The four parts of the learning guide are: priming the information, absorbing the information, retrieving the information, and spacing the information.
What is the purpose of 'priming the information' in the learning process?
-Priming the information involves creating an initial mental model of the topic, which helps to build a base for understanding and remembering the concepts and ideas related to the topic.
How does the speaker suggest students should approach reading a new chapter in a textbook?
-The speaker suggests students should first skim the chapter, identify key words, and create an unordered list to avoid being influenced by the author's structure. Then, they should look up unfamiliar terms, and finally, create a mind map to understand how the concepts link together.
What is the significance of creating an unordered list of keywords when studying a new topic?
-Creating an unordered list of keywords helps to prevent the bias of thinking about the chapter in the way the author has structured it, allowing the student to form their own connections and understanding of the material.
Why does the speaker emphasize the importance of testing oneself before even learning a topic?
-Testing oneself before learning a topic helps to identify specific weak areas and primes the brain for the information, leading to better retention and understanding when the actual learning takes place.
What is the role of pre-reading in the learning process according to the speaker?
-Pre-reading serves to prepare the mind for the upcoming material by skimming the chapter, creating an initial mental model, and doing the first layer of questions, which helps in laying a strong foundation for effective learning.
How does the speaker define 'layering' when absorbing information while reading?
-Layering involves reading the information in a structured manner, starting from the easiest layer of skimming and getting a general sense, to understanding general concepts without getting into details, and finally absorbing detailed concepts one by one.
What is the speaker's advice on creating recall questions while studying?
-The speaker advises creating specific recall questions from the important explanations, processes, and details encountered in the material. This not only helps in continuous engagement with the material but also serves as a resource for self-testing in later revision sessions.
Why is teaching oneself or explaining the material out loud considered an effective learning technique?
-Teaching oneself or explaining out loud forces the brain to reconstruct the concept into a coherent narrative, which helps in identifying areas of confusion and solidifying the understanding of the material.
What is the importance of spaced repetition in the learning process?
-Spaced repetition is important as it involves revising the material in increasing intervals, which helps the brain to retrieve information more effectively and remember it for a longer period by working harder to recall what has been forgotten.
How does the speaker recommend balancing active studying with more relaxed learning methods?
-The speaker recommends a 70-30% balance, where 70% of the time is spent on active studying with full concentration, and 30% of the time is used for more relaxed learning methods like light reading or rereading, to maintain consistency and motivation.
Outlines
📚 Mastering the Art of Studying: An Introductory Guide
Zay Yif, a third-year medical student, introduces a comprehensive guide to efficient learning. He emphasizes the common struggle with ineffective studying methods and the lack of practical guidance on how to learn. Zay outlines a four-part strategy: priming information, absorbing, retrieving, and spacing information. He encourages viewers to actively engage with the content, promising a transformation in their learning process. The first part involves understanding the study topic's structure and creating a mental model to build a foundation for learning.
🔍 Deep Diving into Priming Information for Effective Learning
The speaker explains the importance of priming information by creating an unordered list of keywords from the study material and looking up unfamiliar terms to build a basic understanding. He then suggests using prior knowledge to create a mind map that links all chapter concepts, fostering a mental model that will guide further learning. This method is contrasted with traditional linear study approaches, highlighting the need for active and effortful thinking to enhance understanding and retention.
🤓 The Power of Pre-Testing and Pre-Reading for Learning
Zay discusses the benefits of pre-testing with practice questions before studying a topic, which helps identify knowledge gaps and primes the brain for learning. He also advocates for pre-reading as a means to familiarize oneself with upcoming material, creating a mental model that lays a solid foundation for future learning. The speaker stresses the importance of these steps in preventing confusion and enhancing comprehension.
🧠 Absorbing Information Through Layered Learning
The paragraph focuses on the layered approach to absorbing information. It starts with skimming and getting a general sense of the topics, followed by understanding general concepts without delving into details. The final layer involves tackling detailed concepts one by one. The speaker also introduces the method of creating recall questions while reading, which helps in engaging with the material and creating a list of questions for future self-testing.
📝 The Importance of Active Recall and Teaching for Learning
Zay emphasizes the significance of active recall in the learning process, suggesting that teaching the material to oneself or explaining it as if to a five-year-old is an effective way to identify gaps in understanding and reinforce memory. He also discusses the process of creating recall questions from the material and the benefits of this method over traditional note-taking.
