0:04 now let's talk about how the best
0:06 students structure their days turns out
0:09 there are great studies on this there is
0:13 a really nice paper in fact that
0:16 surveyed close to 700 students these
0:18 were medical students approximately
0:22 equal number of male and female students
0:24 and analyze the most useful learning
0:26 habits that is the learning habits
0:28 associated with the most successful
0:30 students now anytime you do a study like
0:32 this where people take surveys there's
0:34 always the issue of causality in fact we
0:36 can pretty much set aside any possible
0:38 causality for instance I'm about to tell
0:39 you that the very best performing
0:41 students tend to study for about three
0:43 or four hours per day but you could
0:45 easily say Well they're the best
0:47 students because they study three or
0:49 four hours per day they don't study
0:50 three or four hours per day because
0:51 they're the best students and you'd be
0:54 exactly right okay we can get into all
0:55 sorts of discussions about correlation
0:58 versus causation about reverse causality
1:00 and on and on however none of that is
1:03 the point here the point here is to
1:05 establish what are the habits that the
1:07 most successful students seem to
1:09 incorporate over and over again
1:10 regardless of what classes they're
1:12 taking regardless of where they are in
1:14 their Arc of their learning trajectory
1:16 and so what we know based on this study
1:17 and I'll provide a link to it in the
1:20 show note captions is that there are at
1:22 least 10 study habits that the highly
1:24 effective students use I'm going to
1:27 focus on the top five or six just for
1:29 sake of time because it turns out that
1:32 most of the effect it appears of being a
1:34 better student can be attributed to
1:37 these top five or six habits first of
1:40 all they set aside time to study they
1:42 literally schedule time to study now
1:44 this probably serves several roles the
1:46 first one is that they are able to clear
1:48 out other distractions and in fact
1:50 that's the second thing that they do
1:52 they are very effective where they make
1:54 it a point of putting their phone away
1:57 and off of isolating themselves that's
1:58 right they're not studying with other
2:01 people they study alone which is not to
2:02 say that people who study with others
2:04 cannot be effective in their studying
2:06 but the best performing students seem to
2:10 study alone they put their phone away
2:12 they tell their friends and families
2:14 that they are not going to be able to be
2:18 reached during that time and yes they
2:20 study for three or four hours per day
2:22 but they break that up into a couple of
2:23 different sessions typically two or
2:25 three sessions so they're not doing a
2:26 three or four hour studying about all in one
2:28 one
2:31 shot so they're managing their time
2:33 they're eliminating distractions and
2:36 they're studying for a consistent amount
2:39 of time at least 5 days per week okay
2:40 presumably they're taking some weekends
2:42 off although that wasn't made clear from
2:44 this paper the other thing that they do
2:45 and this is very important is that they
2:48 make an effort to then teach their peers
2:50 to teach other students in the class now
2:52 some of you may be thinking and I'm
2:54 thinking back to college here mostly
2:55 that if you spend all this time learning
2:57 the information and you are in a
2:58 competitive scenario with the other
3:00 students that teach teaching them the
3:02 information is kind of a freebie for
3:04 them and it's harder for you meaning
3:05 you're putting yourself at a competitive
3:07 disadvantage or you're giving them an
3:09 unfair Advantage for not having done the
3:11 work now while this paper didn't do an
3:12 analysis of whether or not these
3:14 students that served as the Learners
3:17 from the other students got an unfair
3:20 Advantage it's very clear that students
3:22 who make it a point to learn material in
3:24 isolation then bring that material to
3:25 other students in the same course and
3:28 teach them perform exceedingly well in
3:30 comparison to the other students so
3:32 don't be afraid to be a teacher of your
3:35 peers in order to test this is key to
3:39 test and develop Mastery of the material
3:42 now in my laboratory for years we used
3:44 to have a saying which I simply picked
3:45 up from the Laboratories I was trained
3:47 in I didn't come up with the saying
3:49 which was watch one do one teach one and
3:51 that was referring to doing surgeries or
3:54 suturing or doing an antibody reaction
3:55 or a western blot or things that you do in
3:57 in
4:00 Laboratories watch one do one teach one
4:02 watch one do one teach one of course
4:03 should be reserved to anything where no
4:05 one's going to be put in danger by the
4:07 watch one do one teach one procedure
4:09 right some procedures especially in
4:11 Laboratories can be dangerous given the
4:13 materials you use Etc and of course
4:15 today we're talking about learning and
4:17 studying generally so provid it it's
4:19 safe watch one do one teach one is an
4:22 excellent means to learn that is to
4:24 study new material to develop
4:27 proficiency and even Mastery and over
4:29 time perhaps even virtuosity we'll
4:31 return to that that later those
4:33 distinctions so going back to this idea
4:35 that the best students set aside time
4:38 they designate time to study alone
4:41 without distractions that is sure to
4:42 help them anchor their focus and
4:44 attention they know that they're going
4:46 to need to use their focus and attention
4:49 during that time and we know with
4:50 absolute certainty that focus and
4:54 attention are a limited but renewable
4:56 resource in the human brain the longer
4:58 you're awake the more is the buildup of
5:00 a molecule called adenosine in your
5:01 brain and body it makes you sleepy makes
5:03 it harder to focus when you sleep
5:05 adenosine levels are pushed down again
5:07 you're able to focus again you feel more
5:09 alert you can think of adenosine as
5:11 limiting your attentional budget which
5:12 is not to say that some people don't
5:14 study best in the afternoon or in the
5:16 evening or even late at night right I
5:18 recall times during University when I'd
5:20 study between the hours of 10: p.m. and
5:22 2: am. I don't do that any longer
5:25 but scheduling time where you know
5:27 you're going to need to be focused and
5:30 attending is perhaps one one of the most
5:32 important things toward being able to
5:34 focus and attend to the material now if
5:37 you're taking courses you probably are
5:38 going to be a slave to the timing of the
5:40 courses you aren't going to be able to
5:41 tell the instructor okay listen I want
5:43 you to do this course at you know 3 p.m.
