How to Study for Exams - The STic Framework for Effective Learning
Summary
TLDRThis video introduces the 'STICK' method for effective studying, emphasizing the importance of Spacing, Testing, Interleaving, and Categorizing. It highlights how testing oneself significantly boosts exam scores, spacing out study sessions enhances long-term retention, categorizing information aids in structuring knowledge, and interleaving different topics improves learning efficiency. The video also features insights from David Epstein and recommends 'Make It Stick' for further reading on these evidence-based techniques.
Takeaways
- 📚 The 'STICK' method stands for Spacing, Testing, Interleaving, and Categorizing, which are four principles for effective studying.
- 📈 Testing (or active recall) is the most crucial component for boosting exam scores and should be integrated into the learning process from the start.
- 🔍 Spacing involves distributing study sessions over time, allowing for some forgetting before restudying, which is more efficient than massed practice.
- 🌳 Categorizing information helps in structuring and retaining large amounts of data by building a 'tree of knowledge' around a subject.
- 🔄 Interleaving, or mixed practice, involves mixing different types of tasks or problems, which can be more challenging but leads to better learning outcomes.
- 🔑 The 'Make It Stick' book emphasizes the importance of testing, spacing, and interleaving as game-changers in effective learning.
- 📈 The forgetting curve is a natural phenomenon where memory decays over time, and it's countered by retrieval practice and spaced repetition.
- 🤓 David Epstein's book 'Range' discusses how generalists can excel in a world of specialists, with implications for learning and studying techniques.
- 💡 Active recall or testing can be applied even before learning a topic to prime the brain for better retention of information.
- 📈 A study showed that spaced practice intervals led to remembering 250% more information compared to massed practice, even without further study.
- 💡 The video suggests that learning should be difficult and mentally taxing, as this indicates that the brain is effectively encoding new information.
Q & A
What is the STICK method mentioned in the video?
-The STICK method stands for Spacing, Testing, Interleaving, and Categorizing, which are the four most important principles for effective and efficient studying according to the video.
Why is testing considered the most important principle in the STICK method?
-Testing is considered the most important because it involves active recall or retrieval practice, which significantly boosts exam scores and helps information stick in the long term, as supported by numerous studies.
What does the term 'active recall' mean in the context of studying?
-Active recall refers to the process of testing oneself to retrieve information from memory, which is a more effective learning technique than passive rereading or highlighting.
How does the 'spacing' principle work in the context of studying?
-Spacing involves leaving intervals between study sessions on the same topic, allowing for some forgetting to occur before revisiting the material, which enhances long-term retention.
What is the 'hyper correction effect' mentioned in the video?
-The hyper correction effect is a phenomenon where getting an answer wrong and then learning the correct one leads to better retention of the right information.
What is the significance of the 'forgetting curve' in memory research?
-The forgetting curve illustrates the natural decay of memory over time, emphasizing the need for retrieval and re-encoding of information to counteract forgetting.
How does the 'categorizing' principle aid in learning?
-Categorizing helps in structuring information by creating a system or 'tree of knowledge' around a subject, making it easier to understand and remember large amounts of information.
What is 'interleaving' in the context of the STICK method?
-Interleaving, or mixed practice, involves mixing different types of learning material or tasks during a study session, which can be more challenging but leads to better understanding and retention.
What is the relationship between difficulty in learning and the effectiveness of learning?
-The video suggests that when learning is difficult and mentally taxing, it indicates that more effective learning is taking place, as the brain is working harder to encode the information.
What is the role of Skillshare in the video?
-Skillshare is the sponsor of the video, offering an online learning community with various classes and providing a two-month free trial for new users through the link in the video description.
Why should one consider using the 'retrospective revision timetable' mentioned in the video?
-The retrospective revision timetable is a technique that helps ensure the use of active recall, spacing, and testing in studying, making the study sessions more efficient and effective.
