00:00:00
there are four layers of learning that
00:00:02
any student or learner of any age should
00:00:06
Master when we're able to master all
00:00:07
four layers of learning it is genuinely
00:00:09
one of the most powerful learning
00:00:11
strategies that you can learn it allows
00:00:13
us to have a better understanding and
00:00:14
better retention it makes learning
00:00:17
faster and it even makes learning more
00:00:18
enjoyable unfortunately most of the
00:00:20
students that I work with aren't able to
00:00:22
follow the layers in the correct order
00:00:26
when this happens it creates a lot of
00:00:27
stress it wastes a lot of time and it
00:00:29
can feel impossible to get the results
00:00:31
you want and with enough time we can
00:00:33
start thinking that maybe we'll just
00:00:36
never be good at learning but that
00:00:38
probably is not true for me learning to
00:00:42
learn in these four layers is one of the
00:00:45
reasons I was able to get top results in
00:00:47
both medical school and for my master of
00:00:49
education and trust me there's nothing
00:00:52
special about me I'm not a genius I've
00:00:54
seen similar results with thousands of
00:00:56
students and professionals that I've
00:00:58
trained over the years and so by the end
00:00:59
of this video you'll know exactly which
00:01:01
layer you tend to focus on but most
00:01:04
importantly how you can master all four
00:01:07
layers of learning now the first layer
00:01:08
of learning is called the logic layer
00:01:12
and this is by far the most overlooked
00:01:16
but also the most important layer
00:01:18
because without mastering this layer the
00:01:20
other layers will not work which means
00:01:22
you'll end up wasting hours of time
00:01:24
studying without getting the results
00:01:26
that you want why you may ask well as
00:01:28
you can see from the diagram that I've
00:01:29
I've drawn each layer of learning stacks
00:01:33
on the previous
00:01:35
layer efficient and effective learning
00:01:37
should always build on itself which
00:01:40
means the learning you do initially
00:01:42
makes the learning you do later easier
00:01:45
and easier I always say the more you
00:01:47
learn the easier it should get but most
00:01:49
students don't feel that way most
00:01:51
students feel like the more they learn
00:01:52
the more overwhelming it gets there's
00:01:54
more things to try to hold on to in your
00:01:56
memory and the reason that happens is
00:01:58
because instead of approaching ing
00:02:00
learning in the right order where we're
00:02:02
going 1 2 3 4 most students do it in the
00:02:07
opposite order they go 4 3 2 1 and then
00:02:10
they end up with this and if the way you
00:02:13
are learning looks like this instead of
00:02:16
this then learning efficiently becomes
00:02:18
almost impossible and the easy way to
00:02:20
think about this is to think of learning
00:02:22
like building a house you have to start
00:02:24
with layer one which is the foundations
00:02:27
and then on top of that layer you bu
00:02:29
build the walls and the roof and the
00:02:32
overall structure and then you paint the
00:02:35
walls and then eventually you decorate
00:02:38
and put in your furniture but what
00:02:39
you'll see by the end of this video is
00:02:41
that most students aren't doing that
00:02:42
what they are doing is the learning
00:02:44
equivalent of trying to build the walls
00:02:46
without having a foundation and then
00:02:49
they're only building like one corner of
00:02:52
one room and then they're painting that
00:02:54
and then chucking a couch in the corner
00:02:56
and then starting to build the
00:02:57
foundation of like another room and then
00:02:59
build building that wall and somehow
00:03:01
trying to make it all come together so
00:03:03
really it doesn't matter how long you're
00:03:04
spending on building the house it's just
00:03:07
going to crumble if you don't have that
00:03:09
good foundation to start with and in
00:03:11
learning what a crumbling Foundation
00:03:14
actually looks and feels like is hm I've
00:03:17
technically covered this content why
00:03:20
can't I remember and use this knowledge
00:03:23
it probably means that you had weak
00:03:26
foundations so when we're working on the
00:03:27
logic layer it means that we're looking
00:03:30
for the biggest ideas within that topic
00:03:33
we're trying to focus on getting a big
00:03:36
picture fairly basic understanding of
00:03:39
the entire topic what are the main ideas
