Whether you click this video because you have a test tomorrow or in an hour or you're just wanting to understand the most efficient way to learn a new skill or language, you've come to the right place.

There's a lot of learning hack videos on the Internet, but the truth is, very few of them are using techniques that have been rigorously studied, and most are not backed by science.

So today, to save you time, we've gone through the research and are here to tell you that there are only three techniques that have been proven to work.

Will not only save you time, but they'll make the information stick with you much more efficiently.

Two of the tips will help you right now, because I know a lot of you are here searching up how to study quickly because you have a test really soon, whereas the other one's more useful if you have a little more leeway and are trying to learn a skill that you want to stick with you for a long time.

Weirdly, they're all a little surprising and counterintuitive.

So it was really fascinating to know that the research found these to be the most effective techniques.

We were also inspired by the Bill and Melinda Gates annual letter who is the sponsor of today's video.

Their letter actually touches on the concept of evidence based learning initiatives to improve education.

We'll talk more about their letter at the end of the episode.

In the meantime, we're going to get to those three learning techniques that will help you.

Right now, The first technique has to do with something called the generation effect, and it involves tests.

Okay, you're triggered.

Being tested is supposed to help others evaluate your progress.

But it turns out that testing isn't a very good evaluation tool.

It actually functions better as a learning tool.

But on Lee, if you do it properly, this may seem counterintuitive, but first you should test yourself before you even know the material.

For example, start with the practice test.

Even before you started studying, you'll get answers wrong, but your brain is forced to generate an answer.

It will be creative, panicked and end up prime ing your neurology to remember that information later.

This is linked to something called the hyper correction effect, which is why sometimes getting the wrong answer at first, maybe even more effective.

The hyper correction effect.

Find that when you make a mistake on some type of general information and later find out you were wrong, you are much more likely to remember the correct answer.

For example, if you were certain that Toronto is the capital city of Canada, but later find out that it is, in fact Ottawa, you're much more likely to remember that forever compared to somebody who wasn't really sure in the first place and was simply told, the answer is Ottawa your brain hyper corrects One theory behind this states that surprise and embarrassment player role.

It can actually be very tough to be embarrassed.

And even from an evolutionary perspective, it can lead to a lack of social cohesion and sort of negatively impact yourself in a group.

Essentially, your brain doesn't want to be embarrassed.

Therefore, your brain works extra hard to make sure it doesn't make the same mistake twice.

This leads you to retain the information better and learn more effectively.

In short, do tests to early fail, so that when you learn the correct answer.

You actually retain the information.

Better actually think anecdotally.

I've experienced this hyper correction effect in my first year university physics course specifically.

So we had to take these quizzes that you were required to get eight out of 10 to pass it all in at the mark, and you had three tries to get eight out of 10.

Now I had some smart friends who, on their first try, would nail it.

But for me, it actually usually took me three times.

So ultimately, I was constantly hyper correcting because I realized I did it wrong and was explained how to do it properly.

By the end of the semester.

I ended up doing better on the final exam than my friends, and I think this is because of the hyper correction effect.

I had to constantly challenge my inaccurate beliefs earlier on, which ultimately improved my long term memory and learning ability.

So again, test yourself early and often and force your brain to generate an answer, even if it's the wrong answer and then follow up by learning the correct answers.

Technique Number two is called spacing Now.

A lot of us tend to study right before an exam.

Maybe if you're really smart, you give yourself like a full week.

But this one's actually gonna take even more time than that for spacing.

You're gonna wanna practice and then wait long enoughto almost forget the material and then practice again.

One particular study had students learning Spanish.

Each group had eight hours to study.

The first group studied intensively for eight hours in one day, while the second group studied for four hours one day and then one month later, studied for another four hours an entire month later.

So both groups had the same amount of study time just distributed differently.

After only getting eight hours of practice, they tested them eight years later.

Both groups were tested on their Spanish vocabulary hand.

By now, you've probably guessed the group that spaced they're studying.

Over a month Gap performed 250% better.

Remember, this is eight years later that they are being tested, so ultimately we're talking about a huge increase in long term retention.

When you space out your studying, I've found that this really helps for my stand up comedy practicing so essentially what you have to do is memorize routines sort of similar to like in high school, when you have to memorize lines for a play, I usually will practice the day before and the day of thinking that the closer I am to my show, the better.

