- You and I have the exact same problem.
You're trying to study for an exam.
Maybe it's a history exam, a science exam,
a professional exam like the Bar exam,
or the Project Management Professional exam,
or a medical exam.
You've got a test that you're studying for
and you've got so much information to memorize,
it is overwhelming and a little bit scary.
Well I have the same problem.
What's the exam that I'm studying for?
Well, I don't know if I'm studying for an exam,
but I got a hole right here
and inside that hole is a broken down bridge.
And the broken down bridge,
there's a bunch of logs that have collapsed.
You know what I have on my land?
I have copperhead snakes.
So here's my problem.
I have to get these logs out of this hole,
and I'm almost confident that there's snakes under 'em,
maybe copperhead snakes.
I've got my tools, I've got an ax,
I've got my snake boots,
and I'm gonna go over there and I'm gonna tackle my problem
of getting these logs out of this hole.
At the same time I'm gonna share with you
how you can tackle your problem
of studying for that exam, the Bar exam,
history exam, science exam.
No matter how much information you have to memorize,
I promise you, you can do it
with the right tools.
Step one, go very slowly.
One of the reasons we need to go very slowly
is I have copperhead snakes on my land.
One reason you need to go slowly
is you don't wanna miss anything either.
In this going slowly overview,
we assess the situation, we assess the problem.
The first stage of studying for an exam
is to get your books out
and look at how much information there is.
Get a real clear idea on how much information
that you're going to need to study and know.
And then once you get a clear idea
of how much you need to study and know,
maybe read the table of contents,
read the chapter summaries, read practice exams,
and do this for as long as it takes,
an hour or two hours, a full day,
just to get an idea of the scope
of how much time you're gonna have to put in
to actually memorizing.
I'm gonna walk around this wood and these fallen bridges
and I'm gonna assess the situation.
How many logs are there
that I need to get out of that hole?
What are my danger areas?
Where do I think the snakes might be?
You do the same thing.
Your danger areas are where am I weak?
Where do I really not know some important material
that I need to know.
So let's first of all take a walk around,
assess the situation and see how much we have here.
Okay, so I've got one,
two, three, four,
one, two, three, four,
five, six, seven logs that I need to move.
In addition to the logs, I've got a lot of debris here
and underneath this, this is a breeding ground for snakes.
Copperheads are venomous.
So I've got seven logs.
What about you?
As you do your overview, how many books do you have?
What are my trouble areas?
My trouble areas are gonna be right here.
Look at those trouble areas.
There's a bunch of poison ivy and poison oak
and I'm gonna have to get around that.
What are your trouble areas?
What are gonna be the problems
where you're gonna have to focus?
So number one, you've gotten an overview now
and you've looked at your problem.
You know how much information there is to memorize.
The next thing that you need to do
is you kinda need to Zoom through
and skim through the chapters.
Don't try to memorize,
just skim through maybe chapter one.
Read it fast.
Speed read it.
How do you speed read?
Put your finger on the page and. (emulates whooshing)
Zoom through.
This is done to get a feel for the information
to get it in your brain,
but you're not worrying about memorizing it right now.
And this is what I'm gonna do
as I walk around and put my ax in this wood.
I have an ax here and I'm just gonna see
if this wood is strong enough for me to get my ax in
and pull it out.
I'm not gonna actually do it, it's just a test.
(ax pounds)
Step one.
Get all your books, look over it,
see how much information there is to memorize.
Step two, skim through it, speed read it.
Get a feel for the information
but also for the problem areas.
Step three, get in there and actually read the data.
And when you read the data,
read with a pen or a pencil
and highlight or underline as you go
when you find something really, really important.
When I find something really solid on these wood,
something that I can sink my ax into,
I'm gonna sink my ax into.
Step number four, and this is so crucial,
I have seven logs over here.
I'm gonna do one at a time.
This is huge, this is huge, this is huge.
One of the best things that you can do
is to break your project down into chunks or tasks.
Do you have seven sections?
Well then just focus on one section at a time.
