How I STUDY for EXAMS as a MATHS student at Oxford (Active Recall, Spaced Repetition, Past Papers) 📓

Summary

In this video, a fourth-year mathematics student at Oxford shares her study methods and exam strategies. She emphasizes the importance of finding a study method that suits individual learning styles and needs. Her preferred approach combines active recall, spaced repetition, and practicing past papers. She explains how to break down material into manageable sections, review them at increasing intervals, and prioritize topics based on difficulty and recency. The video offers practical tips for memorizing proofs and definitions, as well as problem-solving skills, aiming to help viewers adapt these strategies to their own studies.

Takeaways

• 📚 **No One-Size-Fits-All Study Method**: Every student has a unique learning style, and what works for one might not work for another.
• 🎓 **Active Recall**: Engage with material by actively trying to recall it without looking at the source, which strengthens memory and understanding.
• 🔄 **Spaced Repetition**: Review material at increasing intervals over time to prevent forgetting and promote long-term retention.
• 📈 **Adapt Your Study Plan**: Tailor your study schedule based on the number and difficulty of your exams.
• 📅 **Start Early**: Begin studying well in advance to allow for thorough coverage of material and multiple review sessions.
• 📝 **Break Down Material**: Divide large amounts of material into manageable chunks to make studying less overwhelming.
• 🗓️ **Revision Timetable**: Use a timetable to organize study sessions and track your progress and confidence in each section.
• 🧠 **Memorize Key Concepts**: Focus on memorizing important definitions, proofs, and theorems for exams that require bookwork.
• 📑 **Redo Problem Sheets**: Practice problem-solving by redoing all problem sheets to reinforce understanding and application of concepts.
• 📝 **Note Key Ideas**: Write down the key idea of each solution in problem sheets and past papers to simplify revision before exams.
• 📚 **Past Papers**: Practice with past papers to encounter new ideas and improve problem-solving skills, aiming for at least four per module.

Q & A

What is the main challenge students face when searching for the best study method?

The main challenge is finding a study method that resonates with their unique learning style and needs, as there are numerous methods circulating online and in universities, leading to overwhelming and contradicting advice.

What is Yuanna's educational background and the focus of her video?

Yuanna is a fourth-year mathematics student at the University of Oxford, and her video focuses on discussing her study methods and strategies for exams.

What does Yuanna suggest as the key to success in finding a study method?

Yuanna suggests that the key to success is finding a study method that resonates with one's unique learning style and needs, and it's important to explore and adapt strategies from others to one's own needs.

What are the components of university-level math exams according to Yuanna?

University-level math exams consist of bookwork, which includes memorized material such as proofs and definitions, and new material where students need to apply the concepts learned in lectures in a new context.

How does Yuanna approach the preparation for her exams?

Yuanna prepares for her exams by ensuring she has covered all her courses in detail, memorized all definitions, proofs, theorems, and counterexamples, and then moves on to problem sheets and past papers.

What is the timeline Yuanna follows for starting her exam preparation?

Yuanna starts her exam preparation in mid-March if her exams are at the beginning of June, but she emphasizes that the timeline can be adjusted based on individual needs and the number of exams.

What is active recall and how does Yuanna use it in her study strategy?

Active recall is a method that involves actively retrieving information from memory rather than passively reviewing it. Yuanna uses it by writing down important things from memory after reading through lecture notes or slides.

Can you explain the concept of space repetition as described by Yuanna?

Space repetition is a technique where information is reviewed at increasing intervals over time, based on the forgetting curve, to prevent forgetting and promote long-term retention of information.

How does Yuanna apply space repetition in her study routine?

Yuanna applies space repetition by reviewing material after 2 days, then 3 days, 4 days, 5 days, and so on, with each review session occurring at strategically chosen times based on her confidence level and the forgetting curve.

What is Yuanna's approach to problem sheets and past papers?

Yuanna's approach is to redo all of her problem sheets to ensure she knows how to solve all questions and to do as many past papers as possible to practice and learn new ideas and methods.

What is Yuanna's top tip for studying problem sheets and past papers?

Yuanna's top tip is to write down the key idea of the solution below every question in the homework and past papers, so that during exam time, one only needs to revise these key concepts.

Outlines

00:00

📚 The Quest for the Perfect Study Method

The paragraph discusses the overwhelming challenge students face in finding the ideal study method. It mentions various techniques like flashcards, mind maps, highlighting, and marathon study sessions. The speaker, Yuanna, a fourth-year mathematics student at the University of Oxford, emphasizes that while there's no one-size-fits-all approach, it's crucial to find a method that aligns with one's unique learning style. She shares her preferred strategy, which combines active recall, spaced repetition, and practicing with past papers. She clarifies the goal of university-level math exams, which includes memorizing proofs, definitions, and applying new concepts in unfamiliar contexts. Yuanna also discusses her personal exam preparation timeline, suggesting starting early but acknowledging the need for adaptability based on individual needs.

