Tier Ranking Study Techniques: What is the BEST Way to Revise?

so... what's the best way to revise? 🫢 today we're tier ranking the best study techniques based on evidence-based criteria from the science of learning!!

Timestamps:
00:00 What is the criteria for the ranking?
00:58 Blurting
1:30 Highlighting
1:56 Flashcards
2:30 Teaching Others / Self-Explanation
3:02 Past Papers
3:33 Spaced Repetition
4:27 Watching Videos
5:02 Pomodoro Technique
5:32 Making Notes
6:23 Interleaving
7:02 Listening to Music
8:00 Re-reading Notes
8:30 The Final Ranking!
8:40 Preference vs Effectiveness
9:10 Do what works for you :)

What's your favourite study technique?

Lots of loveeee!!

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[KuteKittie]

I like highlighting, not as a technique on its own but as the initial step when reading. When I skim and see material for the first time, I highlight as I go, and later, when I’m making my notes/actually studying, it helps direct my brain to where key concepts are

Edit to add: I think that a lot of the low tier methods are useful for initially getting concepts into my head, and then moving on to higher tier helps solidify everything and fill in details that weren’t essential to understanding the overarching main concepts. I can’t get to the higher tier methods without the low tier methods

[jildouschievink]

who also loves to watch Jade before the new school year starts ?

[OttoVanluchene]

Highlighting should be in Meh. Depends how you use it, if it's end up in a coloring book yes it's a waste of time.
Highlighting can also be a first step making a summary or making Anki / Flashcards notes from them.
During a class you don't have time to make flashcards, but you can already highlight important sections / keywords to transform later in flashcards

[sharks]

What struck me is how different techniques have been useful to me at different points in my academic career. At a levels, I made flash cards with exam questions on one side and mark scheme answers on the other side. It was super helpful and I got 100% on 2 different exams using this technique. However at uni, it's about understanding, and only 40% of my grade ever came from exams, so it was about deeply understanding thee topic and reading beyond the scope of the lectures, then past papers and flashcards to revise.

[mirandad]

Also important to remember that some study techniques (watching videos, explaining to others, etc) develop your understanding in a way that might not be assessed by exams. On the other hand, things like past papers are good at preparing you for an exam but might not be that useful for actually increasing your understanding.

[hannalunetta]

for me rewriting notes is also quite helpful. it does take a lot effort but has helped me for a lot of exam, especially if you add any new connections you made, make it more colourful or formulate messy notes into full thoughts. so, in class i try to collect as much information as possible, on my laptop and later i make it aesthetic and understandable. i does take a lot of time and effort tho, so its not that efficient but especially in school before and exam it really is worth it.

[micaylabam]

This woman is the embodiment of casual magic! 🌻 It is so interesting to learn about cognition and cognitive development. Hope you have a wonderful rest of your day, Jade. 🤗

[thatgirlwiththecrazyhair]

I'm learning French at the moment and my adhd brain loves duolingo. It can be competitive and challenges me to keep learning and repeating and correcting mistakes. Every mistake costs you one of five hearts and it makes me realise when I need to put the app down. I can hyperfixate on tasks and the longer I do so I make more careless mistakes. I don't even want to pay for the Pro version. Losing all of my hearts tells me when to take a break!

[yuistudys]

I feel like the best way to know what study technique really works for you is by trying them all and seeing what fits best for you
After years of looking through all the study methods and 101s of memorization, and I think I'm still learning and always will be because there is no end to learning, I've come up with the techniques that best fit my own needs and style of learning (let's not forget that different topics and majors require different efforts in different areas, a medical student and a mathematics student will NOT approach their topics the same way)

As a medical student i will speak for myself and show my process of studying as an example, and funnily almost all of the techniques in the video are included to some extent. Flexible queen ik

1- The first encounter: This is either when I try (on rare occasions) to prepare for a lesson, or on the spot in from of my lecturer, and that is thus when my knowledge of the topic is between 0-10% (sometimes more if it's a familiar subject to me) and my main goal then is to grasp a general idea and understanding, not to learn, not to totally understand it and go out of the lecture like the Dr.House I think I am, just a general understanding to not be overwhelmed later on on the more serious steps of studying.
And thus the mains study methods here are:
-Attending the lecture
-Watching brakedown videos or videos aimed at non-doctors
-Browsing Wikipedia and Articles (just the summarized part unless I get very absorbed)
-Taking passive notes that I'd never look at again, because their purpose is for me to break down the title of the course to a few key points.

2- The deeper look: Here, I have an idea of the course, the depth of the knowledge I have will depend on the previous step and it goes for about 20-50% and even 100% sometimes. Depends on the topic really, but regardless of how much I know the main topic I appreciate this step because it makes the coming ones even easier. Here I would take my poor highlighters that the whole study community hates, a bunch of textbooks and lecture paper and get it on with the massacre.
It's a very passive step and not something I go in and out of thinking I know the topic by heart, but it's also the most important one for me to be able to learn and actually memorize things. Because that's when things start making sense and the deep understanding of a topic in my opinion can help you memorize it easily because all those dots connecting will make it tightly stuck in that brain.

