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The content you deliver is highly useful for me. While I want to enjoy it, I think the background music is giving me negative cognitive load. Love Your contents. ❤😃
My professor always adviced when studying, do not force yourself to memorize but familiarize instead. Which means understand what you're studying not just reading. Works like a charm it helped me enjoy studying. It also helps if you simplify it to ur own understanding and lecture it to yourself.
Yeahh familiarize all the sign and symptoms of a particular disease plus its quantitative tests/values pluss the other diseases with similar results with a quite small fraction of difference. Idk, its quite hard not to memorize all these values/related tests (plus its reference range/normal value) especially all the quantitative part.
in brief: The video titled "Why Active Recall and Spaced Repetition Don't Work" by Justin Sung is a comprehensive discussion on the limitations of the popular study techniques, active recall and spaced repetition. Here's a summary of the key points: 1. **Cognitive Load**: Justin explains that cognitive load, the mental effort required to learn new information, is a crucial part of effective learning. If you're studying and not experiencing cognitive load, your study technique may not be efficient. 2. **Encoding**: Encoding is the process of moving information into long-term memory. It's a difficult process that requires specific techniques and a lot of effort. When your encoding skills improve, you can understand concepts faster, retain information longer, and enjoy studying more. 3. **Active Recall and Spaced Repetition**: These techniques work by adjusting the forgetting curve, which describes how quickly we forget information after learning it. By repeatedly recalling information, we can slow down the rate at which we forget it. However, these techniques have diminishing returns and can become monotonous and time-consuming. 4. **Neuroplasticity**: Justin emphasizes that anyone can improve their encoding skills due to neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections. This means that even if you're not naturally "book smart," you can train your brain to become more efficient at learning and retaining information. 5. **Dunning-Kruger Effect and Success Bias**: Justin discusses these two psychological phenomena to explain why active recall and spaced repetition are so popular, despite their limitations. The Dunning-Kruger effect describes how people with limited knowledge on a subject can feel overly confident about their understanding of it. Success bias refers to the tendency to focus on successful outcomes and overlook failures. 6. **Availability Bias**: This is the tendency to judge the legitimacy of something based on how commonly we encounter it. Because active recall and spaced repetition techniques are commonly discussed and promoted, many people believe they are more effective than they actually are. 7. **Potential for Improvement**: Justin encourages viewers to keep an open mind and believe in their potential for improvement. He suggests that if active recall and spaced repetition aren't working for you, it may be because you're focusing too much on these techniques and not enough on improving your encoding skills. 8. **Course Offering**: Justin mentions his course where he works with students to improve their encoding skills and build a seamless study system. In conclusion, while active recall and spaced repetition are useful techniques, they are not the be-all and end-all of effective studying. Improving encoding skills and understanding the cognitive load can lead to more efficient and enjoyable studying.
I learned to learn (was taught the technique of how to learn) via scaffolding. The idea is that you learn new information by relating it to knowledge you already have. You connect new information to old information which is in your long term memory. I'm not sure exactly how that fits into your model but I do know it has nothing to do with spaced repetition and I do know it's worked well for me.
Hi Justin. I'm 53, have never been academic, and am halfway through my first trimester at Uni studying law. It's been terrifying, completely overwhelming, and the hardest thing I have ever attempted. I started researching techniques to overcome overwhelm on TH-cam and found your videos. I'm not even sure if I'm doing them correctly, but I've found that suddenly, the confusion, terror, and overwhelm have disappeared. I have so much more clarity and focus when I study. The constant anxiety has been replaced by curiosity, pleasure, and confidence. I've enrolled on your course and am really looking forward to getting started with the eventual outcome, that I can teach other people in the same position as me, who have always considered themselves as inherently, incapable of being academic, that it is totally possible with the right techniques. Thank you so much for your help, and I look forward to starting your program.
@@Cube_Box Hi Cube Box. I actually didn't start the course. I started learning meditation and was amazed at the difference it made. I went from studying 60 - 70 hours per week to 20 and still got excellent results. I've found that meditation gets me in the perfect mind space for learning and cuts out the stress. I'm going to enrol on Justin's course over the summer holidays to give me extra time to practice his techniques.
@E B Hi EB. No, I didn't do the course. I started meditating and found it extremely beneficial to my studies and other areas of my life. I finished my first trimester at University studying Law. I passed my courses easily but realised I didn't enjoy the subject so have switched to a general studies degree. I really enjoy meditation and the benefits it brings, and want to concentrate on teaching this in the future.
If you did do the course of the summer holidays, how have you found it, I’m thinking of engaging with this course as I think I heavily rely on active recall which is very very time consuming
Here in Brazil I have an extension project in my college called "Learning Support Project". One of the most important advice that we give to our students is: you need to acquire the information before being able to retrieve it and study through spaced repetition with active recall. In 2016, a study called "Learning Strategies: a synthesis and conceptual model" came up with a new model of what is learning. Spaced repetition and retrieval practice were framed into the "consolidation" phase of learning. The problem is people using spaced repetition and retrieval practice before properly encoding the information through lectures, discussions and another active "acquiring" learning methods. One important point though is to not discourage the use of retrieval practice under spacing effect. The majority of our educational institutes are embedded in traditional techniques that doesn't improve the students capacity of retaining important things. The currently system ignores that there are more than 130 years of research in this area and the evidences are pretty consolidated. For me, a better title for this video is: "How to properly use spaced repetition and active recall". Thank you for the wonderful content!
As you probably know, to acquire a language you must use inputting strategies,like listening and reading. People need to realize that any knowledge works similar to a language. You must listen and read before being able to retrieve . Eu sou brasileiro também. que Deus abençoe.
Repetição ativa e passiva de forma espaçada ao longo do tempo. Assistir uma aula hoje, depois de um tempo assitir outra aula, mas de outro professor. Enfim. Trazer a Repetição espaçada para o âmbito do estudo passivo.
omg I’ve never been able to use a lot of spaced repetition and active recall in my studing routine because I need to process the information first, and youtubers never talk about that. I can’t immediately after a lecutre start using active recall. I feel seen now 🤣
I always add “WHY?” or “HOW?” or “VS WHAT?” at the end of my flash cards to make sure that I have deeply learned that piece of information instead of just memorizing it, I guess this is why anki workes so well for me.
Mo Jamal, Mashallah, i am trying it now and it keeps me on track , i mean at least for now. Now that Ramadan is complete my brain is back to its normal 100% function. its hard over the past 32 days.
No, basically spaced repetition of poorly encoded information is insufficient. You need to incorporate effective wording, explanatory and sensory details, mnemonics, etc., into your flashcards or whatever. Otherwise, the required number of repetitions will consume too much time.
@@jason_v12345 That's needed in normal studying methods also if you can't remember somthn without too many revision you should make mnemonics and stuff like that.. I want to know how active recall and spaced repetition failed cz I'm relying on it
For me, If I cannot explain this stuff to a 5 year old, I proves to me that I haven’t learnt it, I have not broken it down far enough and simplified it
There's always so much material to go through, when I tried revising and active recall I ended up not having enough time to to do spaced repetition properly. It didn't help that other parts of my life were suffering. After a couple of semester with disappointing results and declining mental health, I just accepted that my performance would be mediocre forever and that I was probably going to take longer to learn the things I wanted to. This gives me hope.
Ye,when I first heard of this so called spaced repetition, I was like: Bro, I don't have that much time. I much prefer to schedule a mock exam a week before the actual exam. With all the questions I wrote on a notebook while studying, I answer them one by one, If I see that I missed on one I revise it. At the end, I will repeat again all the questions, If some of them I struggle I highlight it. Since I have a week last, I can dedicate 10 mins or when I got sometime to revise those which I suck at. I do mock exams only on weekends, the rest of the days I do the understanding of the unit and make a list full of questions. If you have a lot of exams I advice to do a scheme on a paper of what enters in each exam, try doing as many partitions of the unit you need, then place them on a calendar. Hope it helps. 💜
@@ErraticOverthinker so when you do a partition on the units do you study the segmented bits the same way. So understanding the unit for the week days and testing yourself for the weekend. Do you go back to it later? Or do you move onto the next bit on your calender?
I've been studying learning technics for a while now, and that's what I've found: - Sleep well - no sleep = no long-term memory (LTM). - Do exercises - go for a walk, work out, anything that you like. - Have a healthy diet. - Do not rush the study, spread it throughout the days. The brain needs time to organize the new patterns, chunk them, and move to the LTM. When this is done, your working memory can rely on new chunks of knowledge that will allow more complex subjects to be learned. - Use some space repetition software to help you organize the revisions, otherwise, you are going to forget it - you can make this less necessary if you can engage more emotionally in the study. - Have a proper space free of distractions for studying. - Use the pomodoro technic. - Teach others or just write an article about the subject. - Practice, practice, and more practice.
i thought meditation, dopamine detox, gamefying studying and learning your mental problems (like adhd, gifted kid syndrome or others) was going to be on the list too 🥺
@@panchofenix9912 I have never tried meditation to check how effective it would be for me, but from what I heard, it's very effective if you can't concentrate well. Dopamine detox; I've done it once when I was procrastinating my studying routine a lot, and it was very effective. I've never tried gamefying my learning routine, but I have used some e-learning sites that does that and it is very effective indeed. I have no experience with mental problems, but I'm sure many people would benefit from hacks in this area. Thanks for commenting and happy studying :)
I've never really studied in my life, but I'm getting to a point in my life where i can't just succeed without active studying. This video was very helpful, thanks man
Same here, I am an ex-college athlete who made it through school by the skin of my teeth. I am at a point in my life where I have to study hard and I am struggling to learn. I graduated college and was super confident but I am now trying to really learn.
@@jdp0359 a few know how to learn but like op I've also never studied. In fact I've only ever done studying before exams and it caused me to fail more than anything (it helped a bit too).
You're the first person who has pointed out how everyone just creates a confirmation bias about it and some kind of cycle where it only works for everyone that talks about it. It made me feel like bad about it not working for me at some point so I appreciate your point. You're always so clear and concise. I absolutely love your videos.
I'm staggered by the number, and not infrequently the intelligence, of people who are members of the spaced repetition Anki cult. I appreciate just the mere _title_ of this video. It should stop a few well-meaning people in their tracks, at least for a moment.
@@-danR If you don't anki, your method is invalid and you're also invalid because you didn't sweat as hard as we did! Mother fuckers so prideful when they are the stupid ones lol Vindicated only by their sheer numbers... oh no, I didn't remember trivia, I must be completely wrong about everything. It's such a tiresome lifelong battle with those bastards.
@@-danR He didn't even go into detail about the greater approaches. There are comments all over the place about how important it is to understand the content. Discussions, lecture summaries, making conclusions, and evaluating info are all part of the process. Interpreting is the process of determining what something's intended meaning is. And to understand entails knowing what something means. If your reading a book, you'd take it as what you believe it means or what you know it means. That is understanding. The distinction between interpretation (generate, deduce, acquire, analyse, uncover, perceive, evaluate, assume, derive, conclude, insinuate, interpret, discern, surmise, extrapolate or decoding into your won words then retrieving said information) and understanding (process of comprehension or comprehending, conceptual understanding, absorbing the knowledge. Time where clarity and explanation is needed and you pay attention. More elaboration or better yet ... encoding into your brain) is that interpretation is an act or process of applying general principles or formulae to the explanation of results obtained in special cases, Whereas comprehension is reason or intelligence, the ability to grasp the full (entire scope, exact & full implications, the correct or intended meaning and true context of the lecture for example. To be able get the real essence, deep value and true significance of the message. What is the relevance or origin of this part? The exact nature or underlying purpose. Whether semantic, symbolic or cultural. Finding the hidden meaning and delving deeper.. ) meaning of knowledge, and the ability to infer. The distinction between interpretation and understanding is that interpretation is the ability to explain, whereas understanding is the ability to empathise (relate, connect, engage, listen, think, interact and communicate effectively). The distinction between interpretation and understanding as nouns is that interpretation is an act of interpreting or explaining what is unclear (obscure, unclear. ambiguous, uncertain, confusing, incomprehensible, vague, equivocal), whereas understanding is a translation (paraphrasing, to transcript/convert to written form, transmission of the info your thoughts and experience), a version, or a construction. While understanding is a cognitive and often emotional procedure, integration is a subjective process. The ability to make inferences from an idea that you are familiar with is interpretation. One shows your knowledge more application, the other is not only getting the knowledge but retaining it by looking at the meaning. Then interpret or summarise what you know after taking your notes. Repeat or lecture yourself on what you understood. Interpreting is the action that comes from understanding the knowledge. Comprehension is knowing the full meaning and fathom all this data. At that level of expertise you have near perfect level of understanding and are then able to teach to others at a similar level. You don't read from a book and regurgitate but showcase what you already know. The ability to explain: demonstrate/show/share/define then incorporate Learning is different to studying. Ok we get that. One is a way or preferably a technique/method in order to learn. Learning is what happens when you grasp the things you've been studying. Learning in some subjects can differ like in language (in the procedure of developing your knowledge and memorization, phonological awareness and probably phonemic awareness) or other more complex but in a way "Maths is sometimes harder to grasp but once you've got it, its easy and you know the same type of things come up each year + loads of past papers etc. English Lit is subjective and so often down to a bit of luck, you can get a nasty question and you're totally screwed." Math may be easier to understand but much harder to learn. Once you've got the hang of it then you are set. English however will always be harder to understand but easier to learn. Once you grasp the basics you can learn more grammar and words but the way the pronunciation works or how to write in a creative way will still be a challenge. More subjective doesn't necessarily mean better in fact it might be worse. Math follows an extremely strict set of principles/rules and is often seen as another language. The issue, in my view, arises from all of the learning gaps that exist throughout the math language. I appreciate the challenge of writing more as I mature in terms of creative viewpoint and critical thinking. Grammar is complicated and contains rules, yet they change with time and in response to culture. Writing also includes an element of art, which makes it more 'difficult' because it isn't quantitative and can't be broken down to its basics like math can. The nicest part about math for me is that there is a clear solution almost every time, but writing has less rights and wrongs, making it more difficult to interpret. Math is useful when I require a specific solution, and its quickness provides me a feeling of achievement. Writing, on the other hand, is both an escape and a method of communicating beyond words for me. I'm fascinated by how words can conjure up so much more than plain communication. It's possible that the consequences it can have on others will never be known, which adds to the difficulties.
@@-danR you make it sound like his proposed method strictly excludes spaced repetition like Anki. It's not one or the other but a combination of both, tho the latter could simply serve as a supplement.
It feels like the gold was burried beneath my feet all along... Note to self - Nothing can replace the actual effort...as in spending quality time pondering over a topic, asking myself questions,determining the the language of a subject and really visualising the big picture. And after all the basic ground work is done...use appropriate technique that suits the topic/subject/question paper format! Thank you for this amazing video!!
