Cramming is no way to study. Learn why in today's short stuff.
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Hey, you welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh and on behalf of Chuck. Who's here? Say hi Chuck an uh Dave see the producer Jerry the mega meta uber producer Uber with an oom loud Even that was a good Jerry. Um. This is short stuff, the stuff you should know, A short version of stuff you should know, but shorter, that's right. And this has to do with something that I have been guilty of from grades kindergarten through my undergraduate degree, which is to say, cramming for the test. I've always procrastinated when it comes to my school testing. I always crammed. I always did pretty good. It's a sort of a B student, and I never thought it mattered much, and now I feel terrible about it. Right until that time the cop pulled you over and asked you how to explain Pythagoras Pythagoras theorem, and you were like, oh, man, I knew this, I knew this, and I forgot it. Yeah, because cramming is uh, it sort of works if you're looking to skate by and make that grade in and like walking in there minutes after you finished studying. You might do okay, but you're not gonna learn anything, and you're not going to remember that stuff. And that's the point. Like, yes, you can cram and do okay on a test, you could even get through college or high school like that. And that's why a lot of people who cram say, well, whatever it works, I'm fine with it. But the point of learning all this stuff is to actually learn it. So when you look at it like that, like you don't actually learn anything, you just are are doing rote memorization. And then then it kind of makes sense to look for other ways. And luckily, um, they figured out that there are plenty of other ways to learn aside from cramming. Before we get into that, let's talk about exactly why cramming is terrible. Yeah, so you know, obviously we're saying you're really not learning much. It's there have been studies done and there are a lot of people who study this. Uh. One of these guys from the House Stuff Works article is Dr Robert A. Bork from u c l A psychology department, and he's like, there's a dramatic forgetting rate after you take that test. And you might think, well, who cares, man, I pasked the test, but uh, that's a big deal when that test is a building block for more lessons, Like if it's a language class he points out, or math class, all of that stuff matters. You gotta learn that stuff. You can't cramp. I mean, I guess you can cram for a language final or a language test, but it's not gonna do any good when the next test comes around and you never learned the first stuff. Yeah, you'll never be a French major like that. You SAP know what's SAP in French? Exepp perfect um. And then the other part is when you're cramming too. Usually you are you're you're adjusting your normal schedule to like really debilitating degree. You're not cramming from you know, um nine am, two ten pm the day before the test. That's that's studying. Cramming usually involves like just like squeezing whatever time you have out of the handful of hours right before the test. Maybe you sleep for a little bit right before and then going to take the test. In my experience, it's always just been going in and taking the test right after you finished studying. Yeah, remember God, just remember this the Family Ties when Alex pe Keaton took speed, it's so great. Every study. Every family sitcom has always had somebody take speed, and it's always to study. Remember Jesse Spanoh, Jesse, I saved by the bell where she's like, I'm so excited. That's so excited. They were doing a performance of that song and she was like freaking out about getting it wrong. So she was rehearsing and rehearsing and taking speed. I know, like, you're too fast. I don't remember. It's it's great. It's one of watershed moments in television history, Jesse collapsing in Zack's arms because she's so excited. But I think that shows coming back. It is in the same stars are going to be like teachers, so cramming. Uh yeah, you cram right until the last second. No good, you're not learning long term. And there are some interesting ways to combat this though. And should we take a break now? Yeah, I think that's right. All right, it's a little early, but it's a perfect place, so we'll be right back. All right. Well, now we're on the road, driving in Chuck. Want to learn a thing or two from Josh Man Chuck stuff you should know? All right, all right, I jumped the gun. We took an early break, but here's the deal. If you want to study effectively. Uh, they say that, you know, studying something twice is obviously the best way, and even three times and more is the best way to retain something and really learn something. But it gets even more specific. It's called the spacing effect. They say, if you study some and then you go and take a break and do something else and then come back to studying that same thing, you're gonna retain even more than if you just did it twice in a row. That's right. So this is like really really important to remember, because if you want to learn anything, there's just a certain thing you have to do and that is not cramp And like this could even be I didn't, I didn't see anywhere like how far spaced out it needs to be. But I got the impression that there's a sweet spot too far. And it's basically like seeing the material like brand new again and you don't even remember the first time, but too close. And studies have shown that you actually, um don't uh, you don't see it differently than you did the time before. Like if you read a chapter and then go back and read the chapter again, you're not doing anything to help yourself you want to space it out some and in doing that, you're they think you're you're encoding things differently. Yeah. So, like you said, if you do something twice in a row, it's so familiar to you, you're encoding it in the exact same way. If you take that little break, you'll encode it differently and remember it longer. And not only that, but there are different ways to encode uh. And they suggest like changing your um like where you study, Like if you sit down in your favorite fat chair in