What Study Gurus Get Wrong About Learning

Study gurus promote active recall and spaced repetition to maximize learning. But is it all its cracked up to be? In the brain, retrieval and encoding processes interact to produce learning. The trick is doing them right.
00:00 Introduction
01:17 Our brain’s memory systems
02:38 Justin’s beef with active recall
03:29 Spaced repetition systems, “active recall”, and spaced retrieval practice
04:35 Why flashcard systems kind of suck
05:12 Justin’s recommendation
05:35 What are “desirable difficulties”?
07:03 The alternatives to flashcards
08:35 A good question to ask yourself when studying
10:02 An example study comparing elaborative encoding to retrieval practice
11:25 A true statement
Here are some of my other videos which are relevant to the discussion:
How forgetting works: • Forgetting doesn't wor...
Free recall demo: • How to do free recall ...
Questions about free recall answered: • How to Use Free Recall...
Example of encoding from reading using organization: • Learn More From Every ...
What researchers knew in 1979: • 3 Forgotten Studying S...
Advice about learning on your own: • 7 Tips For Learning An...
Other myths about learning: • The Five Biggest Myths...
Desirable difficulties: • Desirable Difficulties... (my first youtube video!)
Flashcards: • The Drawbacks of Flash...
Interleaving: • Secrets of Interleaved...
Sign up to my email newsletter, Avoiding Folly, here: www.benjaminkeep.com/
To read more about retrieval practice, check out: www.benjaminkeep.com/the-wick...
Justin Sung's video on retrieval: • The PROBLEM with Activ...
Justin Sung's video on encoding: • Study More Efficiently...
The pro baseball footage is from: • Padres vs. Dodgers NLD...
REFERENCES
The article I showed in the video comparing elaborative encoding to retrieval practice is:
Karpicke, J. D., & Blunt, J. R. (2011). Retrieval practice produces more learning than elaborative studying with concept mapping. Science, 331(6018), 772-775. bit.ly/3S5i9KP
Below, one of the classic pieces on retrieval. It's really an illustration of why you shouldn't just stop trying to remember something just because you have successfully recalled it in the past:
Karpicke, J. D., & Roediger III, H. L. (2008). The critical importance of retrieval for learning. science, 319(5865), 966-968. psychnet.wustl.edu/memory/wp-c...
This is a meta-analysis on the testing effect, which I haven't read in-depth lately, but is worth checking out if you're into this stuff:
Rowland, C. A. (2014). The effect of testing versus restudy on retention: a meta-analytic review of the testing effect. Psychological bulletin, 140(6), 1432. bit.ly/3VwGpII
There's quite a bit of support for the idea that you want to be operating at a "high level" (e.g., synthesizing, applying, critiquing) early in the game. It's not like you need to learn all these rote facts first. A point that Justin makes eloquently in his video on encoding. The piece below is a great discussion of that.
Agarwal, P. K. (2019). Retrieval practice & Bloom’s taxonomy: Do students need fact knowledge before higher order learning?. Journal of Educational Psychology, 111(2), 189. bit.ly/3T5Va3r
Some have argued that retrieval is only good for simple materials (like remembering new vocabulary words) and not complex materials (like understanding how Newtonian physics works). Although many of the early studies do focus on "simple" materials, there's plenty of studies that establish the effect of retrieval is just as strong for complex materials.
Karpicke, J. D., & Aue, W. R. (2015). The testing effect is alive and well with complex materials. Educational Psychology Review, 27(2), 317-326. link.springer.com/article/10....

[@benjaminkeep]

Check out a conversation between Justin and I on this video here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/a5TFgqial917n5Y. Fair warning: it's a bit lengthier and more technical.

[@seeds6211]

I don't mind! I hate short videos that don't give me ALL I Need.

[@usbees]

Between Justin and ME, perhaps? Unless I is someone's first name.

[@tolkienfan1972]

​@@usbeesthe use of I in the objective case is so common it's actually argued by grammarians. It's probably time for you and I to let it go. 😁

[@usbees]

@@tolkienfan1972 I am a grammarian, and objective case rules still apply wherever I have taught, I teach, and wherever I have worked as a writer. 😉 In thanks for your video, this is my free study tip for you! 😊

[@BiscuitBliss]

@@tolkienfan1972 When people start saying "between we," then I'll be able to accept "I" in this case.

[@commenter5901]

I have ADHD and have never been able to use flash cards for memorization. What I do for things that I need to memorize is to rewrite them as a children's book (with pictures and all). You need to know the material very well to be able to explain it in a way a child can understand. The thing is that I can just jump right into it and I will research as I go to fill in any blanks in the information. By the time it's done, I know the information inside and out.

[@neilrichardson7454]

I'm high functioning/asperger's and that's the only way I know how to master anything I learn. Thing is, it can be very time consuming. Especially, if you're in a STEAM major.

[@akhilmenoj8767]

Can you give me an example? I might try this.

[@neilrichardson7454]

@@akhilmenoj8767 sure, whatever you're interested in, read it and highlight the most important information and/or examples. Rewrite those notes in a notebook and read it. In short, the material is in a language, grammar and structure I can better learn and understand. This method for most is very rote and potentially time consuming. Especially if you're studying STEAM related subjects where one chapter can easily be over 60 pages long.

[@akhilmenoj8767]

@@neilrichardson7454 thanks I'll try it.

[@neilrichardson7454]

@@akhilmenoj8767 I hope it helps you. Good luck 🙂

[@EricTsai]

Former lawyer reacts to former doctor about learning! Haha this is great!

[@knw-seeker6836]

This one is going deep

[@bakeral-sheyab546]

Explain the deep in it 😬

[@Rdsa_1]

@@knw-seeker6836you all are superficial. never heard of multidisciplinary?

[@danyukhin]

@@Rdsa_1to be fair, both of these creators describe themselves as "former" in their past occupations

[@YukiGibson]

@@danyukhin I mean, they are current youtubers now lol

[@loldoctor]

I speak 3 foreign languages-French, Spanish, and Japanese-and therefore have spent a lot of time memorizing things. In my opinion, focusing on efficacy alone is one of the most toxic conversations common among learners, particularly autodidacts. It’s a bit like running the 100m dash in preparation for winning the Boston marathon. Yeah, it’s more helpful than doing nothing, but you don’t win a marathon by sprinting. Nor even by running. You win a marathon by not stopping. Similarly, the best methods are the ones that are feasible. Conversation may be more effective than flash cards, but it’s much less accessible. Indeed, the difficulty of finding a language partner, and the limited time you can spend practicing with them, often outweighs the advantages of having one. Moreover, conversations require a certain baseline knowledge that cannot itself be achieved through conversation alone. That baseline is easier to achieve through memorization not because memorization is better but because it’s infinitely faster and more accommodating. There are ways to engage with memorization beyond just abstractions floating in the ether and anchored to a flash card only by a word and its definition. When memorizing kanji, for example, it’s useful to look at each component and focus on the parts that constitute the whole. Sometimes they’re meaningful, other times arbitrary, but the process of association unto itself makes the abstract more concrete. Does that mean that learning process ceases to be excruciating? To the degree that wearing a t-shirt in the freezing cold is better than going shirtless, yes. But you’re still going to suffer. There’s a saying among artists: embrace the suck. Ultimately, your capacity to cope with that suck matters far more than your efforts to reduce it.

[@Globiworld2000]

If there is a single domain where rota learning is the best method - probably language learning is the one. But have to be applied to learning full sentences (and properly translated-not by Google translator).

[@vaxrvaxr]

Very sensible take. IMO it's also important to point out that the actual learning happens when you see a word in different contexts "in the wild", not while doing flashcards. However, flashcards can be immensely useful for recognizing that word in the first place.

[@FenShen-us9tv]

Yeah people think studying methods are magic or they can learn a language in a month. Truth is you'll have to sit down and do a lot of boring memorization.

[@loldoctor]

​@@vaxrvaxr I think that's true overall, and a good point. In fact, one-for-one meaning is more or less nonexistent between languages, aside from close neighbors. On the other hand, there are also things that just suck and nothing helps, such as conjugations, articles, genders, irregulars, or even spelling to some extent. It's that kind of stuff that really discourages people who thought they could do this without having to memorize stuff. But the truth is we memorize material even in our native languages, such as writing systems or vocabulary. No on is truly safe from the grind.

[@anoakenstaff]

Ah thanks! I'm actually just learning Japanese and was looking to how encoding and SRS would play into it. Right, so Anki would be easier than encoding, but would getting a language learning partner be a bad idea in general?