My concept was, understand blueprint then you can discern the answers and aid in memorising seemingly disjointed data. And they all said you're thinking too much lol
Video starts 5:22..... studying vs learning 7:54 irony 8:35 memory 11:04 what happens whole answering questions 15:20 cognitive load Cognitive for me: playing information with what im learning at that moment..... Not just watching a chess game but also actively engaging with the possible turns... 22:38 23:30 fighting the forgetting curve, How repeating compound effected information will suck 24:46 29:59 dunning Kruger effect.....AA being screwed uppp indectly 😁 33:02 😂😂😂
I can't even say how grateful I am for this video. It's immensely refreshing to see an actual expert who has dedicated their career to a subject create an in-depth comprehensive video about it. I know some folks complain about the length, but just because we are trained by modern social media to want everything in a minute or less with highlight reels, doesn't mean that we should cut out actual real information. Context and data take time. I have watched so many videos about studying from 'gurus' who are really just influencers who made it their job to make money online. It is rare to see a video from an expert who does this for a living, and then decided to make videos to share the knowledge or increase their reach. I also appreciate that you made a point to encourage students that if these other techniques aren't working, it doesn't mean they are bad students, or dumb, etc., and that there is hope.
The so called "gurus" are also capable of giving useful informations. I'm just saying you don't need a degree to know effective study methods. There are also always some people having this opinion and some others even expert trust me. At the end of the day let's all be thnakful for even getting those advice for free and always remember if it doesn't work for someone doesn't mean they are incapable. I never heard someone ever say that but maybe people interpret too much. Anyways i just wanted to add that here (not really a debate comment will probably not respond) Take care
I am think just like you. And I hope he has more videos about this. I started to thinking that my flashcards with included space repetition doesn’t work so so well, it is definitely helpful but maybe not of the best technique as he said. It helped a lot but also it tikes time and I think sometimes it doesn’t work so well for remembering everything.
Good stuff, Justin. My only qualm with your content is that you could be much more concise; I think you could fit all your points in a much shorter video. Also, it'd be nice to have an outline of your points somewhere so I wouldn't have to watch a long video only to find out that I knew most of what you would say anyway.
@@jeithrowagwag1425 He basically said that spaced repetition only helps you if you are not a good student, otherwise it takes a lot of effort giving little results. Which make the video pointless for most people, I guess. And promotes his teaching method and himself as a coach.
It’s so relieving to see this video! Before this whole craze about active recall , I never used Anki and just relied on my notes and deeply understanding and was doing very well . When I heard about these methods I suddenly felt that the way I was studying was totally wrong and that I should start using Anki like everyone does . I just ended up being frustrated by the end of it , it was unsustainable and very time consuming . This semester I decided to go back to what I originally loved and worked for me :)
Hi, I'm a law student in Brazil and I've been trying to use the repetition spaced for months. In the beginning, it was wonderful and we started to get super excited. When I reached 5,000 flashcards my life started to get complicated. I spent hours and hours making flashcards and couldn't make much progress on new themes. The time came when I could only make flashcards, I no longer had time to learn new content. Your video was accurate on this spaced-repeat issue. I just signed up and I'm looking forward to the new videos.
There’s different ways of active recall i use blurting i used to do flashcards but i has the same problem as u bc of all the context u need to know theres not enough time to make every flashcard on each subject
am a law student in switzerland and i also struggle with a lot of flashcards.. now i write notes from the power point slides and learn while summarizing the slides into my notes i guess..
Recently finished med school, some thoughts I had: you can learn without anki (forced spaced repetition on schedule), but whatever technique you employ it will use spaced repetition (you need to review information as some point and at more than one interval). I think there is a sweet spot when it comes to using apps like Anki and true learning. I like using textbooks to make my cards. My approach was to read a few sections or chapter in its entirety, highlight import concepts, and then solidify my understanding. Once I had a good grasp, I would make flashcards (anki) of all the highlighted material and in the extra section of the card, would add my thoughts and understanding. In this way you get spaced repetition, but you can always reference your extra information should you forget your true understanding of something. Also, when using Anki, its important to actually THINK about the card rather than just answer it. If you employ that strategy, its highly effective, as you are always challenging yourself to think critically about the subject material while also using the spaced repetition algo of anki to only show you the material again when you really need to. Prior to med school I didn't use anki and did great, but the amount of information was far less and I still used spaced repetition, but in a more manual fashion. I would start by writing down a topic and then proceed to write everything i knew about it until I hit a wall. This forced me to find my deficiencies and then I would read more and then attempt the process again later in the day. TLDR: Using spaced repetition/ANKI is all about HOW you use it. If you mindlessly do flashcards, you won't learn. If you force yourself to think about the material and check if you truly understand, then you'll do great and you'll actually learn. I've used anki to successfully remember cardiovascular pathophysiology since my first year of med school and I owe it to dedicated reading of material and integrating this into spaced repetition.
@@_anime_shawty7654 The only time I had 1000+ cards due was in the depths of dedicated for Step which honestly is a time you just suck it up, drown yourself in caffeine, and smash that spacebar. The goal ultimately is to only have like a couple hundred at most cards to review everyday. I think you also just get faster reading cards overtime. That being said, is it really hard some days to even get through 100 cards? Absolutely, its definitely not a perfect system.
@@_anime_shawty7654 You should not read it all at once! Your studies should be distributed out over days or weeks depending on the amount of information!
In short : don't be stressed , don't focus on perfect retaining rather than good understanding on the subject , enjoy the journey and your studying It's easy said then done , but it's a fact that there's no perfect preparation for the exams , sometimes you have time to revise well and sometimes you just don't , some subjects are easier then the other and sometimes you'd stuck on the minor things
Really what you're discussing is the ineffectiveness of spaced repetition *of poorly encoded information*. It's not the spaced repetition itself that is "the problem." Indeed, spaced repetition is an absolute requirement for remembering anything. There is no avoiding it. But if the information you're repeating is poorly encoded (i.e., the flashcard or whatever is poorly worded, lacks sensory or explanatory details, mnemonics, etc.) then you will have to repeat it too often to keep up with all you need to learn.
Yes you've basically got it. The main issue I have is that deep processing is RARELY talked about although the benefits of deep processing and cognitive load optimisation are more riobustly evidence-based than using spaced retrieval practice. There is a popular movement of active recall and spaced repetition being the top level technique, which is why that's the statement I opened the video with.
Basically, in most cases, owning the information instead of hard-coding is more effective. That said, spatial memory is still crucial for organizing thoughts (aka memory palaces) because if you truly understand the course materials, you can also know what sources need to be purely memorized. As someone that uses the PAO system (something I rarely use but still have on the off chance it's needed) I have found it better to have and not use than need and not have.
this is great! I've done 2 degrees: one in my early 20s and the second in my mid 40s. One of the main differences between the two learning experiences was that, the second time, I had more life experience to use to engage with the information I was learning (more material to use to increase my cognitive load when studying). In exercises that involved straight up memorising - like memorising the script for a play for my Spanish class - I noticed the young kids were MUCH faster than me at memorising, but I could also see the kids weren't remembering material from the lectures or readings as well as me. In lectures and readings,I constantly evaluated the information, thinking about how it would have applied in my previous careers, questioning ambiguities and inconsistencies in the way information was presented etc. Because I was the same age as the professors and already had achieved professional success, I also felt more right to demand that my professors explain those apparent ambiguities and inconsistencies or gaps...which helped me stay engaged with the information as it was initially presented, and which helped encode it into long term memory. The kids in my classes were generally more passive in interacting with information. I think they had trouble "seeing" which information was important, they had very little existing framework of knowledge or experiencial memory to link with the new, incoming information.
This is incredibly true for me as well in my 30s, though I did find that learning about how to properly use active recall and spaced repetition did help a lot as well. In fact, I would even go so far as to say it was game-changing. But I 100% agree that contextualizing the information makes it infinitely more meaningful and thus memorable. I also do have a much better intuition for the way my professors prioritize "important" concepts. I also have a much better idea of when professors are "phoning in" their responsibilities and not providing sufficient context or support or when they are just flat out wrong, because of my professional experience in the sciences, which is also the degree type I am pursuing. I think another aspect is that in my professional experiences I have my confidence boosted in times where I became a subject matter expert on a particular topic, to the extent I would train other professionals and be a "go-to" source. This indicated to me that "yes I am capable of knowing and retrieving a lot of detailed, high-level information". TL;DR: Your insight about having a framework to link and prioritize incoming information is something I hadn't considered and it is a great insight that also applies to this 30-something. :)
@@giselle8867 I also understand what you mean by feeling you had intuition for how your professors were prioritising information. For my first degree, I have no memory of being able to detect what my professor would test, but during my 2nd degree I could easily tell what they thought was important, or what they'd be looking for in my assignments.
@@eundongpark1672 Strongly agree. Top students know how to pass exams. Made friends with one of the top students at uni. He had studied law and had lectured at night. He was responsible for setting law exams. He said setting exams taught him how to study more than anything. Knowing what is important overrides everything. Its very important to study past exam papers. Only 20% of lectures are important and make up 80% of exam marks. I used to treat everything as important. Now I put 80% of my time into 20% of whats important. Just put 20% of your time into the 80% that is not important. Also everything you need to know for the exam will be in the lectures. A big mistake some students make is to go outside of the lectures - either too wide or to deep. Most students waste so much time on notes. I think this comes from the way they were taught in high school. A more time efficient way is to read and remember. I used to try to remember things "permanently". Now I just remember things for the exam. The amount of work at uni can be overwhelming. So time efficiency is very important. Remember a lot of people you meet at uni you will never see again. So they are not as important as you may feel at the time. Stay away from time wasters. They wont be there next year. To me the most important thing is to get your life sorted out. You cannot afford to have problems. If you sleep well you can study hard and concentrate well. Go to bed and get up the same time every day. The better you concentrate the more and easier you will remember information. The ability to keep going is more important than how smart you are. From experience I have learned I can turn a potential exam mark of 30 - 35% into 55 - 65% by one days very hard study. Ive failed exams I could have passed because I gave up.
There is memorization and there is conceptualization. For memorization, a term called “chunking,” which is similar to “encoding” is useful. People who memorize large amounts of information quickly usually use a “peg system” and create “memory palaces”. Search for those terms. Repetition allows moving information into long-term storage in the brain. Conceptualization requires understanding relationships. It often means applying known mental models to other situations. Memory palaces work because our brains naturally deal with moving through space.
In summary: he's not saying active recall is worthless and that you shouldn't use it, he's saying that you should use it but you have to encode things as well. To encode something you have to actually engage with the things you are studying, (if you feel bored your doing it wrong) (If it's hard your doing it right)
Hi Justin, I'm an old student returning back to college and, I have enjoyed watching and learning from you. I was reading some of the comments some good and of course some negative. As far as the negative comments it saddened me to think how humanity treats individuals who are putting themselves out there in order to help people improve their lives therefore, do not take these negative comments to heart these people are blind and bitter. Much health and prosperity. I for one will take your course. All learning has value.
The key is actually attempting to understand what you’re studying, instead of just trying to memorize information. Justin’s method appears to use mind maps IIRC, but use whatever method you like to understand a concept and how it fits into the big picture.
I am a Dietetics student and I really can relate with you Justin. I love learning, but I tend to forget easily, to compensate I study for hours and hours, to the point of just sleeping 2-3H per day as you, which is not healthy, I am stopping with that because I feel tired and is not productive. Been trying these space repetitions and active recalls, which works for awhile but I personally don't find it efficient. Simply because if I am fighting the forgetting curve I will be always needing on coming back and recall it again. Not efficient when you have new information coming up to you and trying to retrieve what you learned before. It's been really overwhelming even tho I have really good marks. Makes me feel overwhelmed if I will be ready to perfom great as a professional because of that. Defo will be open minded and using other methods such as yours. Happy that you decided to bring your knowlegde online.
5th year med student here. I discovered Active Recall and Spaced Repetition 2 years ago and I decided to give Anki a chance. At first I thought I would become some sort of genius, because I was managing to memorize enormous amount of information, but after a few weeks the flashcards just became too many. I spent all day just revising old topics and I could not study the new ones. I tried using it with several exams, but I had to stop, because grades were getting worse than before. Anki is quite good for easy subjects with just a small amount of info to memorize, but it's almost impossible to use it efficiently for harder exams (Pharmacology or Phisiology for example). This was my experience. It was useful at first, but rapidly made things worse. This video is truly good content.
@@cynthiacancado2315 There is actually a limit to how much raw information one can put into the brain. Raw memorization of information can only take you so much which is what flash card is. You must connect all of the information together to create a big map of information in your brain. How do you do it? It’s easy, you just need time to think about the information. First step is to memorize, but then you must spend time reorganizing what you learned into a map of an information of a sort. And crazy thing is that you can do this any time, and the connection you make doesn’t even have to be accurate to a certain degree. If you just want a good grade in test, if it is well organized in your brain, how you organize it doesn’t really have to be accurate.
This is one of the few times I have been thankful for the suggestions of TH-cam's algorithm😂 Thank you so much for this informative video, and looking forward for all the next!🤩
Honestly!! FACED SAME ISSUES WITH ACTIVE RECALL AND FEELING LIKE NO ENOUGH TIME AND BLAMING ON MY SELF thinking it was all my fault, on top of that having all the content in my head was even more challenging having people addressing these issues is really helpful thanks for this long and super useful video:)
Summary: Stuff you remember (what you have "learned") only exists in long term memory (LTM) and you have to "encode" information from working memory to put it there (and you can't retrieve from LTM if it you haven't previously encoded it). In order to encode information into LTM, you need cognitive load. But be careful: too low (just hitting your head on the textbook or simply reading it) is usually an inefficient use of your time, too high and you can actually overload your brain's ability and do worse than some lower loads; ideally, you want to be right around your "load threshold" where it isn't easy, but it isn't super hard-just "a lil' confusing." The annoying thing about most study methods is that they are highly individualistic as the "good ones" are fine tuned to the load threshold of the person who created it; conversely, spaced repetition is very easy for anyone to just pick up as a study method. This is fantastic if you aren't already studying but has diminishing returns at higher levels (i.e. will bring an F -> C but B -> B+); the main problem at the higher levels is that spaced repetition can be repetitive, monotonous, and demoralizing because you aren't seeing the same returns you thought you would be. Similarly, (at least I think this is what he's saying) active recall methods are any methods that engage cognitive load, which will feel confusing and like you aren't actually learning (despite being a very good position for learning), and thus leads people away from those techniques. A better method for learning is to hold on to the material better in the first place with "neuroplasticity" (i.e. the brain's ability to restructure itself for more optimal memory) which is absolutely something that can be trained (see his other videos). Finally he goes on about why spaced repetition and active recall are so hyped up due to the dunning kruger effect making people misidentify their success, success bias where we don't hear about the failures of these methods, and availability bias where "everyone is saying this is good, so it must be good!", rinse and repeat. First off, please stop with the jaunty music over the long tangents. I see this all over the place on TH-cam and it only makes me feel like what you are saying is unimportant. Either cut the clip or leave the music out please. Second, I think you generally make some great points about learning vs studying and what that means. I definitely learned some very interesting things about cognitive load and how we encode information into LTM. I also think it is definitely sad that so much of StudyTube is devoted to recycling the same points in slightly different ways by different people, so thank you for actually bothering to be critical of these things. However, I have some criticisms of your argument. To start, you talk about how spaced repetition can be repetitive and a waste of time. I think this misses the idea of spaced repetition. If you are reviewing at points where it it is too easy and boring, you are reviewing too often and need to adjust the parameters of your algorithm to match your cognitive load (in Anki, this would be increasing the interval modifier or starting ease in the options). You actually hint to this idea in your cognitive load section with how boredom and sleepiness indicate too low of a cognitive load. Also, review at some point would still be a necessary step even by increasing your neuroplasticity because, as you directly graphed out in the summary section, you still end up with information loss which will need to be reviewed and regained (and in order to identify WHAT information you need to review, you will probably have to go through the boring process of reviewing everything). Finally, you don't touch quite as much on active recall in the video as you do with spaced repetition but I think active recall (and the confusion associated with it) is an inevitable part of studying. As I just mentioned, because NO study method (including increased neuroplasticity) is perfect and you can, as you point out, never remember everything 100%, you will inevitably review eventually and the optimal forms are going to be active recall. Ultimately, I think the video is just a little misleading. I don't think you are actually trying to say that active recall and spaced repetition are bad as I think I might be initially understanding you, so much as to make clear the problems associated with these techniques and bring to light an underrated method which helps in limiting these downsides.
