I've been teaching human anatomy & physiology
for nearly 10 years now, and the most common
question I get from my students, by far
is Justin, how can I better
learn & study my anatomy?
And, I've now taught
thousands of students in the classroom, so I know
what works and I know what doesn't work.
And while there are many effective
study methods out there, there is one
in particular that consistently stands
above all the others. That's
what we're going to talk about today.
(Music)
So, what is this "secretive" study method?
Well, first off,
it's not a secret. You can do just a basic
Google or YouTube search for, like
"Best Study Methods", or "Top 10 Study Methods",
and you will find this
either at the top of every list, or
pretty much right there at the top.
It's called "Active Recall", or
a form of it is called the "Feynman Technique".
Which, we'll discuss what that means in a second,
but I'm not doing this video
because I've seen
at the top, or near the top of all those
other lists. I'm doing this
video because I know from personal
experience that it works. I've been using
active recall since as long as
I can remember — before I even knew
it was called active recall.
And I've now seen countless students
all succeed using this technique
So, you're probably
wondering then, "what is
active recall?" In essence,
"Active Recall" is simply actively engaging
in the study material itself, or the
study process itself. And that's
in comparison to a more passive form.
So, a passive form of studying would look
like, let's say you like have flashcards
or a textbook, and all you're
doing is reading it, and then moving
along. I can't tell you how many times I've
seen students open their textbook
or their lecture manual,
read from the top left of the page down,
go to the right side, and then turn the page
and basically like nod to themselves
as though they just studied when
in my eyes, I'm like, you didn't really
study anything, you just read something.
Right? Passively
studying is a terrible way
to ensure you know
what you're talking about. It can be
great for memorization, but there is
big difference between memorizing
something and learning something.
So here's a real easy example of that.
Have you ever been super excited
to tell someone something, and then as soon
you start telling them the story, you realize
you have no idea what you're
talking about. Right? Like, let's pretend
you just learned something about genetic engineering and you're like
"Hey! You gotta listen to this! It's so cool!
So genetic engineering is where they like start editing
your chromosomes...
or is it your DNA...
are chromosomes made of DNA?"
And then before you know it,
well crap! I have no idea
what I'm talking about! I guarantee
that you've been there because we've all been there.
Well, it's not that what you were talking about wasn't
exciting or interesting, it's that
you just have no idea what you're talking about
because you just passively engaged with the
material. You watched a YouTube
clip about it. Or, you
read a blurb about it. That's
not the same thing as learning.
All you did was come across some
information, and now you're
testing yourself with it by saying it out loud,
and realizing,
you need to do more work. Now I want to be
clear — there are actually different types of
active recall methods, but the
one I'm most comfortable with
is very similar to what's called the "Feynman Technique".
Now, it's
named after Richard Feynman, who was
an amazing physicist.
If you don't know anything about Richard Feynman, after
this video you should totally go "nerd out" on
Richard Feynman, because he is one of the most
incredible physicists to ever live.
But, he had an amazing technique
for learning. What's so cool about it,
at least in my mind, is that I've
been doing something very similar to that
my entire life.
I am in no way claiming that I'm on the
level of Richard Feynman. I — he's...
he's up here, and I'm like...
You know, like, through the floor.
But, it validates it
for me because I'm then like, "you know what? I did —
I stumbled upon something really cool. I know
this actually works. And it's
pretty simple. So, what Richard Feynman would do
is he would actually make lists
of the things he knew,
and what he would then do is
try and explain that and say
it out loud, whether he's literally talking
talking to someone, or he's not,
but he's saying it out loud, and he would
try to explain that topic in as
many different ways as possible — like
for certain age ranges, right? So say like,
for a 10 year old, for a 20 year old,
for a 40 year old. Different
professions, different levels of expertise.
Because what that would do, it would
really just enlighten him to
how much would he really know on that particular
subject. And he didn't just do this with things
he was an expert on. He did this
with things that he was interested in.
So like, say broadly you'd write "physics",
or "chemistry", or "biology".
And then you would just start explaining it. And then
you'd start segmenting it out
into smaller pieces seeing if you could
explain those. What would inevitably happen
is he would run into
a place where's like, "well,
I don't know that!" He would
literally find the gaps in his
knowledge. But instead of stopping
there — instead of getting
frustrated, he would then go
look into it. He would research
it, study it, and then
he would come back, and he'd
do the same process again.
This is what I believe
to be the most effective
and best interpretation
of "active recall". The reason why
I know this method works is because
when I very first started teaching,
I''m talking my first week of
teaching, I realized something —
I remember clearly
looking out into the audience
and I was like, "oh
man! They're like, paying
me to say words
to them right now!" They have an expectation
for me to say things
accurately and effectively
so that they learn it
so that they can then go and
have a successful career.
