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there are six levels or types of
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thinking that every student or learner
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of any age should master and each of
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these six levels leads to a different
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level of result unfortunately most of
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the students I work with stuck in these
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first few levels of thinking and the
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reason that they struggle to reach top
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results is because they are thinking at
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the wrong level when this happens it
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causes a lot of stress it wastes a lot
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of time it can be very frustrating it
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feel impossible to reach top results
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with any degree of confidence and with
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enough time we can start thinking that
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maybe we're just not cut out for it but
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that probably is not true and for me
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learning how to think deliberately at
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the right level is one of the main
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reasons I was able to achieve top
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academic results in both medical school
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and for my masters of education and
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trust me I'm certainly not a genius I've
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seen similar results with thousands of
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students and professionals that have
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trained over years and by the end of
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this video you'll be able to see what
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level you tend to operate at and how you
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can get to the level that you need to be
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and FYI the level you need to be is
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probably higher than you think but we'll
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get to that later so the first level is
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all about memorizing things this
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involves a lot of rereading uh rewriting
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it is usually very repetitive it can
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feel very tedious it often makes us feel
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drowsy and this level is called
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remember it is the level of roote
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learning and repeating hundreds and
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thousands of flash cards this is the way
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I and maybe you studied for like most of
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High School uh and it's maybe the reason
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why you might have hated studying and
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when you do this level of thinking and
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studying then it unlocks level one
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result which is
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regurgitate the regurgitate level is all
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about listing defining stating facts
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it's the kinds of questions that are
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less common as you go through our
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University and become semi useless in
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professional life confusingly even
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though this first level is called
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remember it's actually not a very good
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way to hold on to and retain the things
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that you learn uh but we'll talk about
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that later the second level of learning
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is about really trying to comprehend
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what you are learning rather than just
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like repeatedly smash it into your brain
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this is the level that we call
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understand now there's a reason I've
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been saying these are levels of thinking
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uh and not different levels of studying
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and that's because your intentions
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really matter you could have two people
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doing exactly the same technique and for
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someone looking at you it can look
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exactly the same and then when you ask
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them hey how are you studying they might
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both just say I'm just reading my
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textbook but mentally it's different for
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the person at level one by reading they
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actually mean mean I'm reading it again
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and again so I can try to get it stuck
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in my head whereas for the person in
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level two what they mean is I'm reading
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it so I can understand what it's trying
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to say and wrap my head around it and so
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naturally at level two thinking
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understand what we unlock is level two
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result which is
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explain this allows us to answer
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questions that require us to explain our
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understanding of a concept or a process
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these these types of questions often
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make up the bulk of most assessments up
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until around later in uni now if this is
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sounding familiar to you so far it's
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because it's described in a framework
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called Bloom's revised taxonomy which
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was first published in
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1956 and then later revised in 2001 and
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even though it is 70 years old uh it is
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still one of the most underrated
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principle that most students have never
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heard of and if you have heard of it
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stick around because I'll teach you a
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way of using it that helped me double my
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learning efficiency so level three is
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about using what you have leared to then
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solve problems and this is a level that
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we call apply now this is where things
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can get a little bit confusing because a
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lot of people misunderstand this about
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Bloom's taxonomy there are lots of
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different ways that you can apply your
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knowledge to solve problems so for
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example you have what we I would say are
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simple problems uh these are the types
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of problems where you learn something
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and then you just directly use that
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thing that you learned to solve a
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problem so for example in math or
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physics you learn an equation or formula
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and there is a problem that you need to
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solve by just using that equation or
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formula then again there are what I
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might call a little bit more advanced
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problems and these are the ones where
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you actually have to think about the
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best way to tackle the problem there are
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a combination of Concepts that you need
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to apply in a certain sequence and
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there's a lot more strategic thinking
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involved at level three we're mostly
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talking about the first one simple