I’m only seeing positive comments but wanted to say this felt like a trigger pitch to join your program. Anki and other spaced repetition programs always say, “you must understand a topic before it is helpful to have a flashcard of.” If you use anki to remind yourself of topics that you do use in your profession/daily life and when you see a card you think of related applications (or if it’s a foreign language word then using it in a sentence) then those techniques are incredible. The real problem is that students share decks with each other, and then rather than encountering the information on decks in books/real life, they just rote try to memorize things they don’t yet understand. This is bad practice, but I want to reiterate that Anki and other (good) tools don’t advice this!
In summary this video is: "Focus in better encoding, than flatting your forgetting curve" Definitions: Enconding: process to put info from working memory into long-term memory. Working memory = "RAM Memory", Long-term memory = "Hard Drive memory" Personal opinion: A video perfumed with scientificism, where a guy is more worried to prove their reliability, by shooting out a plethora of buzz-words, than delivery something critic at all.
I think you are highlighting just repetition “Active learning” is part of coding. You have to understand the concept you are learning to be able to actively retrieve it.
Active recall is not inherently something that improves encoding. It's possible to do active recall as part of maintenance rehearsal which is non-elaborative. There is a wide scope of how the technique can be applied and although there is research suggesting that active retrieval during initial studying sessions can improve encoding (which I personally agree with), most students do not apply active recall in these methods. Often the methods are incredibly passive and use only lower-order learning. I talk a bit more about these orders of learning in my latest video on encoding. Higher-order recall would certainly improve encoding, though it's arguable that active recall in itself relies on repetition, if not used in the context of the initial studying session.
I am in university rn. I am having rough time reviewing for midterms/finals because of all of my long long take-year-to-read linear notes and not efficient space repetition technique. I searched YT and I found your hidden gem videos. It was such a pity that I did not come across your channel ages ago. This video of you completely changed my mind about note-taking. Thank you so much for your work, Dr.Sung. 🙏🙏🙏
This was extremely “humbling” from a learning point of view. I am one of those students who *rely* on active recall and spaced repetition. Just a few weeks ago it felt like I hit the limitations of what AR and SP could do for me. Not saying that I mastered it, but what I’m saying is that it feels like I can’t get any “more” out of it if the learning content demands more from me. It felt like those techniques were some 20lb dumbbells and yeah for the first few weeks of work out it’s gonna do more, but I can’t get any more growth if all I lift are those 20lbs so this video really opened me up and humbled me in the sense that there was sooooo much I needed to learn more thank you a lot.
AS AN UNDERGRAD STUDENT I THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH FOR THIS !!! I have been concluded the same approach about actively "studying" as by being more exposed to the fact of being "proactive" with good results, i started to distinguish the difference between learning and studying which it may be labelled as the same activity. this is the first time i have encountered to someone who was able to explain this !!!!!!
Broskiiiiii don’t skip over the research studies 😭😩 They’re actually so intriguing and interesting to learn about and add to the validity of what you’re saying please don’t skip them in your videos,for people like me who enjoy them😀😩💕
I clicked on the video because I learn using space repetition and active recall, when I saw a video saying it doesn't work I clicked on it and read the summary the uploader posted (because I can't be asked to watch a 40 minute video on something that I know has extremely high chances of being wrong), so apparently his entire point is that you should do these things because it's not effective since learning actually takes doing shit rather than just testing yourself with your own questions, yeah of course, it would be like saying "if you want to learn a language don't just learn gramatical rules and words, you also need to form sentences!!". I would highly distrust anyone calling himself a coach (this is how I knew he is a charlatan) since "coaches" are just unqualified people with zero credentials on a topic that use that term to label themselves as experts, and on top of that if you check the description he sells lessons on how to coach for as little as 1.50$ a day (45 a month for a discord server on how to study lmao), he created a problem by saying that effective techniques don't work and offered a solution to sell you a product, listen kids I know that a lot of you here are young and this man is trying to sell you the secret to success but don't fall for it, don't be stupid, he is just trying to sell you something.
I wish I could read your comment before 29 minutes I have watched... He said after 30 minutes that you can watch another my video where I finally answer what is about his technique, what a waste of time.
I’m interested in the research to which you refer (I do care about it, as it seems contrary to the research I’ve reviewed). In criticizing spaced repetition and active recall at the outset of the video, you related your own experience: you were sleeping very little as you used your flash cards 20 hours a day. You suggest that you poured all your energy into testing active recall and spaced repetition and it was ineffective. Your “test” result, however, had a tenuous connection to your approach. Your ineffectiveness likely arose from your sleeplessness. Sleep is so fundamental to the consolidation of new material in your long term memory. Even one hour of sleep deprivation has deleterious effects on your ability to remember, and can unwind other material that you had stored previously. Encoding is just the first step (admittedly, I’ve not yet seen what you mean by this term.) Doing the work. Spaced repetition. Repeating material to a point just before you feel comfortable with it. Switching from focussed study to diffuse daydreaming after about 30 minutes of study. Interleaving with unrelated material. Letting some time pass so as to allow a little forgetting. Testing (which is active recall). Objective assessment of your performance (by an ‘expert’ / mentor). Integrating that material into what you already know. Expounding on or contemplating other uses of the material. Building a new model of understanding. Testing that model. Tweaking your understanding to fit the test results. If you test / actively recall within an hour of learning the material, then a couple days later (after a small level of forgetting), then a week later, and finally about 3 weeks later, the forgetting basically stops. (NB: after testing, delay correction by a day, and then correct the errors that you had.)
A lot of people don’t realise how big of a topic this is! A lot of people are getting the false impression that youve just said that ar+sr is invalid and the only ‘correct’ way to learn is through your course. But hopefully that’ll lessen when you upload more videos. Anyway, I’m excited for the videos and reports that are yet to be published, there’s so much more to cover aha. Good stuff Justin. Hope this video gains traction, and more people get to see it! :)
You’ve captured exactly how I’m feeling halfway into the first semester of my Master’s and attempting (albeit clumsily) to employ active recall and spaced repetition with, admittedly, low level encoding - demoralized. Seven years after completing my undergrad, I can’t wait to do better and be more intentional this time around. Can’t wait for more videos.
@@SevereMalfunction7 it isn't, but I do have tips for more technical subjects. I will endeavor to make videos on that one the future too. There is a lot to cover!
To put it in a nutshell, Active Recall and Spaced Repetition (Anki) will just work if you encoded (really understood) the (more or less) basic concept of the topic you are learning. Therefore Anki will just help you remember the things you already understood and creates nerve tracts to actually retrieve the information easier. Just like a forest track that gets broader and wider every time you go trough it. However, this video is eye-opening for me as I spend much time getting to know with the psychology of learning. Well, as a German student I stumbled across the author Vera F. Birkenbihl who takes this basic ideas in her main book (Stroh im Kopf) and exemplifies the encoding process with many mnemonics. That could be very interesting for those who understand and speak German (I am a huge fan of her!) Thanks for the amazing work. I wish you all good look in your studying/learning process! Cheers
From my experience from college and high school, I think the best learning method involves active recall but only as one part of the learning process: 1. write your own study material (or read carefully the study material of others if it does not suck, can be from your mates or the official study material). 2. Search like crazy on the internet for other good materials than the official from your school (there is a very high probability you will find better materials, materials you can understand better, or materials that were the source for your professor) and try to understand things you couldn't understand. 3. Teach it. 4. Imagine like you are the student and ask questions. 5. Answer the question, 6. Test yourself repeatedly (yes, you can use flashcards here). 7. Ask former students or search for past exams to see what you really need to remember. 8. Use mnemonics if you still cannot memorize something and you need to. The disadvantage is that it is time-consuming, however, I think this is the only working method if you want to both actually learn something for good (for long time memory) and memorize the rest of the stuff (the necessary evil, which is required for some of the courses).
You simply cant do that when you are at university studying something like Medicine. It takes to much time, because you have many subjects and each of them requires you to study 100’s - 1000’s of Pages .
Finally someone told that! I spent a great amount of time for searching the best study technique. And all I found was active recall and spaced repetition… I used it in my high school but in med school it was too much time consuming and I realised that instead of understanding I memorised all info 🤡. I ended up that main thing to suceed in learning is the cognition process . And you told that encoding! Can’t wait your another video!
Memorization is an important factor for learning. More importantly the reviewing of material periodically over time in my experience helped to develop understanding.
If a med school wants you to cram, you use spaced repetition and you hate it! School is the culprit. You just need to learn the things you love. School stuff you can forget with little harm (as everyone else)
I use both active recall and spaced repetition, but the best in my opinion is using different modalities with active learning. Prediciting questions by learning deep strucuture of information works really well.
I must thank you for producing this video. I know Active Recall and Spaced Repetition since the first year of Medical School and welp, It truly helped. But like you said, it only tackles the retrieving. I realized this, I used to spend so much time doing Anki and not getting the result I wanted. I cannot do questions requiring applications. I have been google how to study better, how to ensure that you really get things, stuff like that(Feyman techniques etc but I am still struggling with this). I also feel like I am somewhat inferior to my peers because I cannot grasp the knowledge, and apply as quick as them, even though I manage to do the Anki cards.
I'm very interested in learning what are you talking about with respect to the "smart kid" phenomenon. There are many incredibly intelligent people who never achieve their potential because they never learned how to learn and if the matter doesn't reveal itself to them, they start failing. It usually happens once the matter becomes more demanding and they lean into what feels easier and are mistaken believing their passion is what naturally comes to them easier, rather than exploring what genuinely excites them.
Oh my God, I do want to hear and read about the research 😭 knowing the mechanisms is the most important part. Nice to meet you, Justin, this is the first video i watch of yours, and I'm totally subscribing. Thank you for sharing your knowledge !
I loved this video not just because of what you explained and talked about but because it wasn’t like do this do this. The little jokes here and there, how you cut the video zooming in and out and the part with the research made me smile. I’m actually struggling at university but this video motivated me to change my learning system and stop putting so much pressure on myself for not being able to keep up with my lectures and repeat the topics regularly. This is the first video I’ve seen from you and I subscribed after 1/3 of the video. Thank you❤
I'm not saying this just to shit on the video or anything, but I agree with some points made by some people in the comments. Without the other videos explaining how to study properly without spaced repetition and teaching how to "encode" information, this one just talks about a problem without offering possible solutions aside from your course. It could leave a lot of people lost because of this, and bringing out your product as one of the solutions (right now at least, the only one mentioned, since the videos aren't out yet) could, with all reason, give the impression that this is just some marketing to promote your stuff. I don't think this is the case, and I'm excited to see your content about those topics. Great work, and thank you for sharing your knowledge
He literally said in the comments he’s gonna create more videos on how to not solely rely on active recall and spaced repetition. Just be patient he has other things to do as well.
This made me curious as Justin is online in youtube for a year, made around 54 videos and did he revealed this knowledge that he posesses to better learning in a practical how to videos, disappointed I could not find any :-( It was all theoritical. I wonder why?
It's a classic scam, "join my webinar to study 200 pages the day before your exam! " Type of thing, just more veiled. He even added reviews of his course in post production and safeguarding himself repeating how he already knows that the video would get a lot of backlash (I wonder why)
Ater analyzing everything you said, it all makes sense now. I've always been an avid spaced repetition defender. But the truth is, remembering things you learned (which is what spaced repetition aims at) is one of the MULTIPLE things and not the sole thing you should rely on to truly learn. I'm definetly going to stop doing 4-5 hours of solely spaced repetition and actually start trying to LEARN and not REMEMBER things. Definetly implementing what you taught us in your latest video. Thank you so much.
The gist of all of this is that learning is more than just remembering, it is applying what you remember. This requires you to be *active* in your learning and studying: constantly asking questions about why? what? when? who? how? Why, what, and how being the most important questions. Explain it to yourself, question the text, make connections with your own life and previous learning, ask "what if" questions. Be ACTIVE! That's really just it. Engaging with your learning contextualizes things so that when you "encode", you have multiple connections and can retrace back to it, like retracing your steps to find your keys. It doesn't mean that you don't need to memorize facts or trivia, because you still will, and spaced repetition systems can help you there,; but, if you contextualize what you learn and apply it, you will remember and understand much better. And that is what learning is (remembering + understanding/applying). Source: I'm a teacher. :D
Thank you for the video, super interesting. I am studying computer science and I found it very difficult to use flashcards since most of my study content are math and coding concepts, so It's a lot more about actually understanding concepts rather memorising things. Of course there is a fair bit of memorising definitions of things but learning how to learn and understands complex concepts more quicker resonates so much more. I will definitely learn now more about encoding!
When I studied Computer Science, the moment I started doing well in the exams was the moment I started to deepen my understanding of the topics. I left behind the notes and the summarised documents the teachers had given to us and went directly to the bibliography at the end of the documents. The first day of the year I was in the library to rent the books of the subject before anyone else, and I didn't return them until I had passed the exam. What at the beginning seemed too long (to read and understand several complex books) it ended to be so much easier and interesting that trying to memorize some documents I didn't understand so good. I owned a half of my degree to Mr Tannenbaum and Stallings.