05:02

📈 Mastering Active Recall and Spaced Repetition

This section delves into the specifics of active recall and spaced repetition as study techniques. Active recall involves actively trying to remember information without looking at the source material, which strengthens neural connections and aids long-term retention. The speaker uses a notebook to write down important points from her lecture notes after reading, comparing her recollections with the source to correct any mistakes. Spaced repetition is introduced as a method to review information at increasing intervals over time, based on the forgetting curve, to prevent forgetting and promote long-term retention. The speaker explains her personal spaced repetition schedule, which involves reviewing material at 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, and 10-day intervals, adjusting based on her confidence level and the recency of the material.

10:03

📘 Tackling Problem Sheets and Past Papers

The final paragraph focuses on the practical application of study strategies for problem-solving skills in mathematics. The speaker advises redoing all problem sheets to ensure mastery of the material and doing as many past papers as possible for practice. She suggests writing down the key idea of each solution to facilitate quick revision before exams. The speaker shares her top tip of focusing on key concepts during exam preparation, which allows for efficient review without the need to rewrite entire solutions. The paragraph concludes with a summary of her study strategy for exam success, which includes active recall, spaced repetition, and working through past papers, and she encourages viewers to adapt these strategies to their own needs.

Keywords

💡Active Recall

Active recall is a learning technique that involves actively trying to remember information without looking at the source material. It is contrasted with passive rereading, which is less effective. In the video, the speaker uses active recall to strengthen neural connections and enhance long-term retention. For example, after reading through lecture notes, the speaker attempts to write down important points from memory to reinforce learning.

💡Space Repetition

Space repetition is a study technique that involves reviewing information at gradually increasing time intervals. It is based on the idea that spreading out review sessions over time can improve long-term retention. In the script, the speaker uses space repetition by reviewing material after 2 days, then 3, 4, 5 days, and so on, to prevent forgetting and solidify memory.

💡Study Method

A study method refers to a specific approach or strategy used to learn and retain information. The video discusses the importance of finding a study method that resonates with an individual's unique learning style. The speaker shares their personal study method, combining active recall and space repetition, as an example of a successful study method.

💡Bookwork

Bookwork refers to the material that needs to be memorized from lectures, such as definitions, proofs, and theorems. In the context of the video, the speaker emphasizes the importance of memorizing bookwork for university-level math exams, which include both memorized material and new problems that require applying learned concepts.

💡Revision Timetable

A revision timetable is a schedule created to organize study sessions for reviewing material. The speaker in the video uses a spreadsheet to break down courses into manageable chunks and assigns each chunk a color based on their confidence level, which helps in planning and tracking study progress.

💡Forgetting Curve

The forgetting curve is a theoretical concept that describes the rate at which information is forgotten over time. The video mentions the forgetting curve as the basis for the space repetition technique, which aims to review information at optimal intervals to counteract the natural decline in memory retention.

💡Problem Sheets

Problem sheets are sets of math problems assigned as homework or practice. The speaker in the video suggests redoing all problem sheets to ensure mastery of the material, emphasizing the importance of practice for improving problem-solving skills in mathematics.

💡Past Papers

Past papers are previous exam papers that can be used for practice. The video recommends doing past papers to familiarize oneself with the exam format and to encounter new ideas that may appear in the actual exam.

💡Key Idea

The key idea refers to the central concept or strategy used to solve a problem. The speaker advises writing down the key idea below each problem in homework or past papers to simplify revision and quickly recall how to solve similar problems during exams.

💡Exam Strategy

An exam strategy is a plan or set of tactics used to prepare for and perform well on exams. The video outlines the speaker's exam strategy, which includes active recall, space repetition, and doing past papers, to achieve success in university-level math exams.

Highlights

Finding the right study method is essential for academic success.

Different students have different preferred study methods, such as flashcards or mind maps.

Active recall and spaced repetition are effective study strategies.

Active recall involves actively retrieving information from memory.

Spaced repetition reviews information at increasing intervals over time.

University level math exams require memorization and application of new concepts.

It's important to start studying for exams early, especially for difficult subjects.

Breaking down courses into manageable chunks helps with study planning.

Using a revision timetable can help track study progress and confidence levels.

Reviewing material at specific intervals based on the forgetting curve improves retention.

Prioritizing newer topics and those not yet mastered is crucial during revision.

Practicing problem-solving is essential for math exams.