[@pan2aja]

The fact that hundreds of people can converse and contribute to this conversation (i.e they watched both of those videos) are simply amazing. A lot of people are learning how to study more effectively

[@obnoxiouslakerfan]

Thrilled that this popped up in my recommended. I love the precision and nuance of how you explain learning science, and I like how you talk about Justin without any drama or fuss. Subscribed.

[@ItsAsparageese]

Holy crap, this video is super valuable and your replies to other commenters' questions are an absolute gold mine of not just insight but also compassion. I like your style. New sub here for sure! Thank you for investing so much time and effort into sharing your knowledge!

[@apakdemos]

You put your finger on it! I was puzzled by Justin’s very simple and narrow definition of active recall, whereas in reality the study strategy he advocates for is precisely what active recall is supposed to be. He has a point though because there definitely are people who are under the impression that they’re practicing active recall while all they actually do is use flash cards to train their memorization skills. So, admittedly, the confusion stems from the imprecise naming of the concept. It would be better to call it something like “encoding-optimizing recall” that’s harder to oversimplify.

[@ernieparchment2195]

Thank you Ben for sharing your years of experience with no strings attached😊

[@IcyTorment]

I think what you're saying and what Justin's saying give me a much better idea of why I've had such poor results from most attempts at SRS for learning Japanese, and also why my experience with the Jalup flash card decks has been so much more successful than the rest of the SRS-based techniques I've tried. Combining SRS with reading (and not just reading the throw-away sentences on the front of the cards, but also the explanations on the back that I need to understand the new item) in the language seems consistent with what you're saying.

[@nicolaspaes]

As mentioned in the comments, this is taught very early in Justin Sung course. The method consist in encoding the information well and then having a spacing interleaving retrieval to prevent forgetting and learn further. It would be great to have a video of you and Justin together, or maybe a discord to discuss some ideas further. Thank you for producing good content :)

[@benjaminkeep]

Thanks for messaging - yeah, Justin reached out the other day. Would be great to collaborate on something!

[@farazzali]

@@benjaminkeep looking forward to that!

[@g12nm]

Hello Nicolas, could you mention the ideal spacing interval recommended by Justin?

[@aakankshadesai5538]

@@g12nm Instead of going for ideal spacing, doing it is more important

[@g12nm]

@Aakanksha Desai thanks for the reply Aakansha, just being curious, does he mention anything like after 1 days then a week, then a month sort of stuff in his course. Or is it more about the time elapse doesn't matter.

[@edboss36]

Flashcards work well enough for me to get good exam results but if you want to get into a deeper level of understanding I think they won’t work. For something like Maths, remembering your thought process when you attempted a similar maths problem is helpful. Good insight btw I’m going to use the retrieval components from now!

[@martinnhantran]

I found this video through KZbin recommendations, I used to watch Justin Sung videos. Great content keep it up!

[@patho977]

Thanks for the video and providing your insight to all of the community :)

[@brucehutch5419]

I stumbled on Justin' Sung then shortly thereafter stumbled on you Benjamin Keep. You are both very helpful and is what I need to improve my reading speed and comprehending then encode and recall information.

[@thevinugunawardena9188]

You just got a sub. Man why don't you have more subs. This is great stuff man, keep it up.

[@gerharddamm5933]

I wish they had more examples of these concepts. Like have a walkthrough of how they study a new concept

[@benjaminkeep]

I'm working on some videos that will address this, kind of like this one (kzbin.info/www/bejne/jYPNpIKLa9KCppY) but for learning concepts/ideas from books.

[@manwithtie6708]

well justin did a good way to explain this idea. The way through a step by step walkthrough about how one studies is simply not the best case scenario because with one concept there are numerous possibilities of existing walkthrough (imagine a ball in a big room and the number of possibilities of that ball existing anywhere), it's really about the principle behind those concepts that really matters which you can use to tweak your preexisting concept or habit or your own walkthrough

[@gabrielgolonilolo4512]

What I liked about this video is that you didn't put all Justin's ideas in the trash. You talked to Justin's ideas and used them together with yours! I liked it very much

[@seeds6211]

Wow I love this. I've been doing lots of concept mapping with less retrieval. Never bested my course mate who's into 'HUGE RETRIEVAL' and a little below optimum concept mapping than I do

[@elizabethingram3800]

Yes, his videos have worked very well for me--I aced my finals-so very helpful. Anki seems to be greared more to subjects that require a lot of rote learning, like medicine, of which I'm not a student. However, I do expect to use Anki in some form in law school. Following you now, too. :)

[@PaulTopacio]

Great video! It would be awesome if you also detailed your journey through law school-what were your study techniques, how they evolved over time, and how you would've studied in law school if you were given a chance to start all over again now that you have the tools from being a cognitive scientist. It would be an insightful watch!

[@benjaminkeep]

Thanks for the suggestion!

[@lecomtedemontecristo8451]

I would really like to know that response video

[@essennagerry]

That would be very interesting! There's not a lot of videos like this on youtube, infact I can only think of Justin and two other people on youtube even talking about this at all.

[@kenal1532]

​@@essennagerry so.. whos the other 2

[@Haru-lw7qx]

​@@kenal1532I would like to know too

[@160p2GHz]

I basically take his videos as alternatives anyway. I definitely do very well with some more widely known or old school methods that he says don't work (or to be fair often just says don't work for everyone). Like pomodoros sure don't work for everyone but they work incredibly well for me. I like learning alternative methods through Justin's videos though they can feel a little like he's selling me a timeshare at times. I figure he's coming at it from the perspective of someone who has made a career of helping people the usual stuff won't work for. Appreciate your background too though and your calling out inaccuracies. Honestly plan to learn form both of you from here on.

[@cindystokes8347]

My favorite learning method these days is throwing my ideas out to chat GPT about how I think something I learned connects to something else or applies. Or just start having a conversation asking it for more context. The conversation does a great job helping things sink in.

[@krishanSharma.69.69f]

Can you give an example? Please?

[@cindystokes8347]

@@krishanSharma.69.69f I just sort of think out loud or ask it to define something then dig in to ask it to explain the parts I didn't understand. (Just whittle down the definition until it's explained everything you don't get). And then I'll respond with things like, while talking with it about the As-a-service products that are coming up and everything as a subscription that there was a sort of parallel to Adam Smith's example of division of labor creating a coat. You simply have a conversation full of wonderings and observations that you might not feel free to waste the time of a human being with.

[@krishanSharma.69.69f]

@cindystokes8347 😄 That's actually fun. It's like asking stupid question as a little kid to one's father but in this case the ai gives correct answers.

[@bottlecap6169]

@@krishanSharma.69.69f The AI does not give correct answers unfortunately. ChatGPT is a language model; it reconstructs language to be as convincing as possible to an interpreter. This includes telling lies, giving fake quotes, etc. Using ChatGPT to learn is a bad strategy because of this. While it may get general things correct (although even this isn't ensured) it will almost certainly get nuanced issues and details incorrect.

[@ACTACTACT]

​@@bottlecap6169Sounds like a teacher in class 😂

[@tullochgorum6323]

Justin's right - the theory of learning is complex. But then you have to boil it down to something that's teachable and workable in practice. I've been playing with these ideas for over half a century, and for me what works is: 1) Encoding using mind maps focused on answering an explicit question - eg Why was Britain the first country to industrialise? Answering questions forces higher level thinking rather than just parroting your source. 2) Using spaced repetition algos to schedule review of the mind maps 3) Re-creating the mind map from memory to answer the same question or a related question that synthesises related maps - eg What was the role of the Royal Navy in driving the Industrial Revolution? I evolved this back in the '70s during my undergraduate economics course at Cambridge - rated one of the best and toughest in the world. I got a 1st Class Degree working 9-5, 5 days per week. Many of my classmates, who were far more academically gifted than me, worked themselves to exhaustion for a poorer result. But they were studying hard, not smart...

[@benjaminkeep]

This is great advice. For anyone else reading, note how during part (3) Tullochgorum suggests answering a different question than they did in part (1). This is ideally what you want to be doing. It's kind of like how physical therapists will work on stability by pushing your limb randomly in different directions. You're taking the material and molding it to answer different kinds of questions.

[@ashley_smith]

Thank you for mentioning language. I watch Justin's videos, but he doesn't mention language as much as other subjects. When you are a beginner in a language, it is difficult to keep going to the next order in the pyramid. There isn't a lot of prior knowledge, especially when the target language is quite different from your native language ie English vs Korean lol

[@benjaminkeep]

A lack of prior knowledge definitely impacts how we can engage in the material.