📚 Spaced Repetition: The Key to Long-Term Retention
The speaker introduces spaced repetition as a method for long-term retention, explaining that revisiting material at increasing intervals helps the brain retrieve information more effectively. He acknowledges the challenge of implementing spaced repetition for all topics and suggests a strategy of reducing the number of repetitions per topic while ensuring each session is highly effective.
🌟 Achieving Exam Success Through Efficient Studying Techniques
In the concluding paragraph, Zay summarizes the entire guide, reiterating the importance of efficient studying techniques for exam success. He encourages finding a balance between active studying and more relaxed learning methods, and emphasizes the value of consistency and motivation in the revision process. The speaker also provides links to additional resources for further learning.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Efficient Learning
💡Mental Model
💡Active Recall
💡Spaced Repetition
💡Priming Information
💡Absorbing Information
💡Retrieval Practice
💡Layering
💡Pre-Reading
💡Teaching Back
💡Forgetting Curve
Highlights
People often struggle with studying due to a lack of formal education on learning techniques.
The importance of creating a mental model to understand and remember information more effectively.
The four-part guide to efficient learning: priming, absorbing, retrieving, and spacing information.
The benefits of skimming and creating an unordered list of keywords before deep diving into a topic.
The effectiveness of pre-testing or self-testing before learning new material.
The value of using recall questions as a method for active learning and better retention.
The practice of teaching what you've learned to solidify understanding and reveal gaps in knowledge.
The significance of spaced repetition for long-term retention of information.
The practical application of mind maps in creating connections between concepts.
The role of active effort in creating a mental model and its impact on learning efficiency.
The process of layering information from easiest to hardest for better absorption.
The misconception of the illusion of competence and the need for active testing to assess true understanding.
The benefits of explaining concepts in simple terms as a test of deep understanding.
The method of using recall questions to engage with the material and prevent boredom.
The strategy of reducing repetitions per topic while ensuring each session is highly effective.
The importance of balancing active studying with more relaxed learning methods for sustained motivation.
The 70-30 rule for balancing active and relaxed study sessions for effective learning.
Transcripts
people's biggest problem is that they
can't remember what they study here's
the simple truth most of you suck at
studying and it's not really your fault
we don't get taught how to learn we just
kind of expect it to happen when we read
something in fact there's so many study
videos out there but no one shows us
exactly what they do to learn understand
and Ace exams like an exact practical
every step of the way method my name is
Zay oif I'm a third-year medical student
and in this full guide on efficient
learning I will go through exactly what
I do from the second I see topic to
revising to at the end having it fully
engraved in my mind ready for any
question that I encounter in an exam
I've spent 16 hours reading through
countless papers three books all to
create this full guide on efficient
learning and honestly what I've learned
and now understand has taken my ability
to understand topics and remember them
to the next level but here's the catch
this guide is an active guide what that
means is that I won't shy away at all
from asking you to recall what we've
talked about or repeat things in spaced
intervals I'll even give you practical
actions that you can take right now
while you watch this video because this
isn't one of those videos that you have
playing on the side and 5 minutes later
it just goes over your head this is
everything that you will need to
completely transform your learning
process so listen and train your mind in
real time we'll split this guide up into
four parts one priming the information
two absorbing the information three
retrieving the information and four
spacing the information all right
immediately I'm going to ask you to
write down the four steps that I've just
mentioned and think about what they
might mean think about how you use
priming retrieval spacing in your own
studying process and even though you
have zero clue about what I could
possibly include in any of these steps I
can guarantee that you have some idea
about what these words mean and you
already have some idea about how you do
them in your own studying and that's
what's important here you're already
thinking about your own learning process
and thinking about the ways it can be
improved part one priming the
information every time I study a new
topic I've always scoped it out looked
at the subtopics and generally skimm
through it for 10 to 15 minut minutes
before properly diving in but I was
missing something huge an extremely key
part of the process that I've just
started to do in the last few weeks and
it's already increased my speed so much
and completely changed the way I learn
let me explain it properly the way most
of us learn is that we read one piece of
information a couple of times until it
makes somewhat sense then we move on to
the next concept we it for a couple of
times then we move on to the next and by
the time we're on the fourth one we
barely remember what we R in the first
and even after spending hours and days
revising for an exam you still don't
feel 100% confident you still feel like
you're kind of okay with the
understanding bit and that's what
learning is like for most of us it's
inefficient the information is a bunch
of random points connected in your head
