my least favorite study methods + why.

[Music] hey guys you already know what this video is about thanks for the title and honestly it's not as dramatic as the title might make it sound this isn't meant as like shade to anybody i'm not saying that every study youtuber out there is just lying to you about the effectiveness of these study methods a lot of the methods i'm going to be discussing are evidence-based and work for many people i just want to put it out there that methods that work for a lot of people don't necessarily work for every single person so if the methods that i recommend or that you commonly say recommended don't work that well for you it's not because you're doing something wrong or that you're just broken it's just that we're all different people surprise surprise you might just need to find a different approach that works better for you like i've done which is why today along with sharing the things that don't work so well for me i'll be sharing the modifications i make or what i do instead in order to improve my studying efficiency and productivity without further ado let's get started [Music] this first one please do not come for me but i just don't really like the pomodoro method which is specifically the 25 minutes of work followed by five minutes of rest that is most commonly known as the official pomodoro method i like the idea in principle of having a set work period followed by a set rest period it's commonly said that this helps to motivate people to get started because you can mentally convince yourself like oh i only need to work for 25 minutes and then i get a break so i might as well pay attention another reason that people with a study method more similar to mine like it is because it's a reminder to actually take breaks which although technically you're wasting time it ultimately improves your efficiency and it's something i forget to do which makes me feel burnt out day to day my problem with the traditional pomodoro method is that these numbers just don't work that well for me i find that 25 minutes just isn't a long enough time to really settle into the groove of studying like when that timer goes off i've just barely started getting into that flow state and it feels like i'm being interrupted in my most productive frame of mind and then following that five minutes is not long enough for me to take a reasonable and meaningful break even if i wanted to just like get up and pee or drink water it takes longer than five minutes to like pluck yourself out of your seat and walk to the bathroom or walk to a place where you can get water especially if you're not just at home if you're in a library or cafe and i don't find it works for that other purpose of motivating yourself to do work when you don't necessarily want to because no offense making myself work for 25 minutes just to get a measly five minute reward it doesn't really feel like a reward so why would i make myself do that when i'm in a lazy mood what i prefer to do instead to fix both of the problems that i experience is when i'm having a good day and i'm already kind of in the zone i do 50 minutes of work followed by 10 minutes of rest which you know allows me to have a more meaningful work period and a more meaningful break period conversely if i'm having a bad day and i need to use the timer method to muscle myself into studying i go for 30 minutes of work followed by 30 minutes of rest i know that might sound horribly inefficient for those of us who are like study tube nerds but i need these sort of lazy modes in order to motivate my lazy self to just get started and eventually i'll reach that flow state where i switch back to my usual 50 to 10 ratio [Music] method two that i just avoid like the plague is re-reading all of my notes and my textbook i'm sure if you've been watching any of my study tips videos you already know why this is not a good idea it's horribly inefficient because it's a passive studying method versus an active studying method skip ahead 15 seconds if you're already familiar with this idea but passive studying methods aren't the greatest because you're not really practicing the active recall skills you'll need for an exam instead you're just practicing passively looking over and recognizing the information on a basic level i don't really like to use passive studying methods because i have way too much stuff to do and i'm not going to waste my time on a practice that gets me very little value for a huge amount of time spent there are so many other active studying methods that i prefer which i have many many videos about on this channel i won't go into detail about all of them but the reason i find rereading everything especially ineffective is because it's a waste of time to read every single thing including the stuff that i already understand and remember very well sometimes i do reread my books or re-watch lectures or look over my notes but this is when i'm searching for information about a very precise topic or idea there are three main reasons that i might look over my notes but it isn't just to read them for the sake of reading them it's always for search of another purpose one is to find information in my research process for writing a paper or doing a project because looking at the information is not the only study method i'm doing i'm actually hoping to find information in order to synthesize it and connect it with other information in creating my own thingamabob i know very scientific vocab but the next reason i might do this is if i want to try to clarify a concept i don't quite understand yet before going to ask a professor or ta or tutor for help just because you know their time is valuable and i'm also very socially anxious about feeling like a burden on other people so i don't want to waste their time with something that's already made quite clear by a source that is provided i also sometimes use my notes and textbooks as a reference to make myself practice tests or flashcards or to do a homework assignment which again is more using the information as a reference for an active studying method rather than just passively reading over it again as the one and only study number three is reading my notes or flash cards or anything out loud except for in language