Hey, guys.
In this video, we're going to talk about how to remember more of what you study and how
to study more effectively.
Right now, I'm memorizing the United States Constitution.
With the amendments, it's 7500 words, and in doing this and other memory projects where
I've memorized as many as 7000 words in sequence, I have learned some things on how to remember
more of what you study.
This video is my best tips on how to just do that, remember more of what you study.
Tip number one.
My first tip I can give you is spaced repetition.
Spaced repetition, in its simplest form, is whenever you learn something, then you wait
a period of time and you review it again.
This review strengthens your memory.
But there's a right way and a wrong way to do spaced repetition.
There was a 19th century psychologist named Hermann Ebbinghaus, and he is the pioneer
in spaced repetition and human memory.
He was really the first psychologist to ever conduct experiments in human memory.
And one of the things that he did is he used himself as the subject, and he memorized 2300
nonsensical syllables, three-letter words such as nog or baf, just nonsensical syllables,
and he wanted to pick nonsensical syllables to memorize because he didn't want to have
any influence on material that he might already know.
He wanted to pick something that he had no knowledge of.
These nonsensical syllables were just that.
He memorized all 2300 of them, and then he did some experiments to test his recall.
He found that we can recall data almost 100% after we instantly hear it.
In other words, we have instant recall.
We learned something.
I say the syllables nog and baf.
And then I ask you to repeat it.
You say, "nog" and "baf."
Instant recall.
100%.
However, in just one hour later, the recall can drop to 44%.
One hour later, a decline in 44%.
And he measured it over a period of time, extending all the way out to 30 days, where
he remembered less than 24% of the data.
And this chart developed what we call today as the forgetting curve.
You know the material, and then there is a sharp, sharp decline right away to 44% after
an hour.
And it continues to drop off over time, eventually leveling out.
A key finding of this study was that if you spaced out your study of material, you will
remember more of it than if you had just one long extended session.
He did a test where he took 12 syllables, and he tested how long it took him to get
it perfectly and perfectly memorized.
He found that if he reviewed it 68 times the first day, and then the next day reviewed
it 7 times, he had perfect 100% recall of the data.
In another test, he took 12 nonsensical syllables, and he found that if he split it up over 3
days, he had perfect recall after only 38 total repetitions.
The first one was 75 total repetitions, but it was over 2 days.
The next one was 38 repetitions over three days, and the second one, where it was smaller
chunks of studying, it actually required less studying.
That's a huge takeaway, and what it should tell you is this: You will get more out of
your studying if you study a little bit and then review the next day.
Study a little bit, and review the next day, versus one huge long study session.
This break-through was really important, and what he found was, is that when you learned
something and review it, that reviewing it is actually going to strengthen it more than
if you had just learned it the first time, so you learned something today, and you forget
it.
And then tomorrow, you review it, and you re-learn it.
Not only is it going to take less time to re-learn it, it's going to be stronger when
you re-learn it.
Every time you review and study, it is going to be stronger.
Point number two, test yourself during study.
In a 2008 study by JD Karpnick and HL Rottinger, they also had a very big break-through on
studying.
They took two groups, and the first group learned some material, and then they tested
them on 100% of what they learned.
Then they learned some more, and they tested them on 100% of what they learned.
Group B, they learned some material, and then they only tested them on what they were having
trouble with, what they were struggling with.
In other words, they didn't test them on 100% of the data.
A week passed, and they re-tested both groups.
Group A, the one that had been re-tested on 100% of the data in the study process scored
80% on that test.
Group B, who was not tested on 100% of the data in the study test, a week later only
recalled 30% of the total data.
What does this tell us?
It tells us that when we are studying, if we can involve a test or a vigorous review
without looking at the material, then we will remember more.
Now, what do I mean by a vigorous review without looking at the material?
When you review, if you simply re-read the data as if you're just studying it again,
you study it, and then you re-read it, and then you re-read it, and then you re-read
it ... JD Karpnick in 2008 in his study said you are going to give yourself the illusion
of competence.
In other words, you're going to keep re-reading the material and studying it, and as you do,
you're thinking you actually know and understand it, because the material's right there, and
you're looking at it.
That type of review, that type of study, will give you an illusion of competence.
So how do we beat this illusion of competence?
How do we test ourself during test-taking, so that we know we really have it?
This is what you do.
It's part of a principle that we've learned before known as the Feynman Technique, and
it's whenever you study, you don't look at the material once and then study by looking
at it again.
Instead, you look at the material once, and then you put it down, and you test yourself
on how much that you can recall, either by taking some test, some pre-test exam that's
provided in the material, or if you don't have that, simply by turning the material
over and reciting as much of it as you know.
This type of review, where you're having to repeat the information, is actually going
to strengthen your memory a lot more than just re-reading the data, because it is an
active review of the test, and it's not a passive review, where you're simply reading
the material.
I'm memorizing the United States Constitution right now, and instead of memorizing a section
of the Constitution and then just re-reading and re-reading it, I will set it down, and
then see how much of that I can recall.
That type of review is much more effective.
Tip number three: Leverage exercise.
I like to do jiu jitsu for exercise.
Some people might like to play tennis or go for a run or go for a walk.
But right after I do jiu jitsu, my brain is the freshest and the crispest and the most
alert it is all day.
If we can learn to leverage exercise, it's really going to benefit our study.
One of the reasons that our brain is so alert and fresh after exercise is something called
BDNF.
It's the brain-derived neurotropic factor.