3- Hell pt1: (because I hate learning) So, buy this point the grasping of the topic is at 100% for sure, the memorization is also about 20% just from those deep dive into the abyss of textbooks and papers. But 20% won't suffice my dear fellows, so comes the next step, right after taking the deep look, and it's also very different depending on the topic:
-Blurting
-Test questions (sometimes as a way to know what to focus on or to learn all together)
-Giving that poor teddy bear another lecture he didn't ask for
-And or the rarest occasions, making a couple flashcards on the points that won't get through no matters how hard i try

4-Hell pt2: this is a more practical way of remembering, because it is imposed by the environment, like being in the hospital and dealing with patients and having to really recall the information, or back in high school it was making school projects/ essays and so on that would form another layer of revision, and while it's not a voluntary effort I like to count it because it's an effort and it sometimes helps most to give life to all that knowledge and for my part it's what often allows me to remember things for long periods of time.

5- Vulgarisation: it's a step that comes later on, after being familiar with the topic and remembering it quite sufficiently, I won't keep on looking at it like that 50 page lecture, but rather squeeze it down the the informations that will be essential to me in the future (and in exams because I've got to pass it for said future) and that's where High yield notes come into play, making those 50 page lectures into sweet 5 pages of general knowledge to keep next to me while I do test questions and my flashcards.
Edit: the high yield notes often come from others students sharing them or platforms like osmosis, I rarely make them myself

These 4 steps usually suffice for me to get >80% in the exam all the while being sure I will have long term knowledge of the things I studied

TLDR: the steps
1- Breakdown videos/articles
2- Thicc textbooks and highlighters
3- Exam questions, blurting, some flashcards (but we hate them)
4- Practice
5- High yield notes and more exam questions

[jimcrawley]

Our son just achieved all A* GCSEs and your book was a much used and fantastic resource. So very grateful. Will continue to follow your channel and progress in life. Our very best wishes.

[JoMakerOfMovies]

I started using blurting as soon as I saw Jade using it for her GCSEs and I honestly swear by it!! I just got an 83% in my masters (UK) and genuinely think it's because of blurting! I also would sit by myself and verbally explain concepts or do presentations to an imaginary friend who knows nothing about the topic - it helped so much! :D

[dumilinovika]

I only followed the spaced repetition technique before but when I heard about blurting method from a previous video of Jade, I started using that as I watched it and that really works it's as worthy as spaced repetition technique I highly recommend blurting method to anyone who hasn't used it already. Love you Jade so much ♥♥♥

[londonsquitebig]

no way, jade! i was just watching your videos thinking “oh i’d love to see her talking about different study methods” and there it is! greetings from germany x

[terrizoop]

I actually like to watch youtube videos as a form of revision. It helps me remember the information both visually and auditorily, and sometimes I end up remembering a whole video really quickly, which helps tremendously when i'm revising for an essay.

[eleanorr.]

I'm going to start school next week so thank you for this video! As an IGCSE student your content has been veryy helpful, even you regular videos would give me motivation to improving myself, thanks Jade 💛💛

[arushisharma]

i literally love you jade, what an incredibly useful video <3
the techniques you talked about which were casual magic for you work excellently for me too and ever since you uploaded that video on blurting my study game has levelled up so much and you will be happy to know that i did really well in my year 10 gcse mocks getting all A*s except in computer science. now going into year 11 im scared but feel a lot better knowing that my study techniques work! just wanted to say you are such an inspiration for so many young people, and this is by far my most favourite youtube channel bc you are just such a lovely person who has such lovely thoughts and advice to give to people.
keep shining and smiling the way you are and best of luck with your final year of uni!! <33

[skyybanni]

i have been using 'blurting' since 8th grade and it's been very effective, it's actually my main study technique i have recently now added flashcards to my study schedule :)

[mathyyys]

Teaching others is Magic for When you speak with someone who knows the subject aswell, he can point out your mistakes or your gaps. Most of all it improves your confidence, you feel clever, you see that your revisions weren't useless and i think confidence is huge concerning passing exams and having the motivation to work

[taranom]

Jade I really love your energy and the way I smile and feel happy while watching your videos. I wish the best for you.

[Alex-ynpj]

omg i used to love watching this channel but it stopped coming up in my recommended. honestly i’m so happy this video came up! using those same tips i literally agree with you on everything.

with some of them like highlighting - even though it’s a complete waste of time - i always like to just highlight key words or definitions in my notes or on the textbook as it helps with remembering those words but i would never use it as a technique of its own!