I'll be entertaining the information.

Recently, I've been practising new jokes, allowing myself to forget them completely, practicing them again.

And I find when I do my routines on stage, it's those new jokes that come to me more naturally.

It's awesome to see this sort of spacing technique at work, and I really appreciate this information, and I think you know, Tim.

The last rigorously supported learning technique is called Inter Leaving.

So what studies have found is that instead of studying the same thing over and over and over, if you mix up or vary the challenge, the benefits are huge.

In the moment, this process might be a lot more frustrating, and you may even think that you're learning more slowly.

But that's why it's so counter intuitive.

Let's take a look at some examples that could apply to your life, all of which have come from one of my favorite books in the last year, called range by David Epstein.

If you have any interest in high performance and improving skills, this book literally changed my perspective on improving at things, so I highly recommend it.

First, we're gonna talk about motor skills like piano, so ah, particularly tricky thing to do is to jump a big interval in a piano really quickly.

So say, starting at sea and then jumping up 20 keys really quickly.

It takes a lot of coordination and muscle memory built to do that quickly without thinking about it and without accidentally hitting other keys along the way.

So this study had one group practiced the 20 he jump over and over and over, and they got relatively good at it pretty quickly.

But the second group had to practice not only the 20 jump but also mixing a 15 key job and a 10.

So ultimately, they had less practice with the 20 key jump but had inter leaved or mixed practice by using a bunch of different intervals.

Obviously, it would have been a lot more frustrating to be learning multiple intervals at once.

The 20 the 15 key that Tank E.

But when they brought the group's back.

What they found was that the group that practice inter leave or mixed practice was better at every single interval, including the 20 key jump, even though they technically had less practice with it.

The same thing has been shown in math rather than practicing one type of problem over and over.

Mixing in different kinds of problems in between makes the process harder but develops stronger skills.

Ultimately, what's happening is that you are developing strategies to problems in a broad sense.

Instead of simply using a specific procedure, your brain has to make abstract generalizations, which helps to make your knowledge more flexible.

It's very shocking.

How big of a difference this type of inter leaving makes an extremely significant randomized control study looked at math skills in Grade seven students.

Those that used inter leaving or mixed practice saw in effect size the equivalent of moving someone from the 50th percentile skill to the 80th percent.

That's like going from being an average student to being someone who's closer to the top of their class.

If you're using cue cards, make sure that you're mixing up different themes within those cue cards, not just setting the same things.

Essentially, you gotta mix things up.

All this research is incredibly significant because it's so important that we use evidence based solutions, especially in a space like education.

Which is why we've been really grateful to partner with Bill and Melinda Gates on this episode, who just released their 2020 annual letter.

In it, they share some of their big risks that they've taken on global health and education with that same perspective of finding evidence based solutions for education.

The US because ultimately education is the foundation for a successful country and democracy.

In order to improve our existing systems, we need to use rigorously studied research, be innovative and ultimately take big risks.

That's the best way to find a solution to problems that won't just go away on their own.

One of the coolest things that we learned from their letter and from their research is that there is no one size fits all solution toa education.

It's so dependent on the demographics, the culture and the communities that each specific school is trying to serve.

But Bill Melinda Gates have supported innovations led by leaders who know this space.

One example is that they have found out the importance of mitigating the amount, of course, is that a student fails.

That may seem obvious, but if it's student fails, no more than one course there four times more likely to graduate in someone who fails to or more courses at every school and community has a specific challenge that their student body is going to face.

And that's why the solutions are gonna need to be unique this year.

We're committed to taking some big risks as well with our channel by focusing on things that have an impact on people and the planet.

Our main focus right now is talking about the environment and climate change, and Bill and Melinda Gates, in their annual letter talk about how they are gonna be focusing on this climate change is going to affect all of us.

So we're gonna be working with our good friend science and trying to figure out what is going on and also how we can apply and understand solutions.

If you'd like to read the Gates annual letter will leave a link to it in a description.

It was a really interesting read and definitely worth your time.

Make sure you subscribed or join our email list down below so that you can always know when we make a new science video.

So we'll see you next time.