I memorized everybody who died in the war in Afghanistan,
2400 people, rank, first name, last name,
from the United States military.
It's 7000 words.
But the way I saw it is in groups of 50.
I saw it in groups of 50
and I just kept telling myself,
you've got groups of 50 here,
all you have to do is memorize 50 at a time
and then just do that 45, 50 times.
That was how I approached it,
by breaking it down into chunks.
You're gonna get overwhelmed
if you feel like you have to memorize everything at once.
I'm gonna get overwhelmed
if I feel like I have to get all these logs
outta here at the same time.
One at a time.
Break it down into chunks.
I hope I don't run across any snakes. (screams quietly)
(ax pounds)
(serious music)
(grunts)
(ax pounds)
Two more to go.
(serious music)
(grunts)
(log falls)
I cleared all seven logs out of this hole the same way,
and I didn't get bit by any snakes.
I did it in about 15 minutes.
I could take a break but I'm gonna keep talking.
I'm gonna take a break. (laughs)
After you've gotten an overview,
become aware of your trouble areas,
skimmed through it once, kind of a walk-through,
then you wanna get your tools.
For me my tools are my ax, my shovel,
and my boots, I got snake boots on,
and I get to work.
Your tools are gonna be a highlighter,
a notebook, a pen and paper,
and a mind palace, a memory system.
I'll talk about that in one second.
Get in there and with your tools read through the material,
but break it down into chunks.
Do one section at a time.
I did not worry about the next log
until that one log was over here in this pile.
Don't worry about the next section
until you've got one section really down.
So read it, re-read it, close your book,
see how much you can remember about it,
talk to it with somebody else, (blows)
and see if you really, really know it
before you move onto the next section.
And did it in chunks, one-by-one.
This is the system that you're gonna use
to tackle this big project manager professional,
Bar exam, science exam, history exam, whatever it is.
There's one important thing that I'm not mentioning here.
One of your tools should be the mind palace
or the memory palace.
I'm not gonna go into a lot of detail here
but I have some links down below
that will go into more detail on the mind palace.
Here's the mind palace.
Go for a walk around your house and number 20 locations
or go for a walk outside.
This is my land.
I own this land.
My number one location I might number might be this ditch.
It's pretty emotional to me right now.
Number two could be these logs right here.
Number three might be the trail.
Number four might be that tree.
Number five might be the fence.
I might number 20 locations out here
and then when I and I'm studying for my test,
and let's say I'm studying for my Bar exam
or project manager professional exam
or a medical test or whatever,
and the first thing that I want to remember
is the word quantum mechanics for whatever,
that's in the test.
Well, I will create a picture for it.
I'll see a mechanic.
There's a lot of mechanics, there's a large quantity.
Quantum mechanics.
And I'll see that picture and I'll imagine it
in that first location, the ditch.
Let's say the next thing I wanna memorize
is the word helium.
Well I'll see helium as a picture
and I will imagine it at my number two location,
which is those logs lifting it up.
When you want to study for a huge exam,
number one, get an overview of it.
Number two, identify the trouble areas.
Number three, read it through once.
Skim it through one section at a time,
but just focus on that first section.
Number for, get in there and do the work with your tools
underlining and highlighting and taking notes.
Number five, make sure you do it in sections.
Break it down in chunks.
And number six, take what you've highlighted or underlined
and place it in your mind palace somewhere,
your memory palace.
What am I gonna do with these logs?
I'm gonna put 'em in my mind palace in a way.
I'm gonna organize them in a nice little path here
so I will have a path to drive my Jeep.
Studying for an exam with a lot of information
is just like tackling this bridge and avoiding snakes.
I did it and you can do it.
If you wanna learn more about the mind palace,
I'll put a link in the description below.
I also have a course called Black Belt Memory
where you can learn everything you need to know
about memorizing anything,
and that link is in the description as well.
If you enjoyed my video give me a thumbs up
and I always appreciate your comments.
Tell me what exam you're studying for
and give me some examples of problems that you have.
Every time I hear a noise out here I jump.
I got a lot of snakes.
I'll see you in the next video.