[@jfox8888]

since im binge watching [ again ] from Justins and obviously, commented on your newer videos on [ memory palace ] , Combine - Spaced reptition + initial 1st level encoding [ properly define what terms and associated, and pre-knowledge ] + Open/free active recall which Ben, here has mentioned i would even go as far as using Jim Kwik's 6R and [ left column, right comments input with free-recall ] jumble them up into a mini-mind map and viola, as many prior have commented, the encoding is a problem if its not aforementioned and detailed properly what are the terms, and variables, it would be disastrous, however, thats where, the same above combination or initial encode and re-code later after free-recall-mind-map with 6R comes to play, since you wouldnt know what you dont know, the pre-define tests, or shall i put it as , [ bloom's taxonomy with feynman technique etc ], better focus can be done to pull up the more relevant or MOST annoying portion of learning the htings that you need P.s flash cards are good, if its ONLY questions, for the person to fill in actively, with no answers next , and [ re-trace back to the 3rd-encoding/ definition for one's brain ] as for those pesky math, or logic related, Benjamin with his recent video, patterns DO emerge once you try to rote memorize the basic stuff, or do until the brain optimises itself to [ remember ], e.g that same car you see every day, you know WHO the driver is, and if its different person, you would notice because it [ sticks out like a sore thumb ] , and thats what, and why [ sticking out like a annoying blimp ] , which are [ free -recall ] and [ tests] are for , it triggers the brain to [ play the game ] since it bugs out . just my 2cents worth, again , from re-binge watching all the mentioned youtubers' videos

[@RameshKumar-ng3nf]

Huge respect for you 🙏 Seing the thumbnail and title , i thought you are going to criticize Justine Sung😃 But you appreciated it and also adviced many to go through his videos. Thanks for that. Actually i followed Justin style of learning since 1 month and it completely changed my life. Happy to have been learning now instead of studying. Enjoying my studies now as i am having more fun in learning things.

[@phanikatam4048]

hey ramesh kumar i am from andhra might be you too let me how you doing blooms , can please explain to me with example ...

[@RameshKumar-ng3nf]

@@phanikatam4048 Hey Phani bro.. Me too from Andhra. Sorry for late response. Just now read your message. Definitely bro will share a example. Difficult to explain in detail in a comment but will try my best to share you what i learnt. Note below. You can apply this to any subject you study : 1) Ineffecient way of studying : When 10 hours of studying → 1 hour learning We are wasting lot of time here. 2) Efficient way of studying : When 1 hour of studying → 1 hour learning 3) How to study anything new ? : a) Instead of studying 100 units of detailed study on a particular topic , better study 100 units of anchor points. This will develop a prior knowledge and link on what you are studying. b) Study what is relevent and avoid the unecessary stuffs which is not that important. Later you can come back to the unecessary stuffs once you complete the important stuffs. c) Try to have more prior knowledge on next day before studying another new topic. d) Develop a foundation slowly before proceeding with complex stuffs. e) Develop a good cognitive load to your brain instead of blindly stuffing brain with pages of information.

[@phanikatam4048]

@@RameshKumar-ng3nf got the point bro , are you a studying or job holder ? I am using blooms taxanomy which helping a lot for me ...but i bit confused first i applied blooms taxonomy like thinking in plan text learning than visualising concept so it makes hell to me Now everything going super fine easy ...now i need to complete 200 hours vedio lectures in 3 days ...hope everything goes well ...using blooms higher thinking , Feynman teaching with spaced revision ...hopes it goes well ... Bit anxiety about that ...it's some imp task ...Justin ones really a game changer but revision is highly important ... whatever we read or listen about blooms taxanomy... implementation is a task .... especially speed learning

[@RameshKumar-ng3nf]

@@phanikatam4048 Bro, i am working in IT industry in Bangalore since 1 year. I am still studying and upgrading myself for future. I read all your message in detail. One thing to say you is , you done a good job using blooms taxanomy & Feynman technique. Its already great.. Thats what is needed and nothing else. Regarding spaced repetition , i used to do a lot but now i stopped. I teach to my juniors and friends daily 1 hour and that itself becomes like a spaced repetition for me when they ask doubts. That helped for me. As you are in to time constraints and had to do speed learning, please follow what you are already doing which is good as per me. Please DONOT go into too many youtube videos of learning.. Stick to what you doing right now and focus on the work & study you need to do each day. Your study techniques is already good 👍

[@phanikatam4048]

@@RameshKumar-ng3nf oh same here bro I am DevOps engineer ..find a adavence level architecture course which helps me a lot to gain knowledge i am 3+ years exp candidate... planning to switch new company Now i completely stick with blooms , teaching , not spaced revison in dates but i revise untill if feel enough and confident ... Same it

[@GPxNABrothers]

About the necessity of higher order skills on the revision, its interesting to note, that Justin *agree* according to his video on efficient revision techniques.

[@benjaminkeep]

Yes - I agree with a lot of what I've heard from him. Actually, I wish I would have emphasized a point he makes in his video on "you actually have to have something to retrieve to practice retrieval" (paraphrasing), because I suspect that one of the main problems with flashcarding is this. Rather than sitting there and putting the thing into a higher context or fixing it in your mind as much as you can, it's more like "okay, X = Y, NEXT!"

[@rarogcmex]

Thank you. You're very creative and illustrative actor, I get a lot of fun.

[@Michaah]

loved using flash cards to study. the points you mentioned are no inherent flaws to flashcards I would argue, with things like anki you have the opportunity to challenge yourself to apply the points you made. Edit: typo

[@missladydollette4458]

In the retrieval phase of learning the biggest and only thing that I take into account is your advice of "study in a way of how you want to apply it/test it". Flashcards are useful but not for everything, in learning vocabulary and concepts they can be but not for the rest. Doing practice questions, your method of free recall are other good examples of information retrieval on a more context based studying.

[@markusklyver6277]

I disagree. Flashcards can be useful if instead of putting isolated facts in put things like "read this paragraph" or "do this exercise". Flashcards are NOT only for isolated facts, but is often used to memorize isolated facts. You can even put "explain what a coholomogy group is" on a flashcard and test your ability to explain it whenever that card comes up. People have even been using Anki for scheduling when they should practice with their dog to do a particular trick. What you are describing is just a misuse/misunderstanding on how to use flashcards effectively. Anki is just a scheduler. You can put whatever you want on a flashcard, including more abstract tasks.

[@ThirdLawPair]

There's a lot we can understand about how these desirable difficulty strategies work if you account for two key facts. 1) Long term memory is content-addressable, not index-addressable. 2) Automated action chains are released in response to situational signals at a high level of perceptual information processing, not sensory signals at a low level of processing.

[@gonzalooviedo5435]

Just Brilliant how you analyze Justin's Video, congratulation, very effective and useful video, thanks!!!!

[@xXJ4FARGAMERXx]

This advice is all well and good when you're trying to actually learn, but that's not what I want to do. What I want to do is be able to recall the answers given the questions that come up on the exam. Understanding the subject is gonna make it easier to get the general idea out, but for the exact wording? Understanding is not gonna help with that one bit. And in the exam, the person grading me doesn't care how much I understand the subject, they just care about how much my wording matches the textbook's wording. So if I wanna make sure my chances are as high as possible, I better brute-force the exact wording into my head with flashcards. Now, I know what you're gonna say, "wouldn't it be better to start remembering the exact wording after you actually _understand_ the subject?" And my answer is, yeah, it would be better. But that assumes that I can understand the subject. And some subject are just very hard to understand. So, at least I think, it's not worth the effort to spend an hour understanding the subject, and then 30 minutes remembering the exact wording, instead of just brute-forcing it for 1 hour from the beginning. I also just don't want to learn some subjects. I'm not interested in learning how the frog pees or how this scientist discovered a slightly better way to infuse particles together, I'm interested in math, programming, and computers! So for those subjects I understand because I actually want to learn them, and for the others I just brute-force them with flashcards and after the exam's over I delete all my cards.

[@pimjikens]

This was extremely helpful, thank you!

[@nilufertek3177]

Hahah I love how smoothly and kindly he attacks Justin’s concepts. I’m not like taking sides but it was just like watching a beautifully arranged set of chess moves.

[@Imagine_sisyphus_happy]

Great video,i was wondering about other techniques like what are your thoughts on the feynman technique?

[@tytsam72]

Super Short summary of the video Encoding & Retrieval are both integral and important parts of effective studying or learning. We need to do both. Surprisingly according to a research, Retrieval in any form is usually more effective than Encoding in terms of applying or Retaining information as Knowledge. In other words, Doing effective Practice of the Skill matters a lot. or Tests. In this case, Studying to Learn with a target of getting good grades in an Examination is an act of applying the information or knowledge. So the most effective way of practicing is in the most similar way or format to how examinations will occur. It's like a sport. Practice your sport in the most realistic game time scenarios as often as possible.