5:46 because that's when you learn best or 8:
5:47 a.m. because that's when you happen to
5:49 be able to attend best however to the
5:51 extent that you have any control over
5:52 the time in which you're going to study
5:55 keeping that at a regular time or times
5:56 perhaps one block early in the day one
5:58 block later in the day perhaps two
6:00 blocks early in the day and and so on is
6:02 going to be beneficial it turns out
6:04 that's also supported by the research
6:08 literature that the brain just like with
6:11 its sleep wake cycles that entrain to a
6:13 regular schedule that is your brain and
6:15 body get used to being active and
6:17 inactive at particular times based on
6:19 your exposure to sunlight your exposure
6:22 to activities your social rhythms Etc if
6:24 you regularly meaning for the course of
6:27 about 3 days make it a point to focus
6:29 and study at particular times again
6:30 pulling your attention back it's not an
6:32 automatic process but pulling your
6:34 attention back to a specific location
6:36 perhaps on a page or that you're
6:38 listening to in a lecture your body and
6:41 brain will start to entrain to that
6:43 Rhythm such that you will be able to
6:46 focus and attend better simply by virtue
6:49 of the regularity of the timing of the
6:52 exposure to the material okay so you
6:53 probably need about two or three days to
6:55 break into a regular schedule of
6:57 focusing and attending and studying at a
7:00 given time or times
7:02 allow yourself that transition period
7:04 but then make it a point to schedule
7:07 those times to study set aside your
7:09 phone tell people you're going offline
7:11 turn off the Wi-Fi if you need to or
7:13 have to you may need it for your
7:14 studying I don't know depends on what
7:16 you're studying but limit distractions
7:19 at all costs and learn to just focus on
7:22 the material and this is a skill this is
7:23 the most important thing to understand
7:25 it's a skill to be able to focus and
7:27 study and it's a skill that you can
7:29 learn very quickly especially if you SK
7:31 schedule it for regular times and you
7:33 give yourself two or three days in which
7:35 to adapt to those schedules and times
7:37 and then try and stick to them as
7:38 regularly as possible perhaps even on
7:40 the weekends if you're approaching you
7:42 know the end of the quarter or
7:45 semester perhaps even on the weekend
7:46 even if you're not in the quarter of
7:48 semester keeping those regular times
7:51 will entrain your nervous system to
7:53 study and learn at its best at those
7:55 particular times there's one other point
7:58 that I wanted to pass along from this uh
7:59 really nice study on the study abits of
8:01 Highly Effective medical students that
8:04 I've been referring to and that is when
8:07 one examined or these people were asked
8:10 about their motivation for studying the
8:13 best performing students had an
8:15 interesting answer they had a very
8:19 long-term understanding of how or belief
8:22 rather about how their success in
8:26 medical school would impact their family
8:27 how it would impact their life Arc how
8:29 it would change them and they weren't
8:31 particular about the ways in which it
8:33 would change them or their family in
8:35 fact it was a rather broad abstract
8:38 aspirational way of thinking about their
8:40 study efforts so what I like so much
8:43 about this paper is that you know in
8:45 addition to having a fairly large sample
8:47 size close to 700 students that were
8:50 evaluated and yes it's purely uh you
8:52 know self-report and this kind of thing
8:55 nonetheless it Bridges the two extremes
8:57 of studying and learning you know it
8:59 gets right down into the nitty-gritty of
9:01 how long they study when they study the
9:03 things they do to limit distraction that
9:06 we just discussed but it also gets to
9:07 their underlying psychological
9:09 motivations and the thing that they use
9:11 in order to pull them forward through
9:13 their study efforts perhaps especially
9:17 when their desire is waning or their uh
9:18 level of fatigue is increasing I don't
9:20 know that I'm speculating here but this
9:24 is this aspirational component of going
9:25 to medical school which it turns out in
9:27 the country in which the study was done
9:30 um only very very select few of the very
9:33 best students are able to achieve that
9:34 they have to learn the information in a
9:36 different language altogether which is
9:39 incredible I always Marvel at that you
9:40 know I have friends that did their PHD
9:43 thesis in Italy they're Italian by birth
9:46 they now happen to run a laboratory in
9:48 Italy and they had to do their PHD
9:50 training and write papers and give their
9:53 thesis dissertation and defense in
9:55 English even though English was their
9:56 second language so talk about a
9:59 challenge and um that's just one example