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problem solving and so we unlock that
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level which is the simple problem
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solving result we're now able to solve
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what I call One to One problems where
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there is one concept you learn and the
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problem requires that one concept to
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solve and you can get to this level
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level three by just literally solving
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questions and solving problems lots of
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practice papers and quizzes have
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questions at the apply level for
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something more procedural like coding it
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might be building a simple function with
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a few simple variables but what about
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the harder and more complex questions
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the types of problems that are Advanced
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this is where level four thinking comes
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in we're entering into the territory of
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higher order learning people who know
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how to think at level four tend to do
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pretty well but level four thinkers are
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not common and you'll see why why that
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is soon level four thinking is all about
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comparing and contrasting it's about
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looking for similarities and differences
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we call this level analyze it's the
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first time that we're not just looking
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at information by itself but we're
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looking at it in relation to another
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piece of information and there are
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countless techniques that help with
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level four analyze Vin diagrams making
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tables making summaries that explain the
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similarities and differences using mind
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maps so in problems and questions that
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force you to compare one Concept in
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relation to another all of these things
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are going to be helpful really any
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technique is effective as long as it
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forces you to compare and contrast one
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thing against another thing so unlocking
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level four accesses the level four
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result which is the comparison level and
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instead of just giving you some examples
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of what comparison looks like like I'm
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going to do one bit and show you this
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great little study tip that you can use
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go on to something like chbt or Gemini
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and type in this prompt give me
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questions at the educational stage that
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you want so let's say second year
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university level for the subject so
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let's say in this example we'll say uh
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microbiology at blooms revised taxonomy
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level in this case it's going to be
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level four and these are exactly the
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types of questions that test you at
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level four and you'll see that every
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single option forces you to compare
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ideas against each other now the reason
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that this technique is actually useful
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to use in your studying is because
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Bloom's revised taxonomy was not created
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for people like you like a learner they
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were created for educators and exam
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writers and internationally almost every
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single curriculum is designed around
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Bloom's taxonomy or a similar taxonomy
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they're all pretty similar to each other
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which means your exam writer is thinking
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in this way to create the questions that
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are going to filter out the good versus
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the great Learners which means you can
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now predict the types of questions
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they're going to ask you and even create
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your own practice papers but here is why
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level four thinkers are not common as
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soon as you jump from level three to
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level four you will 100% notice that
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this level of thinking requires more
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mental effort it is harder to do you're
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thinking for longer and more deeply than
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the previous levels which is a good
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thing because it means that your brain
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is forming deeper knowledge and stronger
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memory but it can feel like you've
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gotten slower and some people think that
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that means they're doing something wrong
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so even though most students can think
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at level four most students choose not
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to because it doesn't feel as easy this
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is a phenomenon called the
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misinterpreted effort hypothesis and it
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prevents the majority of Learners from
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ever really improving and this is even
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more the case at level five level five
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thinking is for the top Learners if you
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can think at level five you will be
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reaching those top results it's also the
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level that people find the most
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confusing so I'm going to make it really
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simple for you level five is all about
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Judgment at level four we analyzed we
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compared and contrasted we found
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similarities and differences at level
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five we're asking so what what does it
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matter who cares why is it important
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level five is called
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evaluate and learning to think at this
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level unlocks the level five result
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which is
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prioritize so let's do that little AI
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trick again and see the difference in
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the types of questions we get so you can
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see level four on the left and level
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five on the right so notice that at
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level five we are forming conclusions
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and now we have to justify it it's not
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enough like at level four just to know
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that there are similarities and
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differences we then have to use that
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knowledge to make a decision level five
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thinking takes much more effort uh and
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you'll know that you are doing it right
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when you are going back and forth
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between the material trying to answer