poorly understood and that's why you
don't remember what you understand in
the moment so what if I told you the
solution was to flip it around get the
entire structure of the chapter and the
general concepts in your head and then
start to read through it sounds a bit
like what but see when we read something
our brain doesn't just pick up the
information in the exact way we've read
it one fact input next input that's not
how it works we can never take in those
individual points or ideas unless we
have something to metaphorically connect
it to and that's something when studying
a new topic is to create a broad mental
model of that topic or in other words an
underlying way to think about each of
those points and that's what the first
step should be that's the aim of priming
your information to build a mental model
of all the concepts and ideas to do with
that topic in your head it's the base
for all of your future learning to build
upon it's your version of the skeletal
structure of the chapter that you make
before you even start to learn anything
and I'll explain how you can do this in
a three-step practical method notice
that I've started this section off by
giving you the overview first creating
that base for you and now I'm going to
dive into the details the very first
thing you should do when learning
something brand new is to scan the
chapter skim read the different topics
in there the bolded words the key
sentences and side by side write down
all the key words that you notice are
prominent in that chapter it's just a
simple list of 15 to 20 words words but
and this is what I've started to do
differently you can't just copy the
words in the same structure that the
chapter has been written the words you
write down cannot be ordered in a
specific way no neat list of bullet
points so this is the title this is the
subtitle these is this is the key word
to do with this no your list needs to be
completely unordered all the keywords
jumbled up after reading some papers
about the science behind learning and
watching videos from Justin Sun Peter J
Brown I realized that even though I was
doing full overviews skimming the
chapters the subtopics before I started
to learn the mistake I've been making
and that's something that's probably
slowed my learning down a lot is that I
was studying using the author's
structure the way the author has written
out the chapter the way these textbooks
have presented it to us when the reality
is that the author hasn't written the
chapter in a way for it to be best
learned they just wanted to find a
linear and simplified way to present it
but our mind can't absorb information in
this linear way that's the reason when
you read the textbook you actually don't
understand something unless you repeat
it like a billion times cell cycle first
mitosis second and if you can't
understand those things then you can't
move on to anything else that's why you
need to start with your plain unordered
list to prevent the tendency and the
bias to think about the chapters in the
way that the author does and then once
the list is made you look up any of the
keywords that you have zero idea about
like I'm talking zero clue so you Google
them read around them but don't spend
more than 30 seconds on each of the
words just understand what they mean and
how they might relate to the rest of the
concepts on your list don't start
reading too deeply into one specific
concept limit yourself to do this all
for all the words in under 10 minutes
and lastly now is when you use any prior
knowledge that you have to think about
how these different words ideas and
Concepts within this chapter link
together and then once you've thought
about it make one mind map linking all
the concepts of the chapter and not like
a basic bubbly mind map with a billing
connections a lot of words before you
make the Mind map you actually need to
think about how it's going to be
organized you need to split the words up
and group them based on similarities or
differences for example for diseases
categorize them based on what part of
the body they affect how does this
disease relate to this this one what is
the key difference between each of the
groups of the mindmap the point is that
it requires active effortful thinking to
make a good mind map like this and it'll
require you to stand there and think
okay how will this work how will these
Concepts connect with each other how can
I make sense of this in my mind and I'm
new to doing this as well to be honest
to start with I start I used to spend up
to 30 minutes trying to think through
and understand what the best way of
creating this mind map was but literally
after 2 weeks of doing this it's now a
15-minute activity and it's so so worth
it because it now speeds up every single
part of the learning process that I have
to do because then once you've already
created this initial mental model of the
entire chapter you've already actively
thought about how the main concepts of
the entire chapter work and Link
together before you even even read
anything a quick pause before the next
section if you've enjoyed the video so
far could you please leave a like could
you please spam the comments you know
help me out with the YouTube algorithm
of it and tell me in the comments like
what I could improve tell me how this
guy could be made better what guide you
want next all of that and let's get back
to the video the implications of this
method so when you read parts of the
chapter later with every subtopic every
bullet point that you read you will
start to think okay how does this link
to that initial mental model I made is
what I'm reading right now in line with
what I initially thought does it make
sense instead of you reading random
points and forcing yourself to
understand everything you read will
automatically become relevant to your
brain and creating relevance is the only
way that our brain learns if we can
