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imagine if you could finish all of your
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work in just a few days and still get
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the highest grade instead of being like
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everyone else spending months studying
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and barely making any progress I'm salm
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I'm a final year med student but I've
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also done an undergrad and postgraduate
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degree so I've spent more time studying
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than most people would do in their
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entire life but that helped me figure
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out how I can maximize my study output
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and minimize my effort so that I can
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study efficiently and still have time
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for other things in my life so I'll go
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through the crunch method so that you
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can do the same and this covers the best
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approach to studying from knowing to
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start to knowing how to remember
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everything you learn and each part
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connects with the next so watch until
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the end to maximize your Study
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efficiency so when it comes to studying
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efficiently it isn't just about the time
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when you sit down to study because it
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starts even before with knowing where to
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start and there's quite a few parts to
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this so I'll give a personal example at
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the end of this section to help you
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visualize it better but the first thing
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you need to do is list out the topics
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and subjects you have on one document
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breaking them down into subtopics and
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grouping them based on how closely
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related they are this is so that you can
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place them into a study Matrix which is
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a way to prioritize topics based on both
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your strengths or weaknesses and how
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important a topic is but how can you
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tell if something is important or if
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something is or isn't a strength of
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yours so for importance ask your seniors
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for what came up in the exams and what
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was emphasized by teachers or professors
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check your syllabus for the biggest
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topics same for past papers and even
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check online for what seems important to
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focus on the last is especially useful
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because there's definitely a post online
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where someone asks the same questions
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for your exact subject and for knowing
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your strengths or weaknesses look at how
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you did in past exams or how much time
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time you spent on the topic so far and
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what you remember from them and remember
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back to the start I set to group
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subtopics based on how closely related
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they are this is because these bigger
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groups share some fundamental knowledge
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so that you can go through them faster
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and build stronger connections helping
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you remember for longer so shift these
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grouped subtopics higher up in your
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study Matrix just make sure to group
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these quite sparingly if there's very
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little connection don't group topics
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together so now for an example to help
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you visualize if I broke down Cardiology
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into subtopics it includes heart attacks
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dyslipidemia arrhythmias high blood
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pressure myopathies and more the closely
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related subtopics include heart attacks
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high blood pressure and dyslipidemia and
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they all happened to come up a lot in
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past papers so therm having a lot of
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connections between each other and other
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topics and being common in past exams
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ranks them high in the study Matrix but
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on the other end it's important to
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realize that if something is difficult
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doesn't mean it's important I remember
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how I didn't know much biochemistry
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making it a weakness but when I saw past
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papers no questions on them came up and
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myor said to ignore them too so that
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ranked it low in the study Matrix and in
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the end it didn't come up in my exams
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the first step of knowing where to start
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Gets You Through the most important and
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relevant things first which is necessary
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if you want to do as much as possible in
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as little time so for now ignore
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anything too complicated because later
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in the video I'll tell you the best time
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to do them so now you know how to start
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but how do you actually approach each
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topic so again there's a few parts to
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this and as before I'll give an example
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at the end but the first thing you need
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to do is cover your bases this is about
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making sure you get a general idea of
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what's in the topic before you go into
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the details because how many times have
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you done a class class or lecture where
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you kept taking notes on specific things
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but after the lecture you couldn't
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remember anything what's important to do
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first whether that's in a lecture from
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your textbooks or anything else is to
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Prime through the content for lectures
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or classes this is just sitting there to
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listen only taking notes on the key
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headings that come up in the lecture
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slides or making a few questions based
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on the lecture for going through
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textbooks that's focusing again on key
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headings but also chapter summaries
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because those will focus on the key
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principles of the topics right after you
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finished doing this review what you went
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through by making some form of Mind map
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of anything you can remember also trying
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to find connections between what you
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went through these connections are
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especially important if you went through
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the subtopics that you could group
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together as in the first part of the
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video for this part people rush and move
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on straight away if they don't remember
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but it's important that you give about
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15 to 30 seconds to really think hard
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about what you went through because this
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active retrieval of information from
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your brain helps you retain information
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better than if you were to quickly move
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on so it's important if you're trying to
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get through a lot in a short amount of
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time this is all going to create the
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first most basic layer of your knowledge
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that helps you understand the core
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Concepts and vaguely how they come
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together and the rest of the content you
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go through will build on this layer so
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as an example if I'm going through heart
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attacks I'll Prime through the content
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by picking out the headings such as the
