Archive for the 'Better Grades' Category

How To Recall Like A CIA Agent

Most people study by reading, highlighting and rereading. The problem? These methods train your brain to recognise information—not necessarily retrieve it when you need it. CIA Memory: How Intelligence Agencies Master Memory and Learning The key lessons from this video are: Recognition is not recall. Something feeling familiar doesn’t mean you can reproduce it from […]

The Cognitive and Emotional Benefits of Reading

We all know we should read more… Why Reading May Be One of the Best Things You Can Do for Your Brain We live in an age of unprecedented access to information, yet we may be reading less deeply than ever. Books have hardly disappeared. Celebrity book clubs flourish, classic novels continue to be adapted […]

The Einstellung Effect: Why you get ‘stuck’ when studying

The Einstellung Effect is when your brain gets stuck on the first idea it thinks of and keeps using it, even when there’s a better way. Imagine you’re trying to open a jar. You always use a towel because that’s what you’ve done before. You keep twisting harder and harder with the towel, but the […]

AI Tutors

We know AI has incredible capabilities, this tutor seems to shift the LEARNING focus from DOING to THINKING, which is Brilliant (pun intended) since it runs within that app!

Writing Versus Typing

If you’re a regular reader of this and my other blogs, you already know I am a proponent of writing on paper, journalling, logbooking and mindmapping. NOT because I’m a boomer or luddite. I love my Macbook Air, iPhone and iPad. I have all the latest tech for sports and health monitoring (Fitbit, AI-enabled squash […]

Should You Get AI To Do Your Writing For You?

According to Jordan Peterson, the answer is a definite no. And I agree. It’s not a Boomer opinion, its cognitive science that still applies to YOU/YOUR generation and even the next few generations because of evolutionary biology and sociological imprints. This is not opinion, the science backs it up For years, students have been told […]

Study Less Study Smart

This is a must watch for any student… A presentation by Marty Lobdell with more than 25 MILLION VIEWS! Key Insights and Concepts Effective Study Duration: Typical college freshmen can study effectively for about 25-30 minutes before attention and comprehension decline significantly. Studying beyond this without breaks leads to diminishing returns and frustration. The Case […]

How To Remember More Of What You Study

This strategy of spaced repetition is well documented as being highly effective but rarely done. The difference between EACH successive repetition SHOULD be more than enough incentive to give it a go… Students aren’t the only ones who “make their lives” harder by wanting things to be more complicated than they actually are. It’s the […]

7 Proven Steps To Learn More, Faster, Better

We all want to learn more, faster. This framework, provided by Lukas J.M. Stangl is just another great visual cue for your Reticular Activation System (RAS). The more you leverage tips and tools like this, the better, faster learner you’ll become. Learning is quite simple, but the challenge is to have the discipline and commitment […]

Make Studying Harder For Yourself?!?!

Yes, you read that correctly. If you want to learn, understand and retain more information, make it harder for yourself. The EXTRA effort required NOW will make it a lot easier – later, when you want or need to recall the information or apply the knowledge. I know this is counterintuitive. That way of thinking […]

How To Evolve Your Understanding

This is a great Mental Model to parse through all the content you’re curating as a student or life-long learner. Being syntopical about it, will improve your ability to synthesise and recall it later.

Math Tricks To Look Like A Genius

I love tricks or hacks like this one from Howie Hua… This type of thinking is what I teach in my study book AND how people now achieve more of their goals, by being exposed to fantastic shortcuts like this one, but across all 4 dimensions of their lives/careers/businesses.

How to Learn (Anything) A Lot Faster

This blog is dedicated to the best learning strategies for those who embrace being lifelong students way beyond the traditional classroom and who keep searching for key distinctions like the ones shared in this brilliant video. As the video suggests, learning is an active pursuit that requires focus and effort. If you direct your attention […]

Using AI to learn faster and retain more

When I wrote the first edition of my book, How To Get The Best Grades With The Least Amount Of Effort, Personal computers were just coming to market and the Internet didn’t really exist. All we had were dial-up modems at 300 to 1200 baud to connect to mainframe computers… That was then and this […]

7 Chinese and Japanese STUDY SECRETS that will blow your mind

This has to be the single most powerful “how to learn” video I’ve seen in a very long time. It’s 9 minutes that will transform your view on how to study or learn something new. We all have the ability to learn more, better… Watch and learn.

13 Scientific Study Tips

These are great study tips to help you get the best grades with the least amount of effort.

The Feynman Technique to master new subjects and concepts

We all need to learn new things, for students they’re subjects in school and after graduation they’re concepts and constructs necessary for career development and progression. The previous post is a collection of strategies you need to review to complement the Feynman Technique explained below. The medical profession has a great motto for this technique: […]

Are You An Adult Struggling With Basic Math, Reading or Writing?

There are countless websites and apps available to help you. Your success to learn what you missed in elementary, middle and high school now, as it did then, depends on you DOING the exercises and determining if their navigation systems get you through to the next stages effectively and of course if ANYTHING STICKS. In […]

10 Mind Tricks To Learn Anything Fast

This short video is a great reminder of simple things you can do to improve your study skills to learn anything fast and remember it! Study Tip #1: Use the sleep sandwich to remember a lot more. Study Tip #2: Master modifications to reinforce your learnings and commit them to long-term (better) memory. Study Tip […]

COVID’s impact on education

In the video below, The Economist Magazine covers how technology could transform education post the COVID pandemic. It will be interesting to see what sticks versus what falls by the wayside. One of the challenges every student has is to optimise how to best study whether at home or back in school. There are proven […]