And this BDNF that's produced during exercise is going to give you that mental boost, that
mental clarity.
At the very least, before you study, go for a walk or do some push-ups or do some jumping
jacks.
But do whatever you can to get that BDNF activated.
Again, I like to exercise for at least 30 minutes, and I like to do jiu jitsu.
But leverage that in your study.
Tip number four: Leverage sleep in your study.
Research has shown us that if you learn something today and get a good night's sleep tonight,
when you wake up the next day, you will remember more of what you learned.
Now, why is that?
It's because whenever we sleep, our brain replays what we learned during the day, if
we allow it to go through all the sleep cycles and get 8 hours of sleep.
However, if we do not get a full night's sleep, our brain doesn't go through all the sleep
cycles.
Therefore, it doesn't replay everything that we learned during the day previously, so when
you wake up, you will remember less of what you learned the previous day.
My advice to you is this: When you study, yes, you want to get a good night's sleep
before the test.
But it is equally as important to get a good night's sleep each night that you learn something
so that when you wake up the next day, you will remember it more because your brain has
gone through all the sleep cycles and cemented that information into your long-term memory.
Tip number five: Trust your memory.
When I was training for the 2009 USA Memory Championship, and I eventually won the USA
Memory Championship and set the record for the fastest to memorize a deck of cards in
the United States, when I was training for that tournament, I emailed the world champion,
Ben Pridmore, who held the record for the fastest to memorize a deck of cards.
I said, "Ben, how can I get faster at memorizing a deck of cards?"
And he gave me a great piece of advice, and that piece of advice will help you in your
study as well.
He said, "Ron, when you're memorizing a deck of cards, one of the things that slows people
down the most is they don't trust their memory."
In other words, during the process, they pause, and they focus on one card, because they're
not sure that they really got it, and they want to make sure that they really have it.
He said, "That pause is often unnecessary.
If they kept going and trusted their memory, they would oftentimes remember more than they
think they're capable of, or more than they thought they did."
So my advice to you is this, when you are studying for a test, oftentimes, we might
get to one piece of information, and we might get bogged down on it, and we might think,
"Oh, my gosh.
I don't really know this material."
Or, "Oh my gosh, I need to keep figuring this out until I move on."
My advice to you is this: Spend enough time on it where you can see if you're figuring
out the data and figuring out what it means, but don't spend too much time on it.
Keep moving.
And one of the reasons you want to do that is oftentimes, in the text or whatever you're
studying, you may find later that the answer is actually revealed later on in the text
and helps you figure out what that meant initially.
That goes for test-taking, as well.
If you're taking a test and a question pops up that you don't know the answer to, skip
that question and continue taking the test.
Oftentimes, there will be hints later on in the test in other questions that help you
go back and figure out that question.
So my advice to you with studying is do what Ben Pridmore told me.
Trust your memory and keep moving, keep progressing.
And then, at the end of your study, figure out what it is that you didn't really understand
and go back and focus on that and make sure that you really get it.
Tip number six: Implement something known as the Pomodoro Technique.
And this is where you study in 25-minute chunks.
In other words, you study for 25 minutes.
You take a 5, 10-minute break.
You study for 25 minutes.
You take a 5, 10-minute break.
And this needs to be focused study.
Turn off the TV.
Turn off Facebook.
Turn off social media.
Turn off your phone.
Twenty-five minutes of uninterrupted study.
During that study, if you get distracted by something, write it down on a piece of paper
and go back to your study.
Then, in that 5, 10-minute break, you can address whatever it was that distracted you,
or in that 5, 10-minute break, you can go for a walk.
Again, the BDNF, brain-derived neutropic factor.
Exercise is going to focus your brain.
Tip number seven: Create an audio.
Right now, I am memorizing the United States Constitution word for word, 7500 words.
I've created an audio of myself saying the Constitution: "We the People of the United
States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility,
provide for the common defense..."
Not only have I created an audio of me saying the words.
As I say them, I'm giving hints to myself.
"Hey, Ron, you remember this line because of this.
You remember this because you're thinking of this.
When you want to remember this line, think of this picture."
In other words, the audio isn't me just saying the material that I want to learn.
It's saying the material plus memory hints, giving myself tips on how to recall it.
Now, how do I use this?
I use this to maximize my study time.
If I'm in line at the grocery store or I'm driving in a car or I'm on the treadmill or
I'm riding a bike, I've got the earphones in or I'm listening to it on the speakers
through my car, and I'm reviewing the material as I drive.
Clearly, you can't read information while you're driving or riding a bike, but you can
still use this as study time if you have created an audio.
That is a big study hack that I use, and you might try it as well.
My number eight study hack is read off of paper, or read the book and not necessarily
your computer or a Kindle.
Research has shown us that if we're reading off of actual paper, that our brains, that
helps our brain's spatial memory because we can remember where on the page the material
was, and that helps us recall it.
Sometimes, you don't get that advantage if you're reading off your Kindle or your smartphone
or your computer or a tablet.
Another benefit of reading off of paper instead of the computer or something electronic is
that computer is often connected to your social media or the internet or your email, and you're
distracted to check it.
My last tip: tip number nine is use the mind palace.
The mind palace is a memory technique that I have used to set the record for the fastest
to memorize a deck of cards in the United States.
It's the technique that I'm using to memorize the United States Constitution, 7500 words,
and I have a video exactly on the mind palace that you really want to watch.
Before you watch this video, though, I'd really appreciate any thumbs-up that you give me.
Comment down below and tell me what your favorite study tip was, and what you liked most about
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