i talk a lot about study techniques and methods on this channel but i've never ranked them in terms of which methods are the most efficient and worth using and which maybe aren't so effective so i'm gonna go for the 10 most common study methods and i chose the 10 most common study methods because there's a good chance that you guys use some of them and i'll give you my own personal opinion on whether or not they work for me now obviously this is a video based on my own personal preferences and we all study and memorize information in different ways so let me know in the comments which study methods you put in the s tier and which you'd put in the detail the feinman technique the final technique is a method of memorization where you learn a more complex concept and then you break it down into simple terminology and then you teach it to someone who knows nothing about the subject the idea being that if you can explain a very complex concept so that essentially a five-year-old can understand it then it probably means that you understand it on a good enough level to answer any exam questions that might come up on it and also the idea of teaching someone something will allow you to learn the information on a far deeper level too so how effective is it for me personally it was extremely effective a lot of the time at university i would be asked quite often to explain some concepts that some of my friends maybe didn't understand and so unintentionally i used the farming technique quite a lot and because it was so effective i've got to put it as an ats study method there are some incredibly effective study methods on this list more so than the feynman technique which i explained later on in the video so i can't quite put this as an sts study method but nonetheless if you've never tried this method of studying it's super effective so i definitely give it a go and it's actually kind of fun too explaining to someone and communicating with someone while studying is far more engaging and fun than reading a thick black and white textbook past papers so earlier i said that there are some study methods that are more effective than the feynman technique and this is one of them using past papers go straight to sta and if there was a tier higher than s i'd probably put it in that but although this method is so effective it was surprising at least to me how many students didn't actually use exam papers to study for their exams and in my opinion that was a massive mistake there are so many reasons why you should be using exam pass papers to revise if you have access to them firstly it allows you to get used to the structure of the exam paper in the language that they use and the types of questions that might be asked you'll also understand better the allocation of marks and marking scheme that will be used because a subject's exam papers tend to have the same exam structure and finally going through a past paper in exam conditions helps you work on your time management so when it does come to the real exam you know roughly how long you have for each section and if you mark your answers yourself using the marking criteria you can analyze to see any gaps in your knowledge that you can then focus on to revision on so exam pass papers the easiest study method to put on the sta shelf youtube videos youtube is an amazing resource for studying and i think it's quite an underutilized resource i don't think enough people know just how powerful youtube can be for exam revision so youtube can be used for a vision in a number of ways firstly study motivation videos they're great if you're feeling unmotivated or tired and you just need that extra push secondly if you're having problems understanding any key concepts in your course or maybe you don't understand something your lecturer talked about or maybe you want to dive deeper into a particular topic youtube is a great resource in doing that because there are videos on here about pretty much anything and everything and finally the third way youtube is really helpful for study tips and it's probably why you're watching this video right now you can learn how to study more efficiently how to achieve higher grades how to keep your self disciplined and motivated it really is a ridiculously useful resource so i'm going to put it as an a-tier resource and there's two main reasons why it doesn't quite reach the s-tier firstly the youtube algorithm does everything it can to keep you on the platform so while you're watching educational videos it's really easy to click onto something not so educational and before you know it you're procrastinating again and the second reason is because youtube is a passive form of content consumption how many times have you watched a youtube video on how not to procrastinate but then you clicked off the video and continued to procrastinate or how many times have you watched a video on effective study methods but then never actually implemented those methods because it's a passive form of content consumption so that's why it's an a t a study method rather than an s tier and it's actually one of the main reasons why i created my transformer grades in 30 days course that will be launched on the 29th of march because i've realized tens of thousands of you were watching my videos but they're not actually implementing what i teach it's easy to gain the knowledge on how to study better and more efficiently on youtube but it's something completely different to put that knowledge into actionable steps that you implement on a daily basis so i specifically created the project seal on course with that in mind you can click on the link in the description to find out more and the course contains 38 video lessons interactive multiple choice quizzes an eight-page workbook with engaging exercises to work through alongside the video lessons a 28-page productivity planner an exclusive project elon community to keep you accountable and personal guidance and support throughout the challenge from me and there's so much more included because that's how we learn by doing and implementing not just watching passively on youtube so if you're ready to take the transform your grades in 30 day challenge and take your studying and your grades to the next level i'm gonna say right now this challenge is going to be hard it's not going to be easy to transform your grades but i'll be there helping you and providing you personal support every step of the way so if you're ready then drop your email in the link in the description because i'm giving a huge 50 discount to the first 300 students that enroll in the course rote learning so all the study methods so far have been either ata or sta and rote learning unfortunately has to go in the d to shelf because rote learning is a memorization technique based on repetition the idea being that the more you repeat the material the better you'll be able to understand it and remember it the problem i have with this study method is that it's just not efficient i talk quite often on why it's important to study hard but also to study smart in fact i made a whole video on it you can click on the pop-up banner above to watch it and wrote learning just isn't a smart way of learning because when you're reading over the same information again and again and again it can be incredibly tedious and so you get bored therefore you don't process the information and that's the problem right there you learn and memorize things by processing the information and then recalling it at a later date now rote learning has its place if you're using this method then make sure that you're actively thinking about what you're learning ask yourself questions about the material why does this happen why