How to STUDY So FAST It Feels ILLEGAL — Transcript

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1. 0:00So, if you're anything like me, you've
2. 0:01probably spent a lot of time trying to
3. 0:03figure out how to study and pass your
4. 0:05exams. Whether it's for school, an
5. 0:07upcoming test, or even just learning a
6. 0:09new skill for your side hustle. And the
7. 0:10usual advice that we get like rereading,
8. 0:12highlighting, taking notes, and drawing
9. 0:14concept maps, they don't really help us,
10. 0:16right? Because you still forget most of
11. 0:18what you studied. So, you're feeling
12. 0:20overwhelmed. And worst of all, it feels
13. 0:21like you're putting in all these effort,
14. 0:23but not seeing any results. But what if
15. 0:25there's a faster and more effective way
16. 0:27to study? one that helps you to actually
17. 0:29learn and avoid forgetting what you just
18. 0:31studied. And that's where this book
19. 0:33comes in. Ultralearning by Scott Young.
20. 0:35And in this video, I'm going to share
21. 0:36with you tips from the book that'll
22. 0:38hopefully help you learn much faster,
23. 0:40remember more, and pass your exams.
24. 0:41Let's get into it. When I was in school,
25. 0:43people would always tell me what to
26. 0:45study, like read this book, go through
27. 0:47this material, and memorize these notes.
28. 0:49And whenever I ask someone for advice, I
29. 0:51usually get a list of resources, but
30. 0:53never on the how to actually study them.
31. 0:56So obviously that's what I focused on,
32. 0:58like figuring out the right resources
33. 1:00and picking the best books. And I
34. 1:01thought that if I just had the right
35. 1:03materials, I'd be able to pass all of my
36. 1:05exams. And to be fair, that approach
37. 1:06kind of worked. But everything changed
38. 1:08when I got into med school because
39. 1:10suddenly there was a lot more
40. 1:11information that you have to know in a
41. 1:13short amount of time. And it felt like
42. 1:14drinking from a fire hose. And so I
43. 1:16figured maybe I just had to study
44. 1:18harder, study longer hours, read more
45. 1:19pages. And I told myself that maybe
46. 1:22pouring more time and effort would solve
47. 1:24the problem. But then I started to
48. 1:26realize something that some of the
49. 1:28students who were getting better grades
50. 1:30than me were using the exact same books
51. 1:33and materials that I was using. And
52. 1:34that's when it finally clicked for me.
53. 1:36Like it wasn't about what they were
54. 1:38studying. It was about how they were
55. 1:41studying. And so I started looking into
56. 1:42it. I read a few books about how to
57. 1:44study more effectively. I tried out
58. 1:47different study techniques, active
59. 1:49versus passive. And over time it started
60. 1:52to change. It's like my grades massively
61. 1:55improved, but more than that, I didn't
62. 1:57feel as burned out. I had more energy,
63. 2:00more time to take care of myself, go to
64. 2:01the gym, spend time with my family and
65. 2:04my partner back then, who is now my
66. 2:05wife. And so, I realized that this is
67. 2:08what it meant to actually study smarter
68. 2:10and not just harder. And it turns out
69. 2:13there's actually a name for that. It's
70. 2:15called metalarning. It's basically
71. 2:17learning how to learn. And the book says
72. 2:18that this is the first thing that you
73. 2:20should do like when you're studying for
74. 2:22an exam or trying to learn a new skill.
75. 2:24And I'm going to read a quote from the
76. 2:26book and it says in discussing the
77. 2:28principles of ultralearning metalarning
78. 2:31comes first understanding how a subject
79. 2:33breaks down into different elements and
80. 2:35seeing how others have learned it
81. 2:36previously thus providing an
82. 2:38advantageous starting point. In this
83. 2:40case metalarning means learning about
84. 2:43learning. And it's kind of like that
85. 2:45quote from Abraham Lincoln and it says,
86. 2:47"Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree and
87. 2:50I'll spend the first four sharpening the
88. 2:52axe." And it's the same idea, right? If
89. 2:55you take a bit of time up front to
90. 2:57figure out the best way to study,
91. 2:58everything else becomes much easier and
92. 3:01you'll learn better and much faster. So
93. 3:03now, before I dive into learning
94. 3:05anything new, I always stop and ask
95. 3:07myself, what's the quickest and most
96. 3:09effective way to learn this? because how
97. 3:11you study is just as important, if not
98. 3:14more important, than what you study.
99. 3:16Now, let's say that you wanted to learn
100. 3:18how to speak Japanese fluently in just
101. 3:20one month. And let's say that money is
102. 3:22not a problem and that your only goal is
103. 3:25to speak Japanese fluently in just one
104. 3:27month. Now, imagine you have three
105. 3:29options. The first is you could start by
106. 3:31watching YouTube videos about grammar
107. 3:33and pronunciation. Or the second one is
108. 3:35you can download Dualingo and go through
109. 3:37all of the lessons. And the third one is
110. 3:39you could fly to Japan and just starting
111. 3:41talking to people even if you're
112. 3:42stumbling through every sentence at
113. 3:44first. Which one do you think will have
114. 3:46the highest probability that you achieve
115. 3:48your goal in one month? The last one
116. 3:50sounds the most intense, but it's
117. 3:53probably the fastest way to get fluent.
118. 3:55Why? Because you are learning in the
119. 3:58same context where you'll actually use
120. 4:00the skill of speaking Japanese. And this
121. 4:03is what the book calls as directness.
