This Episode is sponsored by bill and Melinda gates.
Whether you click this video because you have a test tomorrow or in an hour
or you just wanted to understand the most efficient way to learn a new skill or language, you've come to the right place.
there's a lot of learning hack videos on the internet
but the truth is very few of them
are using techniques that have been rigorously studied
and most are not backed by science
so, today to save your time we have gone through the research
and are here to tell you that there are only three techniques that have been
proven to work. They'll not only save your time but they'll make the information stick with you much more efficiently.
Two of the tips will help you right now because i know
a lot of you are here searching up how to study quickly cause
you have a test really soon
whereas the other ones more useful if you have a little more leeway
and are trying to learn a a skill that you want to stick with you for a long time.
we would leave there all, a little surprising and
counter intuitive. So, it was really fascinating to know that
the research found these to be the most effective techniques
We were also inspired by the bill and melinda gates annual letter
who is the sponsor of today's video.
Their letter actually touches on the concept of evidence based learning
initiatives to improve education. We'll talk more
about their letter at the end of the episode.
in the meantime we are gonna get those three learning techniques
that will help you right now. The first technique
has to do with something called 'the generation effect'.
and it involves tests. Okay you are triggered.
being tested is supposed to help others evaluate your progress
but it turns out that testing
isn't that very good evaluation tool.
It actually functions better as a learning tool but
only if you do it properly. This may seem
Counter intuitive but first you should test yourself
before you even know the material.
For example start with the practice test
even before you started studying it. You'll get answers wrong
But your brain is forced to generate an answer, you'll be creative
Panicked and end up priming your neurology
To remember that information later This is linked to something called the hyper-correction effect
Which is why i sometimes getting the wrong answer
at first may be even more effective.
The hyper- correction effect finds that
when you make a mistake on some type of general information
and later find out you're wrong
you're much more likely to remember the correct answer
for example if you're certain that Toronto
is the capital city of Canada but later find
Out that it is infact Ottawa.
you are much more likely to remember that forever
compared to somebody who wasn't really sure in the first place
and was simply told the answer is Ottawa.
your brain hyper-corrects. One theory behind this states that
surprise and embarrassment play a role
it can actually be very tough to be embarrassed and even
From evolutionary perspective it can lead to
a lack of social cohesion and sort of
negatively impact yourself in a group.
Essentially your brain doesn't wanna be embarrassed
Therefore your brain works extra hard to make sure it doesn't
make the same mistake twice. This leads you to retain
the information better and learn more effectively.
in shorts do tests too early, fail,
so that when you learn the correct answer
you actually retain the information better. Actually think
anecdotally i have experienced this hyper-correction effect
in my first year university
the physics course specifically, so we had to these quizzes
that you were required to get 8 out of 10
to pass all in the mark and you had three tries
to get 8 out of 10. Now i had some smart friends who on their first try
would nail it but for me
it actually usually took me three times so ultimately i was
constantly hyper-correcting because i realized i did it wrong
and was explained how to do it properly. By the end of semester
i ended up doing better on the final exams than my friends
and i think this is because of the hyper-correction effect
i had to constantly challenge my inaccurate beliefs
earlier on which ultimately improved my
long term memory and learning ability.
so again test yourself early and often
and force your brain to generate an answer even is it's the wrong answer
and then follow up by learning the correct answers
technique number 2 is called 'SPACING', Now a lot of
us tend to study right before an exam may be
if you're really smart you'll give yourself like a full week
But this is actually gonna take even more time than that
for spacing you are gonna wanna practice
and then wait long enough to almost forget
the material and then practice again
one particular study had students learning Spanish, each group had eight hours to
study. the first group studied intensively for
eight hours in one day while the second group
studied for four hours one day
and then one month later studied for another four hours
an entire month later
so both groups had the same amount of study time
just distributed differently. After only getting
8 hours of practice they tested them 8 years later
Both groups were tested on their Spanish vocabulary
and by now we probably guessed the
group that spaced their studying over a month gap
performed 250% better.
