Study Techniques 101: the Good, the OK, and the Useless There’s a great deal of misinformation and resulting confusion in the world of study strategies and optimization. Let’s cover the most popular techniques and go over each of their pros and cons and discuss which study strategies do not help us, AKA: the useless
The Useless
Passive forms of learning are what we all default to
- They feel comfortable, familiar, and allow us to feel good about ourselves and our productivity without having to venture too far out of our comfort zones
- The most common form of passive studying would be re-reading your class notes again and again to reinforce the information
- Active recall with spaced repetition is far more effective than passive methods
The OK
He recommends you write questions for yourself and skip writing down the answer, as he explains you can look that up later if you forget.
- Proper implementation of active recall for maximal learning efficiency requires smaller testable pieces of knowledge
- Only recommend this study technique of writing broad questions without detailed answers in two instances: high concept heavy neuroscience courses or if you have phenomenal natural memory and memorization comes easily to you
Step 3 | Don’t Forget These Two Considerations
All these study techniques can only work effectively when they’re placed within a larger context that facilitates learning
- Understand how your energy and focus waxes and wanes throughout the day and schedule your study time appropriately for the periods when you can be most focused
- You cannot study for hours on end without proper breaks
- Be deliberate with all elements in your environment
- Tailoring a plan and environment to your individual needs will yield the best results
The Good
Effective learning is comprised of two main elements – comprehension and memorization
- It’s best to first comprehend and deeply understand the information before trying to encode it into long term memory
- Memorizing first, without understanding, results in a weaker long term grasp of the information
Kevin Jubbal, M.D.
A plastic surgeon, entrepreneur, and medical education and patient care leader, he founded the Blue LINC Healthcare Incubator and Med School Insiders. He has authored more than 60 publications, abstracts, and presentations in the field of plastic surgery and is now a physician entrepreneur.
Step 1 | Comprehension
The first step is to comprehend and deeply understand the information before attempting to commit the information to memory
- How should you go about this most effectively?
- Consider office hours with your professor or TA
- Study with a small group of friends
- Use practice problems
- Visit other resources
Step 2 | Memorization
Once you understand the information, it’s time to rapidly consolidate that information straight to your hippocampus for long term memory storage.
- Practice problems are key here, as they help you understand deeper and require you to apply the information and utilize active recall.