00:03:42
and how do those main ideas fit together
00:03:46
in the big picture and spending time to
00:03:48
deliberately create this logic layer is
00:03:50
crucial for efficient learning because
00:03:51
it helps you build context about what
00:03:55
you are going to learn and it doesn't
00:03:57
take very long to develop this logic
00:03:58
layer for a one to 2our topic it might
00:04:01
only take you 10 15 minutes but it is a
00:04:03
step that most students skip without
00:04:06
even realizing it and this happens
00:04:08
because most students believe that
00:04:11
context is something that they will just
00:04:14
develop as they keep studying it they
00:04:16
think okay I've studied this now and I
00:04:18
don't really know how to apply the
00:04:20
information but I'm sure that if I keep
00:04:22
studying it and then I do more practice
00:04:24
papers and more flashcards I'll
00:04:26
eventually get to a point where it's all
00:04:28
connected together but this is not not
00:04:30
true just time passing does not mean the
00:04:33
ideas connect together the act of
00:04:36
connecting information together
00:04:39
developing context is an active process
00:04:42
we need to engage in and in fact when we
00:04:45
don't actively try to connect it
00:04:48
together build the context and develop a
00:04:51
big picture understanding first that's
00:04:54
when we run into the issue of the more
00:04:57
we learn the more overwhelming we get
00:05:00
because now we're just loading up our
00:05:02
brain with all these bits of information
00:05:04
where we don't know what to do with it
00:05:06
we don't know where it sits but somehow
00:05:09
we're expecting our brain to organize it
00:05:12
process it hold on to it and extract
00:05:14
meaning out of it learning and taking in
00:05:17
information when you don't have the
00:05:19
context and the big picture is kind of
00:05:22
like walking into a library but then all
00:05:25
the books are just scattered all over
00:05:27
the floor without any bookshelves to
00:05:29
clearly organize the information so if
00:05:32
you've ever studied something and you've
00:05:33
tried to solve a problem but then you
00:05:35
feel like hm I kind of recognize some of
00:05:39
the concepts that might be relevant to
00:05:41
helping me solve this but you can't
00:05:43
actually solve it and connect it
00:05:45
together and use what you have studied
00:05:47
in that way then it means that you
00:05:49
probably didn't actively make the step
00:05:51
of bringing it together in layer one of
00:05:55
learning and naturally that is a very
00:05:57
frustrating and annoying and stressful
00:06:00
process if that is happening to you
00:06:02
constantly while you study but again
00:06:04
this can be entirely avoided by doing
00:06:07
layer one properly here are my Pro tips
00:06:11
for doing layer one the right way first
00:06:13
of all do it UPF front don't try to like
00:06:17
I said develop context after you've
00:06:19
taken in a huge mass of information and
00:06:22
the easiest way to do that is step two
00:06:24
list out your keywords take a textbook
00:06:26
take whatever you're learning and then
00:06:27
just skim through it and collect SCT the
00:06:30
main key words and concepts for that
00:06:32
topic these could be the titles and
00:06:34
subheadings they could be bolded words
00:06:36
and new terminology could be from your
00:06:38
lecture objectives and by doing this it
00:06:40
just creates a nice clean list of things
00:06:42
for you to look through you're not
00:06:44
having to just constantly be flicking
00:06:46
back and forth between all your
00:06:48
resources trying to figure out what
00:06:50
exactly is foundational logic layer
00:06:53
stuff and then what you do tip number
00:06:55
three is look through this list that
00:06:57
you've got and then start grouping it
00:06:59
together think about what are the main
00:07:02
similarities what are the main ways that
00:07:05
I might be able to organize all of these
00:07:07
different keywords and Concepts there
00:07:09
are going to be similar Trends similar
00:07:11
purposes similar parts of a process
00:07:13
similar reasons for why it's important
00:07:16
enough for you to learn them think about
00:07:18
those things and start creating groups
00:07:20
and relating these groups to each other
00:07:23
and tip number four keep it simple you
00:07:25
just need to have a very general surface
00:07:28
level simp simple understanding of the
00:07:31
overall topic something that you could