This, as obvious as
it may sound, was a HUGE
realization for me.
So I knew I had to
really be on top of my game.
That is when I started practicing
my lectures. I was
single, I was living by myself
in my one-bedroom apartment, and I was
just, like it was an empty room
and I'm just sitting there doing
lectures to nobody! What was
crazy is that I would even pause.
I would be like, "does that make sense?"
"Good! Good! Good!"
And, I know that sounds
ridiculous, but what happened is that it's a
dress rehearsal, right? It's
practice! And what happened
is that it made me more confident
and I started to realize very quickly, like
"wait — I need to know how to speak that
more effectively. I need to do better here."
Or, "I got that down." Because
just as important learning what
you are rusty at, or you
need more work at, is also realizing what you're actually
pretty good at. That means you don't have to
spend as much time in that area, if
any time at all. This helps you
prioritize your studying.
Right? So many of my students,
I've seen them studying
things and going over things that they know
pretty well! And I'm like, I get it...
I get it, but
you should really be prioritizing
what you don't know. For instance,
let's say that I have a student that's struggling
with the scapular muscles.
I would then ask them, "okay well, what's the
origin of supraspinatus?
What's the origin of infraspinatus?
Of subscapularis? Of teres minor?
Of rhomboideus major?"
If I look into their eyes and
see if that they have no
idea, my next question
is always the same...
"Well, how do you feel
with your boney landmarks?" Which are the
names of the spots on the scapula
itself. And almost
always, they're like,
"Yeah, I don't know my boney landmarks..."
"Well, I think I figured out
the problem!
You have been studying things that you don't
really need to be studying."
So many of those same students,
if I was then like, "could you show me
what elevation of the scapula looks like?" And they'll be like, "oh yeah!
Like this!" And I'll be like, "Okay — what's depression?"
"Like this!" They can do certain
things about scapular muscle anatomy
but they're not prioritizing
their study on the areas that they're
awful at. You need to
figure out
where you're weakest. Most
often, it's at the grassroots.
It's at the foundations of the
concepts. Especially with anatomy! I can't tell you
how many people I've realized
struggle with medical terminology
and nomenclature.
Then they are surprised
they don't really understand
the professor as they're
talking in class. And I'm like, "well,
of course not! They're basically — well, not
basically — they're literally speaking a different
language to you than what you're
used to, and you're getting hung up
on, "what does endo mean,
and how is that different than exo?"
That's not a good place to be! So you start there!
You study there! You make sure you feel comfortable
with it! You speak it out loud
whether it's to a teddy bear, a family member,
to a friend! And then,
you can move on. And then, and ONLY then,
do you move on. That's
the other thing — don't be jumping all around
the place! Make sure!
Don't leave an area — don't leave a subject
until
you feel comfortable and confident
with it. That is a very important thing
to do, and something almost
no one does. They're basically,
if I'm questioning someone on the digestive system,
they will read the digestive
from page 1 to the very last page
and then once they're there they
start over again, and they
think they're studying... When instead I'm like,
"if you
can't tell me anything about the tongue...
you shouldn't have
moved on to the esophagus!"
And that's something that I have found
most people struggle with.
So, in summary, what is "Active Recall",
or the "Feynman Technique", or
at least my interpretation of it, and what I've seen
to be successful? Here's what you're gonna do —
First, you're going to — whenever
you're studying I want you to go through
it, and figure out what you —
or at least what you think — you know.
And then I want you to test yourself
and start explaining that
to either a teddy bear,
an open room, a loved one, a family member —
you name it. And I want to see
if you know what you're
talking about. Once you''ve
kind of started on there you should start realizing
where the gaps in your knowledge are.
And that becomes your next area
of study. And then what you
do is you go back and you study that
specific thing, and then you go right
back and you say it out loud again!
And you're going to keep doing that!
You can do this with flashcards,
you can do this with a textbook, you can do this with
whichever study
platform you like to use. Maybe
have some online software program
that you like to use. The point is
you are actively
engaged. You're actively recalling it,
and you're forcing your
mouth, to — I guess you could
say you're putting your money where
your mouth is. That is the single
most important thing you could possibly do. I promise
you — this is a promise!
If you start doing this,
you are going to start seeing results
immediately! Thanks for watching everybody!
I really hope you enjoyed this different
type video. Normally
we're showing cadavers and teaching
you dome stuff, so hopefully you
enjoyed this change of pace. If you did be sure
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