The best learning method I found is to target both understanding and memory. Memorize when necessary, but understand as much as possible. Once your brain starts to be able to memorize, it will improve your understanding. So understand --> memorize --> understand.
There's no words to explain how much I appreciate you making this video. I'm sure if I slept the last couple days I would be able to able to but just want to say thanks
This dude knows his stuff! Not a lot of people know about the biases that influence us subconsciously. Enjoyed watching him explain the process and the biases which influence us.
Ling ling! Didn't expect that one lol. Anyhow, learning isn't memorization; nope, learning is making the information your own. How we do so is by understanding, not memorizing. Honestly, I find that I rarely have to use pure memorization outside facts like remembering Irrationals. Studying formal logic and set naive theory-- not quite to ZFC yet-- has taught me perspective is key. Or at least, that's my takeaway.
@@pippilala If you can study slow! You can study fast!! Truly, we all must transcend the boundaries of reality and cram 40 hours into a single day haha. Become one with the Ling Ling!
@@shokujinki Again, purely remembering facts does not given you anything if you do not first understand the meaning and use. This is why the school education system fails: subjects such as math and science is treated as nothing but fact checks to be learned. Which is why when they hit college they struggle to keep up, as math and science is not just formula "inset here." That is why I say, most of time memorization is secondary to learning. Because if you understand how to use the information, your most likely going to remember it. Do not fall into the over reliance of memory systems. They are just tools, and tools are to used when needed. This is
I’ve been using SuperMemo (spaced repetition program) every day for more than a decade, and it took me a couple of years to TRULY get the hang of the flow. Now that I am used to using it every day, I rely on it heavily to be my “external brain.” I think that as long as you have the drive to improve and stick with your system, you’ll be better off than not doing it.
It’s crazy to me how so many of my classmates complain that out teachers don’t teach or just laugh about how they learned nothing and are expected to do some sort of assignment. Like yeah. You think it’s easy to just encode all that information in your head? I’m not “good at chemistry” it’s just that I actually took notes and asked questioned when our teacher gave lectures. That A+ was earned from actively trying to understand what he was telling us, asking questions even when it ended up being pretty dumb, and doing the homework assignments we were supposed to, even if it was late because it’s not like he docked points for late things anyways.
this video made me realize so many things about why I got tired of my anki flashcards once it reached a big number and deleted the entire deck without looking back. Actually, I just keep my decks simple, not much info bc I cannot handle much of it, and it works fine like that, but I still don't relay 100% on flashcards.
You have nailed the point on the disadvantages of active recall and spaced repetition. If I recollect correctly many of the studytubers have mentioned that these techniques slowly helps the learners to have a clear mental map of the concepts as they do active recall with spaced repetition over a period of time, however this is a very slow and inefficient way of learning if one relies on active recall and spaced repetition to have a clear mental model of the concept. If a learner had properly encoded a concept and had a clear mental model of the concept in his mind when he or she first learns the concept, then the time required for active recall and spaced repetition comes down way more significantly. I think that active recall and spaced repetition techniques works best for auditory learners since these techniques requires the students to think about the concepts in words.
I'm neurodivergent and everything that is happening in the video has kept my attention 😅. I've actually been trying to understand how the learning process works (got the first bit right) but still confused as to how the process works, which was the important information that I have been looking for. I have a hard time understanding certain things, so that's probably why I'm so persistent im wanting to learn how to learn. Honestly this video is god sent, because you just make so much sense. Deffo be subscribing
I knew I'd find my people under this video. I'm hopeful about this because i did try AR and SR methods but quickly felt stupid. Just thinking why me? Why can't I do it? And it left me so depressed.
Dr. Sung, I'm earnestly greatful for your content on learning. Heavily changed my perspective on how to learn. I remember asking myself, "I studied so much more than them, yet they always seem to do better than me." Now I know why. I hope the best for your channel. Looking forward to enrolling on your course, if I can afford it.
This should be mandatory viewing for anyone who needs to learn and remember significant amounts of information, whether it be in a school or workplace environment.
for me is justin sung, benjamin keep phd and healthygamergg (you also need to learn your limitations, specially problems like being diagnosed with something like adhd or something similar, so you can work around them to get a solution or something to compensate for that problem)
Activate Recall and space repetition never worked for me. However when I tried to explain that to others like my teachers or even parents I got looked at like oh you most be doing it wrong or your just not studying hard enough. I was even told by my teachers in high school I would not go to college. I used to fall asleep on work books frustrated and upset thinking something was wrong with me. I started even skipping class because I got frustrated I was not getting help I needed. Was not till after high school I found out I had ADHD. I had to reteach myself after high school and I'm still learning how to learn. I have been to college though and did very well . Though was not in the right career path 😅. Now I'm going back to college to take a risk in what I always wanted to do. I'm still learning every day on how to better myself even as an adult. Will definitely look at your other videos and try some of your studying tips.
I'm practicing 2,000words to remember day by day for now for not my intention to discourage all Prof like you how good I am .just listening, watching and learning some good matters a day not arguing about being a Genius or not.
Thank you so so much for this video! Exactly what happend to me 1 year ago. Even the dunning kruger effect... 🤣 I was so convinced that Anki would solve all my study problems for me and was so excited in the beginning that I wanted to remember every little detail to impress the professor (and myself). But then I ended up with moderate depression for 4 months because Anki "wouldn't allow me" only one day off and I started to hate studying. Creeps me out to think of that dark time in my Life.
@@rabienouhal3407 i've binge watched Justins Videos/Podcasts/instagram content and started to practise techniques of him. I've started to 'think' differently. I'm still learning to learn!! It doesn't come naturally to me, because I'm actually lazier than I thought. 😂 And I've had to quit medical school, because I needed to focus on my mental health.
This was my first video of your channel, it was great and very informative to watch. It made me feel better about myself and the way I study. Regarding whether research should be incorporated in ur vids, I wasn’t sure at first what to think about that but when I watched your mind map video where you did give research evidence, I liked it more. It made what you were talking about more substantial and trustworthy ig or gave a better view on the concept you were talking about. So yes, do put research in your vids or description box , it’d be nice.
It's just incredible what I learned from this video! I'm looking for the right methods to learn and study for my children (14 and 13 years old) and for my professional needs. Yes, it's very boring for the children and me to apply this method, but we see so many people talking about it that we end up believing in it. However, what you explain in this video really speaks to me, and now I'm curious to understand what the methods are for encoding! Thanks again!
This is so helpful, and also really uplifting! I've tried active recall for years and it's never worked for me, whereas reading the textbook has helped immensely. I just assumed I was lazy and that's why I found daily active recall to be too high maintenance. Thank you so much for sharing this info!
Hey Justin, I have been using spaced repetition for about a year and I was just about to embark on a new round of card creation (to help me learn chords, chord progression and the other building blocks of Jazz Piano). But as I sat there and thought about how I could best create these cards, I realised that in order to have a completely comprehensive collection of cards, it was going to take AGES to make the cards, let alone study them. A friend of mine had told me about your modified mind palace technique, so I have started watching your videos, and I'm super excited for the next course to begin. I am excited to learn the encoding techniques that will help me to understand and connect the topics that I learn during a lesson so that I can solidify and expand my knowledge and ability. See you in a week or so!
This is so accurate.Freshman year I used active recall and spaced repetition to get passed biology but I realized that after that semester it’s like I forgot everything because I just barely memorized it,I belief this is why people have problem learning programming because it doesn’t just work.
You forgot everything because you massed studying ("cramming") and didn't follow through with the spacing effect after you stopped caring about the content
I clicked on the video because I learn using space repetition and active recall, when I saw a video saying it doesn't work I clicked on it and read the summary the uploader posted (because I can't be asked to watch a 40 minute video on something that I know has extremely high chances of being wrong), so apparently his entire point is that you shouldn't do these things because learning actually requires doing shit rather than just testing yourself with your own questions, yeah of course, it would be like saying "if you want to learn a language don't just learn gramatical rules and words, you also need to form sentences!!". I would highly distrust anyone calling himself a coach (this is how I knew he is a charlatan) since "coaches" are just unqualified people with zero credentials on a topic that use that term to label themselves as experts, and on top of that if you check the description he sells lessons on how to study for as little as 1.50$ a day (45 a month for a discord server on how to study lmao), he created a problem by saying that effective techniques don't work and offered a solution to sell you a product, listen kids I know that a lot of you here are young and this man is trying to sell you the secret to success but don't fall for it, don't be stupid, he is just trying to make money.
@@382u3uuejbased This dude and all the other gurus be going on other peoples vids and saying the dumbest shit People cram with anki and then say it doesn’t work Or this guy was legit saying ANKI DOESNT HELP WITH LEARNING LANGUAGES I can’t tolerate the amount of horseshit coaches on the internet now days.
i just see the benefits of interleaving, spaced study, multi modal learning and better encoding. it feels like i even have to understand, that i dont udnerstand a topic and that takes time for me. often i dont even understood a topic well enough to even ask a follow up question - just now two weeks after my first intensive study sessions do i have some crystalized knowledge that i can manipulate in my head, keep it in the working memory and start to analyze it - now i actually come up with good questions for stuff i didnt understand
I took A&P for the first time and it was brutal since I DID NOT know how to study for myself. I was doing flash cards, writing out the notes all on my own from the textbook, etc. these were so ineffective because it’s so much info and so much time I’m utilizing to do all this extra stuff. I had to drop the course because I was falling behind but now I’m taking it again and I’ve finally found a great study regime. I start with watching the lecture (JUST FOCUSING ON THE OVERALL PROCESS AND NOT THE SMALL DETAILS AS MUCH) I am going to see it when i go over the text so don’t stress it. Next step, read textbook? Yes and no. Strictly focus on the practice questions because that will give you a direct guide to what you need to really know per section. Then, I make quizlets(LIFE CHANGER), simply made quiz lets on each PowerPoint then added onto it if there was something I will forget long term or when I just don’t understand something too well. Forcing me to keep a note of it in my head. Once I’m done with that I will use the “learn mode” option. Lastly, I just make sure that I learn in small chunks throughout the day because burnout is very real and long term memory requires time and patience.
Notes for me: 1) Reeks of someone selling course 2) Apparently you can encode information so you won't need to do as many SRS reps, but he'll only tell you if you sign up for his damn course/watch his other videos 3) SO MUCH fluff. Waste of time.
@@apustajachileno That's why it didn't work, because he slept just 2 hours /s Of course he's shilling to sell his course, Active recall and Spaced repetition are the most effective tools, as shown by multiple and actual peer-reviewed research.
Yea he got a lot of videos on other subjects where he gives you the info "directly", he has a right to chase his bag, especially when the free content is this qualitative.
I wondered the same thing .If we learn new content every day and not one subject ..right now I have to learn 8-9 subjects.We also have to recall that newly learned content as well as the content we already "learned".We cannot do retrieval practice in that much quantity plus learning tons of new info every day.Thankyou for clarifying our minds ...it lead us to thinking in a new way.
Omg I was so confused with this too. I was thinking I could make flashcards for each su ject after school and then for the day actively recall one or two particular subjects and focus on that?
@@lenaxox4167 each day we learn new content ....so I dont think it would be possible for making it for every subject even one or two subject per day...ot would just pile up.But you should definitely give it a try !All the best !
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"
The more I know, the less I know." -Justin Sung
-Intelligent people acknowledge they don't know a lot. It's called humility...
The content you deliver is highly useful for me. While I want to enjoy it, I think the background music is giving me negative cognitive load. Love Your contents. ❤😃
Thank you! Truth needs time to surface, and someone dares to challenge the `truth` and speak it out.
My professor always adviced when studying, do not force yourself to memorize but familiarize instead. Which means understand what you're studying not just reading. Works like a charm it helped me enjoy studying. It also helps if you simplify it to ur own understanding and lecture it to yourself.
Lol what a meme.
How do you think one does understand?
@@Wabbelpaddel comprehending or interpreting?
@@ssignment Comprehending, precisely.
Yeahh familiarize all the sign and symptoms of a particular disease plus its quantitative tests/values pluss the other diseases with similar results with a quite small fraction of difference. Idk, its quite hard not to memorize all these values/related tests (plus its reference range/normal value) especially all the quantitative part.
Doesn't work when you can't understand anything lmao
"You can't study 40 hours a day, no matter how lingling you are." Lol. I love this quote.
the twosetviolin reference
You fool, I am able to
@@cjgreen4331 I study -40 hours a day. I am unbeatable at this. You know, I am suffering from this success.
So I wanted to change that's why I am here
What's lingling?
@@adan4477 he's referring to asians
in brief:
The video titled "Why Active Recall and Spaced Repetition Don't Work" by Justin Sung is a comprehensive discussion on the limitations of the popular study techniques, active recall and spaced repetition. Here's a summary of the key points:
1. **Cognitive Load**: Justin explains that cognitive load, the mental effort required to learn new information, is a crucial part of effective learning. If you're studying and not experiencing cognitive load, your study technique may not be efficient.
2. **Encoding**: Encoding is the process of moving information into long-term memory. It's a difficult process that requires specific techniques and a lot of effort. When your encoding skills improve, you can understand concepts faster, retain information longer, and enjoy studying more.
3. **Active Recall and Spaced Repetition**: These techniques work by adjusting the forgetting curve, which describes how quickly we forget information after learning it. By repeatedly recalling information, we can slow down the rate at which we forget it. However, these techniques have diminishing returns and can become monotonous and time-consuming.
4. **Neuroplasticity**: Justin emphasizes that anyone can improve their encoding skills due to neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections. This means that even if you're not naturally "book smart," you can train your brain to become more efficient at learning and retaining information.
5. **Dunning-Kruger Effect and Success Bias**: Justin discusses these two psychological phenomena to explain why active recall and spaced repetition are so popular, despite their limitations. The Dunning-Kruger effect describes how people with limited knowledge on a subject can feel overly confident about their understanding of it. Success bias refers to the tendency to focus on successful outcomes and overlook failures.
6. **Availability Bias**: This is the tendency to judge the legitimacy of something based on how commonly we encounter it. Because active recall and spaced repetition techniques are commonly discussed and promoted, many people believe they are more effective than they actually are.
7. **Potential for Improvement**: Justin encourages viewers to keep an open mind and believe in their potential for improvement. He suggests that if active recall and spaced repetition aren't working for you, it may be because you're focusing too much on these techniques and not enough on improving your encoding skills.
8. **Course Offering**: Justin mentions his course where he works with students to improve their encoding skills and build a seamless study system.
In conclusion, while active recall and spaced repetition are useful techniques, they are not the be-all and end-all of effective studying. Improving encoding skills and understanding the cognitive load can lead to more efficient and enjoyable studying.
Thanks
Thank you very much.
So, in conclusion, nothing that's directly useful is said in this video..
Every few years, I open one of these videos and remember why it's such a fucking waste of time to watch them.