00:07:34
explain to a 10-year-old and so by the
00:07:36
end of layer one you should be able to
00:07:39
generally explain what this topic is
00:07:42
talking about you can say this topic is
00:07:45
about these main types of ideas and they
00:07:50
are important because they influence and
00:07:52
relate to each other in this way you
00:07:54
won't be able to explain any of those
00:07:56
Concepts in detail you won't really
00:07:59
remember all the little subconcepts and
00:08:01
terminology that fits within that you're
00:08:03
not going to be able to recite anything
00:08:05
from memory necessarily but in the later
00:08:08
layers when you go to learn that level
00:08:11
of detail you will be able to understand
00:08:13
where it fits in the big picture and
00:08:16
you'll have ideas on why it's important
00:08:18
and relevant to learn so this process of
00:08:21
making it a bit more specific and adding
00:08:23
on extra detail onto that first layer
00:08:27
the logic layer is Layer Two and Layer
00:08:30
Two is called the concepts layer this is
00:08:33
where we're taking those big groups of
00:08:36
ideas and we're actually splitting them
00:08:37
out into the more specific major
00:08:40
Concepts within them and Layer Two is
00:08:43
important because this is what gives
00:08:44
that topic depth it's what gives it more
00:08:47
substance it makes it a little bit more
00:08:48
specific during Layer Two we're
00:08:51
developing the ability to actually
00:08:54
explain things in detail and we should
00:08:56
be able to answer a lot of those
00:08:58
questions that might come up in an exam
00:09:00
and because in layer one we generally
00:09:02
figured out how these big Ideas relate
00:09:05
with each other it means that when we
00:09:07
come to a more complicated problem which
00:09:09
requires us to connect different
00:09:12
concepts from different parts of the
00:09:14
topic and use them together we know how
00:09:17
they connect and we can actually do that
00:09:19
now Layer Two is where we need to spend
00:09:22
the majority of our studying time around
00:09:25
60 to 70% of all the time we spend
00:09:28
studying a topic should be spent in
00:09:30
Layer Two if we want to get top results
00:09:33
however there is something that holds a
00:09:35
lot of students back from being able to
00:09:37
do this correctly which I will talk
00:09:38
about later in the video but right now I
00:09:40
want to make it clear that this entire
00:09:43
process especially during layer 2 where
00:09:45
we are adding on those extra details and
00:09:48
our big picture understanding is
00:09:50
starting to get more and more accurate
00:09:52
and more specific this is something that
00:09:55
takes time for me if I'm learning a
00:09:57
large topic this can take me multip
00:09:59
study sessions across multiple days and
00:10:02
if you've never tried learning in this
00:10:04
way before it can feel very confusing
00:10:08
and even quite frustrating sometimes
00:10:10
just knowing whether you're doing it
00:10:12
right or wrong but just like for
00:10:13
learning any new skill those feelings
00:10:16
are completely normal and expected as
00:10:19
part of just improving your skills and
00:10:22
I'll mention here as well that as an
00:10:24
extra resource I also have a free Weekly
00:10:27
Newsletter where I go through through
00:10:29
more evidence-based tips and strategies
00:10:32
that can help you work through this
00:10:34
process I talk about this layers of
00:10:36
learning a little bit more detail with a
00:10:37
few more examples as well and I also
00:10:39
talk about a lot of other strategies as
00:10:41
well that can help you get top results
00:10:43
so if that's something that's
00:10:44
interesting for you I'll leave a link in
00:10:45
the description again it's totally free
00:10:47
now at this point of our layers once
00:10:49
we've done layer one the logic and Layer
00:10:51
Two the concepts we have a generally
00:10:55
pretty good understanding of the topic
00:10:57
we see how it fits together we can talk
00:11:00
about the big picture of things why what
00:11:02
we are learning is important how we can
00:11:04
use it you can see how the ideas are
00:11:06
connected together and you can explain
00:11:08
these Concepts in pretty good detail as
00:11:11
well so what we're missing at this point
00:11:13
are those really specific details these
00:11:17
could be like very particular pieces of
00:11:19
terminology or the name of particular
00:11:22