relate the new information to something
and in this case that something is that
us reading every concept every detail
and then relating it back to that
initial mental model that we created
then that'll deepen our understanding
more than anything and at the end
practically I know my mental model could
be completely wrong and I could be
completely wrong about how I think the
topics work but that doesn't matter what
matters is the amount of effort of
active effort that I put in creating
this mental model and thinking about the
ways all the concepts could possibly
link together if I'm right then great
I'll keep on thinking about the Mind map
this way and keep on building upon it
and adding all the details onto it later
and if not I can create a better
understanding why was I wrong why did my
model not make sense how can I make it
make sense how did can I connect this
and understand it in a better way either
way I'm relating what I'm reading to
that mental model that mind map right
from the start this is me priming myself
and doing it like this has given me that
basis to link everything to and there's
nothing that has deepened my
understanding of the the topics and the
clinical knowledge I'm learning these
days more than this step two the initial
questions or pre-testing for the
majority of the people the biggest
reason that you're not getting the
grades that you want to be getting is
because you're not testing yourself
enough according to Decades of empirical
data from learning science Testing or
retrieval practice which we'll talk
about properly promotes much much longer
retention when compared to techniques
like rereading highlighting making
passive notes and interestingly studies
now indicate that students that test
themselves before even learning any of
the topic perform significantly better
compared to students who study double
the amount of time and these students
that tested themselves before the
learning actually ended up getting 95 or
up to 95% of the questions wrong so that
means for example even if you do 20
questions before starting to learn the
topic and get 90 to 95% of them wrong
you will still end up doing really well
on the exam don't get me wrong you still
have to do the testing after you
actually study the knowledge that's the
key part but practically speaking before
I start learning I always start by
testing myself using practice questions
my go-to option is to practice around 15
to 20 mcqs before diving into the topic
all of us have some form of pre-existing
knowledge about the things that we're
studying so it's very very important to
at least attempt to practice these
questions this firstly helps not only
assess how much you know but points out
the specific weak topics and subtopics
that you have no idea or are there you
really struggle with that you need to
give more Focus onto later on and
secondly doing this helps with the way
our brain process information because
now we're linking from these questions
whatever knowledge that we think about
and force ourselves to remember from
these questions we're linking it back to
the initial mental model we're adding to
the foundation and priming our brain
even more with this initial practice
this step three pre-reading before
diving into any new topic in class if
you don't want to be sitting there
confused about what's going on then
pre-reading is something that you have
to be doing is the final part of priming
ourselves before we actually start to do
the learning and to be honest my
pre-reading is mainly just doing the
first two steps and this is the point of
the video where I ask you to pause and
summarize or recall the first two steps
of priming yourself how would you prime
yourself before starting a topic what
would you do this is testing in real
time I know it's effort okay I'm going
to put up the summary right
now
anyways pre-reading is just an important
practice that I think you need to have
and I'm not saying to diligently
pre-read every single day all I'm saying
is that do pre-reading before doing a
difficult chapter or assign one day of
the week where you pre-read all the
information upcoming information of the
week skim the chapter create the initial
mental model put effort into it watch a
5-minute video read through the basic
concept for a little bit it's really not
hard overall if you do it extensively
and do it well it might even take up
less than 30 to 40 minutes because with
this whole pre-reading priming thing if
you think of your mind as a bucket
pre-reading and priming fills the holes
underneath the bucket and if you don't
fill those holes and lay your base then
no matter how much knowledge you keep
pouring down into the bucket it'll keep
falling through that's why it's so
important I'd even say instead of using
that Sunday or Monday night to catch up
on the work that you missed the previous
week I'd say use that night to pread on
the content of the next week because yes
you won't catch up but you'll be in such
a strong position for the upcoming week
that you'll eventually create enough
time and save enough time to do the
catching up later on anyways and when
you finally sit down to and if you've
done all of these steps you'll be much
more relaxed you'll feel less
overwhelmed and then recall much faster
as well and the reason I'm repeating
this so many times before moving on to
the next stage is because school doesn't
teach us how to create a me good mental
model of the chapter before beginning it
doesn't teach us to pre-read and do the
work in a in a way that helps your
learning in the future but the best part
is once I'm done with these steps my
Foundation is now ready for the learning
and I'll be much foster at absorbing
retrieving all of the future steps of
provision part two absorbing the
information now that we've primed
ourselves skimmed the chapter done the
initial questions what do we actually do
while we read the information how can we