[@lazymonkey08]

I really enjoy your video. It's very different and more clear when an actual scientist explaining it. Anyway, Can you please make a guide how to learn in a fast changing industries like computer science, thanks.

[@BroskiXP]

Great video! My takeaway is to focus on how to effectively recall better. A lot of students recall by flashcards, however this method decontextualize the material and can be ineffective. The flashcard systems gets the spaced part right and we can add onto this system with applying new context, comparing, and testing the material. Synthesis and reorganization is not something I understand right now, I'm not sure what this truly means.

[@markusklyver6277]

I disagree. Flashcards can be useful if instead of putting isolated facts in put things like "read this paragraph" or "do this exercise". Flashcards are NOT only for isolated facts, but is often used to memorize isolated facts.

[@fahadalghamdi9316]

Hello i know im 3 months late, but I hope this is helpful for others. Synthesis is basically taking the information provided and making it more than than the sum of its parts, think of it as putting puzzle peaces together to form the whole picture.(if the picture is the context and puzzle wedges are the facts synthesis is how the wedges fit together) Reorganization is basically changing the form of a problem yet painting the overall content. Like how to transform a multiplication problem to a division problem.

[@jlen9640]

The Go-Set behind you is nice :D

[@heaven1537]

I just studied this Psychology and it I love how things are just doing “click” right now (kinda hard how to explain it)

[@lilitalimaa]

beautiful explanation!

[@pepperpeterpiperpickled9805]

No disrespect to Sung, but on a scale of 0 *("how I gained 110% on my exams while doing ZERO work")* to 10 *("do this to improve performance, this is why it works and heres the research to back it up")* he's a solid 4. Youre a 10 mate, I've binged your videos and one blew me away. It was 4 minutes long but it was condensed with useful information. cheers!

[@turkmusik]

Flashcards are an excellent way to first learn vocabulary in a foreign language. They are fast and efficient. The deeper encoding comes later from using the words when you speak, read, and write, and when you listen to others.

[@_anime_shawty7654]

How do you encode

[@markusklyver6277]

They are also useful for other things, in fact: they are useful for most things. Flashcards can be useful if instead of putting isolated facts in put things like "read this paragraph" or "do this exercise". Flashcards are NOT only for isolated facts, but is often used to memorize isolated facts. You can even put "explain what a coholomogy group is" on a flashcard and test your ability to explain it whenever that card comes up. People have even been using Anki for scheduling when they should practice with their dog to do a particular trick. What you are describing is just a misuse/misunderstanding on how to use flashcards effectively. Anki is just a scheduler. You can put whatever you want on a flashcard, including more abstract tasks. For mathematical proofs, you can split them up into various flashcards and isolate important steps. You can also just have a flashcard "do the proof of the mean value theorem". There is nothing with with flashcards.

[@sicko_the_ew]

I think this depends on what it is you're studying. If it's language you're learning (and just the basics, to get you to the point where you're in a position to try deep things like poetry, for instance) then Anki is fantastic. The thing to remember is that you can make your own cards, and if you try to make really good ones, you're going to use higher level processing to do so, anyway. I'd say that beyond the bare basics, this would be an essential part of the automated spaced repetition part of your strategy (and all that is, is delegating the job of reminding you to test the leakiness of your base memory regularly, to a machine that doesn't get bored with this kind of thing.) (And if you're doing too many hours on the cards, just do less! It's really easy. The problem there is ambition, not something intrinsic to Anki.) I'm guessing this could be extended to things beyond language that end up having a "vocabulary" quality to them. If you're studying medicine, you need to refresh your vocabulary entry for all the knowledge you have of a tibia, occasionally - probably once every 500 years for that bone, though? It applies to something like calculus, too. The most important part of developing your underlying more general mathematical capabilities, to begin with, is working through the proofs, and learning from the masters, working through all your own trivial little exercises, too, because baby steps, and focusing on why things are done the way they are in the subject (which in many cases is little more than an advanced version of learning to be a good dog who knows how to sit). However, you move on from that. For a little while, you have quite a deep and broad understanding of single variable calculus swishing around in your head, but then you move on to differential equations, and instead of needing to be good at retrieving the best integration trick from a whole bag, you specialize in a thing called integration by parts. And you "automate" it, because that's just an adjunct to the real problems you're wrangling with at that time. You take something you had to carefully set out on the page in neat little tables, so that it didn't confuse you, and you make it into something you've abbreviated enough to almost do it "by mental arithmetic". In so doing, you begin to lose touch with the insights that you gained by learning the trick, before it became just a trick. And there's where some spaced repetition could help save some of what's leaking out of your head as you move on to the next great thing in a subject like maths. Those things you got down pat as nice fast facts and are beginning to forget? You might forget less of them if you just refreshed the memory attached to at least that part. And you could do better. You could create a flash card that depends on you remembering how some theorem starts. (Sort of like how people who remember poetry manage that - remember the last word of this line, and the first of next, and all the rest is automatically attached to that - until the links break). So with the integration by parts trick, you could keep reminding yourself of the more "basic" version that involves deeper knowledge than the later "high-speed/ computationally competent" version does. Make a good flash card - and learn from the hard work that this entails, too - and then let a computer do the boring job of scheduling the next prod of the memory. I don't know what ultimate value this would have, but it seems to offer the promise of greater retention of the more elementary (and fundamental - and often deepest) parts of what you learn for longer than is usual. A lot of math-trained people I've talked to say they haven't done any calculus for the last 20 years, and wouldn't know where to start any more (and many of these are engineers). Maybe it's OK to forget everything we learn, then? (Since it seems that this is what a lot of people do with their education in the long run, anyway.) If you don't remember it, you don't know it. That's probably not dogmatically true, though. Has to have a grain of truth in it, but it might in practice be a very tiny little grain.

[@phanikatam4048]

i am using questioning first and visualise myself for better understanding and recall , now i apply the information to real world or perior knowledge , break the topic to dig deep or make relation to the topics, judge , now i teach the topic in spaced intervals , what you say ? any suggestions

[@sicko_the_ew]

@@phanikatam4048 My opinion is that it's important to make your own decks for spaced repetition as soon as you can. That way, you apply all the techniques you mention here to create the best cards you can (for you), so you get the benefits of all ways of learning. (And your card "switches all that back on" when it appears to test your memory in the future. The cards you remember well will only appear something like once a year or less, but that's what you want. It's nice to just be reminded to think again about what you figured out for yourself three years ago, instead of to just start to forget it, the way so many people do.

[@SplendidKunoichi]

i think the problem is that no, you stop your persistent study of elementary integrals and work of exercises in symbolic manipulation after a time, but you don't move on at all in your approach to the subject because you can't, it doesn't let you. at every level there's just too much to learn a couple pages ahead, the stakes become far too high to let a single chapter slip through the cracks in your understanding, and its always so damn hard it might even be that you have nothing to learn from a subject so crazily difficult to understand; rather the value in such things is just that you have everything to gain when it somehow works out

[@markusklyver6277]

I disagree. Flashcards can be useful if instead of putting isolated facts in put things like "read this paragraph" or "do this exercise". Flashcards are NOT only for isolated facts, but is often used to memorize isolated facts. You can even put "explain what a coholomogy group is" on a flashcard and test your ability to explain it whenever that card comes up. People have even been using Anki for scheduling when they should practice with their dog to do a particular trick. What you are describing is just a misuse/misunderstanding on how to use flashcards effectively. Anki is just a scheduler. You can put whatever you want on a flashcard, including more abstract tasks. For mathematical proofs, you can split them up into various flashcards and isolate important steps. You can also just have a flashcard "do the proof of the mean value theorem". There is nothing with with flashcards.

[@GlatHjerne]

I love the effects in the first part of the video, hilarious. 🤣

[@Nicolas-bh7hq]

This video and the interview with J. Sung was amazingly eye opening. Thanks, Dr. Keep! :) I'm trying to escape the flashcard only mindset (I almost shed tears, I'm not kidding), but now I'm struggling with this: Scheduling of free recall sessions. How to "program" when to do them? I.e., with what criteria to do the spacing?

[@Nicolas-bh7hq]

I'm inclined to believe that even just "winging it" would mostly suffice. But I'm only now going to begin to research this. And I figured if by chance you read this comment and had something in the top of your mind, you could point me in the right direction. Again, thanks a lot anyways!

[@Nicolas-bh7hq]

Just found the other video! You basically say to wing it. As someone who wrote thousands upon thousands of flashcards (basically hell) that makes me a bit anxious 😅

[@benjaminkeep]

I don't think it's crazy to "wing it". But I also don't think it's crazy to set up some sort of schedule. I imagine most calendar apps would let you set up something like: 3 days, 1 week, 1 month, 4 months. Even just blocking off time once a week for free recall of any sort on material you've been learning lately would be helpful, IMO. It's not that winging it is optimal. It's that it's hard to know, in general, what the perfect interval would be (depends on your prior knowledge and encoding of the material, on the material itself, on how long you want to remember the stuff for, etc.). There's also just not enough research, IMO, to say "THIS IS THE WAY". So we have to rely on practical experience and do some personal experimentation.