does that happen as long as you're asking yourself questions constantly and thinking about what you're reading then it could be bumped up to the c or even the b tier but rote learning by itself just repeating the material over and over definitely on the d shelf mind maps i'm sure most of you know what mind maps are but just in case you don't they're graphical ways to represent ideas and concepts that help you think visually and they also help structure information to better analyze and understand it now i'll be honest with you i didn't use mind maps that much at university i'll tell you why i'm not much of a visual learner and mind mapping presents information in a visual way so it's a great study method for people that learn and memorize things visually but for me personally i never used them that much as a result i'm going to put it as a ct at study method but remember this is just what personally works for me i know people that swear by mind maps and for them it would go straight to the sts shelf but for me personally ct social learning and by social learning i mean studying with friends either with just one friend or in a small study group now this is a difficult one i was going to put it as a b tier study method because discussing and engaging with other students on more complex concepts or even just explaining to another student some of the material you are inadvertently implementing the feynman technique too which is a great study method in of itself and if you have any questions you can ask the other students in the group which can save you hours of time rather than spending hours stuck on a problem when you're studying by yourself but more importantly and maybe above everything else it's just a more fun and engaging way to study and if we enjoy our studying we far more likely to actually do it and the knowledge we learn is more likely to stick because let's be honest studying by ourselves all the time can get a bit tedious but this is why i put it as a ct study method rather than a b to it it's really easy to get distracted often a study session with a friend or group of friends can start off productive but it's really easy to fall down that trap of starting to discuss the weekend or plans for the night or things unrelated to studying that's the one of the biggest downfalls to this study method however if your study partners are as focused and are as motivated as you are then you will make an effort to keep the study session on track and on topic social learning can be an incredibly effective study method active recall active recall goes straight to sta it's a method of memorizing information by first reading it then closing your eyes and trying to recall it without looking it up if you can successfully do so then you have just used active recall but if not look it up and learn it and then try again and like i mentioned earlier in the video just reading a textbook passively or watching a video passively or attending a lecture or sitting there passively listening it's not an efficient way of learning it's not studying smart and active recall forces you to process the information therefore it helps move the material you're learning from your short-term memory to your long-term memory and i use this study method a lot at university and it saved me a lot of time and according to a study carried out by researchers dunlos guitar in 2013 active recall is the quickest most efficient and effective way to study written material at least for factual and problem-solving tests and it has also been found to be more effective than mind mapping and note-taking for memorization too so even when you're just reading a boring textbook or reading any book for that matter i think it's incredibly important to be using active recall throughout to make sure that you're not just reading it passively but you're reading it actively and actually soaking in the information so with all that being said easily an sts3 method the pomodoro technique the pomodoro technique is a time management method developed by francesco cirillo in the late 1980s it's basically where you set the pomodoro timer for 25 minutes and you study for that 25 minutes then when that 25 minutes is up you take a five minute break so it encourages you to study in 25-minute chunks with five-minute breaks in between and i like this study method because it's good if you don't really want to study but 25 minutes of studying doesn't sound that intimidating so it's good to actually get you to sit down and study in the first place and the fact that it even encourages breaks too because the human brain can only stay fully focused for 25 to 45 minutes at a time depending on which study you read so if you're studying for eight to nine to ten hours that day then it's important to take regular breaks so we can keep studying for longer however there are some disadvantages when i study i enter into a state of flow where i'm completely 100 focused on what i'm studying and then when the timer goes off after 25 minutes but the timer forces me to take a break so i lose my focus so i used to use the pomodoro technique quite a lot but these days i don't so much for exactly that reason so for me personally i'm gonna put it as a bts study method because i do still think it has its place but i just don't use it that much anymore method of loki the method of low-key study technique is a way of memorizing material which uses visualization of familiar environments in order to better recall the information so for example you might imagine yourself placing items around a room such as on the sofa next to the bed or on top of the tv and then in order to recall each item you visually walk around the room and then either pick up or pass each item that you placed it and that's what triggers your recall for the material you're learning now like i said before i'm not much of a visual learner so i have tried to use this method but for me personally it's just not that effective i mean it is an incredibly powerful memorization technique some of the world champions of the world memory championship use this method and if they're using it then it must work but i'm gonna have to put this on the dts shelf because that's just my personal preference and let me know in the comments if you use this study method and if it's useful for you flashcards i think every student on the planet has used flashcards in some way or another to study for their exams and i'm no exception i use flashcards a lot they can be used in various ways but how i use them is i would write down a question on the front of the card and i'd write the answer on the back of the card and the flashcards can also contain important pieces of information such as historical dates formulas or any subject matter so i'm going to put flash cards as an a tier study method because for me flash cards were incredibly useful during the revision process and i also used them alongside the active recall method as well so i was kind of combining two studying methods into one and if you don't agree with anything in this list let me know in the comments where you would rank each study method i'm wondering if you guys would have a table that looks completely different to mine and if you are watching my videos but struggling to implement what i teach you or maybe you just need that extra push or some personal guidance and support from me then check the description where there's a link about the transform your grades in 30 days course it will be launched on the 29th of march so there's not long now and the first 300 students will be getting a huge 50 off the standard price so don't miss out click the link below and if you do i look forward to working with you very shortly