13 Essential, Science-Backed Study Tips

Key Takeaways

hey what is up guys so in today's video we're going to be covering thirteen effective study tips that are all backed by science which you can find linked in description down below later on if you are curious now I'm doing this video right now because we are just about into final exam season but if you're coming into this video later on and realize that these tips aren't just useful for exam review they're general learning tips so if you want to study less if you want to spend less time reviewing if you want to learn more effectively than pay attention tip number one space out your review sessions so in the field of cognitive science there is this phenomenon known as the spacing effect which describes how we actually learned better if we try to recall material close to the point at which we are about to forget it essentially forgetting is a crucial part of the learning process much like rest is a crucial counterpart to strength training if you want to get physically stronger so to take advantage of the spacing effect you want to study with what's called a space - repetition which involves adding gaps of time between your study or practice sessions that get progressively longer and for most types of information that you're gonna find on a test like question-answer pairs vocab terms really anything that can fit on a flashcard you can actually get very specific about these gaps of time by using spaced repetition apps which include donkey Quizlet and duolingo z' tiny cards you can even do this with paper flashcards by using something called the lightener system which i details in a previous video that'll have length and description it down below now for everything else that doesn't fit on a flashcard just try to space out your practice sessions intelligently instead of trying to practice all in one session or following a very rigid timetable and note that this principle works for skill practice as well so if you practice one specific skill on Monday then maybe wait until Wednesday or Thursday to practice that particular skill again and in the meantime on Tuesday practice something else that's related tip number two is to use the Pomodoro Technique so research has found that studying works best when we do it in short hyper focused bursts rather than one long drawn-out session because at a certain point your focus and your attention really start to wane and you kind of start wasting your time the problem with this approach though is you'd probably know well is that you have to motivate yourself to start each and every one of these sessions and after you do a few well maybe that motivation has waned a bit so that is exactly where the Pomodoro Technique comes in it is a device that helps you to keep that motivation high and actually helps you to get into each session so to use it you simply set a timer for 25 minutes and pick one task to work on and it's very important to actually set a timer don't just set it in your head use a real timer because that creates an external motivator during that 25 minutes work only on the task you chosen don't switch to anything else and if something distracts you quickly write it down so you can either take care of it later on if you need to or so you can figure out how to prevent it from distracting you in the future and then get back to work now once that 25 minute timer goes off you are presented with a choice if you feel that you're in the zone if you feel like you're still productive then keep working until you feel your motivation focus start to wane otherwise take a five-minute break go for a walk get some water and then start a new session now if you don't want to use a physical timer for this process then there are plenty of websites and apps out there that you can use as a substitute including tomato timer comm and tide which is my personal favorite from a door app and is what I use whenever I do my own sessions tip number three is to create your own quizzes out of your study materials and then take them later on and this is called the quiz and recall method essentially you want to take all of your study materials your study guy if you've been given one your notes may be the slides from the class or your textbook readings specifically the subheadings and the bolt lists vocab terms and the review questions at the end of the chapter if you have them and create your own quizzes out of them essentially act like you're your teacher then a couple of days later go and take those quizzes this practice testing method is an active method of learning and it's a lot more effective than just passively going over the material tip number four which is pretty related is to work lots and lots of problems the more you can practice the more mastery you're going to achieve and the more difficult these problems are the better off as well it's like I'll just be high each cheek sent me how you put it this way the best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile just like the muscles in your body grow stronger after being exposed to a stressful challenge your mind becomes more capable every single time you challenge it to solve a tough problem so the next time you're tempted to study by just letting your eyes glaze over your notes or a slide deck remind yourself that this is basically the mental equivalent of showing up at the gym and using nothing but five pound weights you have to stretch yourself a little bit further counterpoint to that though and tip number five when you find yourself stuck on a tough problem try working a simple one that you is only one of the concepts from the original this is because the difficulty in many tough problems comes from the combination of several different concepts or ideas that you haven't yet mastered so when you find yourself stuck for this reason then go and find or construct a similar problem that only uses one of the concepts from the original master that and then you can move back to that original and you'll probably have a much easier time getting done tip number six is to use mnemonics and mnemonic is basically a mental device that binds two different pieces of information together in a sort of roundabout way your brain more naturally latches on to this could include rhymes acronyms visual devices or even stories and a great example of that latter device is one akane which is web app that helps you learn japanese kanji it does this by creating ridiculous stories that bind the way each kanji is pronounced aloud to the way that it's written and in addition to all those devices you can also try to find a way to turn the information you're studying into a song or find a way to make it rhythmically interesting for example the main reason that I can remember the date of the Pearl Harbor attacks is the very specific way that Franklin D Roosevelt said it in his speech about the attacks the Samba 7 1941 I usually have a pretty difficult time pulling it up directly but I can always remember if I first go to that speech in my memory and that line in that speech is actually the first line of the intro to hardcore history which is an incredibly entertaining podcast that has gotten me very interested in many different eras of history and speaking of interest tip number seven on our list is to find a way to get more interested in your topic and this is because your emotional state your emotional attachment to a topic how much you care about it these are all very important and how well you're going to retain the information when you're learning about it so you want to find a way to get more interested now my favorite way to do this is to find a way to immerse myself in the topic that's a little bit more fun or interesting than your standard textbook readings or lecture slides this could be a podcast it could be a documentary it could be visiting a museum it can even be a video game as long as that video game ties back to your topic it makes you care more about it tip number eight is to regularly switch between different types of problems and concepts while you're studying this