best absorb it as we go through it as I
said previously my biggest piece of
advice to both understand and remember
information more effectively is to give
meaning and relevance to it and yes
while you read you could go on and
explicitly keep asking yourself oh why
is this information important what is
the bigger picture how does this relate
to this topic that's how I did it for a
long time and it's helpful but you're
still forcing connections the eight main
concepts of the topic are all separate
they're disorganized in your head and
those true connections and those hot
light bulb moments only end up forming
like hours in days of revision of a
single topic later but now because we've
created that initial mental model a good
mind map of the topic all of the
information that we read automatically
becomes relevant these days I'm starting
to have those aha moments those light
bulb moments every few minutes because
whenever I read anything new any new
idea I think okay what part of my mental
model my structure does this thing link
to because when we read any anything new
now any New Concept we will think okay
how does this link in with that initial
mental model I created earlier that
initial mind map if it doesn't Link in
then why and I'm not saying that as you
read you have to keep on adding on to
that mind map and building on if you
don't study with mind maps I don't
either that's fine the pure Act of
creating that mental model and that mind
map and then thinking about how each
part is organized is enough to
accelerate your encoding and retrieval
process and by the way there's a reason
I keep repeating myself about this
mental model and the initial mind map
that you have to create is because of
how important it is and I will keep on
repeating important principles in spaced
intervals because that will is that is
what will help you learn but the thing
is even if you have built a foundation
so opening up your book and reading from
page one line one isn't an efficient way
to do this that's why you need to read
the information and absorb it in layers
easiest to hardest step one layering and
a practical method to do it I know we're
used to reading the textbook line by
line rereading the pages again and again
until it somehow sticks in our head but
that's just not smart is it being
someone who learns and studies a lot of
stuff regularly I know that you can't
just jump just straight into the details
our brain isn't ready for them yet we
need to add layers to the foundation and
organize the way we take in the
information easiest to hardest and that
means when you're reading a chapter you
start with the easiest layer of
information skimming the chapter looking
up keywords making a general sense of
the topics which is already what we've
done in the priming section then the
second layer of information will now
involve going through general concepts
getting the big overviews but at all
costs avoiding getting into the details
because if you get sucked into learning
and memorizing the details your brain
isn't ready to do that yet and it will
get just get stuck the most effective
use of your time would in this case be
to use multiple resources Google Notes
textbooks videos to get that General
understanding and understand the main
processes that this chapter is talking
about this is also the part where I
usually start to create my recall
questions while I go through the
information side by side but I'll get
into that in a minute after you got the
general concepts in your head the second
layer now is the time when you go
through the the third layer the detailed
Concepts the difficult topics and you go
through them one by one and because
you've already taken in the first layer
and the second layer you'll realize that
taking in these difficult Concepts even
memorizing them isn't that hard anymore
and that's because you have such a good
level of prior knowledge to then
associate these difficult topics too in
fact this is where your learning speed
will actually triple because you already
have that good mental model of the
entire topic that you created earlier so
you don't even need to read every single
bit of the chapter anymore intuitively
what you'll want to do is just skip
through the entire chapter and go to the
topics that you actually want to read
more about what topics will help you
gradually grow that mental model what
doesn't didn't make sense to you in that
mind map you made what which bits do you
want to read about more because once you
invest thought and actively try and make
that mental model initially you want to
either confirm whether it's right or
find out how it's wrong and then expand
it throughout this layering process even
you're building on your mental model
even more step two creating recall
questions this isn't really step two
because I do this while I Wade through
the actual information in the textbook
and the notes in those layers but what I
do side by side is convert all the
important explanations processes and
details that I need to know for my exams
into a list of questions and these are
the questions I will then test myself on
in my later revision sessions an
important caveat here is if you already
have PA papers and question Banks then
creating these questions should be a
supplement to your learning not the main
source of you testing yourself but if
you don't have them then instead of
making notes while going through the
information make questions
I almost always have a document of my
recall questions opened up while I'm
studying every few sentences of me
reading I think what's important here
what sort of questions can be asked
about from this paragraph okay let's
write down two questions down from this
section and I make them very specific I
don't just say oh what is this how is
this I use words like Define name five
of this analyze describe and by the end
of this process I usually have a list of