[@Nicolas-bh7hq]

@@benjaminkeep Yes, this makes complete sense. Honestly, given the fuzzy edges and rapid moprhing of content while doing free recall (vs. flashcards), maybe I should have anticipated your reply. ^^ Thanks again Dr.! :)

[@bombasticcat]

Can you do a viedeo thats called: "Basics of learning". You can indroduce various types of learning like you did in the list 8:15 (ex. what is synthesis and reorganisation). Then you can break down some common studie strategies that involves some of the aspects from the list and at the end we can decide, wich one we'd like to try out. Also a pretty nice tech Yt (jv scholz) was talking about a pomodoro technique. Maybe you can include it too.

[@thaicuisineoui]

Amazing content, thank you!

[@MrCorpsy6]

SuperMemo does include most of those important parts through its "incremental learning" tools. You have different contexts if you read broadly (Piotr Wozniak uses the concept of "knowledge Darwinism"); you need to gradually rephrase the extracts you read and the cloze deletions (the "cards") you create; sometimes, you compare things using the "subset learning" and "neural review" tools, which are basically like taking your notes and books and read them all together. You still need to practice outside of the software though.

[@growthucator]

Retrieval is the foundation of every individual learning session and the learning process as a whole.

[@1eV]

so we have to use retrieval but incorporate synthesis, reorganization, comparison, application and context into it

[@daysandwords]

Hi Ben, Great stuff! I got something out of this video and the more of yours I watch, the more I want to make my own response. I'm a bit busy at the moment but at some point, I might do one. 😆

[@user-hw8cq9er1d]

he has a new video covering how to do correct revision, which is similar to what you say

[@musicsdarkangel]

Dr. Keep, these are excellent videos an I appreciate it. I'd be curious how you can apply this to chess learning? Many tactics are using spaced repetition to drill the same move.... How could one improve more quickly at chess?

[@benjaminkeep]

You should check out Bryan Castro's channel! www.youtube.com/@BetterChessTraining/featured He's a great guy and knows a lot about chess. We did a collab video a while back on chess training techniques: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pnqoZpt6ZZ6sn5Y

[@chance5745]

Gosh, I wish I didn't find learning so difficult. Thanks for taking the time to make this video, but my brain just exploded. Kind regard, C.

[@benjaminkeep]

My condolences. On the plus side, you seem to have a remarkably functional exploded brain. 🙂

[@g12nm]

Also, have you looked into deeper processing( craik and lockart's) vs. retrieval. The first one might have to do with encoding

[@benjaminkeep]

I know something about levels of processing. As a general principle that describes a large number of experimental results (and a rule-of-thumb guide for learners), it's great. But encoding is complex - there are lots of studies that complicate the basic idea that encoding on meaning (deeper processing) is always good and encoding on sound or letter shape (shallow processing) is always bad. I totally agree with Justin that many people do not encode very deeply. But how we encode something also depends on how we want to ultimately use it. As I say at the end of the video, using good encoding processes and retrieval processes together is really what will be effective in the long run.

[@benjaminmorris-spears4169]

I think Justin overcomplicates learning because he has the courses. But honestly learning is a very natural process and what I’ve noticed from videos like these is that we need to focus on simple things (such as practice problems) instead of unnecessary techniques (such as concept mapping)

[@globulidoktor1733]

When I started my physics degree I heard about retrieval practice for the first time. I heard how evidence-based it is etc... So I started just doing Anki, past papers and the exercise sheets I must say it almost ruined my whole carreer: my conceptual understanding was close to 0, so my memorization and procedural math skills had to carry me through the degree I heard about encoding half a year ago, and since then things are finally going much better again There are things you're good with just retrieval like business administration degrees, but it's insanely harmful for science to just rely on that

[@devvv4616]

the free recall thing he's talking about is really close to the feynman technique. basically you explain the concept to yourself with a blank piece of paper to help you visualize the concepts.

[@kori9779]

Hi, fellow physics student. I am curious about some of the methods you apply when learning physics? Aside from doing tons of practice problems.

[@felixhaag1335]

Idk, Flash cards Kind of make sense for science as well for when you want to get down definitions etc. I mean you must remember newton's laws if you want to apply them to a problem. I only started cracking my physics degree when I complemented my problem sessions with flash cards.

[@avendesora_]

Omg I had this same problem throughout my degree :/ Profs were always baffled by how even upper year students didn't seem to have a fluid understanding of key physics concepts, but this is what happens when past papers become the primary study method. Everyone around me was just doing past paper after past paper so I did the same and I feel like it barely got me anywhere conceptually. At the end of the day, it felt like I was just taking a bunch of meaningless integrals and like I had learned nothing. And it's really come back to bite me during my PhD :/ I think encoding (establishing relationships between concepts, finding the first principles, etc.) is absolutely so important to succeed in physics. When I look back to my high school days when I was a top student, the material was simple enough that I could effectively encode effortlessly...but that wasn't the case for me in uni. So now I'm trying to put effort into encoding so that I can fill in all the (huge) gaps in knowledge from my uni days.

[@kori9779]

@@felixhaag1335 Flashcards only help you to remember stuff, but to be fair conceptual knowledge in physics is not about memorization. In my opinion, applying it to problems by analyzing the laws and interactions of a given system is much more effective

[@doc-aj7842]

Great video and your point similar additional/variable steps for encoding and retrieval like synthesis can be applied to both led me to ohh movements .... It make sense now movement now 😂😂 for space revision I'm Going to watch ⌚ this again again after 3 days , end of week then months ... For retrieval maybe 🤔 .... Free recall 🤠 ..... Jokes 🤣 aside ..... Great video

[@benjaminkeep]

Awesome - happy to hear it! You won't find me complaining if you watch it again...😆 But definitely do some free recall first.

[@roku-casualenjoyer555]

I love these counterargument videos

[@jannetteberends8730]

I studied at the university of Maastricht. They use problem based learning. The method is studying with the help of a case. This is done in a student group of 12 students. There are 7 steps in the problem. Step 2 is that the group tries to define the problems in the case. Step three is gathering the information the members in the group already have that can be useful. Next step is figuring out what information you need to know to solve the problem. Next step is finding this information. So new information is embedded in existing information, that’s the most important thing. But also discussing it helps to get the new knowledge in your memory.

[@ZonymaUnltd.]

I believe the flash card method has its benefits when it comes to Loci methods of retention. The method of Loci, better known as a _mental palace,_ is a technique for mentally categorizing information using spacial imaginative pneumonic devices. The key here using cognitive synthesis to create connections.

[@Blaster0095]

This worked well in college where there was less information to encode and it tested more of your conceptual understanding. In medical school, there are 2 main limitations. 1. Huge amount of information 2. Lack of resources and time. Thats why Anki is so helpful. There are already Anki resources out there and not enough time for spaced retrieval practrices.

[@MsCloseCombat]

So in simpler terms, this video argues for learning theory first and then mastering it through practice. I'm personally more the type to jump into things first, try and make sense of what I can, and then finally get my hands on that cheat sheet (theory). Also, I like to differ between the quality of the learning/experience, an event that has personal impact on the subject are surely not going to forget it xD

[@mohammadawad2180]

I trust you because i saw 2 Go tablets! hahah you are a genius! can you make a video on your experience with GO?

[@djjiang3718]

Thank you Benjamin for your great sharing! Are there any books about learning that you would recommend?

[@benjaminkeep]

Some book recommendations are here: www.benjaminkeep.com/recommended-reading/

[@djjiang3718]

@@benjaminkeep Thank you so much! This is super awesome!

[@DanielWieser]

Great video! Subscribed to both.

[@yogabija]

Thanks, so how would you apply retrieval, to someone studying, say, the Polish language. I have a 1-1 session with a tutor once a week, and we write stuff in a document as we go for later use. Then I use duloingo daily to help. How could some one enhance this process by applying the techniques you are talking about? In other words, if I had some extra time to add to my current process, what should I add? Many thanks for a great video. :-)

[@user-jk1tw2qf1i]

I like this video, I will definitely use some of the techniques. But, I do want to share an anecdotal piece of information. I am a MSc. student in mathematical physics and for the most part of undergrad, my means of learning things was reading through textbooks and proving facts and facts. So, I do tons of exercises, which you seem to identify as one of the more effective techniques. However, I think that as a mathematician it is also important to remember as many of the key definitions and theorems as possible in order to properly recall facts you need when writing a proof. Recently, I have actually found it incredibly helpful to use flashcards on Anki, mainly of definitions and theorems. Over the course of maybe a week, I can burn a definition into my long-term memory along with all the exercise work I did with it. I will also recall important theorems so that I can use those proof techniques or just results in my own work. In my mind, it seems like it is more about finding a perfect balance between applying and recalling. If anyone wants to know, with every card I come up with a short spiel on the spot, explaining simple consequences of the definition, where the object comes up in other areas of math, etc. For theorems, I will talk about their proofs as well as corollaries. This technique is extremely helpful if your classes have oral exams.