Outlines
📚 Introduction to the STICK Method for Effective Studying
The video introduces the STICK method, a study technique based on four principles: Spacing, Testing, Interleaving, and Categorizing. The presenter emphasizes the importance of testing oneself as the most crucial step for boosting exam scores, backed by research. The concept of active recall, or testing, is explained as integral to the learning process. The video also mentions David Epstein, author of 'Range,' who supports the effectiveness of these techniques. The presenter plans to discuss each principle in the order of Testing, Spacing, Categorizing, and Interleaving (TSCI), considering it a hierarchy of importance.
🔍 The Science Behind Spacing and the Forgetting Curve
This paragraph delves into the concept of spacing, which involves distributing study sessions over time to enhance long-term retention. The presenter discusses the 'forgetting curve,' a well-known phenomenon where memory decays over time if not retrieved. A study by David Epstein is highlighted, showing that spaced learning significantly outperforms cramming. The presenter also recommends watching a dedicated video on spaced repetition for further insights and suggests a 'retrospective revision timetable' as a practical application of spacing and testing.
🌳 Building a Categorization System for Efficient Learning
The presenter introduces categorization as a key study technique, advocating for the creation of a structured system to organize information, rather than simply memorizing it. Studies are cited that show the effectiveness of categorization in enhancing both short-term and long-term retention. The presenter shares a personal example from medical school, where creating a 'tree of knowledge' for Hematology helped in understanding and retaining complex information. The idea is to build a conceptual framework that allows new information to be easily integrated and retrieved.
🎯 The Benefits of Interleaving in Learning and Skill Development
Interleaving, or mixed practice, is discussed as the final component of the STICK method. The presenter explains that interleaving involves mixing different types of problems or topics during study sessions, which, although more challenging, leads to better learning outcomes. The concept is likened to working out with weights; the more difficult the exercise, the more it builds strength. The presenter encourages embracing the difficulty of learning as a sign of effective study and mentions 'Make It Stick' as a resource that elaborates on this concept.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Active Recall
💡Spacing
💡Interleaving
💡Categorizing
💡Forgetting Curve
💡Hypercorrection Effect
💡Conceptual Models
💡Skillshare
💡Productivity
💡Tree of Knowledge
Highlights
The introduction of the 'stick method' for effective studying, which stands for Spacing, Testing, Interleaving, and Categorizing.
Spacing and Testing are identified as the most important principles for efficient learning.
Interleaving and Categorizing are discussed as additional concepts for effective studying.
Author David Epstein's research on effective learning techniques for exams and sports.
The importance of active recall or retrieval practice for boosting exam scores.
Evidence showing that testing oneself is more effective than rereading.
The concept of 'hyper correction effect' where getting an answer wrong can lead to better memory retention.
The idea of spacing out study sessions to improve long-term memory retention.
The 'forgetting curve' and its impact on memory decay over time.
A study showing the effectiveness of spaced practice intervals in long-term memory retention.
The benefits of categorizing information for better understanding and retention.
Building a 'tree of knowledge' as a method for organizing information in a subject.
The effectiveness of interleaving or mixed practice in learning different types of problems.
The idea that learning should be difficult to be effective, similar to working out muscles at the gym.
The contrast between easy study methods like note summarizing and the mental effort required for active recall.
Skillshare's sponsorship of the video and its platform for online learning.
A shout out to Thomas Frank's Skillshare class on productivity.
The creator's upcoming Skillshare classes on video production, filming, and editing.