about 20 plus questions per subtopic and
because I'm continuously making these
questions while I go through the
information a side benefit is that I'm
continuously engaged and I don't get
stuck or bored or at least I'm less
likely to and to be honest after you get
in the practice and the flow of making
these questions while you go through the
information you can do it simultaneously
because I go through the information and
layers I think about how it relates to
my mental model I think about why it's
important give relevance to it do the
whole absorbing bit while I also create
these on the side if you're starting off
then doing it simultaneously feels a bit
overwhelming for most people and that's
completely fine what you should be
focusing on at that point is to
understand and build on those layers
build on the initial concept map and
then make the questions afterwards it's
a bit more time consuming that way but I
think that is the more effective method
for beginners but my point is making
those recall questions the list of those
questions that you can then test
yourself on later takes onethird of the
time compared to making notes and once
they're made you now have the perfect
resource to test yourself on all the
information that you have to learn
whereas with notes you can't really do
that can you step three teaching
everything and the thing is after doing
all this work you kind of think that you
know the topic 100% And I do this a lot
as well but it's a misconception just
because you look at the topic and
recognize it doesn't mean that you have
the ability to remember it long term
that's just something called the
illusion of competence what really
brings you back to the reality of what
you actually know is teaching it's known
as thean technique explaining it to a
5-year-old is the ultimate learning test
isn't it except of course you don't have
to kidnap a kid you can just explain it
to yourself when you start to explain
your mental model of the topic the main
Concepts the details you get to see
exactly where you're confused what part
of the way that you think about this
topic makes sense which parts are you
hesitating to explain so after doing the
reading of the chapter either after that
F very first session or at the start of
the second session I always spend 15 to
20 minutes summarizing to myself
teaching myself about all the main
Concepts that I've learned starting from
my Baseline all the way to every detail
that I remember and it's this sort of
small step that most people don't do
that sometimes even I miss that really
just takes your ability to remember
something to the next level literally
look at the subtopics use analogies
pneumonics describe the main Concepts
describe the disease in layman terms you
making your brain use that concept to
reconstruct it into an analogy or
pneumonic is what really makes something
memorable when you explain something out
loud it allows you to connect all these
different things that you learn into one
coherent monologue and that connects the
points in your brain that are still
unconnected it really solidifies
everything part three retrieving the
information this is an absolutely
crucial part of the learning process all
of the studies from Decades of research
on learning science have shown us that
testing yourself as a learning tool is
far far more effective to help you
remember and understand things when
compared to practices like rereading
summarizing making passive notes
highlighting and there's full studies on
this from the majority of studies on
learning science we know that the
retrieval of information from your brain
or in other words just testing yourself
is something that makes your knowledge
stick for far far longer when compared
to just rereading or re-exposing
yourself to the same material and by the
way for you to remember most effectively
that testing needs to be repeated in
spaced intervals it can't just be a
Mindless recitation of the same thing
again and again and again and I'll talk
about my formula for space repetition
and how I do it in the next section but
out of the libraries of studies about
testing yourself there's this one
important study in 2010 that really
takes this home a group of students were
split into two one study the topic and
then repeated that studying again using
rereading highlighting whatever study
the topic twice while the other group
studied that topic once but then took a
practice test before their exam and
these were the results pretty insane
differences right the group that just
restudied the information didn't do that
well with both facts and Concepts
whereas the group that studied once and
then tested themselves on it did 30 to
35% better improved their Mark by that
much and there are a ton more studies
like this but this really gives us the
importance of incorporating active
recall into your routine testing should
be your main form of revision but not
only that but the biggest mistake people
make is that they think okay I'll
understand everything first and then
I'll do practice questions but I want
you to understand something you learn
through the practice of these questions
so incorporate this retrieval practice
within your actual study sessions as
well when you go through your lectures
and Textbooks For the First Time
layering the information building on the
concept that you had in the beginning
you should continuously be asking
yourself what are the key ideas what
have I just learned which terms here are
new to me what here relates to what I
already know on my pre-existing
knowledge of the topic a lot of what I
was telling you to do in the previous
steps a lot of the internal dialogue
that we were having is also a part of
retrieving the information another
example of testing yourself while you
learn is covering the page and doing the
classic cover page thing where you reme
recall what you've just read my point is
that every step of this retrieval