[@moatef1886]

Can you elaborate more on how you use this for mathematical subjects? I study math and computer science, I have only been studying the way you were previously.

[@user-jk1tw2qf1i]

@@moatef1886 For every one of my classes at school I store almost every definition in Anki. After class, I look through lecture notes and add the definitions to my Anki deck. This process typically starts out slow at the beginning of the semester, because at the beginning is usually when a lot of new definitions are introduced, but later tends to speed up. Every day, I start my day reviewing all the definitions from the previous day by looking through Anki from anywhere between 15-30 mins. If a definition is super simple to remember (which usually only occurs after reviewing my deck a few times) I can skim by it. Otherwise, I will state the definition verbatim and talk as if I was writing something down on a blackboard. If I have been doing exercises related to this definition or have shown how it relates to other definitions within the subject I will elaborate on the connections between the definition and others/theorems. So, I will probably cover around 20-30 definitions/theorems at varying levels of elaboration depending on which I believe deserve more attention. It is a little hard to describe exactly what I do without sharing a concrete example. But, I think you can figure out what works for yourself if you try this technique. It is less about rote memorization and more about building connections between all the things you are covering. What you will (most likely) notice is that you find out very quickly which concepts you are not as comfortable with and can target them. It is also great practice for oral exams because it is one thing to do math in your head and another to share it with someone else. Hope this helps.

[@benjaminkeep]

There certainly is a place for flashcards in some cases. And your spontaneous explanations are probably doing a lot of good work. Have you tried using free recall for the definitions and theorems (and related problems/exercises) instead of flashcards? I suspect that it would be more effective in the long-run.

[@user-jk1tw2qf1i]

@@benjaminkeep I have not. I just recently started looking into optimizing my study habits. I will experiment with some techniques and update this post later this semester perhaps. Thanks for the advice.

[@vignigro3377]

​@@user-jk1tw2qf1i how's that going?

[@davidhill8163]

Well explained many thanks

[@btanonymous]

Top notch sir.

[@pdcx]

good one you earned a new subscriber

[@Closet.Lint555]

I have High-function autism and think his videos are pretty helpful cuz I'm very slow learner & being a slow learner + Autism = AWFUL!!! So when I came across his and started using them with bit of my terms into it it made everything so much BETTER!! 😚

[@edwardharvey7687]

As I was going through the gifted classes in elementary, junior, and high school, and the honors courses in college, I noticed that the top performing students tended to come in two varieties, those who were naturally highly intelligent, and those who tried really hard.

[@qaia2147]

So wdym by that? Genuinely asking

[@nihsumi]

While I agree that tools like Anki alone will not enable you to master a subject it does provide a useful retrieval method for passing some of the hardest university exams in heavy data domain areas of study. I believe the majority of people use apps like Anki for tests where 75-99% of the test questions are non-essay related. They are image identification/location, lists, single or multi-word answers, multiple choice or fill in the blank which Anki is a great prep test tool for. For language learning, outside of someone to help you practice your language learning Anki is avail 24x7 to help you learn 10,000 words, sounds, sentence construction. With Anki add-ons it's limitations seem to be limited to the imagination. From the 1 page of the article (10:03) comparing effectiveness of Retrieval practice to Concept mapping (i.e. Mind Maps) I wouldn't think that any student only does mind maps to prepare for an exam.

[@markusklyver6277]

I disagree. Flashcards can be useful if instead of putting isolated facts in put things like "read this paragraph" or "do this exercise". Flashcards are NOT only for isolated facts, but is often used to memorize isolated facts. You can even put "explain what a coholomogy group is" on a flashcard and test your ability to explain it whenever that card comes up. People have even been using Anki for scheduling when they should practice with their dog to do a particular trick. What you are describing is just a misuse/misunderstanding on how to use flashcards effectively. Anki is just a scheduler. You can put whatever you want on a flashcard, including more abstract tasks. For mathematical proofs, you can split them up into various flashcards and isolate important steps. You can also just have a flashcard "do the proof of the mean value theorem". There is nothing with with flashcards.

[@emilianohermosilla3996]

Fascinating

[@edwardcasas2137]

So, it seems to me that you need to apply the information so you can encode it and place it in memory? When you do this your brain creates more anchores ( experience) in the brain for long memory? I'm actually studying for a IT cert and what aI always do is Lab the problem, take a break and do it again the next day. I also go through basic troubleshooting situations to get a more comprehensive understanding of the problem. My system is read apply test, if I fail then see what I did wrong and repeat. You also have to make sure not to burn out. Tests should be short and sweet. Then take all the small steps and test them all together.

[@swisssaidal2970]

Hey Benjamin!! My semester in uni hast just started and it is NOT going well. In the second week we had an exam, and I failed it… it’s really frustrating that I know all this information about learning (free recall, deliberate practice and spaced repetition) to just not do great. I do not know if I did something wrong in my learning process, or perhaps the course is challenging (a lot of people on my class also failed). The lack of time is also something I struggle with. Spaced repetition is very demanding since it obviously requires a lot of time. My solution was to do a revision timetable, so the topics I didn’t understand I marked them as red, and started from there. But even keeping in time with this timetable was challenging. This exam I was talking about was a math exam. I basically started the first days doing free recall, just so I could memorize the theory. Then, I started practicing problems. I think the first week was manageable. I understood (and sometimes apply) the theory correctly. But in week 2 all started going downhill. The topics were getting harder, and I had to memorize a lot of theory, and I also started to do past papers. I freaked out when I realized that I could (at best) just solve 1 or 2 (out of 5 big questions) questions of the entire test. At this stage (since there were 2 days left for the test and I started to feel the anxiety), I just started cramming. I did past papers, attempt to solve the questions without success, and see the solution. Sometimes I understood the solution, sometimes I just tried to memorize all the steps (since I couldn’t understand the solution as hard as I tried). Then, I went to other questions and followed this pattern. I guess that I just hoped that if I did more questions some could come in the exam. I know, I probably messed up with deliberate practice, but I did not have time to stop to understand something I was supposed to already understand. My anxiety was on the roof, believe me. Yes, there’s probably a LOT of factors that demonstrate why I failed, but it is not so easy to fix this factors, specially when you feel anxious about the time you have on your hands (and the other courses you also have to study for). Anyways, I already paid for more lessons (outside of my normal class time) for some help. My main question is, and sorry if you had to read a lot of info, why sometimes does it happen that we understand the theory and not seem able to apply it? Also, I would really appreciate some feedback about my learning process. You’re an amazing learning coach, keep the good work!!!

[@benjaminkeep]

What you're experiencing is totally normal. And with math in particular, many students struggle with the transition from high school to university-level math. There is a big difference between knowing ABOUT something and being able to skillfully leverage that knowledge in a practical way. You may be experiencing this a bit both with your classwork and with studying techniques. Knowledge, especially in problem-solving subjects, is about application. Repeating textbook definitions or regurgitating standard examples doesn't cut it. I would recommend spending a lot of time not just solving problems, but comparing them to each other. Problem solving skill is a lot about noticing the features of the problem and how these features demand (or imply) certain kinds of solutions. I would lean into understanding the problems more deeply - notice what's similar and different about them and why certain sets of solutions work for some but not others. In the long run, I think it will serve you better to focus on the fundamentals in your class again. Let the short-term losses come (e.g., low grades on a couple of tests) as you build a stronger understanding of the stuff you're currently shaky on. You may know I'm not a big fan of spaced repetition (at least as expressed through flashcards). And perhaps you can see how valuable it would be to realize that you couldn't solve many of the problems on the test way earlier (like 2 or 3 weeks before the test as opposed to 2 days before the test). You want to be attempting problems (and paying close attention to why solutions work they way they do - say, with worked examples) early and often. Good luck!