your office to study your thing, take a little break, go to a different room for the second take, and that will just mix it up in your brain enough so you'll encode it more permanently. That's right. Um, So that's pretty cool. That's a that's a good, good bit of advice. And there's there's there's other reasons why they think this works, um really well. Another one is that like if you struggle to recall um, whatever the information is for some reason, you're that that exertion of brain power UM makes you learn it more. And there's this there's a pretty good example in this article from House to Folks, where like if you meet somebody, um and you have to remember their name like thirty seconds later. That's great, and you'll probably remember their name because it's right there in your working memory. But the next day you're probably not going to remember it. But if you, like, you meet somebody and then an hour later you have to recall their name and you really try to recall it, you're probably going to remember it the next day because they think you're struggling with that recall. You're exerting an effort with recall. And it makes sense because you know, if you're like, what's that person's name again, and you don't even bother to try to recall, um, you will, You're not You're not going to learn it. Or if you even if you ask the person what their name is over and over again, you're not just getting it in there. Um, You're you're never going to learn it either. So it makes sense struggle struggle to recall might help with this, uh this learning. Yeah, I'm the worst with names like that, and I've tried. I know we both are. We I've tried all the things I try to remember to think of pneumatic devices, pneumonic devices, pneumatic and uh, I just can't do it. So you hear a lot of hey Man out of me, and it's no offense. I never forget a personality or a face, so you're encoded. It's just those names. I think everyone should wear name tags. But they've done plenty of studies about this. There was one in two thousand nine from u c l A from Dr Nate Cornell with a K and found that spacing was more effective than cramming for nine of participants, which is I mean, there it is, there's your proof. Well yeah, But the thing is they also surveyed those participants and found out that basically all of them still thought cramming was effective. And the reason why is because it is effective, but it's not effective for long term learning. So what they figured out in addition to spacing, um that spacing is well, I guess in kind of in conjunction with spacing, because another technique that really helps people learn, and it's called inner leaving. I think it should be called inter weaving. But whatever, it's where you take. You know, let's say you have two hours to study math. You're actually better off to study math for thirty minutes, then go study, say French or something else for another thirty minutes, and then yeah, and then right, and then study um model airplane building for thirty minutes and then go back to the math. You're gonna do better than you did if you spent two solid hours on math, even by breaking it up, which is very counterintuitive because it seems like to be distracted. But hey man, the studies don't lie. Yeah. Is two thousand fifteen study that tested middle school kids with algebra and geometry, two subjects at a very hard time with and a day after their lesson was complete, Uh, the students who enter wove or enter love scored better than students who got regular instruction. And then here's the real kicker. A month later, that interleaving group was up seventy six percent. And that's kind of the whole point, which is like long term learning something rather than just recalling something for a test. Right. Yeah, that's there's your proof right there. Seventy percent after a month is that's all I needed to hear. So from now on, it's inter leaving and encoding, uh, and spacing for me. Yeah, And I try to do that because our job is sort of like taking a test in ally, and I've gotten into and I know we both have our own sort of methods worked out now, But um, I've gotten into a groove now where I will read stuff like on the laptop and then not look at it for a bit, and then read and highlight the printed version and then leave it for a bit and then eventually underline the key parts on the highlighted printed version. And that in addition to just general like you know, videos and other like ways of learning, that's kind of the sweet spot for me. Yeah, because you're spacing it out and that's it works. Yeah, I know, writing something down has always been a suggestion, like if you write it out, then you're more likely to remember it. That's a big thing. Oh yeah, for sure. Like if there's a very difficult concept that we have to explain, it's way easier to write it out. On one hand, you're like proving to yourself that you understand it, but you're also definitely like re encoding it in a different way. And the other thing I find interesting too is if you actually physically move to like a different room or a different location or something like that, Um, just being surrounded by that different stuff or different sound, different smells, different sites. Even if when you're learning the exact same information, your brain is encoding it in a different way. I just find that endlessly fascinating and it makes total sense too. Yeah, and I've always, you know, seen over the years when you said across from me that your signature Josh Clark three point chicken scratch handwriting. No one else on the planet can see without a magnifying glass or read even with the magnifying glass. Yeah, I sometimes can't. I'm like, what is I What did I say here? But the point is it's not even to go back and reread almost never is. If it is, then I make it super legible. It's just writing it out. Help me remember it, you know. Yeah, it's good stuff. We have her tricks. Well that's it. Go forth and stop cramming everybody. You will be a more well rounded, happier, smarter human being. Okay, okay, And since I said okay twice, it's uh the end of short stuff and short stuff. Oh wait, Stuff you should Know is a production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.