process should involve testing yourself
however now that we've gone through a
big chunk of this guide we've gone
through exactly what to do when we first
start a topic how to go through it the
first time and a bit of testing
yourselves as well we've gone through in
the first two big sections priming and
absorbing the information so now what I
want you to do is to think about what
we've learned so far and recall it think
about what you remember from them again
active test
this is the summary up for both those
sections now that you know exactly what
to do in that first go through of the
information we can now move on to what
you're going to do to revise the
information in the next sessions and
what I do is I start every single
revision session of mine with the recall
question method the second time I come
back to the topic what I always start
off with is one answering the list of
questions I made without using any
resources I try my very best to answer
them like genuinely spend full minutes
sitting there trying to Rack my brain
remembering what I know because the more
effort you put into formulating an
answer in your head or writing it down
on a paper the better your neural
connections will form together the more
you'll remember in the future and only
after I've tried my best with three to
four questions will I then go through
the content go through the details and
fill in my knowledge gaps my
understanding is better for the next
time I go through the questions you see
the reading of the content and doing the
questions bit aren't two separate
activities they need to be intertwined
in the learning process and then the
third part of this method is that you
keep repeating this you test yourself on
the questions go back to the learning
material test yourself again go back to
the learning material oh and for an
extra optional step is to actually color
code the questions based on the
difficulty just quickly highlight them
red orange green based on how difficult
you actually found them to point out
your weaknesses as soon as you come to
the topic so that in the next revision
sessions you can immediately see the red
questions and start with them rather
than wasting time doing the green
questions again and again and again and
then slowly through the Rion sessions
all of the questions that were read will
turn from Orange to then green my tips
for the recall question method or why
it's better than flashcards as well by
anyone that's usually talked to me or
emailed me about this question recall
method I always get asked should I make
answers with these questions as well and
the thing is yeah people do this with
flash cards but I personally think that
with big concepts with heavy information
that you have to absorb doing and
writing out answers is just a big waste
of time because you've literally made
this list of questions from the textbook
or the notes or a set resource and you
can easily find the answers by going
back to those or by searching them up on
Google and the second big benefit for me
I feel is that when you actually answer
these questions and are forced to go
back to that original Source I feel like
your revision is so much more effective
as annoying as it is to not have your
answers in one like page or place
whenever you do test yourself in a
question you don't you're not just
clicking on the answer clicking the
flash card and looking at one or two
lines behind it you're going back to the
original Source where there's a well
explained answer in context with the
other information you get to understand
how this answer fits in or links in with
the other topics on the page and that in
turn helps create that bigger picture of
yours inter leaving for stem subjects a
lot of people think that this method
doesn't really apply to subjects like
chemistry physics maths and it does
except for one key difference you need
to be able to interad the studying of
different problem types the issue is
that all of our textbooks give you a
chapter on log equations for example
they show you a practice example of how
it works and then they give you 20
questions using the exact same method
and that doesn't really help us does it
it's just Mindless repetition in the
exam and in real life we need to have
the ability to look at the question
identify the method we want to use and
then use that to solve it and the
solution to this for us is simple once
you're at a point where you vaguely
understand the new problem type and know
how to kind of get to the solution move
on to the next problem type and Scatter
this first problem type throughout the
rest of your revision the Practical
action here is to still make that huge
list of recall questions except only
include one or two problems for each
problem type so only one or two of the
sign equations one or two of the angles
of of a triangle type questions and so
on and that's what you use to test
yourself you're encountering different
types of questions constantly you see
exactly what you don't know and then no
one's stopping you from going back to
the textbook and learning and doing 20
of those same questions for the stuff
that you didn't know how to solve and
that's what you should do once you've
tested yourself and realized you don't
know the method to this problem type you
should go back to the textbook and
practice as many of these questions as
it takes to solidify this concept and
truly understand it so that you don't
forget it the next time part four
spacing the information now the final
step to long-term retention is spaced
practice this means repeating and
actively revising the topic but doing it
in spaced intervals where the duration
of repetition is increasing over time so
the core idea is that you would study
something on day one then day four then
day 14 and then day 40 and the reason
this helps with allowing you to remember
a lot more information than usual is
because the more you allow yourself to
