all right how are you feeling today
hey guys rishi desai here from osmosis
uh
thanks for joining me again this week
what i wanted to talk about this week
were study tips you know top three study
tips for my
own life things that have helped me and
things that i think don't work quite as
well
that i kind of stumbled across and kind
of figured out as i went along
as background i'm the chief medical
officer at osmosis
and i'm a pediatrician i do pediatric
infectious diseases
and so i've had kind of a very
traditional route in some ways going
into medicine in some ways a very
non-traditional route you know because i
do a lot of medical education
and so for me as i was thinking about
studying
i thought you know honestly i'm i would
say i'm kind of a professional studyer
every single day i come in and i'm
making
videos or questions and i'm looking up
things i'm so i'm literally constantly
learning
constantly studying and so i think
studying itself has become
for me something that i really pride
myself on and take a lot of enjoyment
out of
and but it took a long time to get there
you know there was a lot of time when i
was studying and i hated it i thought i
wasn't doing it right and
and i probably felt that way because i
wasn't doing it right here we go number
one
so for me it starts with where big
question
where where do you like to study and
it's uh
location location location it's
everything right so um
you know it could be the corner spot in
the library maybe you're that kind of
study maybe it's the coffee shop you
like that aroma
maybe it's your friend's apartment or
your own apartment uh maybe you have a
desk set up
uh for me i actually came back to my
childhood home of studying this is where
i got a lot of my studying done so
that's why i thought it'd be kind of fun
to come back here
to kind of get back in that spirit of it
and i actually came back here through
college
i would i would take breaks come back
here on weekends when it came down to
medical school i was about five hours
away so i actually drove down here
to study for boards and the reason
location matters is the key here
is that it really controls your
environment so i would come here because
i got my piece here my quiet here
you know my parents you know stepped up
they did a ton of stuff
to to pamper me frankly um laundry you
know cooked meals all the kind of
logistical stuff i didn't have to think
about
so i could literally just kind of focus
right and that's what you really want to
do is focus
recharge your battery not not get
distracted by a thousand decisions you
have to make every day
and really apply your focus to the thing
you need to focus on which is just
learning new material so that's really
really crucial that kind of important
piece
is location and so that first question
again where do you like to study that's
the first
tip choose it pick it know yourself and
and make sure you keep going back there
or mix it up if that's what you need to
do
number two big tip number two
is what what are you going to study and
this is the biggest thing i notice i'll
go to study with someone to study
uh date or a friend and i'll say hey
let's go study
and uh and we'll sit down and that other
person is literally just kind of
you know twisting their thumbs kind of
like dawdling around and you're like
what are you doing
and they're like i'm not really sure
what what i want to do yet i haven't
figured it out
and they'll literally spend 30 minutes
45 minutes like figuring
out what they want to study and so for
me i try to figure out what i'm going to
study you know as i wake up that day you
know i have in my mind kind of my
intention for the day
what are my goals for that day what i
want to get out of it and so know what
you want to study and the way to figure
that out one way if you're not sure
is space repetition i can't say it
enough spaced repetition
space repetition right so i'm repeating
the word for you i
i hope you remember that term and the
idea is that you go over the stuff that
you've learned in the last six months
right maybe flash cards stuff that you
haven't looked at in
in six months you're getting right stuff
you're getting wrong it literally
refreshes your mind you start thinking
about all the stuff you've learned it's
like
it's like going into the field and
aerating the soil getting all that hard
clay up that was maybe settling down at
the bottom
and saying hey what is the stuff i
really struggle with and thinking what
are the two things i want to learn today
that's what i want to figure out what do
i want to learn today
and for me it's always kind of the
things i'm scared about things that i
don't want to think about so let's say
that's renal physiology or learning
about autoimmune diseases because
they're all going to kind of get
confused in my head
or stuff i'm curious about like hey i
really am super curious about such and
such
someone said something i thought it was
interesting i didn't really get it
so i'm really curious to learn more so
what is the stuff that you're kind of
worried about
and stuff you're curious about that's
the stuff i really think that you need
to focus on so
that's the what tip number three so now
we've we know where we are we know what
we're going to do
how how are you going to study and this
is you know people have a hundred
different answers for this
my answer what's worked really well is
you start with
questions don't go and start watching
videos don't go and start
you know reading a book or reading notes
because you're reading passively you're
not reading to actually learn you're
reading just to get through the chapter
you're reading just to get through the
video
don't do that it's a waste your time it
doesn't work as effectively
so there's this idea called a testing
effect and what it means is you go in
you do some questions
and i don't care if it's stuff you've
never looked at before
even in that situation go do a question
and and
questions on osmosis are organized that
way so you can just dive in do some
questions
and identify what it is that's confusing
you know could you figure it out
did you read the explanation did it make
sense start kind of getting your mind
into that active mode by saying hey you
know what i didn't answer this question
right i couldn't figure it out
now i'm searching now i'm on the hunt
i'm hunting for an answer
now once you've identified stuff you're
kind of struggling with you say okay
look
i i thought i wanted to focus on renal
physiology based on my space drop
i went and did some renal physiology
questions i got basically all of them
wrong
no surprise right but at least now you
know the specifics oh okay it was about
ions i couldn't
figure out like how the ion channels
worked okay great
so now that's where you start saying
okay what is the best resource for renal
physiology
what's the number one topic or place i
want to go do i want to go read a book
do i want to go and look at some videos
do i want to go
watch you know some memory palaces like
what do i want to do to really
understand
how the kidney works normally okay great
make a list
figure out how long that list is how
many videos is that calculate time and
say okay this is
about one hour of time right this is my
hour of power
i've figured out where i want to study i
figured out what i want to study now i'm
figuring out how i want to study
and i know that these are the things i
want to look at go
through those watch those videos maybe
it's an hour of videos double speed it
so that's only 25 minutes or 30 minutes
and say okay every 30 minutes i'm gonna
give myself
a minute break or a two-minute break and
you just know that
like hey my break is coming just power
through until i get to my break
and the thing that's going to drive you
is the question like what was it that i
couldn't figure out so
again go through figure out what you
want to learn
dive in watch those videos read those
parts of the textbook really understand
it well
and then you can say okay good i got it
i'm all set i'm ready to move on to
maybe more questions
or maybe i finish my two goals for the
day i'm ready for a third goal
or maybe i'm ready for a a thing of ice
cream you know whatever it is so
once you check you know challenge
yourself with a couple goals you you
master it through that hour of power
watching those videos reading those you
know bits of the textbook go back into
the questions
make sure you understand them you really
feel good about them then you've studied
you really understand it and then you
know down the road when you're doing
space repetition
maybe you all actually get those
questions right because you actually
spent such a dedicated time to that so
those are my three tips again where what
how
and then a little bonus tip if you're
doing these kind of things you're
obviously
interested in becoming a better student
right that's part of your ethos
just know that about yourself and if
you're part you know an interest in
being a better student
in addition to watching these tips a
little bonus tip is
we actually put together this so a
little how to learn in the health
professions
um my team and i worked on this uh it's
an incredible resource
tons of you know great little images and
visuals
go over a kind of testing effect space
repetition and a number of other tricks
and strategies that work so check that
out
and and again leave a comment tell me
what works for you
make it specific you know the general
stuff doesn't help anyone so make it
really specific
where do you like to study what do you
like to study how do you like to study
and then finally
unless i forget you should study make a
study schedule
go on awesomeness.org set up your study
schedule
and i'll check you out again maybe next
week take care
bye guys start your free trial today
at osmosis.org
you