Transcripts
this video is conde sponsored by
Skillshare check out the link in the
video description to get your 2 month
free trial hey guys welcome back to the
channel today we're talking about
studying our favorite subject and I want
to introduce you to the stick method for
effective studying
so that's STI and C which are the four
most important principles when it comes
to studying or learning anything
effectively and efficiently S stands for
spacing T for testing I for interleaving
and C for categorizing and if you can
apply these four principles to your
studying it's going to become a lot more
efficient based on the results of
hundreds of studies that have been done
on students all over the world the first
two spacing and testing are probably the
most important ones and then I'll be
talking about two other concepts
interleaving and categorizing that I
haven't really spent much time on this
channel discussing previously there's
basically like five learning packs that
are really supported rigorously by
research and three of them that I focus
on in that chapter are testing spacing
and interleaving that's a guy called
David Epstein and he's the bestselling
author of a book called the sports gene
which is all about the science of
extraordinary athletic ability and he's
got a new book out soon in the UK called
range which is about how generalists
triumph in a world of specialists
apparently I've pre-ordered it on Kindle
can't wait to read it in researching
these two books he's looked at a lot of
the evidence behind effective learning
techniques both for studying for exams
and stuff but also for things like
sports and he concludes much like the
authors of make it stick which is
another really good book that every
student should read he concludes that
spacing testing and interleaving are the
real game changes so I'm gonna talk
about each of these components in turn
but I'm gonna do it in the order T s C I
because I think that's the order that
works personally for me as a hierarchy
of importance but it makes for a less
good LS nice-nice mnemonic so T s CI is
the order in which we're going to talk
about them let's get started if you've
seen any of my previous study videos
you'll know that I love to go on about
this idea of active recall or retrieval
practice which basically just means
testing yourself but they call it active
recall in the scientific research papers
but honestly I think the term active
recall can be a bit confusing I've had
so many messages from students being
like how to apply active recall to this
and what does active recall mean for
that the answer is is just testing
testing yourself is the single most
important thing you can do to boost your
exam scores by a ridiculous amount and
in fact in the book make it stick which
again you should read and I'll put a
link down in the description below the
author's comment that most often when
students come to them
asking for tips about studying and are
not happy with their exam results the
simple answer is that they're just not
testing themselves enough and it's hard
to overstate the importance of this like
some of the studies that I quote in my
active recall video show that just
testing yourself once is a lot better
than rereading the same thing four times
and it's ridiculous just how much of us
think that rereading our notes or
reading the textbook or a highlighting
or even taking notes is a useful way to
study when it's really not all of the
evidence shows that the more you test
yourself the more the information is
likely to stick the commonest objection
whenever I preach this idea if you
should test yourself you should try and
retrieve stuff people often say that
well how do I test myself if I don't
know the stuff already like surely I
have to learn the content first before I
can then test myself on it and my answer
to that is firstly you should check out
my video called how to learn new content
in which I'd give a 12 minute long
explanation about this but the main
point is as I've said that testing
yourself is integral to actually
learning in the first place
in fact testing yourself is so important
that you should be testing yourself even
before you learn a topic for the first
time and here is David Epstein talking
about basically testing is wonderful for
learning in fact you want to test people
before they've had a chance to study
because it actually turns out it Prime's
your brain for when you then hear an
answer to retain it even if you get
stuff actually especially if you get
stuff wrong so there's something called
the hyper correction effect or if you're
quite confident about an answer and
turns out you're wrong you're more
likely to remember the right one when
you get it again there are tons of
studies that show that testing yourself
before during and after studying a topic
is probably the single best way to
actually learn that topic so yeah I
could go on about this for hours and I
have done in my other videos that are
linked down below and up there so you
should definitely check those out if you
care more about the evidence behind it
and about some strategies about how you
can apply testing or active recall to
your own studying but now let's move on
to the second most important component
of effective studying and that is
spacing
spacing or dike all deliberate not
practicing is you want to leave space
between bouts of practice of the same
thing so again if you practice the same
thing over and over and over in one
session you'll see progress right away
but what you really care about is how
long is this stay so as david says
spacing or space repetition is the idea
that you're spacing out your study
sessions such that you've had a chance
to forget some of the information before
you then re study it and hopefully by re
studying it we mean testing yourselves
