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How to learn faster with the Feynman Technique

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How to learn faster with the Feynman Technique

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How to Learn Faster with the Feynman Technique (Example Included)

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How to Study Effectively: 8 Advanced Tips - College Info Geek

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The Most Powerful Way to Remember What You Study

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I chose this video because I struggle to remember what I study. This video showed me a simple, yet very useful way to memorize what I'm learning. I liked the advice and I like how he showed how to implement it into studying. Spacing out study time can not only help you memorize material, but it can also give you time to take a break. As a teenager, I love taking breaks from doing things that require me to think. This video shows you how to use that to remember what you study.

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I chose this video because I'm impatient and I like to learn things fast to save time. This technique helps you thoroughly understand the topic you're learning. It's a simple technique with 4 steps. I use this technique by explaining steps of a problem in my head, and it really does help me learn faster. I like this advice because it can also make you better at explaining things and teaching others. This is a good method for people who have trouble remembering steps.

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I chose this video because it has multiple tips to choose from. I liked a lot of the tips, but some of them wouldn't work for me. Tip #7 is my favorite. A lot of them focus on taking advantage of the way your brain works, which is great for learning new things. This video gives you some tips to try and see if they work for you. Sometimes, learning your own way is way more efficient than taking a basic approach.

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I chose this article because these tips help you improve your memory, even outside of learning or studying. Some of the tips have been discussed on College Info Geek. Like the videos, they explain the reasons behind why the tips work.

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While it's nice to think you can hack your way to success, whenever you try to accomplish a huge goal -- like starting and growing a business -- skills matter. Who you know is certainly important.

But what you know, and what you can do, matters a whole lot more.

Which means the faster you learn, the more successful you can be.

So let's jump right in.Here are ten ways, backed by science, to speed up the learning process.

1. Say out loud what you want to remember.

Research shows that compared to reading or thinking silently (as if there's another way to think), the act of speech is a "quite powerful mechanism for improving memory for selected information."

According to scientists, "Learning and memory benefit from active involvement. When we add an active measure or a production element to a word, that word becomes more distinct in long-term memory, and hence more memorable."

In short, while mentally rehearsing is good, rehearsing out loud is even better.

2. Take notes by hand, not on a computer.

Most of us can type faster than we can write. (And a lot more neatly.)

But research shows handwriting your notes means you'll learn more. Oddly enough, taking notes by hand enhances both comprehension and retention, possibly because instead of just serving as a quasi-stenographer, you're forced to put things in your own words in order to keep up.

Which means you'll remember what you heard a lot longer.

3. Chunk your study sessions.

You're busy. So you wait until the last minute to learn what you need to know: A presentation, a sales demo, an investor pitch...

Bad idea. Research shows "distributed practice" is a much more effective way to learn.

Imagine you want to nail your investor pitch. Once you've drafted your pitch, run through it once. Then take a few minutes to make corrections and revisions.

Then step away for a few hours, or even for a day, before you repeat the process.

Why does distributed practice work? The "study-phase retrieval theory" says that each time you attempt to retrieve something from memory and the retrieval is more successful, that memory becomes harder to forget. (If you go over your pitch repeatedly, much of your presentation is still top of mind... which means you don't have to retrieve it from memory.)

Another theory regards "contextual variability." When information gets encoded into memory, some of the context is also encoded. (Which is why listening to an old song can cause you to remember where you were, what you were feeling, etc., when you first heard that song.) That context creates useful cues for retrieving information.

Regardless of how it works, distributed practice definitely works. So give yourself enough time to space out your learning sessions. You'll learn more efficiently and more effectively.

A number of studies show that self-testing is an extremely effective way to speed up the learning process.

Partly that's due to the additional context created; if you test yourself and answer incorrectly, not only are you more likely to remember the right answer after you look it up... you'll also remember that you didn't remember. (Getting something wrong is a great way to remember it the next time, especially if you tend to be hard on yourself.)

So don't just rehearse your presentation. Test yourself on what comes after your intro. Test yourself by listing the five main points you want to make. Try to recite key statistics, or sales estimates, or cash flow projections....

Not only will you gain confidence in how much you do know, you'll more quickly learn the things you don't know.

5. Change the way you practice.

Repeating anything over and over again in the hopes you will master that task will not only keep you from improving as quickly as you could, in some cases it may actually decrease your skill.