Catalyst and molecules or uh particular
00:11:25
types of dates or locations that an
00:11:27
event happened these are the very fine
00:11:29
granular details you might get tested on
00:11:32
or you need to use it as part of your
00:11:34
essay or writing and this is where layer
00:11:37
three comes in layer 3 is what we call
00:11:40
important
00:11:42
details and the reason it's called an
00:11:44
important detail is because these are
00:11:48
the specific pieces of information the
00:11:50
details that are important for helping
00:11:54
us to understand layer 2 and this is
00:11:58
actually really important because it's
00:11:59
saying that this very specific piece of
00:12:02
information that when you first look at
00:12:04
it you might think that's just something
00:12:06
I need a wrote memorize is something
00:12:08
that is actually connected is related to
00:12:12
a concept that you've learned there is a
00:12:15
reason for you to learn that detail
00:12:18
which means from your brain's
00:12:21
perspective there is a place for it to
00:12:23
fit there is a way it can organize it in
00:12:26
relation to everything else you've been
00:12:28
learning so figuring out what is in
00:12:30
layer three is actually kind of simple
00:12:34
all we have to do is look at that piece
00:12:36
of information and ask ourselves does
00:12:38
this help me understand something from
00:12:41
Layer Two or make something from layer
00:12:44
two more concrete and if the answer is
00:12:47
yes then it fits into layer three if the
00:12:50
answer is no then we'll talk about that
00:12:51
in the next layer but even though it's
00:12:54
technically very straightforward to
00:12:55
figure out what is in layer three here
00:12:57
is the issue the reason so many students
00:13:01
feel overwhelmed with learning
00:13:03
especially for big topics and the more
00:13:04
they learn the more overwhelmed they get
00:13:06
is that they jump into layer three
00:13:09
without having done layer 1 and Layer
00:13:13
Two first and that is actually
00:13:16
disastrous and as soon as you've done
00:13:18
that you can say goodbye to your
00:13:19
efficiency because think about this when
00:13:22
you ask yourself this detail is this
00:13:25
important for me by helping me to
00:13:28
understand the concept or making it more
00:13:29
concrete how can you know the answer to
00:13:32
that if you haven't actually figured out
00:13:35
the concepts in the first place and how
00:13:39
do you know whether it's going to be
00:13:41
important if you don't know how you're
00:13:44
going to use those Concepts which is
00:13:47
something we figure out during logic
00:13:48
layer layer one spoiler alert the answer
00:13:50
is that you can't so when you start with
00:13:53
just layer three just ramming through
00:13:56
all the details as much as we can like
00:13:59
there's so much to learn I better just
00:14:00
go through trying to memorize absolutely
00:14:02
everything from start to finish then
00:14:04
everything becomes irrelevant because
00:14:08
there is nothing to connect it to and we
00:14:11
end up with a disorganized mass of
00:14:15
disconnected isolated facts and and
00:14:18
individual Concepts and explanations and
00:14:20
processes which means our retention is
00:14:22
not going to be very good and our
00:14:23
understanding is not going to be very
00:14:24
deep and we can't use the knowledge the
00:14:26
way that we need to and we have to
00:14:28
compensate by just trying to memorize
00:14:30
all of that more like just doing more
00:14:33
repetition more flash card spending more
00:14:35
time studying and the key to avoiding
00:14:38
that and making it so that learning does
00:14:41
get easier the more you learn and you're
00:14:43
not getting overwhelmed and falling into
00:14:45
a trap of endless repetitive
00:14:47
memorization is to understand that
00:14:51
learning in the right order makes
00:14:54
learning build on itself ler three is
00:14:57
the perfect example of this because when
00:15:00
you first go through a textbook on a
00:15:02
topic you've never studied before
00:15:03
everything is very detailed Everything
00:15:05
feels very specific like there's no
00:15:07
other way for you to learn it other than
00:15:09
memorizing and maybe that's what
00:15:10
everyone else is doing but you know just
00:15:12
because everyone is doing it doesn't
00:15:14
mean it's good but common and widespread
00:15:16
does not mean desirable uh after all you
00:15:19
know Co was also pretty widespread but