on that information and this relates to
a phenomenon in memory research that's
been around since like the 1800s called
the forgetting curve and the forgetting
curve is something I'm sure we've all
had first-hand experience with and
that's the idea that over time our
memory just decays so we've all probably
had that experience where we're in a
lecture we like we think we learn
something we think we've understood
something and then we look back at it a
day or a week or a month later and we're
like crap where did all that information
go and in fact since I seem to have
become one of these study tips agony
ants on the Internet
one of the most common queries I go on
Instagram DM is along the lines of I'm
in class that I've made my notes and
I've studied and I think I get it and
then I just forget it the next day and I
don't know why that is and I think I
must be really bad because all my
classmates seem to be getting it
immediately the first time the answer to
that is no you're not bad because this
is literally how memory works you're
supposed to forget stuff over time
unless you re retrieve that information
and re encode it and make it stick and
your classmates are not getting it first
time unless they're the one of the
0.0001 percent of people who have a
genuinely photographic memory they are
also having to put in multiple repeated
sessions of learning to actually learn
something there is no such thing as
someone who just gets it first time
around is a forgetting curve literally
applies to everyone so don't worry if
you find yourself forgetting stuff and
as we're talking about in this video the
best way to get this information to
stick in the long term is firstly again
to read the book make it stick but also
to apply these things of spacing testing
interleaving and categorizing and here
is David Epstein again there was one
study one famous study where two groups
of people were learning Spanish
vocabulary one group got like eight
hours intensive on one day the other
group got four hours one day and then
the other four hours a month later they
had the exact same studying one was just
separated by a month eight years later
they brought them back and the group
that had the spaced practice intervals
remembered two hundred and fifty percent
more with no studying in the interim and
so you have a certain amount you want to
study it becomes more efficient if you
space it out you take
deliberately not practicing so this was
talking about is clearly an extreme case
but you see pretty much identical
results reported across the entire
literature on effective studying and
that's the idea that spacing your study
sessions is much much more efficient
than trying to do everything all in one
go otherwise known as cramming if you
want to know more about spacing you
should check out my 26 minute video all
about spaced repetition and the evidence
behind it and in that video I'll go into
some details about how you can apply to
your own studying but if you don't care
about the evidence and you just want a
very quick method that you can
immediately apply from today you should
check out my video about the
retrospective revision timetable which
is one of my favorite techniques for
ensuring that I'm using active recall
spaced and spaced repetition or rather
spacing and testing to make my studying
as efficient as possible which means I
can then do other things with my spare
time like to make videos like this
thirdly I want to talk about the idea of
categorizing and that is one of my
personal favorite efficient study
techniques I'm working on a proper long
video about this where I fully talk
about some of the evidence and stuff but
in this video I'm just going to give a
general overview and in general the main
point is that if we want to learn large
amounts of information it's far better
for us to try and build a categorization
system for that information try and
build a structure around it rather than
just trying to learn the information
which is probably the default strategy
that a lot of us would default to and
there have been loads of studies in the
literature whereby they get two groups
of students one group of students just
gets told to memorize a list of words
and the other group of students
gets some kind of categorization system
in place for those words or gets told to
create their own categorization system
so they can lump certain words into
different categories and in the vast
majority of these studies you find that
the second group the categorization
group completely destroys the first
group in terms of the amount that the
information sticks both in the short
term and also in the long term now one
way to think about this is to build what
I like to call a tree of knowledge
around our subject around a topic and
that is starting with a like a main
trunk and then building a branches off
it such that anytime we get any new
piece of information we're able to hang
it on one of the branches of our tree
I'll give you an example from medical
school so I used to find the topic of
Hematology which is the study of the
blood quite overwhelming because there's
so much various things that can go wrong
with the blood but then one day I sat
down and decided you know what I'm just
gonna build a tree of knowledge I didn't
call it a tree of knowledge back then
but that's kind of what I was thinking
I'm just gonna sit down and build my
tree of knowledge about hematology and I
realized that looking through the
specific
looking through the syllabus looking
through a few textbooks and online
resources that everything within
hematology can pretty much be
categorized into three things problems
with anemia ie
your hemoglobin levels going too low
secondly problems with clotting and
thirdly there are cancer malignant
hematology stuff and then within those
we've got our own subcategories so