According to recent research from Johns Hopkins, if you practice a slightly modified version of a task you want to master, "you actually learn more and faster than if you just keep practicing the exact same thing multiple times in a row." The most likely cause is reconsolidation, a process where existing memories are recalled and modified with new knowledge.

Say you want to master a new presentation. Do this:

1. Rehearse the basic skill. Run through your presentation a couple of times under the same conditions you'll eventually face when you do it live. Naturally, the second time through will be better than the first; that's how practice works. But then, instead of going through it a third time ...

2. Wait. Give yourself at least six hours so your memory can consolidate. (Which probably means waiting until tomorrow before you practice again, which is just fine.)
3. Practice again, but this time... 4. And keep modifying the conditions.
You can extend the process to almost anything. While it's clearly effective for learning motor skills, the process can also be applied to learning almost anything.

6. Exercise regularly.

This study shows that regular exercise can improve memory recall. Another study from McMaster University found that periods of high-intensity exercise are good for fitness and memory: Exercise resulted in significant improvements in high-interference memory. (Interference occurs when information that is similar gets in the way of the information you're trying to recall.)

A commonly used example for high-interference memory is remembering faces, a skill that is especially useful for people hoping to make connections.

Exercise also resulted in an increase in a chemical called BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), a protein that supports the function, growth, and survival of brain cells.

So: Not only will you feel better if you exercise, you'll also improve your memory.

7. Get more sleep.

Sleep is when most of the memory consolidation process occurs. That's why even a short nap can improve your memory recall.

In one study participants memorized illustrated cards to test their memory strength. After memorizing a set of cards they took a 40-minute break and one group napped while the other group stayed awake. After the break both groups were tested on their memory of the cards. The sleep group performed significantly better, retaining on average 85 percent of the patterns compared to 60 percent for those who had remained awake.

Researchers have also found that sleep deprivation can affect your ability to commit new information to memory and consolidate any short-term memories you have made.

Bottom line? Sleep more, learn more.

8. Learn several subjects in succession.

Instead of blocking (focusing on one subject, one task, or one skill during a learning session) learn or practice several subjects or skills in succession.

The process is called interleaving: Studying related concepts or skills in parallel. And it turns out interleaving is a much more effective way to train your brain (and your motor skills.)

Why? One theory is that interleaving improves your brain's ability to differentiate between concepts or skills. When you block practice one skill, you can drill down until muscle memory takes over and the skill becomes more or less automatic. When you interleave several skills, any one skill can't become mindless -- and that's a good thing. Instead you're constantly forced to adapt and adjust. You're constantly forced to see, feel, and discriminate between different movements or different concepts.

And that helps you really learn what you're trying to learn, because you it helps you gain understanding at a deeper level.

9. Teach someone else.

It may be occasionally true that those who can't, teach... but research shows it's definitely true that those who teach speed up their learning and retain more.

Even just thinking that you'll need to teach someone can make you learn more effectively. According to the researchers, "When teachers prepare to teach, they tend to seek out key points and organize information into a coherent structure. Our results suggest that students also turn to these types of effective learning strategies when they expect to teach."

The act of teaching also helps improve knowledge. Ask anyone who has trained someone else whether they also benefited from the experience.

10. Build on things you do know.

Relating something new to something you're familiar with is called associative learning. Not the Pavlov's dog form of associative learning, but the kind where you learn the relationship between seemingly unrelated things.

In simple terms, whenever you say, "Oh, I get it... this is basically like that," you're using associative learning.

Need to learn something new? Try to associate it, at least in part, with something you already know. Then you only have to learn the differences or nuances. And you'll be able to apply greater context -- which will help with memory storage and retrieval -- to the new information you learn.

All of which means you'll need to learn a lot less.

Which science says will result in you being able to learn a lot more quickly.

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These 10 Scientific Ways to Learn Anything Faster Could Change Everything You Know About Dramatically Improving Your Memory

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While it's nice to think you can hack your way to success, whenever you try to accomplish a huge goal -- like starting and growing a business -- skills matter. Who you know is certainly important. But what you know, and what you can do, matters a whole lot more.

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I chose this article because understanding how brain works while learning can improve how you learn. College info geek touches on this, but this article goes into more detail. The article also has a couple tips on how to use this information to learn more efficiently.