Remember this is 8 years later that they're being tested
So ultimately we're talking about a huge increase
in long term retention when these space help your study.
i found this really helps
from my stand up comedy practicing so
essentially what you have to do is memorize routines
sort of similar to like in high school you have to memorize lines for a play
i usually will practice the day before and the day
of digging at the closer i am to my show the better
i will be retaining the information. Recently i have been practicing new
jokes allowing myself to forget them completely
practicing them again and i find when i do my routines on stage
it's those new jokes that comes to me more naturally
it's awesome to see this sort of spacing technique at work and i really appreciate
this information and i thank you.
The last rigorously supported learning technique is called
'INTERLEAVING', So what studies have found is that
instead of studying the same thing over and over and over
if you mix up or vary the challenge the benefits are huge
In the moment this process might be a lot
More frustrating and you may even think that you are learning more slowly
but that's why it's so
counter intuitive. Lets take a look at some examples that
could apply to your life. All of which have come from one of my
Favorite books in the last year called Range
By david epstein. If you have any interest in
High performance and improving skills
This book literally changed my perspective
on improving at things so i highly recommend it.
First we are gonna talk about motor skills like piano
so a particularly tricky thing to do is to jump a
big inter violin piano really quickly so say starting at c
and then jumping up
20 keys really quickly
It takes a lot of coordination
and muscle memories to do that quickly
without thinking about it without accidentally hitting other keys along the way.
so this study had one group practiced the
20 key jump over and over and over
and they have gone relatively good at it pretty quickly
But the second group had to practice not only the 20 key jump
but also mixing a 15 key jump and a 10 key jump
So ultimately they had less practiced but the
20 key jump but had interleaved or mixed practiced
by using a bunch of different intervals obviously it would have been
a lot more frustrating to be learning multiple intervals at once
the 20 key, the 15 key, the 10 key but when they brought the groups
back what they found was that the group that practiced interleaved or mixed practiced
was better at every single interval
including the 20 key jump. Even though
they technically had less practice with it
the same has been shown in math. Rather than
practicing one type of problem over and over
mixing in different kinds of problems in between
makes the process harder but develops stronger skills.
ultimately what's happening is that you are developing strategies to
problems in a broad sense. Instead of simply
using a specific procedure your brain has to make
abstract generalizations which helps to make
your knowledge more flexible.
it's very shocking how bigger difference this type of interleaving makes.
in extremely significant randomized controlled study
looked at maths skills
in grade 7 students. Those that used interleaving
or mixed practice saw an effect size
of approving someone's
from the 50% of skill to the 80%.
that is like going from being an average student to being someone who is closer to the top of the class
if you're using cue cards make sure that you're mixing up
different themes within those cue cards
after studying the same things essentially you gotta mix things up
all this research is incredibly significant because
it's so important that we use evidence based solutions
especially in space like education which is why we have really been great-full
to partner with bill and melinda gates
on this episode who just released their 2020 annual letter
in it they share some of their big risks that they have taken on global health
and education with that same perspective of finding evidence based solutions
for education in the US Because
ultimately education is the foundation for a
successful country and a democracy. In order to
improve our existing systems we need to use rigorously studied
research. Be innovative and ultimately take
big risks. That's the best way to find solutions to problems
that won't just go away on their own.
one of the coolest things that we learn from their letter and from research is that
there is no one size fits all solution to education.
it's all dependent on the demographics, the culture and
the communities that each specific school is trying to serve.
the bill and melinda gates have supported
innovations led by leaders who know that space.
one example is that they have find out the importance of
mitigating the amount of courses that a student fails. That may seem obvious but if a student
fails no more than one course
they're are four times more likely to graduate than someone who fails two
or more courses. At every school and community
has a specific challenge that their student body is
going to face and that's why their solutions are gonna need
to be unique.
This year we are committed to taking some big risks as well with our channel
by focusing on things that have impact on the people and the planet.
our main focus right now is talking
about the environment and climate change and
bill and melinda gates and their annual letter talk about how they
are gonna be focusing on this. Climate change is going to effect all of us
so, we are gonna be working with our good friend science and trying to figure out
what is going on and also how we can apply
and
understand solutions. If you like to read the gates annual letter we
will leave a link to it in the description, it was really interesting
reading and definitely worth your time. Make you subscribe or join our email down below
so that you can always know when we make a new science video.
so we will see you next time.
Peace.