 This week we're going to talk about learning to learn. We asked thousands of people online on the edX system a bunch of ways that they study. We wanted you to do is go to the beginning of episode five and answer each of these questions. We asked you things like, I typically read sections of a textbook or chapters more than once. 71% of people saying that they reread information in preparation for exams. 75% of people highlight passages of their text. I study large amounts of information in a short amount of time. Cramming, 51%. I don't know about that. I think that one might be a bit higher. Again, this is a nice example of what people say they do versus what they actually do. So do you study in a way, the way that you do, because someone taught you to study that way or because you learned to study this way on your own? This is the whopping one. 91% of people said that they study this way on their own. So it's also clear in this survey and other surveys that people have no formal instructions on learning to learn. A lot of people think that they know how to learn, when in fact the things that they're doing are exactly the opposite of things that would actually make the content stick in memory. What I want to do though is introduce you to what we mean by the testing effect. Now these are the two groups, group one and group two, side by side. They're studying for exactly the same amount of time. The only difference between them is the first and that third block of trials where group one is studying and group two is testing. The group that study, study, study, studied on that final recall test were about 60%. The group who did test, study, test, study were about 90% correct. Now that's huge. These effects don't get much bigger than this. That difference is called the testing effect. What we're going to do now is we're going to have you guys make your own flashcard so you can see what a good flashcard looks like and then see it in practice and how that can help us with retrieval practice. This whole thing is a setup. I also thought the irony of reading about how ineffective cramming is at 3 in the morning cramming for a subject I have at 9am. Like you and your friend doing it and then you switch. You're going to get more. I think you'd get more about it than just you doing it because you'd get their perspective as well or what they do, maybe you miss something. It didn't work when it was just random people but when it's a group of friends I think it works better because you're more willing to say no you're wrong. Yeah, I have to reread which apparently I shouldn't do but I have to look at it a few times before I really get the concepts. So then now I'm like alright well maybe I'll start off by watching the videos like today and then doing the quiz on Wednesday and then doing some of the reading on Friday and then that way I can be like alright I don't have to do it all at once because it can be a bit heavy. The question and answer is all about a massive explanation for why that answer was and that's pretty much the main way I study for these exams.