00:15:22
there are lots of detailed specific
00:15:25
pieces of information that become
00:15:28
relevant become logical become intuitive
00:15:31
and easy to understand and remember when
00:15:34
you know a little bit more about the
00:15:36
topic and that fact that seemed
00:15:38
irrelevant and detailed and the only way
00:15:40
you could learn it was memorization now
00:15:42
when we look at it we think oh yeah that
00:15:45
makes sense I can see how that fits in
00:15:48
you can only get to that feeling by
00:15:50
learning the layers in the right order
00:15:52
so let's say we have gone through layer
00:15:54
one then Layer Two and now we're at
00:15:55
layer three we've identified which
00:15:57
details seem to be important important
00:15:59
for Layer Two which things make that
00:16:01
concept more concrete what do we do with
00:16:03
that well first of all we can add them
00:16:05
into our notes if you're using mind
00:16:06
mapping then you can add them into your
00:16:08
mind map and we can also add those into
00:16:10
something like flash cards flash cards
00:16:12
are great for helping us remember those
00:16:14
detailed specific pieces of information
00:16:16
and so we're covering both of our bases
00:16:18
we're making sure that we're not going
00:16:20
to forget those details we're
00:16:21
documenting them we're using flash cards
00:16:24
which gives us the benefit of pretty
00:16:25
decent queued recoil and space
00:16:27
repetition but but we're also making
00:16:30
sure we know how to use that information
00:16:32
in the right way by connecting it
00:16:35
through something like a mind matat and
00:16:36
so while I will say that flash cards are
00:16:38
a great tool to use during this layer
00:16:41
layer three they are a very ineffective
00:16:44
way of trying to learn the bottom two
00:16:46
layers and so by the end of layer three
00:16:49
we have a big picture understanding of
00:16:52
how things are connected to each other
00:16:53
with specific Concepts and we also have
00:16:57
specific details that make those
00:16:59
Concepts more concrete at this point we
00:17:01
are 80 90% on our tests and exams or
00:17:05
more so what could possibly be left well
00:17:08
what's left is layer four and layer four
00:17:12
is a major source of confusion and
00:17:15
overwhelm for a lot of students and
00:17:17
that's because layer four is what I call
00:17:20
arbitrary details and arbitrary details
00:17:24
are the types of details that are just
00:17:27
not important they don't help you to
00:17:29
understand a concept they don't seem to
00:17:31
fit into the big picture anywhere it's
00:17:33
kind of like there's no reason to really
00:17:36
learn this if you are not going to get
00:17:38
tested on it it's basically just all the
00:17:40
stuff that's left over after you've done
00:17:43
layer 1 2 and three but here's the
00:17:45
reason why layer four is the thing that
00:17:48
trips up so many students is that you
00:17:51
can only figure out what is layer 4 what
00:17:54
is an arbitrary detail if you've already
00:17:58
figured out out what is layer three in
00:18:01
important detail you can only figure out
00:18:02
what's important if you've done Layer
00:18:04
Two which is the concepts and you can
00:18:06
only figure out the concepts if you know
00:18:07
where they fit which is layer one the
00:18:09
logic and so at the start of this video
00:18:10
I said that the reason why a lot of
00:18:13
people struggle and get overwhelmed with
00:18:15
learning is because they're not learning
00:18:17
in this order they're learning in the
00:18:19
opposite order this is exactly what I'm
00:18:22
talking about this is the major trap you
00:18:25
need to avoid if you want to be more
00:18:27
efficient and get the results that you
00:18:28
looking for when you open up a textbook
00:18:30
the information as it's given to you
00:18:34
biases you into starting at layer 4 and
00:18:39
that's because when we open up a
00:18:41
textbook the majority of that
00:18:43
information is very detailed it's in
00:18:46
this layer three or layer 4 and because
00:18:49
we feel like there's so much we have to
00:18:50
learn we get on with it we spend that
00:18:54
time trying to get through all of these
00:18:56
details to remember and understand every
00:18:59
single detail but remember if we start
00:19:01
this way we don't know what's important
00:19:04
we don't have context we don't know how
00:19:05
we're going to use that information we
00:19:07
