The Most Powerful Way to Remember What You Study — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Hey, what is going on, guys?
2. 0:02So I think we can all agree that studying takes
3. 0:03far, far too much time so what I wanna do in this
4. 0:06video is show you guys how you can remember more
5. 0:08of what you learn, even if you're spending fewer
6. 0:10actual hours studying, and the way to do that
7. 0:13is by spacing out that study time.
8. 0:15This is a technique called spaced repetition
9. 0:17and to do it you add progressively longer
10. 0:19and longer time intervals in between each
11. 0:21of your study sessions.
12. 0:22So in this video I wanna show you exactly how
13. 0:24you can do that, both with your paper flash cards
14. 0:26and with apps both for smartphones and computers.
15. 0:28But first I wanted to get into why this technique
16. 0:31is so powerful and also talk to you a little bit
17. 0:34about the history behind it and how it relates
18. 0:36to our memories in general.
19. 0:37Spaced repetition leverages a memory phenomenon
20. 0:39known as the spacing effect, which describes how
21. 0:41our brains make better connections and overall
22. 0:43remember things more effectively when we space
23. 0:46out our learning over time.
24. 0:48How's how Pierce J. Howard, the author of my
25. 0:50least favorite book to haul into coffee shops,
26. 0:52puts it: "Work involving higher mental functions,
27. 0:54"such as analysis and synthesis, needs to be
28. 0:56"spaced out in order to allow new neural
29. 0:59"connections to solidify.
30. 1:00"New learning drives out old learning when
31. 1:02"insufficient time intervenes."
32. 1:04And we've actually known about this effect
33. 1:06for quite a long time.
34. 1:07Back in the late-1800s a psychologist named
35. 1:09Hermann Ebbinghaus basically launched the field
36. 1:11of memory science itself by embarking upon
37. 1:13an intense study where he made himself memorize
38. 1:16long, long lists of nonsense syllables.
39. 1:18And through that research he eventually came
40. 1:20to develop what's called The Forgetting Curve,
41. 1:22which describes how memories decay over time.
42. 1:24But what he also learned was that by spacing out
43. 1:27his efforts to memorize these lists,
44. 1:28he could put in less actual study time to get
45. 1:30them memorized perfectly.
46. 1:32For example, for one list of 12 syllables he found
47. 1:34out it took him 68 repetitions on one day and then
48. 1:37seven repetitions the next day to memorize
49. 1:39it perfectly, but by spacing out his studying
50. 1:41over the course of three days he found he could
51. 1:42achieve his same level of perfection in only
52. 1:4438 repetitions.
53. 1:46Over the past 130 years since he published his
54. 1:48findings, lots of other studies have been able
55. 1:49to replicate this same positive results, which leads
56. 1:52us to the question, "Why does the spacing effect work?"
57. 1:55Well to put it in simple terms, it turns out that one
58. 1:57of the most important parts of learning process
59. 1:59is actually forgetting.
60. 2:01Now what forgetting truly is is a subject for another
61. 2:03video that I'll publish in the future, but the most
62. 2:05important thing to note here is that the more we've
63. 2:08forgotten something, that is the harder we have
64. 2:10to work to retrieve it since we last learned it
65. 2:12or studied it, the greater the increase
66. 2:14in learning will be.
67. 2:15To make this a bit more clear, here's how the author
68. 2:17Benedict Carey, who wrote the book "How We Learn,"
69. 2:19explains it: "Some amount of breakdown must occur
70. 2:22"for us to strengthen learning when we revisit
71. 2:24the material.
72. 2:25"Without a little forgetting, you get no benefit
73. 2:27"from further study.
74. 2:28"It is what allows learning to build,
75. 2:30"like an exercised muscle."
76. 2:32And that's the main reason why Carey calls
77. 2:34spaced repetition one of the most powerful methods
78. 2:35for remembering what you've learned in his book.
79. 2:37And I would add to that the fact that you can do
80. 2:39this with basically any other learning technique.
81. 2:41It's entirely complementary because it's all about
82. 2:44just modifying the time periods in which you study.
83. 2:47You can do anything within those time periods,
84. 2:49you're just using the time periods
85. 2:50as intelligently as possible.
86. 2:52With that being said, now I wanna get into how you
87. 2:54can put spaced repetition into action and implement
88. 2:56it into your own study systems.
89. 2:58And we're gonna talk about apps and computer programs
90. 3:00that you can use in a minute here but first I want
91. 3:02to talk about a system that you can use with your
92. 3:04paper flash cards, which is called the Leitner
93. 3:06System, and here's how it works.
94. 3:07The first step is to decide on the number
95. 3:09of boxes that you're gonna use to hold the cards
96. 3:11in your system.
97. 3:12Now I don't actually own little boxes so I've just
98. 3:14substituted rubber bands and sticky notes that say
99. 3:16"Box," but that actually works just as well
100. 3:18and actually makes the system more portable,
101. 3:20so that's pretty cool, and from there each
102. 3:22individual box is going to represent a different
103. 3:24study time interval.
104. 3:26So Box 1 might be studying every day, Box 2 might
105. 3:28be studied every other day, and so on.
106. 3:30And when you're studying the cards in the boxes,
107. 3:32every time you get a card right it's gonna graduate
108. 3:34to the next box, so you're gonna see it less
109. 3:36and less often.
110. 3:37But if you get a card wrong, it's gonna go all
111. 3:39the way to box number 1, no matter where it was.
112. 3:42And by using this system you get two main benefits.
113. 3:45Number one, you're maximizing your learning through
114. 3:47the spacing effect, but number two, you're also
115. 3:49studying more efficiently because you're spending
116. 3:51more time on the cards that need the most attention
117. 3:53and less time on the ones you know really well
118. 3:56rather than studying every single card equally.
