👋 Hello friend,
There are a lot of podcast episodes on how to study effectively.
And I’ve listened to most of them. 😵
But the best podcast episode on 3 learning hacks that are supported by research and ignored by media is "David Epstein - “Wide or deep?” [Invest like the best]".
3️⃣ learning hacks that are rigorously supported by research and usually ignored by media
#1. Testing
Test yourself before you have the chance to study. This primes your brain to retain information when you then hear the answer.
Hyper-Correction Effect: If you are confident about an answer and get it wrong, you are more likely to remember it.
#2. Spacing
Or how David Epstein calls it: “Deliberate not practicing.” Leave space between practicing the same thing.
It will stick longer if you leave time between until it takes effort to retrieve the information.
You should wait until you have just forgotten the information and then question yourself again.
There was a study done with 2 groups learning Spanish vocabulary.
Group 1 studied for 8 hours straight.
Group 2 studied for 4 hours, and after one month, again for 4 hours.
After 8 years, the group that did the spaced practice (Group 2) remembered 250% more.
Key Phrases:
Learn OUTformation. Not just INformation.
Go from "here is what we did last week". To "what did we do last week?"
When I have a spare minute I just get my phone out and write everything down I remember from:
- the last lecture
- the last hour
- this day
- this week
- this month
#3. Interleaving
Mix up the things you learn. Don’t practice the same problem over and over again.
Let’s say we get to do 20 math problems: 5 of type A, 5 of type B, 5 of type C, and 5 of type D.
It is best to mix them up: A, C, B, A, B, D, C, etc. This also causes you to space them out. You will match a strategy to a problem and build abstract models.
Difficulty, not ease, indicates that you are learning.
If it gets easy, mix up the things you learn or stop studying.
Have a great week!
xx Lukas
Sorry for the delayed newsletter, unfortunately I was sick yesterday. 🥴