don't know where it fits and so now our
00:19:08
brain is trying to do multiple things
00:19:10
it's trying to not only understand what
00:19:12
you're reading and just comprehend it
00:19:14
it's trying not only to just desperately
00:19:16
hold on to and remember that information
00:19:19
and it's also trying to figure out why
00:19:21
the heck it needs to hold on to that
00:19:23
information in the first place why is it
00:19:26
relevant where does it fit how does it
00:19:28
relate to anything else and we spend
00:19:30
hours and hours just churning through
00:19:34
inside this detail layer over enough
00:19:37
time we can get a sense for oh some of
00:19:41
these things seem to be a little bit
00:19:43
more important and so the layer three
00:19:46
important details become a little
00:19:47
clearer and then as we see these
00:19:49
important details we start thinking hold
00:19:51
on a second maybe these are related to
00:19:54
this particular concept and those
00:19:55
Concepts become clearer and we start to
00:19:57
be able to understand in more depth and
00:19:59
then eventually maybe if we have enough
00:20:03
time to do enough practice questions and
00:20:05
test ourselves we might see how they all
00:20:07
connect together and get that light bulb
00:20:09
moment of understanding the purpose of
00:20:13
why we were learning everything and how
00:20:15
to actually use it and that is when we
00:20:18
reach layer one and sometimes we never
00:20:21
reach that because we run out of time so
00:20:23
then the question is how do we avoid
00:20:26
that experience and how do we learn in
00:20:28
the right layers in the first place if
00:20:30
we're hid in the face with so many of
00:20:33
these details to sift through well the
00:20:35
solution is to actively filter the
00:20:38
information in these four layers to
00:20:41
begin with so if you have a single page
00:20:44
on a textbook you're no longer going to
00:20:46
look at it as one page of information
00:20:49
you're going to see that that page has
00:20:51
four layers of information it becomes a
00:20:55
process of skimming the information to
00:20:58
to deliberately look for the things that
00:21:02
for you feel like it belongs in layer
00:21:05
one and focusing our attention on just
00:21:08
the layer one information and once we've
00:21:10
gone through our material defined all
00:21:12
the layer one information and built our
00:21:14
lay one with a strong Foundation we're
00:21:16
going to go through all the stuff again
00:21:18
a second time this time filtering and
00:21:21
looking for the things that feel like
00:21:23
Layer Two and remember Layer Two takes
00:21:25
the longest and once we've done that we
00:21:26
can go through it again to filter out
00:21:29
the things that are layer three or layer
00:21:31
four and you usually you can do those
00:21:33
last two layers in the same step and if
00:21:35
you are in the unfortunate position
00:21:36
where you do need to actually learn
00:21:37
these layer four things as well that's
00:21:40
also when you might just put them into
00:21:42
some flash cards but on top of doing
00:21:44
this you also need to be able to detect
00:21:47
when you're doing it in the wrong order
00:21:49
and one of the telltale signs red flags
00:21:53
that you're going in the wrong order is
00:21:55
that you are very early on in your
00:21:57
studying Pro ESS and already you are
00:22:01
making flash cards or you are in your
00:22:04
mind just trying to remember and hold on
00:22:06
to what you're learning that's your
00:22:09
mindset and that's what you're doing
00:22:10
that's a very clear sign that you're
00:22:12
focusing on the wrong layer and if you
00:22:13
do want to be a top learner or even if
00:22:16
you just want to make learning a little
00:22:18
bit easier than it is now I can promise
00:22:21
you I can guarantee it if you start
00:22:23
thinking of learning in layers you will
00:22:26
find that you are more efficient you
00:22:28
your memory gets better your
00:22:30
understanding is deeper you're getting
00:22:31
better results and you'll start feeling
00:22:33
more confident in the way that you learn
00:22:35
so if you want more specific strategies
00:22:37
and tips on how to navigate these four
00:22:39
layers then remember my free Weekly
00:22:40
Newsletter the links in the description
00:22:42
and if you want to learn even more
00:22:44
learning strategies and techniques then
00:22:47
I recommend checking out this video here
00:22:50
I think you'll like it