ChatGPT vibes
@@abujessica Claude 2 more likely or summarize tech
I learned to learn (was taught the technique of how to learn) via scaffolding. The idea is that you learn new information by relating it to knowledge you already have. You connect new information to old information which is in your long term memory. I'm not sure exactly how that fits into your model but I do know it has nothing to do with spaced repetition and I do know it's worked well for me.
Hi Justin. I'm 53, have never been academic, and am halfway through my first trimester at Uni studying law. It's been terrifying, completely overwhelming, and the hardest thing I have ever attempted. I started researching techniques to overcome overwhelm on TH-cam and found your videos. I'm not even sure if I'm doing them correctly, but I've found that suddenly, the confusion, terror, and overwhelm have disappeared. I have so much more clarity and focus when I study. The constant anxiety has been replaced by curiosity, pleasure, and confidence. I've enrolled on your course and am really looking forward to getting started with the eventual outcome, that I can teach other people in the same position as me, who have always considered themselves as inherently, incapable of being academic, that it is totally possible with the right techniques. Thank you so much for your help, and I look forward to starting your program.
Hey! One month later, how is it going?
Was the course worth it?
@@Cube_Box Hi Cube Box. I actually didn't start the course. I started learning meditation and was amazed at the difference it made. I went from studying 60 - 70 hours per week to 20 and still got excellent results. I've found that meditation gets me in the perfect mind space for learning and cuts out the stress. I'm going to enrol on Justin's course over the summer holidays to give me extra time to practice his techniques.
@E B Hi EB. No, I didn't do the course. I started meditating and found it extremely beneficial to my studies and other areas of my life. I finished my first trimester at University studying Law. I passed my courses easily but realised I didn't enjoy the subject so have switched to a general studies degree. I really enjoy meditation and the benefits it brings, and want to concentrate on teaching this in the future.
If you did do the course of the summer holidays, how have you found it, I’m thinking of engaging with this course as I think I heavily rely on active recall which is very very time consuming
Here in Brazil I have an extension project in my college called "Learning Support Project". One of the most important advice that we give to our students is: you need to acquire the information before being able to retrieve it and study through spaced repetition with active recall.
In 2016, a study called "Learning Strategies: a synthesis and conceptual model" came up with a new model of what is learning. Spaced repetition and retrieval practice were framed into the "consolidation" phase of learning. The problem is people using spaced repetition and retrieval practice before properly encoding the information through lectures, discussions and another active "acquiring" learning methods.
One important point though is to not discourage the use of retrieval practice under spacing effect. The majority of our educational institutes are embedded in traditional techniques that doesn't improve the students capacity of retaining important things. The currently system ignores that there are more than 130 years of research in this area and the evidences are pretty consolidated.
For me, a better title for this video is: "How to properly use spaced repetition and active recall".
Thank you for the wonderful content!
On the spot. 👍
As you probably know, to acquire a language you must use inputting strategies,like listening and reading.
People need to realize that any knowledge works similar to a language. You must listen and read before being able to retrieve .
Eu sou brasileiro também.
que Deus abençoe.
Repetição ativa e passiva de forma espaçada ao longo do tempo.
Assistir uma aula hoje, depois de um tempo assitir outra aula, mas de outro professor.
Enfim. Trazer a Repetição espaçada para o âmbito do estudo passivo.
I thank god the usa for creating the internet. Without it, life would be harder, for sure.
omg I’ve never been able to use a lot of spaced repetition and active recall in my studing routine because I need to process the information first, and youtubers never talk about that. I can’t immediately after a lecutre start using active recall. I feel seen now 🤣
I always add “WHY?” or “HOW?” or “VS WHAT?” at the end of my flash cards to make sure that I have deeply learned that piece of information instead of just memorizing it, I guess this is why anki workes so well for me.
Mo Jamal, Mashallah, i am trying it now and it keeps me on track , i mean at least for now. Now that Ramadan is complete my brain is back to its normal 100% function. its hard over the past 32 days.
Basically Active Recall and Spaced Repetition is not the cheatcode you guys think it is. Mix it up, your brain needs it.
Omg thanks cus the I was already dreading watching a 41 minute video
No, basically spaced repetition of poorly encoded information is insufficient. You need to incorporate effective wording, explanatory and sensory details, mnemonics, etc., into your flashcards or whatever. Otherwise, the required number of repetitions will consume too much time.
@@jason_v12345 That's needed in normal studying methods also if you can't remember somthn without too many revision you should make mnemonics and stuff like that.. I want to know how active recall and spaced repetition failed cz I'm relying on it
For me, If I cannot explain this stuff to a 5 year old, I proves to me that I haven’t learnt it, I have not broken it down far enough and simplified it
@@aestaetic788 No They are not flawed, You can continue
There's always so much material to go through, when I tried revising and active recall I ended up not having enough time to to do spaced repetition properly. It didn't help that other parts of my life were suffering. After a couple of semester with disappointing results and declining mental health, I just accepted that my performance would be mediocre forever and that I was probably going to take longer to learn the things I wanted to. This gives me hope.
Ye,when I first heard of this so called spaced repetition, I was like: Bro, I don't have that much time.
I much prefer to schedule a mock exam a week before the actual exam. With all the questions I wrote on a notebook while studying, I answer them one by one, If I see that I missed on one I revise it. At the end, I will repeat again all the questions, If some of them I struggle I highlight it. Since I have a week last, I can dedicate 10 mins or when I got sometime to revise those which I suck at.
I do mock exams only on weekends, the rest of the days I do the understanding of the unit and make a list full of questions.
If you have a lot of exams I advice to do a scheme on a paper of what enters in each exam, try doing as many partitions of the unit you need, then place them on a calendar.
Hope it helps. 💜
@@ErraticOverthinker so when you do a partition on the units do you study the segmented bits the same way. So understanding the unit for the week days and testing yourself for the weekend. Do you go back to it later? Or do you move onto the next bit on your calender?
this is my problem too. I just don't understand space repetition
I've been studying learning technics for a while now, and that's what I've found:
- Sleep well - no sleep = no long-term memory (LTM).
- Do exercises - go for a walk, work out, anything that you like.
- Have a healthy diet.
- Do not rush the study, spread it throughout the days. The brain needs time to organize the new patterns, chunk them, and move to the LTM. When this is done, your working memory can rely on new chunks of knowledge that will allow more complex subjects to be learned.
- Use some space repetition software to help you organize the revisions, otherwise, you are going to forget it - you can make this less necessary if you can engage more emotionally in the study.
- Have a proper space free of distractions for studying.
- Use the pomodoro technic.
- Teach others or just write an article about the subject.
- Practice, practice, and more practice.
Thank you for this, because he did make good points but ultimately did not explain what else to do beside space repetition and active recall
i thought meditation, dopamine detox, gamefying studying and learning your mental problems (like adhd, gifted kid syndrome or others) was going to be on the list too 🥺
@@panchofenix9912 I have never tried meditation to check how effective it would be for me, but from what I heard, it's very effective if you can't concentrate well.
Dopamine detox; I've done it once when I was procrastinating my studying routine a lot, and it was very effective.
I've never tried gamefying my learning routine, but I have used some e-learning sites that does that and it is very effective indeed.
I have no experience with mental problems, but I'm sure many people would benefit from hacks in this area.
Thanks for commenting and happy studying :)
@@newkidontheblock772 I'm glad you liked it :)
I've never really studied in my life, but I'm getting to a point in my life where i can't just succeed without active studying. This video was very helpful, thanks man
Same here
Same here, I am an ex-college athlete who made it through school by the skin of my teeth. I am at a point in my life where I have to study hard and I am struggling to learn. I graduated college and was super confident but I am now trying to really learn.
What I find most interesting is we've all gone to school, but very few of us know how to learn.
@John
School doesn't teach us how to study. It simply teaches us what happens when we don't.
@@jdp0359 a few know how to learn but like op I've also never studied. In fact I've only ever done studying before exams and it caused me to fail more than anything (it helped a bit too).
You're the first person who has pointed out how everyone just creates a confirmation bias about it and some kind of cycle where it only works for everyone that talks about it. It made me feel like bad about it not working for me at some point so I appreciate your point. You're always so clear and concise. I absolutely love your videos.
Maybe only getting 2-3 hours of sleep every night for 10 months was the real issue…
I'm staggered by the number, and not infrequently the intelligence, of people who are members of the spaced repetition Anki cult.
I appreciate just the mere _title_ of this video. It should stop a few well-meaning people in their tracks, at least for a moment.
@@-danR If you don't anki, your method is invalid and you're also invalid because you didn't sweat as hard as we did! Mother fuckers so prideful when they are the stupid ones lol Vindicated only by their sheer numbers... oh no, I didn't remember trivia, I must be completely wrong about everything. It's such a tiresome lifelong battle with those bastards.
@@-danR He didn't even go into detail about the greater approaches. There are comments all over the place about how important it is to understand the content. Discussions, lecture summaries, making conclusions, and evaluating info are all part of the process. Interpreting is the process of determining what something's intended meaning is. And to understand entails knowing what something means. If your reading a book, you'd take it as what you believe it means or what you know it means. That is understanding.
The distinction between interpretation (generate, deduce, acquire, analyse, uncover, perceive, evaluate, assume, derive, conclude, insinuate, interpret, discern, surmise, extrapolate or decoding into your won words then retrieving said information) and understanding (process of comprehension or comprehending, conceptual understanding, absorbing the knowledge. Time where clarity and explanation is needed and you pay attention. More elaboration or better yet ... encoding into your brain) is that interpretation is an act or process of applying general principles or formulae to the explanation of results obtained in special cases,
Whereas comprehension is reason or intelligence, the ability to grasp the full (entire scope, exact & full implications, the correct or intended meaning and true context of the lecture for example. To be able get the real essence, deep value and true significance of the message. What is the relevance or origin of this part? The exact nature or underlying purpose. Whether semantic, symbolic or cultural. Finding the hidden meaning and delving deeper.. ) meaning of knowledge, and the ability to infer.
The distinction between interpretation and understanding is that interpretation is the ability to explain, whereas understanding is the ability to empathise (relate, connect, engage, listen, think, interact and communicate effectively). The distinction between interpretation and understanding as nouns is that interpretation is an act of interpreting or explaining what is unclear (obscure, unclear. ambiguous, uncertain, confusing, incomprehensible, vague, equivocal), whereas understanding is a translation (paraphrasing, to transcript/convert to written form, transmission of the info your thoughts and experience), a version, or a construction. While understanding is a cognitive and often emotional procedure, integration is a subjective process. The ability to make inferences from an idea that you are familiar with is interpretation.
One shows your knowledge more application, the other is not only getting the knowledge but retaining it by looking at the meaning. Then interpret or summarise what you know after taking your notes. Repeat or lecture yourself on what you understood. Interpreting is the action that comes from understanding the knowledge. Comprehension is knowing the full meaning and fathom all this data. At that level of expertise you have near perfect level of understanding and are then able to teach to others at a similar level. You don't read from a book and regurgitate but showcase what you already know.
The ability to explain: demonstrate/show/share/define then incorporate
Learning is different to studying. Ok we get that. One is a way or preferably a technique/method in order to learn. Learning is what happens when you grasp the things you've been studying. Learning in some subjects can differ like in language (in the procedure of developing your knowledge and memorization, phonological awareness and probably phonemic awareness) or other more complex but in a way "Maths is sometimes harder to grasp but once you've got it, its easy and you know the same type of things come up each year + loads of past papers etc. English Lit is subjective and so often down to a bit of luck, you can get a nasty question and you're totally screwed." Math may be easier to understand but much harder to learn. Once you've got the hang of it then you are set. English however will always be harder to understand but easier to learn. Once you grasp the basics you can learn more grammar and words but the way the pronunciation works or how to write in a creative way will still be a challenge. More subjective doesn't necessarily mean better in fact it might be worse. Math follows an extremely strict set of principles/rules and is often seen as another language. The issue, in my view, arises from all of the learning gaps that exist throughout the math language.
I appreciate the challenge of writing more as I mature in terms of creative viewpoint and critical thinking. Grammar is complicated and contains rules, yet they change with time and in response to culture. Writing also includes an element of art, which makes it more 'difficult' because it isn't quantitative and can't be broken down to its basics like math can.
The nicest part about math for me is that there is a clear solution almost every time, but writing has less rights and wrongs, making it more difficult to interpret.
Math is useful when I require a specific solution, and its quickness provides me a feeling of achievement. Writing, on the other hand, is both an escape and a method of communicating beyond words for me. I'm fascinated by how words can conjure up so much more than plain communication. It's possible that the consequences it can have on others will never be known, which adds to the difficulties.
@@-danR you make it sound like his proposed method strictly excludes spaced repetition like Anki. It's not one or the other but a combination of both, tho the latter could simply serve as a supplement.
It feels like the gold was burried beneath my feet all along...
Note to self -
Nothing can replace the actual effort...as in spending quality time pondering over a topic, asking myself questions,determining the the language of a subject and really visualising the big picture.
And after all the basic ground work is done...use appropriate technique that suits the topic/subject/question paper format!
Thank you for this amazing video!!
@whats up facts
My concept was, understand blueprint then you can discern the answers and aid in memorising seemingly disjointed data. And they all said you're thinking too much lol
Video starts
5:22..... studying vs learning
7:54 irony
8:35 memory
11:04 what happens whole answering questions
15:20 cognitive load
Cognitive for me: playing information with what im learning at that moment.....
Not just watching a chess game but also actively engaging with the possible turns...
22:38
23:30 fighting the forgetting curve,
How repeating compound effected information will suck
24:46
29:59 dunning Kruger effect.....AA being screwed uppp indectly 😁
33:02 😂😂😂
Thanks for saving my time
@@thebatmanwhokills9841 my pleasure
@@nibirnandi4344 vary op man
Thanks a lot 🙏. You save lots of my time 🙏
nigga didn't provide any fucking solution.
I can't even say how grateful I am for this video. It's immensely refreshing to see an actual expert who has dedicated their career to a subject create an in-depth comprehensive video about it. I know some folks complain about the length, but just because we are trained by modern social media to want everything in a minute or less with highlight reels, doesn't mean that we should cut out actual real information. Context and data take time. I have watched so many videos about studying from 'gurus' who are really just influencers who made it their job to make money online. It is rare to see a video from an expert who does this for a living, and then decided to make videos to share the knowledge or increase their reach. I also appreciate that you made a point to encourage students that if these other techniques aren't working, it doesn't mean they are bad students, or dumb, etc., and that there is hope.
The so called "gurus" are also capable of giving useful informations. I'm just saying you don't need a degree to know effective study methods. There are also always some people having this opinion and some others even expert trust me. At the end of the day let's all be thnakful for even getting those advice for free and always remember if it doesn't work for someone doesn't mean they are incapable. I never heard someone ever say that but maybe people interpret too much. Anyways i just wanted to add that here (not really a debate comment will probably not respond)
Take care
I am think just like you. And I hope he has more videos about this. I started to thinking that my flashcards with included space repetition doesn’t work so so well, it is definitely helpful but maybe not of the best technique as he said. It helped a lot but also it tikes time and I think sometimes it doesn’t work so well for remembering everything.
