5 BEST Ways to Study Effectively

Stop studying
What you’re doing right now might be a waste of time
Read over your notes
Review the class material, highlight things
Repetition repetition repetition
These study tactics have been drilled into you for years
But the science is very clear
certain study techniques are more beneficial than others
So instead of you spending hours and hours
trying to search for the right answer
I’ve done the work for you
And in today’s video
you’re going to develop a significant advantage
over the rest of your class your friends and your peers
You’re going to learn the five best techniques
for studying effectively in less time than anyone else
Now if you want this to sink in
And you want to be a master student is while you watch
you’re going to take action immediately
And this video is the first in a free five part video course
on becoming the most remarkable student that you can be
and motivation to study and I
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Let’s get into it
Did you know there are people out there
so good at remembering things
that they compete in tournaments of learning
And they are known as memory athletes in an annual contest
called the world memory championships
They were given 20 minutes
to remember a list of 72 random words
And on average
they scored nearly seventy one of the 72
By contrast an untrained control group
could only manage 26
Another example Akira HaIa Guchi
a 69 years old much older than most of you listening
in 2006 recited a hundred and eleven thousand seven hundred digits of pi
from memory a public event near Tokyo
for 16 hours
He kept going and going and going
Imagine the power of having a memory like that
and starting today I want you to imagine yourself as one of them
you’re not just a student
or a teenager or a grad
But you are a memory athlete
You’re going to become someone with such power over your mind
that you can recall pages of notes equations formulas that you need
without the endless hours
of beating information into your head
But how?
Do you need an innate gift?
Can you learn it?
Well, actually you already have.
Picture where the spoons are kept in your kitchen
the socks in your room, the color of your toothbrush
These memory athletes use an ancient Greek technique
called Memory Palaces
and once you master this technique
you too, are going to dramatically improve your ability
to study effectively
and finally open up your dormant reserves of memory
The idea is simple
You walk through an environment like your house
and you place objects in specific places
And then you match the things you want to learn with those objects
So when you’re trying to remember that information
Perhaps the notes you took that day in class
You don’t just think back to your notes
You think of where those notes are in your house
which object did you attach it to?
What’s the color
and you reapply this
until it becomes crystal clear in your mind
This technique maps new information onto something
that your brain has already evolved to do extremely well
recall imagery in specific locations
The second technique for thousands of years people have known that
the best way to understand the concept
Explain it to someone else
The second technique I want to introduce you to is
also known as the protege effect aka
teach someone what you want to learn
A 2007 study looked at this
how does teaching someone impact your learning?
Students in this study who were also teachers to younger students
They scored higher on tests
than pupils who were learning only for their own sake
Why?
Well the researchers found
when you choose to teach someone else
You have to work harder to understand the material
to recall it more accurately
and apply it more effectively
something known as depth of processing
Physicist Robert Fineman created a mental model called the Fineman technique
now some of you may have already seen videos about this on YouTube
This technique has four steps to it
Number one write the name of a concept
on a top of a blank page that you want to learn
Number two write down an explanation of the concept
as if you’re teaching a new student
Number three identify what’s missing?
go back, relearn
And step four review everything
make sure you’re avoiding using complicated language
and try to simplify everything on the page as much as possible
Now this technique
it forces you to deconstruct and then reconstruct ideas
To use this method and learn how to study effectively
Identify first what do you want to learn
and then try to imagine you’re explaining it to a five-year-old
Number three master students are committed to effective study strategies
But shipwrecked students are committed to ineffective study strategies
If I asked you right now
is reading again and again a good way to learn
is highlighting a good way to learn
is using keyword mnemonics?
While all of these
they’re scientifically proven to be relatively low
in effectiveness for long term learning
At the other end of the scale
things like practice tests
Spreading out your learning,
they are scientifically proven to boost your performance
Let’s take a look
In 2005 a guy called Reagan AR Gurum
assessed 229 students using 11 different techniques of studying
He then matched their techniques with their final exam scores
and many but not all of the techniques they used
They did achieve better exam scores
for example the number of hours they put in
It did help
but things like starting studying early
or reading material before and after class
That didn’t seem to be effective
Reagan also found detriments to studying
and one of them was listening to music
So what did he find that does work?
Well Reagan actually found the technique
that strongly predicted your exam score
and that was the number of times a student did practice tests
This one thing above all others
had a significant impact on how well they did on their final exam
He even found that rewriting notes, reviewing highlighted material
it didn’t really impact the final exam score that much
So like I said
master students are committed to effective study strategies
but shipwrecked students are committed to ineffective study strategies
And if you want to know which type of student you are
click on the link in the description and take the quiz
To find out if you’re a master
a dabbler or a shipwrecked castaway when it comes to your study
Not all hustle is created equal
Have you ever heard of number 4 the Zeigarnik effect
it’s a concept in psychology that argues
You remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks
better than the ones that you complete
Why?
When we start a task and then interrupt it
It creates a task specific tension
that can improve your cognitive function
So step away from your desk as you study
That tiny little tension that you feel –
I still need to finish reviewing that chapter.
I haven’t done the next paper yet
It keeps the task at the top of your mind
and this keeps your brain focused on it.
This way you can easily access that information
and remember it better.
So how do you take advantage of this technique?
You take frequent breaks during your deep work
the Zeigarnik effect suggests
that students who take breaks during which
they perform totally unrelated activities
studying other subjects, reading a book,
going on a three minute walk, playing the piano
They remember material better
than the students who go through longer study sessions
without taking a break
A popular way that I’m sure most of you have heard of
is the Pomodoro Technique
Where you work for 25 minutes
you take a five-minute break
you work for 25 minutes
you take a five-minute break
And the final tip of this first lesson in our course
Cramming is better than not studying in the short term
But is seven hours in one day
better than one hour every day for a week?
If you are given the same amount of time for study
Would you be better off spreading it out
and the answer is a resounding yes
Space it out
This is known as distributed practice
Distributing learning over time
either in a single study session or across study sessions
It benefits long-term retention
more than massive cramming and learning back-to-back
space your study out
and how general are the effects, how consistent
Well one group of scientists looked at 254 studies
involving over 14,000 people
and overall students recalled more after spaced study
than after cramming and massed study
So look
at the end of the day you have to do what works for you
having family and friends around
replying to your messages on your smartphone
missing class, having the TV on
That’s not going to help you
but doing practice tests
getting to sleep on time
eating the proper nutrition, exercising,
explaining what you’ve learned to others
Using these techniques
They are going to help
So you know what the techniques are
You have to prepare effectively,
you have to focus on the right things effectively
and most of all
You have to take action every single day