is a concept called inter lady and helps combat a problem known as we're learning we basically hammered away at one specific concept a problem for so long but you really kind of start wasting your time and once again the Hwanhee County app provides us with a great example of how to do this well because when you're reviewing the app is constantly switching between questions about radical and kanji meetings about vocabulary terms and about how to pronounce specific kanji so you're constantly being asked to recall what you've learned in different ways so when you're studying for a test you're doing a homework assignment you can basically replicate this by switching between concepts or different sections of a problem set at regular intervals tip number nine is to do at least one study session in the classroom where you're going to be tested or a very similar classroom if you can and this tip leverages what is called a context dependent memory research and cognitive sciences found that people are better able to recall information when they are present in the same environment in which it was encoded so if you learn in the classroom or at least spend some time with viewing in the classroom then when you're sitting in that same classroom for the test you're gonna have an easier time remembering what you study additionally if you can study in the classroom then that makes it a more familiar place and when you're taking the test being in a familiar place can actually cut down on test anxiety as well that brings us to tip number 10 which is to go for a walk after a long study session so when you're thinking your brain uses two different types of primary neural networks what are called highly attentive States and then resting state networks and crucially both of these types of networks are very important for learning effectively in the book Emine for numbers dr. Barbara Oakley labels the use of these two networks as the focused and diffuse modes of thinking respectively and notes that it's important to switch between them in order to encode new material now using the focused mode is pretty straightforward as it's activated anytime you actively work on a problem so to get over into the diffused mode you just need to step away from that problem for a bit and let your brain process it in the background and a great way to do that while also getting some exercise which is in itself a great way to enhance your learning and there's an entire book on that is to go outside and go for a quick walk tip number 11 is to do at least a few of your review sessions in a group working in a group can not only expose you to new ideas and let you come to the problems from a different angle but it also prevents you from getting stuck on any one problem too long the caveat here is that you shouldn't do all of your work in groups because it can get to the point where you start relying on other people to find the answers for you and you're not actually solving them for yourself it's very easy to confuse recognition of the right path to the answer given to you by someone else with actual mastery of the materials so you have to strike an optimal balance between individual problem solving time and group work tip number 12 is to find these study sounds that work the best for you and I'm very specifically using the term sounds here because ambient noises music and silence can fall work well for studying and make you more productive it just depends on what kind of person you are now if you want to go the route of ambient noises a great starting resource is noisy which actually allows you to mix different sounds together to create your own custom soundscape but I really like doing that or you keep things simple by going with the classic rainy mood for rain sounds or coffee tivity which is a website that creates coffee shop ambience and for music you might wanna start with my Sunday study post over on Spotify or my ultimate study music playlist here on YouTube both of which have a lot of similarities but also some key differences and if you do find a song that you really like because they are pretty eclectic a good way to find more music like that would be to use Spotify as a radio function or to just find the album's songs from and put that on now I do want to mention that the science behind the link between music and productivity is pretty money right now there's a lot of research that's been done but very few concrete conclusions so this is an area that really warrants personal experimentation that being said I will still be linked in to some resources in the description so you can dig in and do some reading on what exists right now if you're curious and that brings us to tip number 13 which is to protect your sleep now I know this seems completely obvious but I also know from personal experience that sleep seems to be the thing that we most readily sacrifice when we're dealing with a looming deadline and this is a really detrimental choice that we make because sleep is crucial for keeping your brain at its optimal levels and it's especially important for retaining the information that you've learned and being able to call it on tests as the Harvard Medical School puts at when we are sleep-deprived our focus attention and vigilance drift making it more difficult to receive information without adequate sleep and rest overworked neurons can no longer function to coordinate information properly and we lose our ability to access previously learned information so no matter how tight your deadlines are respect your body's need for sleeeeep make sure you're getting enough sleep and also make sure you are keeping a consistent sleep schedule as well now all the tips on this list are indeed useful but I do want to make a final note that it is not necessary to try to implement them all at once if you try you would probably just find yourself overwhelmed so instead just pick one area that you know you can improve upon and focus on that during your next study session eventually that will become ingrained as a habit and you can move on to something else and if you're not sure where to start or if you often find yourself overwhelmed with huge lists of tips or just the sheer amount of options you have available to you then you might want to follow this video up by going and taking Brian sorvino's excellent course on how to strategically set priorities you'll find Brian's course over on Skillshare alongside more than 27,000 other classes that can help to boost your skills and a ton of different areas including graphic design video production digital animation marketing and lots lots more all skill shares classes embrace the principle of active learning and they all include a project often with sample files that you can download which can help you to start using what you're learning each class also has a discussion section so you can ask questions and get feedback from both the teacher and the other students as well and best of all Skillshare is really affordable their annual plan is less than ten bucks a month and in case you haven't heard about it already that subscription also gives you access to my hour-long productivity systems course so if you want to start boosting your skills then sign up at a link in description down below and if you're one of the first 500 people to do so you're gonna get a two month free trial with unlimited learning on the platform big thanks goes out to Skillshare for sponsoring this video and being a big supporter of my channel and as always thank you guys so much for watching as well hopefully you enjoyed this video and if you did maybe consider hitting that like button and getting subscribed right there I will also have a lot more stuff in the description so if you want to jump off from this video to something more detail I've got many other videos you might want to check out otherwise you can click right there to get a free copy of my book on how to earn better grades find one more video on this channel or listen to our latest podcast episode over here thanks again for watching and I will see you in the next one