[@swisssaidal2970]

Hey Benjamin!! Update: I’m failing almost everything. Now that I’m in uni it seems that I was not as clever as I thought myself to be. I made new friends and I feel I’m not extraordinary at all. I fail the tests that they at least pass, or get worse grades than them. It kinda sucks when you’re not anymore the “smartest” in the group. I’m studying my ass off, pulling all nighters before my exams (ik that it is not recommended, but because of the complexity of the topics I have to put in a lot of work), and it is not getting better. Kinda feel like giving up bc there’s no magic solution to this. I do not know what to do to become a high achiever student, even though I know all the “effective study techniques” there are in this world. I guess I do need quite a lot of help, and I was wondering if you offer that kind of help for students (perhaps through meetings). Anyhow, if not, I would really appreciate your take on this. What would you do in my situation?

[@jamesdavies5712]

Hi Swisssai. I'm in my first semester at Uni studying Law and have had major issues with anxiety from day one. I find that when I start getting anxious about deadlines, workload, failing exams, getting kicked off the course, etc, even basic tasks feel completely overwhelming and impossible. I then start wondering what is wrong with me, thinking I'm stupid and that I'm going to have to quit the course. I've had major panic attacks and total meltdowns, but I have begun to notice that after every panic attack and meltdown, I feel a lot better and much calmer. I can then begin to study again and start applying some of the new study techniques I am learning from Justin, Benjamin, and Koi Academy. I've found that the best way to get through anxiety, panic attacks, and meltdowns is to focus on breathing normally and allow them to run their course until they've gone. It may last a few minutes or take an hour, but eventually, they disappear, and I can crack on with my studies. I hope this helps. All the best with your studies. Jim

[@ILoveMaths07]

Do you need help with maths? I really wonder what's making you struggle so much... Maths was never this hard.

[@deinzp10trainer22]

Thank you for sharing your opinion on the effectiveness of flashcards as a learning method. While everyone has their own preferred learning style, I would like to respectfully disagree with your statement that flashcards are not an effective learning tool. In fact, there are numerous studies that have shown the benefits of using flashcards for learning. One such study compared the effectiveness of flashcards to traditional teaching methods and found that flashcards led to significantly higher retention rates (cite: Study 1). Another study focused specifically on language learning and found that flashcards were an effective tool for improving vocabulary acquisition and retention (cite: Study 2). Furthermore, flashcards have been shown to be effective not just in the short-term, but also in improving long-term memory retention (cite: Study 3). This is particularly important for students who want to retain information for an extended period of time, such as for exam preparation or for use in their future career. Of course, every individual learns differently and what works for one person may not work for another. However, based on the scientific evidence, I would argue that flashcards are indeed an effective learning tool that should not be dismissed. Thank you for considering my perspective on this topic.

[@benjaminkeep]

Thanks for the thoughtful comment! I obviously don't know what studies you're referring to, but here are a couple of things to consider when evaluating learning research. 1) Consider what the comparison is. Flashcards are often superior to traditional study methods. But so is a lot of other things. Actually, traditional study methods (highlighting and generic re-reading) is probably the worst possible thing you can do. 2) Consider what the outcome measure is. If your test consists of flashcard-like questions (e.g., "What's the definition of disfluency?" "Who wrote the Magna Carta?"), flashcards focused on those questions would be quite a useful study technique. But a different kind of test, asking you questions you had never seen before and framed differently, like "Explain how disfluent text influences learning." or "How did the Magna Carta influence later documents on human rights?" would produce quite different results. My emphasis here and in other videos is on robust, durable, flexible learning leading to maximum transfer. It's not that flashcards are useless. I think they can play a support role in some cases. But I think they are largely overused and lead to the wrong kind of "cognitive work" needed to to facilitate the kind of learning that I'm concerned with.

[@pedroewert143]

Would you say the often praised superiority of active recal vs summaries & highlighting & rereading is the same as in the study? (concept mapping vs retrieval practice)? because we contrast a recall-tool vs an encoding tool? i have the feeling that therefore people ditch summaries and highlighting for the wrong reasons- they should use it to understand everything better and have an abstract of the info - and use it for the frame work - then fill the rest for example with flash cards. and i think that study youtubers may express their strength and weaknesses through the methods they preach - so i think ali abdaal is great at encoding and teaching, so flash cards were his missing piece, while justin sun may not have be so good at encoding so understanding that part was what he missed (he said for example he started with rote learning for 12 hours daily until he changed his habits to just 4 hours a week)

[@benjaminkeep]

The concept mapping vs. retrieval practice paper that I mention and cite doesn't have much to say about flashcards, summaries, highlighting, or re-reading. It was specifically testing an elaborative encoding technique (concept mapping) vs a retrieval technique (free recall), both of which had found some support in the research literature in the past. Summaries can be quite valuable, but highlighting and re-reading are "bottom-of-the-barrel" study techniques. It's not that they're completely useless - it's more like, unaided, people don't use them very effectively. Re-reading can be vitally important when you need to clarify things, but re-reading as a matter of course (as a thing that you do, like "I'm going to re-read chapter 7 and call it studying") is not effective. You can argue that people don't know how to highlight and re-read effectively - but that's just restating the problem. Even if you teach someone better ways highlighting, I don't think you would see huge gains. More promising is teaching active reading techniques. Honestly, I'm not sure how many people really know how to deeply read. Both highlighting and re-reading also suffer from creating illusions of knowledge (without testing, you don't know whether you know something) and involve weaker cognitive processes - weaker for learning, that is. I don't think flashcards are completely useless either - they can be effective in a limited way - but from what I have seen people rely on them far too heavily (more than the research supporting their use merits). I agree that there's something like a "I tried this new thing and it's working for me, so I'll share it" dynamic going on with any personal advice (productivity, learning, etc.) and that everyone starts from a slightly different place. The problem is that personal experience is a very poor way of evaluating the strength of study techniques. There's the problem that Justin raises - which is that just because something is better than what you were doing doesn't mean that there's not an even better thing to do - but there's also myriad other problems: people change many things, so there's no way of isolating variables, there's no reliable measurements, often the merits (or drawbacks) of techniques discussed are not grounded in prior evidence - etc. That's why we do scientific research.

[@jb_1971]

Isn't encoding as described by Jason also retrieval practice of the previous concepts?

[@calebegomesteles3466]

in the end I didn't really understand what is retrieving. Is it to just test a knowledge in different sets of problems? If so, how to do it? It kind of gets me stuck on the "go back to the book's exercises"

[@asimian8500]

Justin Sung's study methods are common place in Asia. In Northeast Asian cultures like China, South Korea, and Japan, which are obsessed with studying to pass insanely tough college entrance exams, use similar techniques to memorize monstrous numbers of facts. One thing is that the more information you have organized in your head, the easier it is to remember additional facts as your brain connects everything. It's like the Western saying that the "the rich get richer" or in Asian terms "the smart get smarter". The unfortunate thing is that most people have great difficulty with higher level thinking skills like applying knowledge to different problem domains. For example, most STEM students have difficulty applying their science knowledge to the real world. Yes, they can solve textbook problems, but not in a different context and certainly not in a different problem domain. In engineering, we called it "back of the envelope" calculation to answer questions like the infamous "Mount Fuji" question. Listing your assumptions and your thinking process to come up with a "solution" are the most important. Some other thoughts. Mind maps are great if you think in words, but not as effective for visual, intuitive thinkers. Unlike Westerners, many Asians are visual thinkers and don't think in words. Connecting information is the optimal technique which beats any kind of flash cards (don't use them and don't find them effective) or any kind of memory techniques like spaced repetition or spaced retrieval as you placed it into crystallized knowledge. For many people this self-connecting of information will be near impossible, so stick with retrieval techniques and especially if you think verbally using words. Finally, if a blue genie shows up and grants you a wish, ask for more working memory as it's a major limitation of all people. Yes, you can chunk to kinda work around that limitation and can recite Pi to thousands of digits, but if you have better working memory you can chunk far more.

[@mohammeduddin4894]

Idk I think the way people use flash cards is the issue . I feel as if people deciding to lesrn isolated things. I try to use it more as a breakdown of my understanding with a bit of context in the extra column or slide

[@cysecgnz]

I'm an undergrad student who is going on his 10th year in his undergrad degree - yep, 10th year. There are many reasons for the delay, but one of the primary ones is because my study techniques and skills are not only ineffective at helping me remember (I don't remember anything from any of my past courses), but they also take MASSIVE amounts of time, causing me to get behind in my studies and ultimately failing the courses or having to drop them. I'm at a point where things feel extremely hopeless and I've wasted 10 years of my life. Out of desperation I'm here and I simply want to ask, if you'd be willing to offer a second of your time, are you aware of any companies or services out there who can coach me and help me develop better study skills and methods? I feel I need one-on-one help - someone that can actually sit down with me during an assignment and see how I go about trying to study something, and then showing me alternative approaches. Thank you for your time.

