Why is studying harder for me than for others?
Dr. Dom reveals that studying is actually a learned skill that is acquired over time. Dr. Dom gives helpful advice on how to hone your studying skills including creating a quiet and bright environment and setting goals for studying each night.
Transcript
That might sound kind of crazy. We need to learn how to learn? Yeah, we kind of do. [MUSIC PLAYING]
Hi, Dr. Dom. I'm Sanaya. I'm seven years old. And I just have a big question. How is it hard to study for me, but others, it's way easier?
This is what I want to tell everybody. Studying is a learned skill. So that might sound kind of crazy.
We need to learn how to learn? Yeah, we kind of do. And that's an acquired skill over time.
So don't get too down on yourself if your study habits are not the greatest and you're not getting out of studying what you really
want to get out of it. There it is. Study it. So let's think about a couple of things. If you're studying, number one, the environment
that you're studying in-- so incredibly important. Make it a dedicated space. Have a space that you are only going to study in.
Maybe it's a place in your room. Maybe it's a room in the house. Maybe it's at the library. Maybe it's at school. But it's a dedicated location that all that you
do in that spot is study. That's your study spot. And in that spot, make sure that it's very well lit,
because when it's dark, we get tired, we strain our eyes, we can get headaches. Make sure that that area is free of distractions, so not
a lot of noise, not a lot of family running around or a lot of other distractions that might pull you away from that study.
Explain to me the political ramifications of the Marshall Plan. Pick a card.
The second thing is what people don't do is they don't set clear goals when they study. And they'll just say, OK, I have to read 10 chapters,
drop the book in front of them, and think that that's going to do something. That's going to be really, really hard. Our brain likes to be structured and likes
to have clear-set goals for a lot of reasons, particularly for memory and the way that we encode memory. So what we want to do is have specific objectives.
So instead of plopping that big history book down and saying, I need to read 10 chapters and know it all, say, OK, I'm going to take 15 minutes.
I'm going to read the first chapter. Then I'm going to take a five-minute break. And I'm going to actively think about what I just learned. That's a clear-set goal.
And what really helped me and helped a lot of my friends was what we call active learning techniques.
So instead of just reading a chapter in a book, you're interacting with others. So maybe you do read that chapter,
but then you talk about it. Maybe you do read that chapter and teach someone else what you learned in that chapter or in that math problem
or how to solve an equation. We add them together, doubling the coefficients of the silver half equation, but not the voltage, we get the equation for the complete reaction.
What I used to do that was incredibly helpful, following this active learning technique, was I would get a whiteboard. Hopefully you guys know what a whiteboard is,
with those dry erase markers. And I would read a part in my medical books. And then I would put my whiteboard up and I would try to reiterate some of the main points
that I learned. And guess what, a lot of time, I couldn't even write it down. And I'd have to erase it and then go back and read it again. But that's an active learning technique that
solidifies and encodes those memories much better than just passively reading, because sometimes, if we're passively learning, we're daydreaming.
We're not really absorbing that information. Another really, really important point is take breaks. So what you're going to do is you're going to set a 20
or 25-minute interval that you're going to study actively-- reading, taking notes,
talking to friends about it, teaching others-- and then after that 25 minutes, taking a five-minute break. And in that five-minute break, you're not allowed to study.
You can get up, you can take a walk, you can go outside, you can stretch. And then you're going to get back to doing that for another 20 or 25 minutes.
After four of those sessions, you want to take a good 30 minutes to gather yourself and do
something else, whatever makes you happy and invigorates you. For me, it's exercise. For other people, it might just be relaxing or doing something
else or reading something else. Who knows? And guys, you're going to hear me say this for just about everything because it's so important. And as a medical doctor and as a psychiatrist,
I cannot emphasize enough how important proper sleep, proper nutrition, and proper exercise is for our mental
faculties, our cognition, our memory, our learning ability. So if you're having trouble studying, make sure that that's taken care of.
Make sure you're getting the appropriate sleep and your sleep hygiene is good. Make sure that your diet is good. And make sure that you are exercising
and physically active. [AUDIO LOGO]
child development
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