Tldr
Good stuff, Justin. My only qualm with your content is that you could be much more concise; I think you could fit all your points in a much shorter video. Also, it'd be nice to have an outline of your points somewhere so I wouldn't have to watch a long video only to find out that I knew most of what you would say anyway.
Please summarize it. This is whole damn episode.
If you check his caption he has a written summary of his video in the comment section
But to be fair.. Its actually more informational than Jim kwik book...
Please do summarize this 41 minute video 😭 I don't think my easily distracted brain can commit to watching this whole
@@jeithrowagwag1425 He basically said that spaced repetition only helps you if you are not a good student, otherwise it takes a lot of effort giving little results. Which make the video pointless for most people, I guess. And promotes his teaching method and himself as a coach.
It’s so relieving to see this video! Before this whole craze about active recall , I never used Anki and just relied on my notes and deeply understanding and was doing very well . When I heard about these methods I suddenly felt that the way I was studying was totally wrong and that I should start using Anki like everyone does . I just ended up being frustrated by the end of it , it was unsustainable and very time consuming . This semester I decided to go back to what I originally loved and worked for me :)
The same thing happened to me.
so what is the actual way that you use ?
@@aleeysyafiona8693 Feynman Technique
@@andrexpic97 could you share how do you apply the Feynman technique? like do you have some kind of system for it (your process, etc)?
How do you remember the things you understand deeply. Especially if couldn't manage to get it down on notes
Hi, I'm a law student in Brazil and I've been trying to use the repetition spaced for months. In the beginning, it was wonderful and we started to get super excited. When I reached 5,000 flashcards my life started to get complicated. I spent hours and hours making flashcards and couldn't make much progress on new themes. The time came when I could only make flashcards, I no longer had time to learn new content. Your video was accurate on this spaced-repeat issue. I just signed up and I'm looking forward to the new videos.
Thanks for sharing your experience!
I used mind-map
There’s different ways of active recall i use blurting i used to do flashcards but i has the same problem as u bc of all the context u need to know theres not enough time to make every flashcard on each subject
am a law student in switzerland and i also struggle with a lot of flashcards.. now i write notes from the power point slides and learn while summarizing the slides into my notes i guess..
Nice
Recently finished med school, some thoughts I had: you can learn without anki (forced spaced repetition on schedule), but whatever technique you employ it will use spaced repetition (you need to review information as some point and at more than one interval). I think there is a sweet spot when it comes to using apps like Anki and true learning. I like using textbooks to make my cards. My approach was to read a few sections or chapter in its entirety, highlight import concepts, and then solidify my understanding. Once I had a good grasp, I would make flashcards (anki) of all the highlighted material and in the extra section of the card, would add my thoughts and understanding. In this way you get spaced repetition, but you can always reference your extra information should you forget your true understanding of something. Also, when using Anki, its important to actually THINK about the card rather than just answer it. If you employ that strategy, its highly effective, as you are always challenging yourself to think critically about the subject material while also using the spaced repetition algo of anki to only show you the material again when you really need to. Prior to med school I didn't use anki and did great, but the amount of information was far less and I still used spaced repetition, but in a more manual fashion. I would start by writing down a topic and then proceed to write everything i knew about it until I hit a wall. This forced me to find my deficiencies and then I would read more and then attempt the process again later in the day.
TLDR: Using spaced repetition/ANKI is all about HOW you use it. If you mindlessly do flashcards, you won't learn. If you force yourself to think about the material and check if you truly understand, then you'll do great and you'll actually learn. I've used anki to successfully remember cardiovascular pathophysiology since my first year of med school and I owe it to dedicated reading of material and integrating this into spaced repetition.
Say if you got 1000 flashcards to read in a day, how do u read it without going mad?
@@_anime_shawty7654 The only time I had 1000+ cards due was in the depths of dedicated for Step which honestly is a time you just suck it up, drown yourself in caffeine, and smash that spacebar. The goal ultimately is to only have like a couple hundred at most cards to review everyday. I think you also just get faster reading cards overtime. That being said, is it really hard some days to even get through 100 cards? Absolutely, its definitely not a perfect system.
@@_anime_shawty7654 You should not read it all at once! Your studies should be distributed out over days or weeks depending on the amount of information!
In short : don't be stressed , don't focus on perfect retaining rather than good understanding on the subject , enjoy the journey and your studying
It's easy said then done , but it's a fact that there's no perfect preparation for the exams , sometimes you have time to revise well and sometimes you just don't , some subjects are easier then the other and sometimes you'd stuck on the minor things
no
No
no
Uh no
Que
Really what you're discussing is the ineffectiveness of spaced repetition *of poorly encoded information*. It's not the spaced repetition itself that is "the problem." Indeed, spaced repetition is an absolute requirement for remembering anything. There is no avoiding it. But if the information you're repeating is poorly encoded (i.e., the flashcard or whatever is poorly worded, lacks sensory or explanatory details, mnemonics, etc.) then you will have to repeat it too often to keep up with all you need to learn.
Yes you've basically got it. The main issue I have is that deep processing is RARELY talked about although the benefits of deep processing and cognitive load optimisation are more riobustly evidence-based than using spaced retrieval practice. There is a popular movement of active recall and spaced repetition being the top level technique, which is why that's the statement I opened the video with.
That is why you should make questions on your own which will be comprehensible and then repeat...
Thanks for saving me 40 mins of padding
Ha !! You wasted 40 minutes of your life !
Basically, in most cases, owning the information instead of hard-coding is more effective. That said, spatial memory is still crucial for organizing thoughts (aka memory palaces) because if you truly understand the course materials, you can also know what sources need to be purely memorized.
As someone that uses the PAO system (something I rarely use but still have on the off chance it's needed) I have found it better to have and not use than need and not have.
this is great! I've done 2 degrees: one in my early 20s and the second in my mid 40s. One of the main differences between the two learning experiences was that, the second time, I had more life experience to use to engage with the information I was learning (more material to use to increase my cognitive load when studying). In exercises that involved straight up memorising - like memorising the script for a play for my Spanish class - I noticed the young kids were MUCH faster than me at memorising, but I could also see the kids weren't remembering material from the lectures or readings as well as me. In lectures and readings,I constantly evaluated the information, thinking about how it would have applied in my previous careers, questioning ambiguities and inconsistencies in the way information was presented etc. Because I was the same age as the professors and already had achieved professional success, I also felt more right to demand that my professors explain those apparent ambiguities and inconsistencies or gaps...which helped me stay engaged with the information as it was initially presented, and which helped encode it into long term memory. The kids in my classes were generally more passive in interacting with information. I think they had trouble "seeing" which information was important, they had very little existing framework of knowledge or experiencial memory to link with the new, incoming information.
This is incredibly true for me as well in my 30s, though I did find that learning about how to properly use active recall and spaced repetition did help a lot as well. In fact, I would even go so far as to say it was game-changing. But I 100% agree that contextualizing the information makes it infinitely more meaningful and thus memorable. I also do have a much better intuition for the way my professors prioritize "important" concepts. I also have a much better idea of when professors are "phoning in" their responsibilities and not providing sufficient context or support or when they are just flat out wrong, because of my professional experience in the sciences, which is also the degree type I am pursuing. I think another aspect is that in my professional experiences I have my confidence boosted in times where I became a subject matter expert on a particular topic, to the extent I would train other professionals and be a "go-to" source. This indicated to me that "yes I am capable of knowing and retrieving a lot of detailed, high-level information".
TL;DR: Your insight about having a framework to link and prioritize incoming information is something I hadn't considered and it is a great insight that also applies to this 30-something. :)
@@giselle8867 I also understand what you mean by feeling you had intuition for how your professors were prioritising information. For my first degree, I have no memory of being able to detect what my professor would test, but during my 2nd degree I could easily tell what they thought was important, or what they'd be looking for in my assignments.
One of those. “ I’m older than you so I know people “ huh. Jk.
@@eundongpark1672 Strongly agree. Top students know how to pass exams. Made friends with one of the top students at uni. He had studied law and had lectured at night. He was responsible for setting law exams. He said setting exams taught him how to study more than anything. Knowing what is important overrides everything. Its very important to study past exam papers. Only 20% of lectures are important and make up 80% of exam marks. I used to treat everything as important. Now I put 80% of my time into 20% of whats important. Just put 20% of your time into the 80% that is not important. Also everything you need to know for the exam will be in the lectures. A big mistake some students make is to go outside of the lectures - either too wide or to deep. Most students waste so much time on notes. I think this comes from the way they were taught in high school. A more time efficient way is to read and remember. I used to try to remember things "permanently". Now I just remember things for the exam. The amount of work at uni can be overwhelming. So time efficiency is very important. Remember a lot of people you meet at uni you will never see again. So they are not as important as you may feel at the time. Stay away from time wasters. They wont be there next year.
To me the most important thing is to get your life sorted out. You cannot afford to have problems. If you sleep well you can study hard and concentrate well. Go to bed and get up the same time every day. The better you concentrate the more and easier you will remember information. The ability to keep going is more important than how smart you are. From experience I have learned I can turn a potential exam mark of 30 - 35% into 55 - 65% by one days very hard study. Ive failed exams I could have passed because I gave up.
There is memorization and there is conceptualization.
For memorization, a term called “chunking,” which is similar to “encoding” is useful. People who memorize large amounts of information quickly usually use a “peg system” and create “memory palaces”. Search for those terms.
Repetition allows moving information into long-term storage in the brain.
Conceptualization requires understanding relationships. It often means applying known mental models to other situations.
Memory palaces work because our brains naturally deal with moving through space.
In summary: he's not saying active recall is worthless and that you shouldn't use it, he's saying that you should use it but you have to encode things as well.
To encode something you have to actually engage with the things you are studying, (if you feel bored your doing it wrong)
(If it's hard your doing it right)
If you spell it 'your' you're doing it wrong. If you spell it 'you're', you're doing it right.
@@AusJapan This is the wrong way to correct someone, be nice!
Hi Justin,
I'm an old student returning back to college and, I have enjoyed watching and learning from you. I was reading some of the comments some good and of course some negative. As far as the negative comments it saddened me to think how humanity treats individuals who are putting themselves out there in order to help people improve their lives therefore, do not take these negative comments to heart these people are blind and bitter. Much health and prosperity. I for one will take your course. All learning has value.
Thanks Wanda! Slowly getting better at ignoring the haters :)
Yep , all this information you are giving to us is going to help a lot of people so please ignore the negative comments
"it comes into your face.... repeatedly"
"thats..not the best wording I could've used"
Yep. Subscribed.
I hope that Ling Ling would bestow upon me the ability to study 40 hours a day 🙏
Time for Doraemon to come into play...😂
Fellow twosetter!
If you can study slowly you can study quickly...?
Twosetters everywhere?
Indeed.
The key is actually attempting to understand what you’re studying, instead of just trying to memorize information. Justin’s method appears to use mind maps IIRC, but use whatever method you like to understand a concept and how it fits into the big picture.
I am a Dietetics student and I really can relate with you Justin. I love learning, but I tend to forget easily, to compensate I study for hours and hours, to the point of just sleeping 2-3H per day as you, which is not healthy, I am stopping with that because I feel tired and is not productive. Been trying these space repetitions and active recalls, which works for awhile but I personally don't find it efficient. Simply because if I am fighting the forgetting curve I will be always needing on coming back and recall it again. Not efficient when you have new information coming up to you and trying to retrieve what you learned before. It's been really overwhelming even tho I have really good marks. Makes me feel overwhelmed if I will be ready to perfom great as a professional because of that. Defo will be open minded and using other methods such as yours. Happy that you decided to bring your knowlegde online.
5th year med student here.
I discovered Active Recall and Spaced Repetition 2 years ago and I decided to give Anki a chance.
At first I thought I would become some sort of genius, because I was managing to memorize enormous amount of information, but after a few weeks the flashcards just became too many. I spent all day just revising old topics and I could not study the new ones.
I tried using it with several exams, but I had to stop, because grades were getting worse than before.
Anki is quite good for easy subjects with just a small amount of info to memorize, but it's almost impossible to use it efficiently for harder exams (Pharmacology or Phisiology for example).
This was my experience. It was useful at first, but rapidly made things worse.
This video is truly good content.
hi, the same thing happened to me, do you have tips on how i can study for exams -- study tips :)
@@cynthiacancado2315 Right now I use Feynman Technique
@@andrexpic97 thanks for the reply :)
Quite the opposite happened for me actually. I got straight A's in medical school with anki
@@cynthiacancado2315 There is actually a limit to how much raw information one can put into the brain. Raw memorization of information can only take you so much which is what flash card is.
You must connect all of the information together to create a big map of information in your brain.
How do you do it? It’s easy, you just need time to think about the information. First step is to memorize, but then you must spend time reorganizing what you learned into a map of an information of a sort. And crazy thing is that you can do this any time, and the connection you make doesn’t even have to be accurate to a certain degree. If you just want a good grade in test, if it is well organized in your brain, how you organize it doesn’t really have to be accurate.
This is one of the few times I have been thankful for the suggestions of TH-cam's algorithm😂
Thank you so much for this informative video, and looking forward for all the next!🤩
Thanks for the nice comment!
Honestly!!
FACED SAME ISSUES WITH ACTIVE RECALL AND FEELING LIKE NO ENOUGH TIME AND BLAMING ON MY SELF
thinking it was all my fault, on top of that having all the content in my head was even more challenging
having people addressing these issues is really helpful thanks for this long and super useful video:)
Summary: Stuff you remember (what you have "learned") only exists in long term memory (LTM) and you have to "encode" information from working memory to put it there (and you can't retrieve from LTM if it you haven't previously encoded it). In order to encode information into LTM, you need cognitive load. But be careful: too low (just hitting your head on the textbook or simply reading it) is usually an inefficient use of your time, too high and you can actually overload your brain's ability and do worse than some lower loads; ideally, you want to be right around your "load threshold" where it isn't easy, but it isn't super hard-just "a lil' confusing." The annoying thing about most study methods is that they are highly individualistic as the "good ones" are fine tuned to the load threshold of the person who created it; conversely, spaced repetition is very easy for anyone to just pick up as a study method. This is fantastic if you aren't already studying but has diminishing returns at higher levels (i.e. will bring an F -> C but B -> B+); the main problem at the higher levels is that spaced repetition can be repetitive, monotonous, and demoralizing because you aren't seeing the same returns you thought you would be. Similarly, (at least I think this is what he's saying) active recall methods are any methods that engage cognitive load, which will feel confusing and like you aren't actually learning (despite being a very good position for learning), and thus leads people away from those techniques. A better method for learning is to hold on to the material better in the first place with "neuroplasticity" (i.e. the brain's ability to restructure itself for more optimal memory) which is absolutely something that can be trained (see his other videos). Finally he goes on about why spaced repetition and active recall are so hyped up due to the dunning kruger effect making people misidentify their success, success bias where we don't hear about the failures of these methods, and availability bias where "everyone is saying this is good, so it must be good!", rinse and repeat.
