How to UPGRADE Your Study System in 2024 (Live coaching)

Summary

In this video, a first-year college student named Daniel shares his academic journey and study challenges. He discusses his background, study habits, and goals, including his passion for psychiatry and music. The coach provides personalized advice to enhance Daniel's learning efficiency, focusing on improving his revision and retrieval processes. They emphasize the importance of pre-study, in-class engagement, and regular consolidation to achieve mastery. The session concludes with practical tips for optimizing study time and leveraging classroom experiences, highlighting Daniel's motivation to honor his family's support through his education.

Takeaways

• 📚 The student, Daniel, realizes the importance of studying beyond just urgency and focusing on the long-term importance of mastering the material.
• 🎓 Daniel is a first-year college student from Kenya who moved to Canada and is now studying with the goal of going into Psychiatry, with a strong interest in music as well.
• 🤔 Daniel's learning process involves asking questions about relevance and importance, and he uses a mind map to organize his pre-study notes, which takes about 45 minutes.
• 🗣️ During lectures, Daniel prefers to focus on understanding and asking questions rather than multitasking with note-taking, which he finds challenging.
• 📉 Daniel's main challenge is the gap between lectures and pre-exam revision, often starting to study intensively only 2 days before an exam.
• 🔍 The coaching session identifies that Daniel's knowledge gaps are primarily due to mastery issues rather than retention or missed content.
• 📈 The coach suggests that Daniel should use his pre-study mind map during lectures to build on his understanding and integrate new information.
• ⏰ The coach recommends regular consolidation of knowledge, such as reviewing material one week after a lecture, to prevent the decay of mastery before exams.
• 🔄 Daniel should focus on targeted revision, seeking out and filling gaps in his knowledge, ideally after each lecture or at the end of each week.
• 🎯 The coach emphasizes the need for Daniel to manage his time effectively and to make the most of his lectures by engaging in gap-seeking while attending class.
• 💡 Daniel appreciates the advice and feels that it will help him make his class time more useful and less painful, showing his respect for education and his family.

Q & A

What is the main issue the student is facing in their study routine?

The student is struggling with the gap between attending lectures and starting their exam preparation, often leaving it to the last minute. They also have difficulty with revision and retrieval of information.

What is the student's educational background?

The student, named Daniel, is a first-year college student from Kenya who moved to Canada three years ago. He attended a boarding school in an IB system and transitioned from an IGCSE system to the Canadian Dogwood system for high school.

What are Daniel's long-term goals?

Daniel aims to go into Psychiatry and research dissociative disorders, which requires a strong foundation in both psychology and medicine. He is also a musician and values the role of music in his life.

What is the student's current method for preparing for lectures?

Daniel engages in pre-study by reviewing learning objectives, scanning through content, noting keywords, and creating a mind map. This process usually takes him about 45 minutes.

How does Daniel's note-taking process during lectures work?

Daniel does not take notes during lectures as he finds it difficult to focus on two tasks at once. Instead, he focuses on understanding the material and asking questions, particularly about exam-relevant content.

What is the student's typical approach to revision before exams?

Daniel typically starts revising two days before an exam. He uses a linear brain dump and mind map approach to identify knowledge gaps and focus his revision efforts.

What does the coach suggest as the main areas for improvement in Daniel's study routine?

The coach suggests that Daniel should work on integrating his pre-study mind map during lectures to deepen his understanding and build on his initial learning. Additionally, he should focus on regular consolidation of knowledge after lectures and before exams, rather than last-minute cramming.

What is the coach's advice on dealing with the gap between lectures and pre-exam revision?

The coach advises Daniel to have a structured session of revision one week after the lecture, focusing on lecture objectives, brain dumping, and gap seeking to ensure that the knowledge is consolidated before the exam.

What is the coach's view on the student's ability to implement changes in their study routine?

The coach believes that Daniel's recent experience of a highly productive week indicates that he is capable of making sustainable changes to his study routine, which is not based on motivation alone.

What does the coach suggest for Daniel to do during lectures if he finds the pace too slow or too fast?

The coach suggests that Daniel should use such times to do on-the-spot gap seeking or to build on his mind map, ensuring that he is actively engaged in the learning process during lectures.

How does Daniel feel about his current class and lectures?

Daniel appreciates his current class and finds the lectures valuable despite the student culture around examination and learning not being the best. He plans to continue attending classes as they have been paid for and he wants to make the most out of them.