[@weilaiyvn]

Hi doctor, I think that those video from Justin Sung was an answer to videos from a relatively famous medic youtuber that also have an udemy study course.

[@normaaliihminen722]

I'm kinda lost on how can I apply these techniques to my studying format. I have dyslexia and I'm want to get into Law school. In my country in order to get into law school through entrance exams applicants are given about 300 pages long entrance exam materials which you have to learn, memorize and apply to said exams tasks. Time given to learn these are usually 1 month These tasks are multiple choices questions, write down definitions (aka mini essay), legal cases, and essays. Biggest issues that I have is multiple choices and writing long but also detailed essay writing. Also I have difficulty to spot information that are confusing to me...

[@Luksoropoulos]

To me it's clear that Anki itself doesn't ask me to do Synthesis, Reorganisation, Comparison, Application and Re-Contextualisation as you put it. This may be true, but from my experience these things are more fun and more interesting anyways and I will do them all these things all the time anyways. What Anki does is helping me with the less fun and more tedious part; and it provides me the material to improve my findings in Synthesis, Reorganisation, Comparison, Application and Re-Contextualisation. So to my personal experience Anki seems extremely powerful to me, although of course it doesn't perform all parts of intellectual processes itself

[@benjaminkeep]

Justin Sung's point - and it's a good one - is that you have to do the "lower-order" things (factual recall) as part of the "higher-order" things anyways. So, in general, just do the higher-order things. There's a fair amount of research that suggests this is the way to go. In some studies, students who practiced questions requiring higher-order thinking skills outperformed students who practiced questions requiring lower-order thinking skills on basic fact questions even though they had not practiced those basic fact questions before. Here are references discussing this basic principle: Jensen, J. L., McDaniel, M. A., Woodard, S. M., & Kummer, T. A. (2014). Teaching to the test… or testing to teach: Exams requiring higher order thinking skills encourage greater conceptual understanding. Educational Psychology Review, 26, 307-329. link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-013-9248-9 Rowland, C. A. (2014). The effect of testing versus restudy on retention: a meta-analytic review of the testing effect. Psychological bulletin, 140(6), 1432. www.researchgate.net/publication/264988491_The_Effect_of_Testing_Versus_Restudy_on_Retention_A_Meta-Analytic_Review_of_the_Testing_Effect McDaniel, M. A., Anderson, J. L., Derbish, M. H., & Morrisette, N. (2007). Testing the testing effect in the classroom. European journal of cognitive psychology, 19(4-5), 494-513. www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Testing-the-testing-effect-in-the-classroom-McDaniel-Anderson/5890758fdccf8e4ea75571f7d8741940660ba38f?p2df Agarwal, P. K. (2019). Retrieval practice & Bloom’s taxonomy: Do students need fact knowledge before higher order learning?. Journal of Educational Psychology, 111(2), 189. psycnet.apa.org/manuscript/2018-26228-001.pdf

[@Luksoropoulos]

Thank you for the references!

[@markusklyver6277]

I think what you are describing is just a misuse/misunderstanding on how to use flashcards effectively. Anki is just a scheduler. You can put whatever you want on a flashcard, including more abstract tasks. For mathematical proofs, you can split them up into various flashcards and isolate important steps. You can also just have a flashcard "do the proof of the mean value theorem". There is nothing with with flashcards. People have even been using Anki for scheduling when they should practice with their dog to do a particular trick.

[@je4a301]

hey, how would you evaluate the usage of flash cards where some should not simply remember just one concept but instead where one has to combine several concepts together and explain why this concept works and why the concept is important? would this fall under a higher order of retrieval practice or am i just deluding myself?

[@MuriloFPires]

What if I make a flashcard with a more open question? Instead of a simple word answer or a cloze-type flashcard, it's a broader question that should be answered with a paragraph. It would be very hard to simply memorize this "big" text, so when I'm reviewing the flashcards it should have a similar effect to free recall, right? And it would also have the benefits of the software-based spaced repetition, so I don't have to manually control and schedule the reviews.

[@josei.reyessoto3042]

How do you recommend putting this into a cohesive system... Im in medical school and I have to go through whole topics in a matter of days. I am 70% through the Justing Sung course... and although it has been useful im still struggling to put the whole system together of effective encoding and effective retrieval. Should I use pre-made decks instead of creating my own if I already did an effective encoding practice?

[@benjaminkeep]

I would favor practice tests/questions over pre-made flashcard decks, if you can get your hands on them. Or doing free recall. If using flashcards, one question to ask yourself is how different would your homemade flashcards be from pre-made ones? If not that much different, then probably not worth it.

[@amrithavasudevan1954]

It would be great to understand how these principles are different for ADHD and neurodivergent brains which have problems with working memory

[@benjaminkeep]

I agree - that's something I know less about, TBH. You might be interested in Temple Grandin and her book The Autistic Brain: Thinking Across the Spectrum. It's a topic I'd like to learn more about and her book has given me some insights.

[@ItsAsparageese]

Agreed, there isn't enough content out there for brains like ours. I've gotten a lot of value out of Dr. K's (aka Healthy Gamer GG) videos, when it comes to the specific neuroscience of ND brains, so hopefully that channel is of some use to you or some other readers! But yeah the intersection of "I'm ND but I want to not just learn tools to help me do normal things, I want to do advanced learning in an academic system that's made for people unlike me" is a content niche that I'm looking forward to seeing filled soon.

[@iranjackheelson]

ADHD is simply an umbrella term for a condition where there's a deficit in attention wrt some task (meaning the level of attention elicited depends on the task/environment). There's no reason as of yet to believe "ADHD brains" are somehow fundamentally different from other brains wrt memory encoding & retrieval, other than the speed at which they occur may vary (again, depedning on the task which determines how much attention it elicits). The idea of memory encoding & retrieval is based, at least historically, on Atkinson-Shiffrin memory model (shown 1:45), and this model only outlines the discrete steps by which the processes occur and has nothing to explicitly say about how level of attention affects each process, though implicitly it may assume more attention = better encoding in general, which is pretty uncontroversial in cognitive science and neuroscience. If you really want to get down and dirty with how exactly different attentional mechanisms might result in different learning outcomes, you'll have to look into connectionist models in cognitive science and AI.

[@amrithavasudevan1954]

@@iranjackheelson​​⁠ I think there's plenty of reason to already believe that ADHD brains work different wrt memory, considering that it is pretty well documented that ADHD impacts working memory in those who have it. If it's to an extent that the impact is seen and documented, isn't that reason enough to investigate if there are differences in what's causing that? And, I think calling ADHD an umbrella term for less attention is also oversimplifying the matter. In the memory modal being mentioned, first stage starts with the sensory register, followed by the short-term store, and ends with the long-term store. It is also pretty well documented that folks with ADHD suffer from sensory hypersensitivities and meltdowns much like autisic people. Which also indicates that there's probably a difference in how sensory input is being processed. I could be way off base but I feel like the differences shouldn't be dismissed so easily.

[@AbdulKarim-md8rt]

THIS BACK & FORTH IS WILDLY HEALTHY 😂🔥

[@retropetroleum]

Would it work if we attempted to integrate higher level thought processes into our flashcards? ie. Instead of putting formulas and definitions, we put in questions that promote application. eg. Instead of: What the tangency condition? We put: Find the optimal choice using the tangency condition

[@benjaminkeep]

At some point, if you modify them enough, flashcards just become test questions, and then we're talking. But if you memorize the answers to these test questions like you memorize flashcards, you're still not doing the right kind of cognitive work, IMO.

[@ayakosaito7323]

9:10 Yes, but such retrieval will end up causing more harm than good in language learning as it will interfere with natural language acquisition if done too early. Please see Dr. Stephen Krashen's Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis.

[@ThuNguyen-bq8vy]

You have verbalised what I wished Justin could have expanded on. His approach is encoding-focussed, which is great when you want to gain initial understanding of the materials. But as soon as you have a rough shape of the information, I would advocate pivoting to encoding practices asap. For law and maths, my most efficient encoding method is to attempt a problem question as soon as possible. It can give you headaches, but that’s because your brain is processing so much more complex information than reading alone. Plus, it is efficient because solving one problem (and learning from the feedback) can give you as much learning as reading the textbooks and watching lectures and attempting a problem combined. PS. I wonder if Justin’s channel is encoding-focused, while my approach (and yours I suppose) is more encoding-focused than his because of the difference in how each subject is tested. The testing of law students is substantially based on how they apply and evaluate the law, and there is less focus on remembering the information. This is the case at least at my institution where they have changed to open-book exams.

[@balobillybomba]

You mean retrieval focused right ?

[@mehdia1399]

Nothing beats deliberate practice.

[@0rhyan]

You're amazing!!!