within anemia we've got microcytic
anemia normocytic anemia macrocytic
anemia and within those we've got some
more categories within coagulation we've
got things that make you clock versus
things that make you bleed within
malignant hematology we've got four
things we've got the lymphomas we've got
leukemias we've got the
myeloproliferative disorders we've got
the plasma cell dyscrasia
and a few other things I'm creating my
tree of knowledge and I found that since
creating this tree of knowledge for
hematology I've started to understand
the subject a lot better because now
when I come across I don't know
Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia I know
exactly where it fits on my little
branch thing and when I come across
Burkitt's lymphoma or something I know
exactly where that fits in my thing when
I come across antiphospholipid syndrome
I'm not thinking oh crap what is that
I'm thinking ah I know that that fits on
that branch of the coagulation tree and
therefore this is what's going on there
and so overall this makes the whole
subject a lot less overwhelming and I
kind of wish I'd been doing this from
day one of medical school for every
single subject and I wish I'd started
doing that before even learning the
subject like when I was scoping the
subject which is what I like to call it
ie just sitting down with the syllabus
and working out what is everything
within cardiology what is everything
within respiratory medicine just taking
those one or two hours to sit down and
build a tree for that subject would have
done absolute wonders for me because
then when I get new pieces of
information I'm not just you know
chucking it into a notebook and hoping
that it sticks I'm hanging it on my tree
of knowledge and therefore increasing
the chances that I'm likely to retreat
there are tons of other benefits of
categorization but I'll save those for
the proper video about it for now if
you're struggling with a subject if you
find yourself getting a bit overwhelmed
by it
try and think about it as maybe a tree
of knowledge I found that really helpful
in my life maybe you'll find it helpful
in yours
and finally let's talk about
interleaving so testing spacing and
interleaving means just or mixed
practice is like mixing up the things
you want to learn and this again has to
do with forming these conceptual models
for knowledge so if you're teaching kids
how to learn a certain type of math
problem let's say actually you have the
same 20 math problems that has five of
one kind five another five another five
another what we usually do is you give
them five of type A five of type B five
of type C five type D you'd be way
better off mixing those all together so
again they will struggle more it'll take
them longer but they'll learn again more
how to match a strategy to a type of
problem so this shows up in all sorts of
learning studies you don't want to get
to a point where you're finding a
certain topic or certain skill easy
because as soon as you start finding
something easy it then means you're not
learning as well as you could be and
this can feel incredibly unintuitive we
all probably have that feeling where
we're learning something and we're
finding it really hard and therefore
well we tell ourselves as oh I must be
stupid I must not understand the subject
enough but actually if you're finding
and learning hard that is when the
learning is most happening well it's
kind of like going to the gym like if
you're lifting weights that you find
easy it's not going to be doing anything
for you but if you're lifting weights
that you find hard then you're gonna be
making muscles and it's kind of the same
with the brain the brain is sort of like
a muscle controversial but sort of like
a muscle going back to this idea of
testing the harder you're having to work
to retrieve information the more
strongly that information is going to
get encoded and therefore learning
should be difficult it should be
mentally taxing to work which is why
things like you know summarizing your
notes from the textbook and highlighting
they feel really productive because
they're easy to do and we feel like
we're I've produced four pages of a4
today and it looks really pretty with
highlights and stuff but if you think
back to all the times where you've been
summarizing notes from a textbook I've
been guilty of this myself far too many
times to count it's it's too easy like
it's a lot harder to actually actually
think about stuff to test ourselves
before looking at the book it takes a
lot more mental strain and therefore we
will shy away from it thinking oh my god
if I'm finding it hard I must know how I
must not be doing it right but in fact
it's the opposite if you're finding it
hard you are doing it right if you're
finding it easy you're not learning
anything at all and again this concept
of interleaving is talked about quite
extensively in make it stick so again a
plug for that book if you haven't read
it you should read it it's really good
before we wrap up with some final
thoughts I just want to give a massive
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thank you Skillshare for sponsoring this
video and thank you for watching if you
enjoyed this video and want to see more
stuff about how to make your studying
much more efficient which means you can
get so much more done and also do extra
things with your time you should check
out the playlist over there and that
will contain links to some of my best
videos about evidence based study tips
you know I've had messages from
thousands of students around the world
who've said that those tips have
literally changed their lives and
transformed their study habits so you
should definitely check those out if you
feel like it thanks for watching and
I'll see you in the next video bye
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