all right this is our ultimate study guide we're going to show you our entire process on how to study for exams from beginning to end and we're going to use the mike and maddie map which is our study blueprint filled with evidence-based study techniques to make this entire process as effective and efficient as possible for you so there are two steps to learning first you gotta understand the material this is also called encoding basically you get the info from the books into your brain the second step is remembering also called retrieval basically you're retrieving that
info from your brain to use on the test so for each of the two phases of learning we're going to discuss the scientific strategies techniques and methods that will get you there so the strategy for understanding material is to use structuring a lot of people think that when we store info in our brains that we file them nice and neatly into separate filing cabinets but that's not really how the brain is structured info is actually strung together like a web your brain likes to take new things and relate them back to prior knowledge you already
have so for example learning calculus by itself is difficult but if you already knew the fundamental subjects like algebra and geometry it's a lot easier to pick up calculus you can learn through analogies or making connections through logic you can use a structure from your prior knowledge to support this new incoming knowledge the technique to best help you understand information is teaching teaching forces you to understand something in your own words and if you can convey that to a child then you really understand it and remember that you already have structure from the first step
so when you're teaching someone teach from the layout of that structure teaching doesn't mean that you have to get in front of a classroom you can do it at home just say out or type out the information as if you're teaching as long as you're putting it into your own words and not just regurgitating info from your lectures the method to help you understand information is mixing mix up the sources of where you get your information maybe the way that the teacher explains in class makes no sense to you but maybe your friend explains the
same topic in a different way and it just clicks or maybe there's a youtube video out there that explains it even better the only thing that matters at the end of the day is that you understand the information it doesn't matter how many teachers it doesn't matter who's the teacher mix it up and try different sources until it makes sense to you the strategy to help you remember faster is spacing it's basically the opposite of trying to cram everything in the day before the test instead you want to space out your reviews look at each
individual topic for just a little bit each day the most important thing to realize is that some topics take a lot longer to master than others for example it would take me many many more views to master chapter 10 but less time to master chapter 1. but the only way i knew this was to space out my reviews and at the end of each session i rank how well i knew each chapter and when i do this i can see that oh i keep breaking chapter 10 as difficult and chapter 1 is easy so now
i know not to waste any more time relearning chapter 1 and focusing my time on chapter 10. the technique to help you remember is testing or active recall or retrieval practice whatever you want to call it basically you're testing yourself on how well you can remember the information without looking at your notes or ebooks the mistake that students make is that they study by reading their notes or reading their highlights but if you're asked to close your notes can you actually remember what was on the page because chances are you won't have those notes with
you on the test so cover them up and try to recall or better yet find past papers problem sets and practice tests and do those test your memory exactly how it will be tested on the day of the exam the method to remembering lots of information at a high level is memorizing memorizing isn't always the best way to retain information long term but sometimes there are things you just got to memorize for the test like dates or names of things or random equations well there are many memorization methods like mnemonics mind palace the peg system
chunking the list goes on just remember that not everything should be memorized sometimes when you truly understand a concept and you're able to logically derive it from scratch then you don't even need to memorize it okay so those are the strategies techniques and methods from a high level overview just so you can get an idea of how your studies should be flowing from book to brain to exam and how to actually do that effectively and efficiently i would love to go into detail about how to actually utilize these study tips and help you apply them
to your work that would take hours and be too big for youtube so we've put together a study course that you can watch for free on skillshare if you join using our link in the description it's called seven days to better grades we've designed this course based around a week of daily actionable steps so that you can see results fast and it's a fundamental system that you should invest in early so that it can pay off many years of school and exams down the line so yeah link in the description we'll see you in the
class and here's a sneak peek just for fun as students we're tasked with getting all of this into here and when we don't get the results that we want we think maybe i just need to spend more time or read it slower or read it again no one really tells us how so we just do whatever feels right you take notes you highlight a few phrases here and there and then you read them over but what most students don't realize is that our brains are wired to learn in a particular way sadly many of us
go through grade school and even university using study methods that work against the brain's natural strengths but with a deeper understanding of neuroscience we can learn to stop fighting our brain instead start using it to study smarter hi we're mike and maddie and we're brothers who love learning yeah we run a youtube channel about study tips we build a note-taking app for students and we're full-time doctors dedicated to life-long learning in medicine through years of study and dedication to academic success learning how to learn has become a life-changing skill for us the problem is we
were never taught how to learn growing up it can feel overwhelming to make time to learn how to learn when you're already drowning under loads of schoolwork so we made it simple by repackaging everything we know about studying into a guided seven-day course with the class project to help you apply individual techniques as you learn them so how does this all work the process of learning involves two steps understanding and remembering first you have to get the information into your brain and second you have to retrieve that information when you need it so on day
one we'll start with structuring to help us understand new topics then on subsequent days we'll combine teaching and mixing to help deepen our comprehension of even the most complex topics after we understand the information it's time to remember we'll mimic how the brain actually works using spacing and testing to form long-term memories for your class project we'll build a calendar together to keep ourselves accountable and overcome roadblocks such as procrastination distractions and lack of motivation we've also prepared a downloadable guidebook with practice exercises that you can always rely on for direction when you feel lost
by the end of the study week you'll have acquired practical strategies rooted in science to study smarter along with a system that encourages learning beyond the classroom we can't wait to study together so let's get started no matter where you are in your education this class is designed to reframe how you approach studying to build lifelong learning systems this class is for you if you're an overwhelmed high schooler who spends countless hours rereading the same material without improving your grades if you're applying to professional school and want to build those sustainable study habits for your
rigorous training ahead or if you're just nervous about studying again because you've been out of school and you're feeling rusty our framework will equip you with strategies techniques and methods to streamline this process [Music]