Redoing problem sheets and past papers helps reinforce learning.

Writing down key ideas of solutions can aid in exam preparation.

Adapting study methods to personal needs and preferences is important.

The speaker shares their personal study strategies used at the University of Oxford.

Engaging with material actively leads to more effective learning.

Spaced repetition and active recall are game-changing study methods for the speaker.

Transcripts

in the vast landscape of Academia where

every student is on the Quest for

knowledge and success they realize a

forever daunting challenge finding that

one study method that works best for you

with so many different methods

circulating online and in the H of

universities it's incredibly easy to

feel overwhelmed and lost in the vast

sea of contradicting advice one student

swears by flashcards while another by

mind maps we have already cancelled

highlights Ing and reading stuff over

and over but how about those Marathon

study sessions maybe the benefits of

short focused bursts of learning are

exceeding them but who knows but am miss

the noise and confusion one truth

remains finding that one study method

that resonates with you and with your

unique learning style and needs is

essential for success and you are the

one and only that can explore this hi

everyone I am yuanna I am a fourth year

mathematics student at the University of

Oxford and in this video I'm going to

talk to you all about my study methods

and strategies for exams as I've said in

the intro there isn't one universally

best study method so if something works

for me it doesn't really mean that it

will work for you but that being said I

think it's also very very important to

see if there is anything that we can

steal from someone else and adapt to our

own needs so without further Ado let's

talk about my preferred study strategy

which is pretty much a combination of

active recall with space repetition and

of course doing past papers but wait

before we jump into the actual methods

we need to make it clear what we are

working towards so uni level math exams

in my case are a combination of book

workk so stuff that we need to have

memorized from the lectures such as

reproducing proofs and definitions and

new material where we need to apply

these um Concepts that we learned in

lectures in a new context that we

haven't seen before so in my preparation

for exams I need to make sure I have

covered all of my courses in GR detail

and memorize all of the definitions the

proofs the theorems the counter examples

and all of that but as a disclaimer this

is mad so when it comes to proofs for

example you only really need to memorize

the idea behind it or the outline as

everything else follows logically from

the step above but nonetheless the same

strategy applies in every case I think

after I have a solid understanding of

all of these I will want to read you the

problem sheets which I have four of per

course and jump into past papers to see

new ideas in Play If I have my exams at

the beginning of June I will start my

studying for exams in midm March or so

again disclaimer this is the case for 8

to 10 difficult exams like I had in the

last two years so the timeline can

always be adjusted to your own needs for

example this year I only have three

exams so I don't really need to start

studying this early but yeah again very

adaptable very much up to you all right

now enough about logistics and let's get

going with the actual strategy to tackle

all of

[Music]