10:01 that I can think of there are many
10:02 examples of
10:05 that these students that I'm referring
10:08 to in this study are not necessarily
10:10 constantly thinking about how their
10:12 efforts will transform themselves and
10:14 their families but they certainly were
10:17 able to report what it was specifically
10:18 that they are seeking what they're
10:21 aspiring to besides just trying to do as
10:23 well as they can getting into and
10:26 through medical school so the high level
10:29 aspirational stuff within you whatever
10:31 that is for you it's going to be highly
10:34 individual is certainly important and it
10:37 offers a bookend to the nuts and bolts
10:39 he kind of stuff that you're going to do
10:40 I would hope in order to best study and
10:43 learn the specific material so the
10:44 specific actions that you're going to
10:46 take each day to learn specific bits of
10:48 information that will pull you toward
10:50 those important aspirations and now
10:52 again if you love the material you're
10:55 learning this aspirational component is
10:57 probably not as important right I can
10:59 recall during University and uate school
11:02 and so on thinking oh my goodness this
11:03 is like the coolest thing I've ever
11:05 heard I probably say that about a
11:06 million different topics like oh my
11:07 goodness circadian rhythms seasonal
11:09 rhythms melatonin neural circuits
11:11 dopamine I was just a wash with
11:12 excitement about what I was learning but
11:14 of course sometimes I would take a
11:16 course where the material was I don't
11:17 know if it was more challenging or not
11:19 but I had a harder time getting engaged
11:21 by the material either by virtue of how
11:23 it was being taught to me or the
11:25 material itself so the ability to attach
11:27 to some aspirational goal to pull you
11:31 through can be very valuable you're not
11:32 going to love every topic you have to
11:36 learn however I will say that at least
11:38 in my experience some of the courses
11:40 that I look back on most fondly are the
11:43 courses that I struggled with the most
11:46 and in fact that's the basis of the next
11:48 and easily one of the most important
11:52 studying tools so a key theme in all of
11:54 the excellent literature that is the
11:56 peer-reviewed research on how best to
11:58 study is that studying that feels
12:01 challenged in is the most effective I
12:03 know nobody wants to hear this everyone
12:06 wants to hear about flow everybody wants
12:08 to hear about information just sinking
12:10 into their brain by osmosis I think it
12:12 was a Garfield cartoon where he talked
12:14 about learning by osmosis there's this
12:17 very cute real world video of a kid in a
12:19 classroom uh I believe uh it's in China
12:21 where he's taking the book and he puts
12:22 it on his head maybe I can find this
12:23 clip and he's just kind of like trying
12:25 to wash it into his brain it's super
12:27 cute clip but guess what that doesn't
12:29 work I mean it works to put the book on
12:30 your head it doesn't work to it's not
12:32 going to get the information into your
12:35 brain uh perhaps someday there will be
12:36 ways to rapidly download information
12:40 into neural circuits right now we know
12:42 we've known for hundreds if not
12:46 thousands of years that effort is the
12:49 Cornerstone of learning so I know there
12:50 probably some groans about that I know
12:52 some of you perhaps were hoping that
12:54 today I was going to tell you how to
12:55 study so that studying wasn't
12:58 painful I think I can accomplish that by
12:59 the end of today
13:02 episode but in order to do that let's
13:05 take another quiz can you name or List
13:08 off in your mind three tools that the
13:10 most effective students have been shown to
13:11 to
13:13 use I can think
13:16 of limiting distraction by virtue of
13:18 putting away phones and telling others
13:21 you won't be in contact with them two
13:23 and I'm getting these out of order I
13:26 realize is to isolate to study alone and
13:29 the third that I can recall is
13:33 to teach others in the same course okay
13:36 you can probably think of a few others
13:38 now why are we taking these silly little
13:41 quizzes Well turns out they're not so
13:44 silly when one considers that hopefully
13:46 you'll remember the information from
13:48 today so that you don't have to listen
13:51 to it over and over again but that if
13:53 ever there was a strongly research
13:56 supported tool in the literature in the
13:58 peer-reviewed literature about how
14:00 students can learn information better
14:04 it's testing and I know I know I know we
14:07 think of tests as a way to evaluate our
14:09 knowledge but it turns out that testing
14:11 is one of the best ways to build our
14:14 knowledge to retain our knowledge and
14:18 again to offset forgetting [Music]