classes where i need to practice pronunciation but for general classes where i'm just trying to remember a definition or formula or how concepts are related this just does not help me remember things at all it might be because i'm not an auditory learner or i don't know the evidence behind these different sensory learning styles is kind of dubious anyways but it's also just not relevant to the task that i'm preparing for in my classes i'm not saying that the methods of examination in every class is perfect but like i do want to pass the class and use that to prove my knowledge the tasks that i'm usually being tested on are remembering things on multiple choice exams or being able to write a cohesive paper not reading things out loud from a page i don't know how many school systems in which that is a relevant testing method but i'm guessing it's close to zero regardless reading things verbatim from a page just doesn't really help me at all sometimes i say things out loud to try to remember how to pronounce something in a language class or maybe try to memorize a tune for choir but but if i'm trying to remember and understand a concept which is completely independent from verbal speech reading it verbatim just isn't helpful to me what i prefer instead is that if an idea just doesn't seem to be sticking in my mind or making any sense to me i tried to read it slowly and then paraphrase it into my own words and i want to emphasize the paraphrasing part is what's actually helpful it's especially useful to me if i can write it down and then bring it up to a ta or professor or just someone who's a little bit more knowledgeable than i am and confirm whether the way i've rephrased it is still a factually correct understanding of that concept the next thing that i just don't really do is studying in a particular location and please don't call me out i know that i preach this as a good technique in a lot of my videos but your girl is not perfect most of the people who give you advice on youtube about how to improve your life don't live a perfect life 100 of the time right now i kind of study in a particular location because i can't go anywhere but since i can't go anywhere i also use this space for every single other purpose in my life so it's still not really conducive to that whole tie you're learning to a particular context in order to improve your psychological ability to recall that information in that context that was a very long sentence and i'm honestly not sure where it started or ended so hopefully that made sense to you regardless of how the pandemic is forcing us to stay inside i don't do this pick a perfect study location and stick to it all the time in a normal schedule either i just squeeze in my studying and work time whenever and wherever i can it's just because honestly i live a busy life i'm sure many of you do too and i don't always have the time and energy to walk to the library or set up my desk perfectly you know sometimes i just need to be in class for eight hours in a day and then go to a meeting and then go to sports practice and all i have are those 30 minutes between classes and i just need to sit on the toilet and whiz through my flash cards as much as i wish that i was put together enough to stick to a consistent context for all of my studying i'm just not really at that place with how busy and how kind of jumbled up all my time is and in the end i think that it's better for me to just get this necessary work done imperfectly by getting it done in a variety of random places rather than following that perfectionist mindset and trying to optimize it all perfectly but never really ending up getting anything done because i can't possibly do it all perfectly [Music] last but not least we have mind mapping which i guess has kind of fallen out of fashion although i remember it being such a big thing on studyblr back in the old days back when i was in eighth grade i'm not that old i don't know why i'm talking about it like that but yeah this was super aesthetically pleasing and i really loved looking at everyone's cute handwriting and bubble drawings but this just never helped me understand or remember things any better granted it might just be because of the main subject areas that i tend to study like i think i hear that connecting concepts like this is a lot more useful in the natural sciences and not as relevant to the social sciences and humanities which i mostly study these days based on what i've tried the main concept of mind mapping is drawing these bubbles with various ideas mentioned in a particular overarching topic and then using lines and arrows to connect subtopics and related ideas i find that this just doesn't really help me synthesize my new knowledge because i already know how the ideas are related because they exist floating around in my brain and i already kind of do this in my note-taking anyways i use a lot of arrows and stuff to point to connected things so for me personally i don't see a purpose in rewriting all the information that i've already written down in my original copy of lecture or textbook notes i know there are ways to use mind mapping that is not just rewriting things with circles and arrows like paraphrasing and summarizing the information or forming new connections but i just find that i don't really do those things when i'm using the mind map method i prefer saving a bit of time by one only rewriting and paraphrasing and all that with the ideas that i don't quite understand yet which isn't really conducive in mind mapping because you kind of have to write everything again and i just draw arrows in my already existing notes anyways that is everything for today's video i hope you found this interesting and helpful in some way and you know feel free to disagree with me we all have different study methods that work best for us and i'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments i upload new videos about student life every week and you can visit my instagram my tic toc and my second channel for more somewhat study related content see you next time

Channel: studyquill

Views: 457,944

Keywords: studying, college, school

Id: 0MJTS_4MjJk

Length: 12min 11sec (731 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 05 2021