forget the information the harder your
brain will have to work and the better
you'll be able to retrieve it and the
reason this works so well with
remembering things long term is the more
you allow your brain to forget the
information the harder it'll have to
work to retrieve it and then the better
you'll remember it our brain forgets 50%
of the stuff we understand within an
hour and 70% of it is gone within a day
and all of us have experienced this you
revise the topic one day and the the
next year's like what huh what did I
even and we can use something called the
forgetting curve to explain this over
time we forget things at an exponential
rate and the only way to learn those
things and to remember them is to
interrupt that curve with repetitions
that basically means testing yourself or
revising a topic just as you're
forgetting it and that's what space
repetition in those intervals helps you
do the problem with typical space
repetition and I know it sounds simple
but the problem the main issue that most
students face with doing this is that
even if you schedule space repetition
and spread out the repetition of your of
the topics that you have to do doing it
with all of your topics is near
impossible possible like it's not really
hard to repeat two or three of the
topics on day one then day four then day
14 but if you think about all the new
things that you're learning per week and
that exponentially growing every time
your repetition is also exponentially
increasing it's not a doable technique
then but there is a smart way to
cleverly space your repetitions out and
the obvious solution I found is to
reduce the amount of repetitions you do
per topic and to make each repetition
session extremely effective this is the
Practical action to be honest I already
have a really good video on how I plan
my space repetition out check it out
right here but the gist of it is before
I have an exam coming up I start
revision four to 5 weeks in advance and
for challenging topics I think the
strategy should be to get at least three
repetitions in when you do your first
repetition on day one then do your
second one on day three or four and then
you do your final one at least 2 weeks
after that for me this works so well
because each interval I have each Gap is
big enough that it allows me to actually
forget the topic that I've learned and
then makes that testing session next
time a lot more effective for Less
challenging topics only give them one or
two repetitions one on the actual day
where I learn it and one maybe 12 to 14
days later the reason I've made the
decision to reduce the repetitions on
the easier topics and not do three or
four repetitions that would make it 100%
and solidify it 100% is because I need
to prioritize my time my weaker topics
need a lot more repetitions than the
easier ones the reality of efficient
studying and active recall increasing my
efficiency and learning these methods
that allow me to study more effectively
has no doubt single-handedly taken my
exam performance to the next level it
allows me to study less score better and
it's probably the reason I'm in med
school right now but the big mistake I
used to fall into was to think that
efficient studying and testing myself is
the only way and the only effective
worthwhile way to revise because yes it
would be incredible if I could force my
brain to put huge amounts of effort 100%
concentration into the work every single
time I revise but realistically if
you're studying week after week there's
going to be days there's going to be
times where you don't feel like going
100% and studying actively and using
100% of your brain and yeah the issue
was that I'd convinced myself that the
only way to make studying worthwhile to
make it a worthwhile use of my time is
if it was active and effective so much
so that I would procrastinate for days
and not catch up on my work because it
was such an effortful task but what I
wish I realized and thought back to
again was that there's easier more
relaxed ways that you could still put
the hours of learning into like Light
reading watching YouTube videos just
even rereading the concept like it is
okay to do sometimes like you're allowed
to just learn in a not strict way you
know and the solution was this was a
balance 70% of the time you do the
active studying you put in the effort
into your learning and then 30% of the
time you do whatever you can that gets
you through the actual revision that you
have to do and in the long run I think
this 70 to 30% balance is what has truly
helped me stay consistent and motivated
in my revision anyways that was the full
guide on how to self-study efficiently
for your exams we started off with how
you should first look at the information
to revising it to now knowing it so well
through so much recall and practice that
I am so sure that you'll be able to Ace
the exams this is another full guide I
made on how any student can learn to
focus for long long hours using the
steps I've given and this is that space
repetition video I mentioned where I go
through my exact formula my exact space
repetition revision timetable that month
before the exam anyways thank you so
much for watching I really hope that
You' gained value from this video I hope
you can use this to improve your own
studying method leave a like spam the
comments below share it with your
friends and I will see you in the next
next
one
تصفح المزيد من مقاطع الفيديو ذات الصلة
The Most Effective Study Technique That I Use | Active Recall (4.0 GPA)
How to ACE your A-LEVELS (100% will improve your grades) + how i got a*a*a*
4 Core Study Techniques Every Student Should Know
Med School TOPPER’S SYSTEM to Memorising Effectively (Detailed Breakdown)
How to Make the PERFECT Revision Timetable with Spaced Repetition
Why I NEVER Made Notes at Medical School | My Secret to Staying on Top of Work
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)