First off, please stop with the jaunty music over the long tangents. I see this all over the place on TH-cam and it only makes me feel like what you are saying is unimportant. Either cut the clip or leave the music out please. Second, I think you generally make some great points about learning vs studying and what that means. I definitely learned some very interesting things about cognitive load and how we encode information into LTM. I also think it is definitely sad that so much of StudyTube is devoted to recycling the same points in slightly different ways by different people, so thank you for actually bothering to be critical of these things. However, I have some criticisms of your argument.
To start, you talk about how spaced repetition can be repetitive and a waste of time. I think this misses the idea of spaced repetition. If you are reviewing at points where it it is too easy and boring, you are reviewing too often and need to adjust the parameters of your algorithm to match your cognitive load (in Anki, this would be increasing the interval modifier or starting ease in the options). You actually hint to this idea in your cognitive load section with how boredom and sleepiness indicate too low of a cognitive load. Also, review at some point would still be a necessary step even by increasing your neuroplasticity because, as you directly graphed out in the summary section, you still end up with information loss which will need to be reviewed and regained (and in order to identify WHAT information you need to review, you will probably have to go through the boring process of reviewing everything). Finally, you don't touch quite as much on active recall in the video as you do with spaced repetition but I think active recall (and the confusion associated with it) is an inevitable part of studying. As I just mentioned, because NO study method (including increased neuroplasticity) is perfect and you can, as you point out, never remember everything 100%, you will inevitably review eventually and the optimal forms are going to be active recall.
Ultimately, I think the video is just a little misleading. I don't think you are actually trying to say that active recall and spaced repetition are bad as I think I might be initially understanding you, so much as to make clear the problems associated with these techniques and bring to light an underrated method which helps in limiting these downsides.
I agree, especially with your point about the music, it is a bit jarring at times. I hope Justin fixes it lol
I’m only seeing positive comments but wanted to say this felt like a trigger pitch to join your program. Anki and other spaced repetition programs always say, “you must understand a topic before it is helpful to have a flashcard of.” If you use anki to remind yourself of topics that you do use in your profession/daily life and when you see a card you think of related applications (or if it’s a foreign language word then using it in a sentence) then those techniques are incredible. The real problem is that students share decks with each other, and then rather than encountering the information on decks in books/real life, they just rote try to memorize things they don’t yet understand. This is bad practice, but I want to reiterate that Anki and other (good) tools don’t advice this!
In summary this video is: "Focus in better encoding, than flatting your forgetting curve"
Definitions:
Enconding: process to put info from working memory into long-term memory.
Working memory = "RAM Memory", Long-term memory = "Hard Drive memory"
Personal opinion:
A video perfumed with scientificism, where a guy is more worried to prove their reliability, by shooting out a plethora of buzz-words, than delivery something critic at all.
That is what i am getting here, a video where someone has said a lot but so little that you really do anything with it.
thanks for the summary
Teaching lessons to yourself like you’re teaching someone else is SO helpful for me
I think you are highlighting just repetition “Active learning” is part of coding. You have to understand the concept you are learning to be able to actively retrieve it.
Active recall is not inherently something that improves encoding. It's possible to do active recall as part of maintenance rehearsal which is non-elaborative. There is a wide scope of how the technique can be applied and although there is research suggesting that active retrieval during initial studying sessions can improve encoding (which I personally agree with), most students do not apply active recall in these methods. Often the methods are incredibly passive and use only lower-order learning. I talk a bit more about these orders of learning in my latest video on encoding. Higher-order recall would certainly improve encoding, though it's arguable that active recall in itself relies on repetition, if not used in the context of the initial studying session.
I am in university rn. I am having rough time reviewing for midterms/finals because of all of my long long take-year-to-read linear notes and not efficient space repetition technique. I searched YT and I found your hidden gem videos. It was such a pity that I did not come across your channel ages ago. This video of you completely changed my mind about note-taking. Thank you so much for your work, Dr.Sung. 🙏🙏🙏
This teaching on how to study should be taught to school everywhere especially starting from middle school or high school.
This was extremely “humbling” from a learning point of view. I am one of those students who *rely* on active recall and spaced repetition. Just a few weeks ago it felt like I hit the limitations of what AR and SP could do for me. Not saying that I mastered it, but what I’m saying is that it feels like I can’t get any “more” out of it if the learning content demands more from me. It felt like those techniques were some 20lb dumbbells and yeah for the first few weeks of work out it’s gonna do more, but I can’t get any more growth if all I lift are those 20lbs so this video really opened me up and humbled me in the sense that there was sooooo much I needed to learn more thank you a lot.
AS AN UNDERGRAD STUDENT I THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH FOR THIS !!! I have been concluded the same approach about actively "studying" as by being more exposed to the fact of being "proactive" with good results, i started to distinguish the difference between learning and studying which it may be labelled as the same activity. this is the first time i have encountered to someone who was able to explain this !!!!!!
I9
Broskiiiiii don’t skip over the research studies 😭😩
They’re actually so intriguing and interesting to learn about and add to the validity of what you’re saying please don’t skip them in your videos,for people like me who enjoy them😀😩💕
I clicked on the video because I learn using space repetition and active recall, when I saw a video saying it doesn't work I clicked on it and read the summary the uploader posted (because I can't be asked to watch a 40 minute video on something that I know has extremely high chances of being wrong), so apparently his entire point is that you should do these things because it's not effective since learning actually takes doing shit rather than just testing yourself with your own questions, yeah of course, it would be like saying "if you want to learn a language don't just learn gramatical rules and words, you also need to form sentences!!".
I would highly distrust anyone calling himself a coach (this is how I knew he is a charlatan) since "coaches" are just unqualified people with zero credentials on a topic that use that term to label themselves as experts, and on top of that if you check the description he sells lessons on how to coach for as little as 1.50$ a day (45 a month for a discord server on how to study lmao), he created a problem by saying that effective techniques don't work and offered a solution to sell you a product, listen kids I know that a lot of you here are young and this man is trying to sell you the secret to success but don't fall for it, don't be stupid, he is just trying to sell you something.
I wish I could read your comment before 29 minutes I have watched...
He said after 30 minutes that you can watch another my video where I finally answer what is about his technique, what a waste of time.
I’m interested in the research to which you refer (I do care about it, as it seems contrary to the research I’ve reviewed).
In criticizing spaced repetition and active recall at the outset of the video, you related your own experience: you were sleeping very little as you used your flash cards 20 hours a day. You suggest that you poured all your energy into testing active recall and spaced repetition and it was ineffective. Your “test” result, however, had a tenuous connection to your approach. Your ineffectiveness likely arose from your sleeplessness. Sleep is so fundamental to the consolidation of new material in your long term memory. Even one hour of sleep deprivation has deleterious effects on your ability to remember, and can unwind other material that you had stored previously.
Encoding is just the first step (admittedly, I’ve not yet seen what you mean by this term.) Doing the work. Spaced repetition. Repeating material to a point just before you feel comfortable with it. Switching from focussed study to diffuse daydreaming after about 30 minutes of study. Interleaving with unrelated material. Letting some time pass so as to allow a little forgetting. Testing (which is active recall). Objective assessment of your performance (by an ‘expert’ / mentor). Integrating that material into what you already know. Expounding on or contemplating other uses of the material. Building a new model of understanding. Testing that model. Tweaking your understanding to fit the test results.
If you test / actively recall within an hour of learning the material, then a couple days later (after a small level of forgetting), then a week later, and finally about 3 weeks later, the forgetting basically stops. (NB: after testing, delay correction by a day, and then correct the errors that you had.)
the dramatic cuts and transitions add the cherry on top to this video :D
I really did try lol
A lot of people don’t realise how big of a topic this is! A lot of people are getting the false impression that youve just said that ar+sr is invalid and the only ‘correct’ way to learn is through your course. But hopefully that’ll lessen when you upload more videos. Anyway, I’m excited for the videos and reports that are yet to be published, there’s so much more to cover aha. Good stuff Justin. Hope this video gains traction, and more people get to see it! :)
You’ve captured exactly how I’m feeling halfway into the first semester of my Master’s and attempting (albeit clumsily) to employ active recall and spaced repetition with, admittedly, low level encoding - demoralized. Seven years after completing my undergrad, I can’t wait to do better and be more intentional this time around. Can’t wait for more videos.
I've got a few videos of me tackling my Masters as well so that should help :)
Is your master's technical? I am curious because I do math and stats.
@@SevereMalfunction7 it isn't, but I do have tips for more technical subjects. I will endeavor to make videos on that one the future too. There is a lot to cover!
To put it in a nutshell, Active Recall and Spaced Repetition (Anki) will just work if you encoded (really understood) the (more or less) basic concept of the topic you are learning. Therefore Anki will just help you remember the things you already understood and creates nerve tracts to actually retrieve the information easier. Just like a forest track that gets broader and wider every time you go trough it.
However, this video is eye-opening for me as I spend much time getting to know with the psychology of learning.
Well, as a German student I stumbled across the author Vera F. Birkenbihl who takes this basic ideas in her main book (Stroh im Kopf) and exemplifies the encoding process with many mnemonics. That could be very interesting for those who understand and speak German (I am a huge fan of her!)
Thanks for the amazing work. I wish you all good look in your studying/learning process!
Cheers
Does she have an English book ?i cannot speak German
Or can u tell me imp points of that book it will be great help
I’m German and haven’t heard i
Of that book or the author. Is it on Amazon? I live in the U.S.!
From my experience from college and high school, I think the best learning method involves active recall but only as one part of the learning process: 1. write your own study material (or read carefully the study material of others if it does not suck, can be from your mates or the official study material). 2. Search like crazy on the internet for other good materials than the official from your school (there is a very high probability you will find better materials, materials you can understand better, or materials that were the source for your professor) and try to understand things you couldn't understand. 3. Teach it. 4. Imagine like you are the student and ask questions. 5. Answer the question, 6. Test yourself repeatedly (yes, you can use flashcards here). 7. Ask former students or search for past exams to see what you really need to remember. 8. Use mnemonics if you still cannot memorize something and you need to.
The disadvantage is that it is time-consuming, however, I think this is the only working method if you want to both actually learn something for good (for long time memory) and memorize the rest of the stuff (the necessary evil, which is required for some of the courses).
You simply cant do that when you are at university studying something like Medicine. It takes to much time, because you have many subjects and each of them requires you to study 100’s - 1000’s of Pages .
Pretty good, lucky to have found this before I went full on active recalling and space repetition for everything. Thanks.
me too lol. I have just found out about these techniques today and so intrigued to apply it EVERY DAY lol.
Also calm/peaceful mind is important for good memory..If we have lot of stress or pains in heart ,, Definitely that will affect our brain negatively.
Finally someone told that! I spent a great amount of time for searching the best study technique. And all I found was active recall and spaced repetition… I used it in my high school but in med school it was too much time consuming and I realised that instead of understanding I memorised all info 🤡. I ended up that main thing to suceed in learning is the cognition process . And you told that encoding! Can’t wait your another video!
Memorization is an important factor for learning. More importantly the reviewing of material periodically over time in my experience helped to develop understanding.
If a med school wants you to cram, you use spaced repetition and you hate it! School is the culprit. You just need to learn the things you love. School stuff you can forget with little harm (as everyone else)
I use both active recall and spaced repetition, but the best in my opinion is using different modalities with active learning. Prediciting questions by learning deep strucuture of information works really well.
You could tell the same thing with less words
Concepts I learned:
Success bias
Dunning Kruger effect.
Availability bias
I must thank you for producing this video. I know Active Recall and Spaced Repetition since the first year of Medical School and welp, It truly helped. But like you said, it only tackles the retrieving. I realized this, I used to spend so much time doing Anki and not getting the result I wanted. I cannot do questions requiring applications. I have been google how to study better, how to ensure that you really get things, stuff like that(Feyman techniques etc but I am still struggling with this). I also feel like I am somewhat inferior to my peers because I cannot grasp the knowledge, and apply as quick as them, even though I manage to do the Anki cards.
Check out the "20 rules of knowledge formulation". The first three rule is very important for Anki.
i hope things got better !
I'm very interested in learning what are you talking about with respect to the "smart kid" phenomenon. There are many incredibly intelligent people who never achieve their potential because they never learned how to learn and if the matter doesn't reveal itself to them, they start failing. It usually happens once the matter becomes more demanding and they lean into what feels easier and are mistaken believing their passion is what naturally comes to them easier, rather than exploring what genuinely excites them.
23:50 = mind blown!! Constantly fighting the forgetting curve!!
Like the curse of Sisyphus
Oh my God, I do want to hear and read about the research 😭 knowing the mechanisms is the most important part.
Nice to meet you, Justin, this is the first video i watch of yours, and I'm totally subscribing.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge !
I loved this video not just because of what you explained and talked about but because it wasn’t like do this do this. The little jokes here and there, how you cut the video zooming in and out and the part with the research made me smile. I’m actually struggling at university but this video motivated me to change my learning system and stop putting so much pressure on myself for not being able to keep up with my lectures and repeat the topics regularly. This is the first video I’ve seen from you and I subscribed after 1/3 of the video. Thank you❤
I'm not saying this just to shit on the video or anything, but I agree with some points made by some people in the comments.
Without the other videos explaining how to study properly without spaced repetition and teaching how to "encode" information, this one just talks about a problem without offering possible solutions aside from your course. It could leave a lot of people lost because of this, and bringing out your product as one of the solutions (right now at least, the only one mentioned, since the videos aren't out yet) could, with all reason, give the impression that this is just some marketing to promote your stuff.
I don't think this is the case, and I'm excited to see your content about those topics. Great work, and thank you for sharing your knowledge
Couldn't agree more.
He literally said in the comments he’s gonna create more videos on how to not solely rely on active recall and spaced repetition. Just be patient he has other things to do as well.
In his channel there's a video waiting to premiere that is about how to apply this "encoding". It's going to be out in less than a day.
This made me curious as Justin is online in youtube for a year, made around 54 videos and did he revealed this knowledge that he posesses to better learning in a practical how to videos, disappointed I could not find any :-( It was all theoritical. I wonder why?
It's a classic scam, "join my webinar to study 200 pages the day before your exam! " Type of thing, just more veiled. He even added reviews of his course in post production and safeguarding himself repeating how he already knows that the video would get a lot of backlash (I wonder why)
Ater analyzing everything you said, it all makes sense now. I've always been an avid spaced repetition defender. But the truth is, remembering things you learned (which is what spaced repetition aims at) is one of the MULTIPLE things and not the sole thing you should rely on to truly learn. I'm definetly going to stop doing 4-5 hours of solely spaced repetition and actually start trying to LEARN and not REMEMBER things. Definetly implementing what you taught us in your latest video. Thank you so much.