122. 4:05And I'll read a quote from the book and
123. 4:06it says, "Directness is the idea of
124. 4:09learning being tied closely to the
125. 4:11situation or context that you want to
126. 4:13use it in. We want to speak a language
127. 4:15but try to learn mostly by playing on
128. 4:17fun apps rather than conversing with
129. 4:19actual people. We want to work on
130. 4:21collaborative professional programs but
131. 4:23mostly code scripts in isolation. We
132. 4:25want to become great speakers so we buy
133. 4:26a book on communication rather than
134. 4:28practice presenting. In all of these
135. 4:30cases, the problem is the same. Directly
136. 4:32learning the thing we want feels too
137. 4:33uncomfortable, boring or frustrating. So
138. 4:36we settle for some book, lecture or app,
139. 4:38hoping it will eventually make us better
140. 4:40at the real thing. When we learn new
141. 4:42things, therefore, we should always
142. 4:44strive to tie them directly to the
143. 4:46context we want to use them in. Given
144. 4:48the well doumented difficulty with
145. 4:50indirect forms of learning, why are they
146. 4:53still the default both in schools and in
147. 4:55many failed attempts at self-education?
148. 4:58The answer is that learning directly is
149. 5:00hard. It's often more frustrating,
150. 5:02challenging, and intense than reading a
151. 5:04book or sitting through a lecture. But
152. 5:06this very difficulty creates a potent
153. 5:08source of competitive advantage for any
154. 5:10wouldbe ultrarner. If you're willing to
155. 5:12apply tactics that exploit directness
156. 5:14despite these difficulties, you will end
157. 5:17up learning much more effectively. And
158. 5:19it's kind of learning how to ride a
159. 5:20bike, right? Like if you want to ride a
160. 5:22bike, you don't read a 100page book on
161. 5:25how to ride a bike. You buy a bike and
162. 5:27you get on the bike and you start
163. 5:29learning how to pedal the bike and you
164. 5:31figure it out by going straight ahead
165. 5:33and doing the thing. And the same goes
166. 5:34for getting fit. You don't get a
167. 5:36six-pack from reading articles about
168. 5:38abs. Like you hit the gym and you do the
169. 5:40reps. And when it comes to exams is the
170. 5:42same idea. Like if your test is made up
171. 5:44of multiple choice questions, the best
172. 5:46way to prepare is by actually answering
173. 5:48multiple choice questions because that's
174. 5:50what you'll be doing on the day of the
175. 5:52exam. So that's what you should be
176. 5:54practicing. It's not that other methods
177. 5:56like taking notes or drawing concept
178. 5:58maps are bad because they're not. I
179. 6:00mean, they can be really helpful,
180. 6:01especially when you're just trying to
181. 6:03wrap your head around something new,
182. 6:05like during your years of medical
183. 6:06school, for example. But when you have a
184. 6:08big exam coming up, like a lensure
185. 6:10examination, which will determine
186. 6:12whether you will get to practice your
187. 6:13profession or not, you need to focus on
188. 6:16what will actually help you perform
189. 6:18better on that exam. Because the exam
190. 6:20isn't going to ask you to draw a concept
191. 6:22map or summarize a chapter, right? It's
192. 6:24going to give you four options and it's
193. 6:26going to ask you to pick the right one.
194. 6:28So, if you want to get better at that,
195. 6:30you need to practice doing exactly that.
196. 6:32Which leads us to tip number three. This
197. 6:34last tip is something a lot of students
198. 6:35already know on some level, but most
199. 6:38don't actually do it. And one of the
200. 6:40main reasons is that we tend to judge
201. 6:42how well we're learning based on how
202. 6:45studying feels at the moment. If
203. 6:46something feels easy, like rereading
204. 6:48notes or highlighting a textbook, we
205. 6:50assume that we're understanding it, like
206. 6:53we're we're really getting it and it
207. 6:55feels smooth, you know, so we think that
208. 6:58it's working that. But on the other
209. 6:59hand, if a study method feels hard, like
210. 7:02doing flashcards or practice tests, we
211. 7:04we often avoid it because it feels
212. 7:06frustrating and slow and that makes us
213. 7:08think that we're not learning anything.
214. 7:10But the truth is, just because something
215. 7:12feels easy doesn't mean that it's
216. 7:14effective. And just because something
217. 7:16feels hard doesn't mean that it's not
218. 7:17actually working. In fact, it's the
219. 7:19other way around. Because reading and
220. 7:21watching videos, they are ways of
221. 7:23putting information into our brain. But
222. 7:25to actually learn and remember that
223. 7:28information, it comes from taking that
224. 7:31information out of our brains, which is
225. 7:33basically what active recall is. And
226. 7:34that's why things like doing practice
227. 7:36tests or flashcards or even explaining a
228. 7:38topic to someone else without looking at
229. 7:40your notes. Of course, they can be more
230. 7:42useful even if they feel much harder
231. 7:45than like say reading your notes or
232. 7:48watching lecture videos. So if a study
233. 7:51technique feels a bit uncomfortable like
234. 7:53doing practices, it might actually be
235. 7:55doing you more good than you think. So
236. 7:57we basically spent this whole video
237. 7:59talking about how to learn quickly and
238. 8:01so that you can pass your exams. And if
239. 8:03you like this video, you would love this
240. 8:04video over here, which is where I talk
241. 8:06about how I build good study habits,
242. 8:08which help me get high scores in my
243. 8:10exams. So, click on that video if you're
244. 8:11interested. And thank you so much for
245. 8:13watching and see you later. Bye.