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the question in your head of why does
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this matter how does it fit in with
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everything else why do I need to care
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you're going to be jumping between your
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lectures and your textbook and doing a
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Google search these are the signs that
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you are operating at level five and it's
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not as easy as the previous levels but
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to reach level five results you need to
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go through this and level four and level
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five are the types of questions and
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challenges you'll find in second and
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third year university and Beyond on uh
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and in postgrad studies most of what
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you're assist at is level four and level
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five also pretty much any senior
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position in any profession will require
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you to have level four and level five
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thinking and much like before it's less
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about what your Technique looks like and
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more about what's happening inside your
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brain for example for level five mind
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maps uh teaching answering questions uh
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creating summaries these are all
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techniques that are great for level five
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but you could also do all of those
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techniques and still not do it at level
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five if you're not thinking in the right
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way for example it's easy to make a mind
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map just connecting a bunch of lines and
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arrows together between words forming a
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few groups and categories here and there
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and just call it done but that's not
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level five thinking it's very different
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to for example creating a mind map where
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you're critically evaluating which lines
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and relationships are more important
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than other possible relationships and
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you're thinking what is the best way I
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can group these ideas together mentally
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it's a very different process even
00:12:10
though physically it can look very
00:12:11
similar now level six I'll go through
00:12:13
this one pretty quickly because finally
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enough it's actually less important for
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most people level six is about creating
00:12:21
a hypothesis it's about synthesizing new
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and novel information from what you
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already know this level is called create
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and when you unlock create it unlocks
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the level six result which is
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hypothesize now some people think that
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level six create is any situation where
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you have to generate anything with your
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knowledge uh this is not true it's only
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level six if you are creating a answer
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for something that you don't think the
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answer exists in your knowledge already
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you're identifying a gap and you're
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creating a potential answer that makes
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sense based on what you do know and the
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reason level six is not as important as
00:13:04
the previous levels is because most
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people will not really be assisted uh at
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level six unless you are at the highest
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levels of Education or your profession
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most people in their daily lives will be
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at the top of their game just being able
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to perform at level five consistently
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but just for your knowledge here are
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some examples of level six and as you
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can see it's pretty Advanced you can
00:13:30
pause to read this a little bit more if
00:13:31
you like or you can jump onto your AI
00:13:32
and do this for your own subject now
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here's the part that is going to blow
00:13:35
your mind if you want to get to level
00:13:38
five and level six there are actually
00:13:41
two different methods to get there the
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first way is to start studying and just
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to go through each level from bottom to
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top first you remember it and then you
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understand it and then you apply it and
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then you analyze it so on and so forth
00:13:54
this sounds very logical but for most
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people this will not work the problem
00:14:00
with starting at the bottom mastering
00:14:02
level one then mastering level two then
00:14:04
mastering level three Etc is that it is
00:14:06
very very time consuming and most people
00:14:10
do not have enough time to even reach
00:14:13
level five let alone Master it so in
00:14:16
reality most people will just do a
00:14:17
little bit of each level kind of back
00:14:19
and forth like for example in lectures
00:14:21
they might be doing little bit of level
00:14:23
one and then a little bit of level two
00:14:24
and then later when doing some quizzes
00:14:26
they might be doing a bit of level two
00:14:27
and a little bit of level three and just
00:14:29
sort of moving back and forth if they do
00:14:31
a more challenging question they'll be
00:14:32
doing a little bit of level four and
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then level five and this doesn't really
00:14:36
work very well because we will always
00:14:40
forget things over time in research we
00:14:42
call this phenomenon knowledge Decay it
00:14:44
occurs because the memory has something
00:14:47
called a forgetting curve so basically
00:14:49
while you're doing level two and level
00:14:52
three our knowledge of level one will
00:14:55
slowly Decay away right we're going to
00:14:58
forget it and so instead of being able
00:15:00
to actually just move up the levels
00:15:02
we're going to be spending most of our
00:15:03
time just relearning the things that we
00:15:05
continuously forget so instead here is
00:15:08
the better way to reach the higher
00:15:11
levels instead of starting at level one
00:15:13
and moving up we're going to start at
00:15:16
level five and actually move down
00:15:19
remember level five because level six is
00:15:20
not relevant for most people and the
00:15:21
reason this works is because our brain
00:15:24
actually processes information and forms
00:15:26
memory more strongly at level five than
00:15:30
it does at level one and when we set our
00:15:32
sights at the top our brain will
00:15:34
actually fill in and achieve the lower
00:15:38
levels of results along the way as
00:15:41
almost like a side effect and this
00:15:42
doesn't work the other way around if we
00:15:44
are trying to just learn so that we can
00:15:47
regurgitate material our brain is not
00:15:49
going to then be able to automatically
00:15:52
compare or prioritize information but if
00:15:54
we are trying to compare and prioritize
00:15:57
then we will gain better memory so that
00:16:00
we can if we need to regurgitate explain
00:16:03
and solve problems now by the way the
00:16:05
science on this gets a little bit
00:16:06
complicated so if you want me to go
00:16:08
deeper in on this then let me know in
00:16:09
the comments like I said level five
00:16:11
takes more mental effort but it pays off
00:16:14
big time by forgetting less so this
00:16:17
means when we start studying don't focus
00:16:19
on trying to remember or understand
00:16:22
Focus most of your attention on trying
00:16:25
to evaluate which forces you to
00:16:28
understand and analyze it in the first
00:16:30
place now if you found this video useful
00:16:31
and you want to get the key points
00:16:33
summarized sent straight to your inbox
00:16:35
then I've actually got a newslet where I
00:16:37
distill my decade of coaching people to
00:16:40
learn more efficiently into bite-sized
00:16:42
emails each email covers one key concept
00:16:46
that I think every learner would benefit
00:16:48
from with some practical takeaways the
00:16:50
learnings from this video are also in
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one of those newsletters too if you're
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interested check out the link in the
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description or go to Icon study.com
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straight away as always thank you so
00:17:04
much for watching and I'll see you in
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the next one or in your inbox