119. 3:58Now this paper system works really well for both
120. 4:00of those goals but if you wanna take advantage
121. 4:02of more advanced scheduling algorithms and other
122. 4:04features, you're gonna need to find yourself
123. 4:06a space repetition app and there are a lot
124. 4:08of contenders in this area but I wanna focus
125. 4:11first on what is probably the most popular one
126. 4:13right now and that is called Anki.
127. 4:15Anki has a huge community, it's insanely customizable,
128. 4:18and best of all, it has apps for almost every
129. 4:20platform out there and almost all of them are free
130. 4:24with the exception of the iPhone app, which oddly
131. 4:26costs a whopping $25.
132. 4:28Now I think the price is that high because it's their
133. 4:29way of basically letting people support the app since
134. 4:31it's free everywhere else but if you're on an iPhone
135. 4:33and you don't wanna pay that much, fear not because
136. 4:36Anki also has a companion web app called AnkiWeb,
137. 4:39which is accessible from mobile Safari.
138. 4:41So you can use that free if you want.
139. 4:43Now with Anki, creating cards is really, really
140. 4:45easy and I really like the fact that you can add
141. 4:47basically any kind of media you want to your cards,
142. 4:49including pictures, which is awesome because adding
143. 4:52pictures to your flash cards can really help
144. 4:54increase retention.
145. 4:56However, the killer feature of Anki is the ability
146. 4:58to rate cards based on difficulty when you're
147. 5:00studying them.
148. 5:01So essentially, when you turn a card over, you can
149. 5:03tell the program how hard it was for you to dredge
150. 5:05the answer up from the depths of your memory
151. 5:07and it will use that data to decide how long it's
152. 5:09gonna be before you see that card again.
153. 5:10And that's really the main strength of space
154. 5:12repetition apps versus a paper system.
155. 5:14Each individual card can be tracked, can have
156. 5:17a difficulty rating, and can be adjusted
157. 5:19in the algorithm so you're getting the most
158. 5:20benefit of the spacing effect.
159. 5:22Anki is definitely not the only space repetition
160. 5:24app out there, though, so if you're looking for
161. 5:26alternatives, I've got a few things in mind
162. 5:28for you to take a look at, number one being an app
163. 5:30called TinyCards, which I showed off in my previous
164. 5:32video on how to make better flash cards.
165. 5:34Now TinyCards is only for the iPhone, unfortunately,
166. 5:36but there should be an Android version coming soon,
167. 5:39and honestly, when compared to Anki I think it's
168. 5:41a lot more simple, a lot prettier, and the process
169. 5:44of making cards is more fun and faster because
170. 5:46they have an excellent system for adding images
171. 5:49to your cards.
172. 5:50Aside from TinyCards there are also apps like
173. 5:52Flashcards Deluxe, Memrise, SuperMemo, Mnemosyne,
174. 5:55Eidetic, Quizlet, and probably a bunch of others
175. 5:57that I don't even know about right now but I'm
176. 5:59sure you will let me know about down in the Comments.
177. 6:01So before I wrap this video up I have a couple
178. 6:03more things I wanna mention, number one being
179. 6:05the script I wrote for this video is actually
180. 6:07about half the length of the blog post I wrote
181. 6:09so if you want a lot more detail, especially
182. 6:12pertaining to the memory bits and how the spacing
183. 6:14effect works, you can click the blog post link
184. 6:16in the description down below or on the card
185. 6:18on screen right now and read to your heart's content.
186. 6:20Also, and I have been really excited to announce
187. 6:23this for quite a long time now, there's now
188. 6:25an official College Info Geek t-shirt on
189. 6:27DFTBA.com and I'm super, super stoked about this.
190. 6:31I've already ordered mine and there's gonna be
191. 6:33a link down in the description, also a card so
192. 6:35if you would like to get your very own shirt,
193. 6:36which may or may not grant superpowers, you can
194. 6:38click either of those links and order one.
195. 6:40Now one cool thing about these shirts' design
196. 6:42is it was actually created by the College Info
197. 6:44Geek community.
198. 6:46My good friend Ashley did the hand-lettered design
199. 6:47itself but the mantra or saying on the shirt was
200. 6:49actually decided upon by people in the College Info
201. 6:51Geek community over on Reddit, which I think is
202. 6:53really, really cool, and I would love to continue
203. 6:55to play up this community aspect so if you get
204. 6:57a shirt I would love to see you tweeting awesome
205. 7:00pictures of you wearing it to send to me over
206. 7:02on @TomFrankly and I will probably retweet them.
207. 7:04You can also put them in the Reddit as well if
208. 7:06you like and other than that, that's all I have
209. 7:08for this video, guys, so thanks so much for watching.
210. 7:10And if you found it useful, give it a Like
211. 7:12to support this channel and you can also Subscribe
212. 7:14with that button right down there if you wanna
213. 7:16get new videos on being a more effective student
214. 7:18every single week.
215. 7:19You can also get a copy of my book on earning
216. 7:21better grades by going to the picture of the book
217. 7:23right there and clicking your mouse button.
218. 7:25You can find the previous video right over there
219. 7:26which was about how to use flash cards more
220. 7:28effectively and if you wanna find that awesome
221. 7:30article which is way more detailed than this
222. 7:32video was, go to the Full Article thing right there.
223. 7:34If you'd like to connect with me you can use
224. 7:35the social media links down below but there's
225. 7:37also a non-zero probability that you can connect
226. 7:39with me by yelling into a conch shell,
227. 7:41so maybe give that a try too.