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Abstract

The past few years have been marked by a large number of discoveries about the learning brain. Those insights have the potential to support teachers in designing even better classroom environments to help you learn better. While understanding the brain can be helpful for teachers, this knowledge can also be beneficial for you as a student. For instance, it can encourage you to believe in your capacity to improve your own skills. Such beliefs make it more likely for you to make an effort and to make better use of supportive learning strategies []. In this article, we briefly present some core principles of the learning brain and suggest learning strategies inspired by neuroscience for you to try at school or at home.

What Happens in My Brain When I Am Learning?

Your brain is primarily composed of about 85 billion neurons, which is more than the number of stars you can see with the naked eye in the night sky. A neuron is a cell which acts as a messenger, sending information in the form of nerve impulses (like electrical signals) to other neurons (see Figure 1). For example, when you are writing, some neurons in your brain send the "move fingers" message to other neurons and this message then travels through the nerves (like cables) all the way to your fingers. The electrical signals that are communicated from one neuron to another are therefore what allows you to do everything you do: write, think, see, jump, talk, compute, and so on. Each neuron can be connected with up to 10,000 other neurons, leading to a large number of connections in your brain [], which looks like a very dense spider web (see Figure 2).

Figure 1 - Figure illustrating two neurons that are connected.

Figure 2 - Figure illustrating the very large number of connections between neurons.

When you are learning, important changes take place in your brain, including the creation of new connections between your neurons. This phenomenon is called . The more you practice, the stronger these connections become. As your connections strengthen, the messages (nerve impulses) are transmitted increasingly faster, making them more efficient []. That is how you become better at anything you learn whether it is playing football, reading, drawing, etc. We can compare the connections between your neurons to trails in a forest (see Figure 3). Walking through a forest without a trail is difficult, because you have to compact and push the vegetation and branches out of the way to carve your way through. But the more you use the same trail, the easier and more practicable it becomes. Conversely, when you stop using the trail, the vegetation grows back, and the trail slowly disappears. This is very similar to what happens in your brain-when you stop practicing something, the connections between your neurons weaken and can ultimately be dismantled or pruned. That is why it may seem so difficult to start reading again when school starts if you have not read all summer. However, it is possible for some neural networks to become so strong that the trails or connections never completely disappear.

Figure 3 - Figure illustrating the analogy of the trail in the forest.

The fact that learning rewires your neurons shows how dynamic (plastic) your brain is-that the brain changes and does not remain fixed. Practicing or rehearsing repeatedly activates your neurons and makes you learn. These changes happen as early as when a baby is in their mother's womb and continues throughout a person's life. So, the question is, how can you help your neurons to create and strengthen their connections? Here, we present two strategies that appear to be more compatible with how your brain works and could help you learn better.

Which Learning Strategies Are More Compatible With Your Brain?

Because the connections between your neurons need to be activated multiple times to become stronger and more efficient, a first and crucial strategy is to repeatedly activate them. This means that to learn arithmetic tables for instance, you have to practice it repeatedly, to establish the "trail" between your neurons. As a baby, you were not able to speak and walk within 1 day: you practiced a lot. However, it is important to note that only reading or glancing at your arithmetic tables will not be that helpful in connecting your neurons. You might also find it quite disengaging and boring. To create the connections between your neurons, you need to retrieve the arithmetic tables from your memory. In other words, you have to try recall the answer yourself to activate your connections. We are not saying that this is easy to do! However, scientists think that this "struggle" improves learning because the challenge is an indication that you are building new connections. Remember, learning something new is like hiking in a bush with no designated trail, you will probably walk slowly at first, but if you keep hiking, trails will start forming and eventually you will be walking on well-beaten tracks. Besides, when you do try to recall what you have learned and make a mistake, it can help you identify gaps in your learning and give you an indication of which trail still needs to be worked on.