those as mentioned before I use active

recall and space repetition to memorize

the important things in the lectures or

what we call book work so what is active

recall active recall involves actively

retrieving information from memory

rather than passively reviewing it so

instead of Simply rereading or

re-watching material active recall

requires you to actively engage with a

content by attempting to recall it

without looking at The Source obviously

there are plenty of benefits of doing so

for example actively recalling

information from memory strengthens

neural connections making it easier to

remember and retrieve later engaging

with material through um active Reco

enforces compreh and understanding

leading to more effective learning it's

clearly true that it does take more time

and more effort than just rereading the

material but it also yields greater

results in terms of long-term retention

and can be applied to various stud

material such as textbooks lecture notes

and problem sets personally I use this

for lecture notes to be able to retrieve

the bookwork parts in the exam now a

60-page document containing a ton of

mats can be very overwhelming so I

always start by breaking down each

course into more manageable chunks

usually between four and eight such

sections per subject depending on its

length and its difficulty I then shove

all of the titles of these sections in a

spreadsheet that will eventually

constitute my revision timetable I only

study one of these chunks per day here's

where active recoil really comes into

play instead of relying on flash cards I

use a trusty notebook after reading

through everything on the current page

or slide I try to write down all of the

important things on that page or on that

slide from memory so when I learn a new

proof for example I would try to write

it down completely from memory and then

compare it with the actual thing the

actual Source material and see in step

by step if I have made any mistakes and

correcting them in a case when I don't

perfectly write something down the first

time I will do this until I'm

comfortable enough with the material and

can actually move on after a study

session like this is over I return to my

revision timetable write down the date

on which I learned the section and give

it a color corresponding to my

confidence in the material so we have

green for good yellow for okayish and

readed for tiny bit struggling obviously

when you revise such a chunk of the

material two months before the exam you

would for sure forget it by the time of

the exam and this happens really to the

best of us so how do we prevent this

well here is where space repetition

comes into play so space repetition is a

technique that involves reviewing

information at increasing intervals over

time so instead of um simply cramming

all of your study sessions into a very

short period space repetition spreads

out your review sessions over longer

intervals with each review session

occurring at strategically chosen times

based on the forgetting curve and this

is the pattern of how quickly we forget

newly learned information this clearly

helps prevent forgetting and promotes

the so-called long-term retention of

information so obviously this just takes

advantage of the space in effect which

suggests that information is better

remembered when studied over space

intervals rather than in just one single

continuous session so back to my case

the learning stage the initial learning

stage occurs when I do the recall uh

phase that I just described before so

then after exactly 2 days I do the first

review this is when I go over the

material of the corresponding section

again and write down all of the

definitions and theorems from the

section either in a notebook that I keep

only like solely designed for

definitions and theorems or on a piece

of paper that I will then stick uh to my

wall and will inevitably glance at

throughout the day so I would then go

back to my revision Tim table and write

down the corresponding date of my

revision and just give it a color as

before then I will simply go on uh to

review the material again after 3 days

then after 4 and after 5 during these

revision sessions I would simply refresh

my brain about the material in that

section by reading it and reproducing

only the most difficult Concepts on a

piece of paper at this point I will for

sure have mastered your material I'll

have memorized everything thoroughly I

mean I've reviewed it so much I better

just know everything about about it at

this point now if there is still time

before my exam I'll go further with

revision after 7 days then another

revision session after 10 days and so on

but I would definitely involve some

prioritization at this point by which I

mean that I would prioritize newer

topics that are still below that

pre-established 5day revision timeline

that I didn't get to spend that much

time on so if this is confusing by this

I essentially mean that whenever I have

multiple topics to review on the same

day and it will inevitably all get very

very overwhelming I will take a look at

my revision timetable and see firstly

what topics don't have a green color in

the latest revision and then what topics

haven't I revised in a while or are

still below the 5day timeline at that

point I would make sure that I refresh

my mind on these first so this

definitely ensures perfect understanding

of the material and I for sure hope that

I explain it well enough I know it might

be confusing because it's literally a

study method that I designed so it's not

perfect it's not bulletproof it might

not work for everybody and I might have

done a terrible job at explaining it so

please do not hesitate to drop any

questions in the comments below and yeah

now we are ready to tackle problem

sheets and pass

[Music]

papers don't worry this is definitely a

lot more straightforward than the

previous part so for something like

meths where everything is based on

critical thinking and your problem

solving skills practice is essential as

they say practice makes perfect so for

this I do just two things the first one

is to redo all of my problem sheets for

every course this is essentially our

homework and do as many pass papers as I

can this is the second main thing so

whenever I notice that I have done all

of and I have revised all of the

material corresponding to a problem

sheet I redo all of the questions in the

problem sheet so I make sure to know how

to do all of the questions by myself

even if it means looking up the

solutions the first time or asking a

friend or even the professor so yeah

definitely do not underestimate the

value that you might get from the answer

key if it's available to you even if you

know how to do a question definitely go

through it maybe the teacher had a

different method of solving a question

and it's just very very important that

you revise new ideas you learn new

things because after all this is what

math is all about learning new methods

to solve the same problem yeah pretty

much as simple as that for this part but

now here is my top tip So Below every

question in the homework write down the

key idea of the solution this way come

exam time you'll only need to revise

these key Concepts and you'll basically

know how to solve every question without

having to write down anything so the

same strategy really applies to all of

the pass papers I try to do at least

four pass papers for all of my modules

but this is highly dependent on the

availability of the papers because

because maybe one of the courses is a

new one so there are no pass papers

available and so on again if there is a

new idea coming up in one of the

solutions of a past paper question I

make sure to remember it as it may come

in handy during the actual exam and yeah

there you have it my strategy for exam

success during my time here at Oxford so

active recall and space repetition plus

pass papers have been the absolute game

changer for me and I hope that it can

help you to you know just adjust your

own uh study method thank you so so much

for watching everyone I hope you have

found these tips helpful and found some

strategies to try for yourself

as I've said before don't hesitate to

ask me anything in the comments below or

just suggest any new video ideas that

you might be interested in watching

might find helpful might find

entertaining anything at all make sure

to like this video If you enjoyed it and

subscribe to my channel if you haven't

already for more University and studying

and metth content and yeah one last

thing follow me on Instagram if you want

if you want to see more of me definitely

post more there and yeah just have a

lovely lovely rest of your day good luck

if you have any exams coming up I'm

definitely rooting for you and see you

very very soon with a new video goodbye

I'm sick A Day Dreaming I just want to

feeling of you in my bed you in myed I'm

down to just waste time right below your

waistline W you B my head you