Make It Stick Summary [8 Tips To Study & Learn CORRECTLY]
Summary
TLDRIn this video, Brandon Hill presents a summary of the book 'Make It Stick,' which reveals effective learning strategies based on cognitive psychology. He discusses eight key tips for better studying, including avoiding passive methods like highlighting and rereading, and embracing active strategies like retrieval practice, space repetition, and effortful learning. The video emphasizes the importance of challenging oneself, using reflection, and learning from mistakes. Hill encourages viewers to apply these evidence-based techniques to improve memory retention and learning efficiency, whether you're a student or a lifelong learner.
Takeaways
- 📝 Popular learning methods like highlighting, underlining, and rereading are often ineffective and can lead to a false sense of understanding.
- 💎 Retrieval practice, such as quizzing yourself or using flashcards, strengthens memory and helps identify knowledge gaps.
- 💻 Effortful learning, which involves challenging and engaging with the material, leads to deeper and more durable learning outcomes.
- 💵 Spaced repetition involves reviewing information at increasing intervals, which helps move information from short-term to long-term memory.
- 💲 Interleaved practice, mixing different types of problems, improves the ability to discriminate between problem types and apply the right solution.
- 👍 Reflection on learning, including understanding mistakes, is crucial for absorbing material and improving future performance.
- 💳 Building mastery in any field requires a gradual accumulation of knowledge, understanding, and skill, starting with the basics.
- 📱 Acknowledging and learning from mistakes is essential for advancing to higher levels of learning.
- 💉 The book 'Make It Stick' provides practical techniques to learn faster, remember more, and apply knowledge effectively.
- 💊 The counterintuitive nature of effective learning methods challenges traditional study habits and encourages a more active and strategic approach to learning.
Q & A
What is the central theme of the book 'Make It Stick'?
-'Make It Stick' focuses on effective learning and memory techniques, drawing from cognitive psychology research to offer practical strategies for improving how we learn and retain information.
Why are popular learning methods like highlighting and rereading considered ineffective?
-Highlighting, underlining, and rereading are passive learning techniques. They only promote familiarity with the material rather than deep understanding, leading to less durable memory retention.
What is retrieval practice, and why is it effective?
-Retrieval practice involves quizzing yourself on what you've learned, forcing the brain to recall information from memory. It strengthens memory by helping you identify gaps in knowledge and reinforcing neural connections.
How does effortful learning enhance memory retention?
-Effortful learning requires more brain power and is more challenging, which makes the learning process deeper and more durable. The brain works harder to retrieve and process information, resulting in better long-term retention.
What is spaced repetition, and how does it work?
-Spaced repetition is a learning method that involves reviewing information at increasing intervals over time. By revisiting material just as you're about to forget it, you strengthen your memory and improve recall in the long term.
What is interleaved practice, and how does it differ from traditional practice?
-Interleaved practice involves mixing different types of problems or concepts during study sessions, rather than focusing on one type at a time. This approach helps learners discriminate between different problem types and apply the right strategies when needed.
How does reflection enhance the learning process?
-Reflection allows learners to review what they’ve learned, connect new information to prior knowledge, and think about how they can improve in the future. It encourages deeper understanding and better retention of the material.
Why is mastering the basics important in the learning process?
-Mastering the basics provides a strong foundation for more advanced learning. Without a solid grasp of fundamental concepts, it’s difficult to progress effectively and achieve mastery in any subject.
How can mistakes be turned into learning opportunities?
-Mistakes provide insight into areas where understanding is lacking. By analyzing why a mistake was made and correcting it, learners can avoid making the same error in the future and deepen their understanding of the material.
Who can benefit from the strategies outlined in 'Make It Stick'?
-Anyone looking to improve their learning methods can benefit from this book. This includes students, professionals studying for certifications, and lifelong learners who want to optimize their memory and learning processes.
Outlines
📚 Introduction to Effective Learning Techniques
The video introduces the book 'Make It Stick', which is based on cognitive psychology research to provide practical techniques for efficient learning and memory retention. The author, Brandon Hill, aims to debunk common yet ineffective learning methods like highlighting and rereading. Instead, he advocates for strategies such as retrieval practice, which involves self-quizzing to strengthen memory connections. The video promises eight tips for effective learning, suggesting that these methods can benefit anyone from students to professionals, and even lifelong learners.