Scientists have also noted that performing tests or exams can help you remember information better than studying alone []. For example, if you study your arithmetic tables interspersed with test periods, you will probably perform better on your final test than if you had only studied. Why? The tests require that you retrieve the information from the neurons in which the information is stored, thus activating your connections and contributing to their strengthening. The point is thus to practice retrieval in an engaging way. There are different strategies that you could try at home, for example answering practice questions or using flashcards. These should improve learning more than re-reading or listening to lectures (as long as you do not flip the flashcard over before recalling the answer!). Other strategies include preparing questions to ask to a classmate or a parent as well as redoing tests or exercises. Use your imagination! What you need to remember is that first, for your neurons to strengthen their connections, you need to retrieve the information and avoid just reading or listening to the answer. Second, you should plan a way to get feedback to know whether you got something correct or incorrect. Do not be discouraged if you face challenges, this is a natural step of the learning process taking place in your brain!

Now that you know that neurons need to be activated repeatedly for learning to occur (and that it means retrieving information), you probably wonder how often you should practice. Scientists who study the learning brain observed that breaks and sleep between learning periods enhance learning and minimize forgetting []. It therefore seems better to retrieve often within spaced practice sessions, as opposed to a massed practice (practicing a task continuously without rest). For instance, instead of studying or doing homework for 3 h, after which you would probably feel exhausted anyway, you could separate this learning period into three 1-h periods or even into six half-an-hour periods. In short, when spacing your retrieval practice, you allow your brain to make the connections that you strengthened during your practice sessions more efficient. When you take a quick break from practicing, let us say a 20 min recess, you allow for the maintenance or replacement of the receptors on the surface of the neurons. The receptors are like electric outlets that receive the nerve impulse (electrical signals) from other neurons. Taking a break helps them work better: your neurons can thus transmit their nerve impulses more easily to other neurons. Finally, when you get a night of sleep between practice sessions, you actually benefit from a free retrieval practice session because while you sleep, your brain reactivates the connections between the neurons that you activated during the day. You could also get similar benefits from a nap. Next time you find yourself sleepy in class, you could tell your teacher that you are in fact trying to do retrieval practice! In brief, when spacing out learning, and especially retrieval practice, your brain is more activated than when you mass learn in one long session.

At this point, you are probably asking yourself how to space out learning in your day-to-day life. The good news is that there are a number of ways to do it and it can be easily adapted to different skills, such as solving mathematical problems or memorizing definitions. The most obvious change you can make to your study schedule is to break up sessions into smaller sessions. You could also ask your teacher to set daily or weekly review quizzes and other assignments. Finally, spacing can be done by doing interleaved practice. This consists of a set of problems arranged so that consecutive problems cannot be solved by the same strategy. For example, you could mix your math problems so that geometry questions, algebra, or inequality problems are randomly sequenced. The added benefit of interleaving is that you engage in different activities in-between two sessions, making good use of your time. In brief, one thing to keep in mind is that information that was previously learned will require less effort to re-learn because the spacing gives your brain time to consolidate-meaning your brain produces the building blocks required for the connections between your neurons.

Conclusion

Your brain is where learning occurs and you therefore need to keep your neurons active to optimize the use of class or study time. The two learning strategies proposed in this article have the potential to help you learn better by creating optimal conditions to strengthen and consolidate the connections between your neurons. You now know that you can get better by repeatedly using the "trails" in your brain and by spacing out your practice. This greater understanding of how your brain learns and the use of supportive learning strategies can now allow you to help your brain learn better!

Glossary

Neuroplasticity: ↑ The ability of your brain to change, that is to create, strenghten, weaken or dismantle connections between your neurons.

Repeatedly Activating Your Neurons: ↑ Practicing a lot, trying to retrieve information from your memory, for example by explaining a concept to a friend or answering quiz questions.

Spacing the Activation of Neurons: ↑ Practicing more often but for a shorter period. For example, instead of studying for 2 h in a row, studying 4 periods of 30 min over a few days allows your brain to take breaks and sleep which helps you remember better in the long run.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

We would like to wholeheartedly thank those who assisted in the translation of the articles in this Collection to make them more accessible to kids outside English-speaking countries, and for the Jacobs Foundation for providing the funds necessary to translate the articles. For this article, we would especially like to thank Nienke van Atteveldt and Sabine Peters for the Dutch translation.

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Understanding Your Brain to Help You Learn Better

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The past few years have been marked by a large number of discoveries about the learning brain. Those insights have the potential to support teachers in designing even better classroom environments to help you learn better. While understanding the brain can be helpful for teachers, this knowledge can also be beneficial for you as a student.