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anatomy of the arteries the types of
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heart attacks and how they present and
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the management and I think of any
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questions that would be good to know the
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answer to making sure I actively try to
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remember what I read this shouldn't take
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more than 10 to 15 minutes to do because
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it's a very brief run through of the key
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points but this already cuts down on the
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hours you would have spent on a single
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lecture and this leads on to the next
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point which is knowing how to build on
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this foundation so so you'll realize
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from your initial approach of the last
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section that there's a lot of gaps in
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what you know which is normal and in
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this point there's a lot of things that
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help you fill in these gaps to remember
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everything the first might sound weird
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but it's to look at practice questions
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for the topics you've gone through but
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not actually do them the idea is to just
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skim through the questions and think
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about whether you'd be able to answer
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them if you don't know the answer write
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down what this question is about the
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reason to do this is because practice
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questions whether from textbooks your
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lectures or online question banks are
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more likely to cover the high yield and
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more relevant information in your topics
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and once you have a list of these
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questions on the topic you can start to
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fill in the gaps and one of the best
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ways to do this is by watching videos on
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the topics because YouTube videos are
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created in a way that's more engaging
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and more dense with information than
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your textbooks or classes making it
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faster to absorb key information and
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only after you've seen this videos try
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to answer the questions and fill in the
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gaps you had in your initial mind map
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from the previous section of the video
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this works well because you aren't just
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gaining information and moving on to the
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next topic you're gaining information
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and testing yourself at the same time
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which is what helps your brain actively
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engage age and then store that
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information for the long term for
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example if I do questions on Cardiology
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I might notice things I missed such as
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how to investigate and diagnose a heart
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attack or treatments to prevent future
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heart attacks so I look more into them
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after during this on the high yield and
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important parts of the topic builds a
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solid foundation of knowledge made up of
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the first layer from the approach
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section of the video and from the gaps
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you filled from this section and this
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map of Key information keeps you from
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having to constantly check through
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massive textbooks or lecture slides and
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now I know what you're thinking what
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about the content that isn't as high
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yied that you would need to know for the
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higher marks so now you can start to
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worry about that because after building
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the foundation these smaller details are
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easier to remember now that you have
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connections to work with and if you
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remember back to the section and
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approaching your work I said to Prime
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through the content briefly so now as
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part of filling in your gaps to deepen
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your connections go back to your
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textbooks lecture slides or online
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resources and read through the content
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that you briefly went through before but
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this time look for the smaller details
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that you missed making sure to add them
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to wherever they fit in your mind maps
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this is going to make you actively
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remember associations between subtopics
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and the small details so you again learn
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and test yourself at the same time after
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you've done one round of this go back to
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the questions and you should find
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yourself feeling that you can answer a
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lot more than before and that this point
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you should start doing the questions
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instead of just looking at whether the
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content of them seems familiar to you
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just make sure that when you do them
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give yourself those 15 to 30 seconds of
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time to really try and remember what you
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went through instead of rushing through
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the questions but doing questions isn't
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the only way to practice and being able
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to repeat these steps a few times in
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different ways is what can help you
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build a higher level of understanding
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for your Topics in a short amount of
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time and another way to make sure you
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fill in any gaps is going through
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questions or quizzes with your friends
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whether that's doing online question
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Banks or past paper questions or even
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making your own questions do them
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together so that you take turns in
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answering them this works well because
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if you don't know one question chances
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are one of your friends would so they
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can explain it to you by giving a brief
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summary with only key information and
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that helps them too since they practice
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active recall as they retrieve
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information from their brain if you find
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yourself getting quite a few questions
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wrong within a subtopic repeat both the
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build and deepen connection sections of
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the method until you feel more confident
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and once you've done this for one topic
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or a group of them repeat this method
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for the next I really want to stress
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that all of these steps work because it
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makes you layer information in an order
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that makes sense for efficiency since
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you both learn and test yourself at the
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same time but now a big problem is that
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even if you know how to study
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efficiently it can still be difficult to
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get yourself to study if you don't have
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the motivation or discipline or even if
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you just feel lazy and over the years
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I've been able to reliably make myself
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do work without needing motivation or
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discipline so that I can do well at med
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school and still have a personal life so
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in this video here I'll talk about how
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you can make yourself do work without
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needing motivation or discipline so
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click the video to learn more
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[Music]