🔄 Implementing Spaced Repetition and Interleaved Practice
This segment delves into two advanced learning techniques: spaced repetition and interleaved practice. Spaced repetition involves reviewing material at increasing intervals, which is beneficial as it strengthens memory through effortful retrieval. Interleaved practice, on the other hand, recommends mixing different types of problems within a subject to improve discrimination and problem-solving skills. The video also emphasizes the importance of reflection in learning, suggesting that it aids in memory and understanding. Lastly, it advises building a strong foundation of basics before advancing to more complex concepts and learning from mistakes as a pathway to improvement.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡retrieval practice
💡effortful learning
💡space repetition
💡interleaved practice
💡reflection
💡mastery
💡mistakes
💡highlighting/underlining
💡effortful retrieval
💡cognitive psychology
Highlights
The most popular learning methods are often the least effective.
Book 'Make It Stick' provides practical techniques for better learning and memory.
Best learning methods are counterintuitive.
Avoid ineffective methods like highlighting, underlining, and rereading.
Passive learning doesn't result in durable memory.
Retrieval practice, like quizzing yourself, is an effective learning strategy.
Retrieval practice helps identify knowledge gaps and strengthens memory.
Effortful learning leads to deeper and more durable memory.
Learning is more effective when it's challenging.
Space repetition involves reviewing information at increasing intervals.
Interleaved practice mixes up different types of problems for better learning.
Reflection is a form of practice that aids learning and memory.
Mastery is a gradual accumulation of knowledge and skill.
Learn from mistakes to build bridges to advanced levels of learning.
The book debunks popular learning myths and equips readers with proper tools.
The book is recommended for students, professionals, and lifelong learners.
Free access to the book is provided through a link in the description.
Transcripts
- You might be surprised to know
that the most popular learning methods
are some of the worst ways to learn something.
In this video, I'm gonna share a summary
of the book, "Make It Stick",
and then share eight tips on how you could learn
and study correctly.
Let's get into it.
(upbeat music)
What's up everyone?
This is Brandon Hill
and welcome back to my channel
where we share content to help young professionals
develop personally, professionally and financially.
One series of this channel is analyzing popular books
and extracting the top takeaways
that you all should know about.
So be sure to check out my book reviews
and analysis playlist for other books that we've covered.
Let's jump into the summary.
"Make It Stick", gives readers
the holy grail of learning and memory.
This book draws on recent discoveries made
in cognitive psychology and offers practical
and concrete techniques to learn faster,
learn more and forget less.
The authors share tons of facts
that are backed by research
and they give you actionable steps
that you could take to start implementing.
A big point made in "Make It Stick"
is that the best learning methods
are often counterintuitive.
This book will debunk
the most popular methods for learning and memorization
and it'll equip you with the proper tools.
I would strongly recommend this book
to anybody who is interested in learning more effectively
and more efficiently and using their brain
to their full capacity.
You could be a student or a professional
that's studying for a certification
or maybe just a lifelong learner.
But this book could help anybody out.
If you want to read, "Make It Stick",
I'll put a link down in the description
where you could access the book.
And if you want this book for free,
I'll also leave a link to a 30 day free trial to Audible,
where you could sign up and have one free download.
Let's get into the eight tips now.
Number one is to avoid ineffective learning methods,
such as highlighting, underlining,
and rereading notes and texts.
So some of the most common study strategies out there
include highlighting, underlining
and rereading over and over again.
The authors of this book state
that although these are the most popular methods,
they are some of the least productive methods.
Highlighting and underlining are passive forms of learning
and don't result in durable memory.
Rereading your notes and textbooks
is also a form of passive learning
and it's extremely time consuming.
The authors talk about that when you use these methods,
you could actually deceive yourself into thinking
that you're grasping what you're reading,
but in actuality, when you're rereading notes
over and over again, all you're doing is becoming familiar
with the text instead of actually understanding
the underlying concepts.
Tip number two is to implement retrieval practice.
One of the several effective learning strategies
that are shared is retrieval practice.
Simply put, retrieval practice involves quizzing yourself.
You're recalling facts or concepts from your memory.
For example, if you're reading through a book,
you could stop in the middle of a section
and ask yourself, what did I just read?
This forces you to use your memory
and recall what you're learning.
Another example of retrieval practice
is the use of flashcards.
On one side of a flashcard, you have a question
and on the back, you have an answer.
When you study using flashcards,
you read the question and on the front
and you try to say the answer out loud or in your head
before you flip it over and check it.
The book mentions two profound benefits
of retrieval practice.
One is that it tells you what you do know
and what you don't know and therefore,
you know what to study and focus on.
Number two, recalling what you've learned,
causes the brain to reconsolidate a memory,
which strengthens its connection to things
that you already know and it makes it easier
to recall it in the future.
So basically, your memory's becoming better
every time you do it.
Tip number three, embrace effortful learning,
and stay away from easy learning.
One counterintuitive insight that the book states
is that learning is deeper and more durable
when it's effortful.