You should have been learning and understanding first before memorising. Its literally the whole point
"Not all studying processes activate the same amount of learning" - powerful distinction.
The gist of all of this is that learning is more than just remembering, it is applying what you remember. This requires you to be *active* in your learning and studying: constantly asking questions about why? what? when? who? how? Why, what, and how being the most important questions. Explain it to yourself, question the text, make connections with your own life and previous learning, ask "what if" questions. Be ACTIVE! That's really just it. Engaging with your learning contextualizes things so that when you "encode", you have multiple connections and can retrace back to it, like retracing your steps to find your keys. It doesn't mean that you don't need to memorize facts or trivia, because you still will, and spaced repetition systems can help you there,; but, if you contextualize what you learn and apply it, you will remember and understand much better. And that is what learning is (remembering + understanding/applying). Source: I'm a teacher. :D
bloom's taxonomy chart in a nutshell
God this man can talk without saying anything.
Thank you for the video, super interesting. I am studying computer science and I found it very difficult to use flashcards since most of my study content are math and coding concepts, so It's a lot more about actually understanding concepts rather memorising things. Of course there is a fair bit of memorising definitions of things but learning how to learn and understands complex concepts more quicker resonates so much more. I will definitely learn now more about encoding!
How do you use this encoding technique?
I think flash cards is difficult for people studying anything computers.
When I studied Computer Science, the moment I started doing well in the exams was the moment I started to deepen my understanding of the topics. I left behind the notes and the summarised documents the teachers had given to us and went directly to the bibliography at the end of the documents. The first day of the year I was in the library to rent the books of the subject before anyone else, and I didn't return them until I had passed the exam.
What at the beginning seemed too long (to read and understand several complex books) it ended to be so much easier and interesting that trying to memorize some documents I didn't understand so good.
I owned a half of my degree to Mr Tannenbaum and Stallings.
Not one source, book or study mentioned. Only a link to your course. I have to say I'd help you a lot giving some.
The best learning method I found is to target both understanding and memory. Memorize when necessary, but understand as much as possible. Once your brain starts to be able to memorize, it will improve your understanding. So understand --> memorize --> understand.
There's no words to explain how much I appreciate you making this video. I'm sure if I slept the last couple days I would be able to able to but just want to say thanks
This dude knows his stuff! Not a lot of people know about the biases that influence us subconsciously. Enjoyed watching him explain the process and the biases which influence us.
For those with ADHD 21:40 he starts talking about active recall
summery i learn : active recall and space repetation is good for beginners but for becoming expert in something you need more..
Ling ling! Didn't expect that one lol. Anyhow, learning isn't memorization; nope, learning is making the information your own. How we do so is by understanding, not memorizing. Honestly, I find that I rarely have to use pure memorization outside facts like remembering Irrationals.
Studying formal logic and set naive theory-- not quite to ZFC yet-- has taught me perspective is key. Or at least, that's my takeaway.
No matter how Ling Ling you are 😂 didnt expect that either
@@pippilala If you can study slow! You can study fast!! Truly, we all must transcend the boundaries of reality and cram 40 hours into a single day haha. Become one with the Ling Ling!
How to learning without recalling the information? Memorization technique is the key
@@shokujinki Again, purely remembering facts does not given you anything if you do not first understand the meaning and use.
This is why the school education system fails: subjects such as math and science is treated as nothing but fact checks to be learned.
Which is why when they hit college they struggle to keep up, as math and science is not just formula "inset here."
That is why I say, most of time memorization is secondary to learning. Because if you understand how to use the information, your most likely going to remember it.
Do not fall into the over reliance of memory systems. They are just tools, and tools are to used when needed.
This is
I’ve been using SuperMemo (spaced repetition program) every day for more than a decade, and it took me a couple of years to TRULY get the hang of the flow. Now that I am used to using it every day, I rely on it heavily to be my “external brain.” I think that as long as you have the drive to improve and stick with your system, you’ll be better off than not doing it.
It’s crazy to me how so many of my classmates complain that out teachers don’t teach or just laugh about how they learned nothing and are expected to do some sort of assignment. Like yeah. You think it’s easy to just encode all that information in your head? I’m not “good at chemistry” it’s just that I actually took notes and asked questioned when our teacher gave lectures. That A+ was earned from actively trying to understand what he was telling us, asking questions even when it ended up being pretty dumb, and doing the homework assignments we were supposed to, even if it was late because it’s not like he docked points for late things anyways.
this video made me realize so many things about why I got tired of my anki flashcards once it reached a big number and deleted the entire deck without looking back. Actually, I just keep my decks simple, not much info bc I cannot handle much of it, and it works fine like that, but I still don't relay 100% on flashcards.
You have nailed the point on the disadvantages of active recall and spaced repetition. If I recollect correctly many of the studytubers have mentioned that these techniques slowly helps the learners to have a clear mental map of the concepts as they do active recall with spaced repetition over a period of time, however this is a very slow and inefficient way of learning if one relies on active recall and spaced repetition to have a clear mental model of the concept. If a learner had properly encoded a concept and had a clear mental model of the concept in his mind when he or she first learns the concept, then the time required for active recall and spaced repetition comes down way more significantly.
I think that active recall and spaced repetition techniques works best for auditory learners since these techniques requires the students to think about the concepts in words.
I'm neurodivergent and everything that is happening in the video has kept my attention 😅. I've actually been trying to understand how the learning process works (got the first bit right) but still confused as to how the process works, which was the important information that I have been looking for. I have a hard time understanding certain things, so that's probably why I'm so persistent im wanting to learn how to learn. Honestly this video is god sent, because you just make so much sense. Deffo be subscribing
I knew I'd find my people under this video. I'm hopeful about this because i did try AR and SR methods but quickly felt stupid. Just thinking why me? Why can't I do it? And it left me so depressed.
Our world needs more genuine people like youu sir, you are a life saver... 🙏🏻💐
Dr. Sung, I'm earnestly greatful for your content on learning. Heavily changed my perspective on how to learn. I remember asking myself, "I studied so much more than them, yet they always seem to do better than me." Now I know why. I hope the best for your channel. Looking forward to enrolling on your course, if I can afford it.
This should be mandatory viewing for anyone who needs to learn and remember significant amounts of information, whether it be in a school or workplace environment.
for me is justin sung, benjamin keep phd and healthygamergg (you also need to learn your limitations, specially problems like being diagnosed with something like adhd or something similar, so you can work around them to get a solution or something to compensate for that problem)
Activate Recall and space repetition never worked for me. However when I tried to explain that to others like my teachers or even parents I got looked at like oh you most be doing it wrong or your just not studying hard enough. I was even told by my teachers in high school I would not go to college. I used to fall asleep on work books frustrated and upset thinking something was wrong with me. I started even skipping class because I got frustrated I was not getting help I needed. Was not till after high school I found out I had ADHD. I had to reteach myself after high school and I'm still learning how to learn. I have been to college though and did very well . Though was not in the right career path 😅. Now I'm going back to college to take a risk in what I always wanted to do. I'm still learning every day on how to better myself even as an adult. Will definitely look at your other videos and try some of your studying tips.
what's the TLDR version of this video?
Best learning TH-camr out here 🗣🗣
I forced myself to watch this entire video and I’m glad I did. Thank you Justin for making this knowledge available for free.
I'm practicing 2,000words to remember day by day for now for not my intention to discourage all Prof like you how good I am .just listening, watching and learning some good matters a day not arguing about being a Genius or not.
Thank you so so much for this video! Exactly what happend to me 1 year ago. Even the dunning kruger effect... 🤣 I was so convinced that Anki would solve all my study problems for me and was so excited in the beginning that I wanted to remember every little detail to impress the professor (and myself). But then I ended up with moderate depression for 4 months because Anki "wouldn't allow me" only one day off and I started to hate studying. Creeps me out to think of that dark time in my Life.
Wooow.. And what do use now
@@rabienouhal3407 i've binge watched Justins Videos/Podcasts/instagram content and started to practise techniques of him. I've started to 'think' differently. I'm still learning to learn!! It doesn't come naturally to me, because I'm actually lazier than I thought. 😂
And I've had to quit medical school, because I needed to focus on my mental health.
See what works for me
1) I make sure I understand what I am studying.
2) spaced repetition by active recall
This was my first video of your channel, it was great and very informative to watch. It made me feel better about myself and the way I study. Regarding whether research should be incorporated in ur vids, I wasn’t sure at first what to think about that but when I watched your mind map video where you did give research evidence, I liked it more. It made what you were talking about more substantial and trustworthy ig or gave a better view on the concept you were talking about. So yes, do put research in your vids or description box , it’d be nice.
In the middle of writing up the full report now :) glad you enjoyed it!
I like the way he explains it’s really good, simple and relatable with previous experience trying to learn things
It's just incredible what I learned from this video! I'm looking for the right methods to learn and study for my children (14 and 13 years old) and for my professional needs. Yes, it's very boring for the children and me to apply this method, but we see so many people talking about it that we end up believing in it. However, what you explain in this video really speaks to me, and now I'm curious to understand what the methods are for encoding! Thanks again!
This is so helpful, and also really uplifting! I've tried active recall for years and it's never worked for me, whereas reading the textbook has helped immensely. I just assumed I was lazy and that's why I found daily active recall to be too high maintenance. Thank you so much for sharing this info!
So every time you want to remember something you just read it lmao?
Hey Justin, I have been using spaced repetition for about a year and I was just about to embark on a new round of card creation (to help me learn chords, chord progression and the other building blocks of Jazz Piano).
But as I sat there and thought about how I could best create these cards, I realised that in order to have a completely comprehensive collection of cards, it was going to take AGES to make the cards, let alone study them. A friend of mine had told me about your modified mind palace technique, so I have started watching your videos, and I'm super excited for the next course to begin. I am excited to learn the encoding techniques that will help me to understand and connect the topics that I learn during a lesson so that I can solidify and expand my knowledge and ability. See you in a week or so!
This is so accurate.Freshman year I used active recall and spaced repetition to get passed biology but I realized that after that semester it’s like I forgot everything because I just barely memorized it,I belief this is why people have problem learning programming because it doesn’t just work.
You forgot everything because you massed studying ("cramming") and didn't follow through with the spacing effect after you stopped caring about the content
I clicked on the video because I learn using space repetition and active recall, when I saw a video saying it doesn't work I clicked on it and read the summary the uploader posted (because I can't be asked to watch a 40 minute video on something that I know has extremely high chances of being wrong), so apparently his entire point is that you shouldn't do these things because learning actually requires doing shit rather than just testing yourself with your own questions, yeah of course, it would be like saying "if you want to learn a language don't just learn gramatical rules and words, you also need to form sentences!!".
I would highly distrust anyone calling himself a coach (this is how I knew he is a charlatan) since "coaches" are just unqualified people with zero credentials on a topic that use that term to label themselves as experts, and on top of that if you check the description he sells lessons on how to study for as little as 1.50$ a day (45 a month for a discord server on how to study lmao), he created a problem by saying that effective techniques don't work and offered a solution to sell you a product, listen kids I know that a lot of you here are young and this man is trying to sell you the secret to success but don't fall for it, don't be stupid, he is just trying to make money.
you concluded all this without actually watching the video?...isn't that presumptuous.
@@382u3uuejbased
This dude and all the other gurus be going on other peoples vids and saying the dumbest shit
People cram with anki and then say it doesn’t work
Or this guy was legit saying ANKI DOESNT HELP WITH LEARNING LANGUAGES
I can’t tolerate the amount of horseshit coaches on the internet now days.
@@larra468it’s experience
i just see the benefits of interleaving, spaced study, multi modal learning and better encoding. it feels like i even have to understand, that i dont udnerstand a topic and that takes time for me.
often i dont even understood a topic well enough to even ask a follow up question - just now two weeks after my first intensive study sessions do i have some crystalized knowledge that i can manipulate in my head, keep it in the working memory and start to analyze it - now i actually come up with good questions for stuff i didnt understand
I took A&P for the first time and it was brutal since I DID NOT know how to study for myself. I was doing flash cards, writing out the notes all on my own from the textbook, etc. these were so ineffective because it’s so much info and so much time I’m utilizing to do all this extra stuff. I had to drop the course because I was falling behind but now I’m taking it again and I’ve finally found a great study regime. I start with watching the lecture (JUST FOCUSING ON THE OVERALL PROCESS AND NOT THE SMALL DETAILS AS MUCH) I am going to see it when i go over the text so don’t stress it. Next step, read textbook? Yes and no. Strictly focus on the practice questions because that will give you a direct guide to what you need to really know per section. Then, I make quizlets(LIFE CHANGER), simply made quiz lets on each PowerPoint then added onto it if there was something I will forget long term or when I just don’t understand something too well. Forcing me to keep a note of it in my head. Once I’m done with that I will use the “learn mode” option. Lastly, I just make sure that I learn in small chunks throughout the day because burnout is very real and long term memory requires time and patience.
Was hoping to learn how to improve learning and in the end it's just a very long sales pitch that's wasted my time.
Notes for me:
1) Reeks of someone selling course
2) Apparently you can encode information so you won't need to do as many SRS reps, but he'll only tell you if you sign up for his damn course/watch his other videos
3) SO MUCH fluff. Waste of time.
Agree ahaha
Exactly. This is bullshit. Watched the whole video and still didn't know what this amazing studying method was.
"I was studying every day, every time, sleeping just 3-2 hours for NINE MONTHS".
At that moment i was like: This cant be a serious video.
@@apustajachileno That's why it didn't work, because he slept just 2 hours /s
Of course he's shilling to sell his course, Active recall and Spaced repetition are the most effective tools, as shown by multiple and actual peer-reviewed research.
Yea he got a lot of videos on other subjects where he gives you the info "directly", he has a right to chase his bag, especially when the free content is this qualitative.
I wondered the same thing .If we learn new content every day and not one subject ..right now I have to learn 8-9 subjects.We also have to recall that newly learned content as well as the content we already "learned".We cannot do retrieval practice in that much quantity plus learning tons of new info every day.Thankyou for clarifying our minds ...it lead us to thinking in a new way.
Omg I was so confused with this too. I was thinking I could make flashcards for each su ject after school and then for the day actively recall one or two particular subjects and focus on that?
@@lenaxox4167 each day we learn new content ....so I dont think it would be possible for making it for every subject even one or two subject per day...ot would just pile up.But you should definitely give it a try !All the best !
@@hemangipujare1090 thanks lol, meant to start this year but never got round to it. flashcards have always worked for me though
when he talked about diminishing returns:
I knew my Splatoon 2 knowledge would come in handy!