Basically when learning is more difficult
and demands more brain power, it'll be more effective
and you'll have a better memory of that topic.
A quote from the book reads that
"Learning that is easy is here today and gone tomorrow."
When you study, you want it to be challenging.
This may take longer, but you'll learn better in the end.
In the previous tip, we talked about retrieval practice.
Combining tip number one with retrieval practice
and this current tip with effortful learning
results in another concept called effortful retrieval.
For example, you might create a flashcard deck
on a certain topic that you're studying
rather than practicing all the flashcards
that you know by heart, you should focus on the flashcards
that are challenging to you and take more effort
and brain power to recall.
When the mind has to work, the learning sticks better.
Tip number four, implement space repetition.
Space repetition is a studying technique
that involves repeatedly reviewing information
that you want to memorize
at gradually increasing time intervals.
The objective is to review material
just as you start to forget about it.
You practice space repetition
by studying something multiple times
while progressively increasing
the time between each session.
Imagine that you have 15 financial formulas to memorize
for a test in the future.
You would start by studying
all 15 of those formulas on day one.
After the first time you study the formulas,
study again the next day,
then study the formulas four days later,
then again, seven days later and so forth
until the information is permanently stored
in your long term memory.
Space repetition works because the periodic practice
allows for a little bit of forgetting to happen.
This little bit of forgetting is good
because when you practice again,
it will be more difficult
for you to retrieve that information.
That's where the effortful retrieval comes in,
that we just talked about.
The retrieval routes of the pathways in your brain
will strengthen and the material
will crystallize in your memory.
Number five is to implement interleaved practice.
So it turns out that practicing a single concept or skill
over and over again, until you have it down,
isn't as effective as mixing up your practice
and varying it with other types of different,
but related problems.
To help illustrate what this means,
the authors give an example of studying geometry.
If you're studying geometry,
you shouldn't just practice a bunch of problems
that have you calculate the area of a pyramid.
Instead, you should interleave your practice.
And you could do this
by studying a variety of geometry problems,
instead of just working on practice problems,
where you calculate the area of a pyramid,
you could mix up other types of problems,
such as calculating the area of a sphere or a cube
or a rectangle and mixing it all together.
And having those problems shuffled.
By mixing up the problem types
that you work on within a subject,
you'll become better at discriminating
between one problem type and another.
When given a problem, you'll be better equipped
to tell what type of problem it is
and how you should tackle that problem.
And this is beneficial
because this is how you would encounter a problem
in real life or on an exam.
Number six is to reflect when learning new things.
In "Make It Stick", the authors talk about reflection
being a form of practice.
Reflection can involve several cognitive activities
that can aid your learning and memory.
They include retrieving knowledge from memory,
connecting what you are thinking about to new experiences
and visualizing and mentally rehearsing
what you might do differently next time.
If you don't stop every now and then to reflect,
you could be missing out on these critical benefits.
It might seem inefficient to take breaks for reflection,
but if you skip out on reflection
and you just continue reading your notes and textbooks,
you may not fully absorb the material.
Also, if you're studying and you get a question wrong,
reflect on why you got it wrong.
So you don't make that same mistake again next time.
Number seven is to focus and build upon the basics
while on the road to mastery.
The authors of "Make It Stick" talk about how mastery
in any field from cooking to chess to brain surgery
is a gradual accumulation of knowledge,
conceptual understanding, judgment and skill.
Mastery requires you to have the possession of knowledge,
as well as a conceptual understanding
of how to use that knowledge.
Before you run, you need to learn how to walk.
And before you walk, you need to learn how to crawl.
Crawling, when it comes to learning
is mastering the basics and the fundamentals.
Don't try to advance too quickly
without learning the basics first.
Once you have the basics mastered,
you have a solid foundation to advance to the next level.
Finally, tip number eight.
Don't just acknowledge your mistakes, but learn from them.
When learning is effortful
and you're using all of these effective study strategies,
you're going to make a lot of mistakes.
When studying, don't just check to see
if you got an answer wrong or not.
A mistake is an opportunity to learn and improve.
The book says that making mistakes and learning from them,
builds bridges to advanced levels of learning.
So see your mistakes as lessons.
Analyze what you got wrong and why you got it wrong.
If you can understand what led you to an incorrect answer,
you'll know not to make that same mistake again.
That wraps up the eight tips on how to learn
and study correctly from the book, "Make It Stick".
And I highly recommend that you read it.
Again, to read this book,
I'll put a link in the description
for where you could access the book on Amazon
and if you want this book for free,
I'll also leave a link in the description
for 30 day free trial to Audible,
where you could get one free download when you sign up.
In the meantime, I'll get working on the next video for you.
I'll see you then.
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