# How #1 Nation-Ranked Students Evolve Their Learning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhUq72eTdiU

[00:00] this video is sponsored by short form.
[00:02] if you want to do what everyone else is doing then you're going to get average results.
[00:06] otherwise everyone will get the top marks but that's not true.
[00:11] so stuff like past papers anky the mainstream techniques are mainstream because everyone does them.
[00:16] but not everyone can be like the top students.
[00:18] therefore the top students must be doing something different or they're doing conventional techniques but they have something different T.
[00:23] about like what was the kind of process that you went through to get the grades that you got while you were going through High School?
[00:31] basically when I was in early high school so Junior I didn't really have many processes.
[00:35] I knew that I was good at studying.
[00:38] I knew that I could get the marks but at that point in my education it was quite easy so it didn't really require me to like have a process.
[00:47] Derek is currently studying medicine at Mones University.
[00:50] last year they got a 99.95 which is the highest score in Australia.
[00:55] only about the top 05% of students achieved this.
[00:59] they got a
[01:00] perfect score for their IB exceeding the grade boundary by 15 to 20% for all of their subjects which is equivalent to a perfect 4.0 GPA in the states.
[01:08] as I moved into the more senior years of high school I realized that the competition was greater and the demands were greater as well.
[01:17] so that meant that I needed to kind of Step Up my game.
[01:18] that's when I kind of got into looking at different studying techniques and initially I got sucked into kind of the Anki bandwagon.
[01:25] where I I spammed an for like hours every day and that seemed to help kind of but then I realized it was super unsustainable and it wasn't actually getting me like the top marks because I wasn't getting like those curveball questions that require you to have really in-depth knowledge because ank is basically just like root learning.
[01:42] so then I was like not satisfied so instead of I guess like other people what they did was they increased their effort they just worked harder or they got tutoring.
[01:50] I did neither of those things instead I was just trying to find like a way that I could be self-sustaining and improve my own study system and that's when I like exp with like mind mapping and
[02:01] stuff but also like I experimented with like a lot of other things like the way that I was setting on my schedule like what I was prioritizing in a study session should I be prioritizing like the tips and tricks to like try and get the top marks or is it more my conceptual understanding is is this kind of around the time where like I would have met you like uh when you joined the course and stuff or is this like before are we talking about before that this is like about the time that I joined the course basically you know when I joined the course and like I got experience with these different techniques it allowed me to really focus on what exactly I needed to do in order to get the top marks without sacrificing other parts of my life because like in year 12 I had like a bunch of other stuff that I wanted to do apart from studying so I didn't want to just like study all day and have no life and still get like top marks I want to have a balance so that's why like I really put a lot of effort into trying to do the bare minimum to get the top marks instead of trying to focus on the outcome like oh like you know I got to get like a A+ for everything it was more like okay cool I got to A+ but how could I have improved
[03:02] my process to get that particular Mark for you know the next assessment and that's basically my mindset for like all of high school which I think was not something that a lot of people did no I don't think that's common I don't think that's common yeah and especially like the tutoring thing would practice like speaking Chinese to like improve my language skills and that was in the context of me trying to like inter leave my practice and try different conversation and stuff and improve my vocab other than that a lot of the stuff that I did was just purely like based on my own observations and experiments rather than people telling me to do something or trying to teach me something and I just like I just found that pointless when I could like teach myself and I know like a lot of people got tutoring and they didn't do like super well some people did do well in high school but then you notice once you get into University especially midle school people fall off like you know they may have done super well in high school you know getting lots of tutoring you know six seven hours of tutoring a week in like for every single subject that doesn't exist in unique so you notice that a lot of people become a lot
[04:04] less academically successful they become a lot less able to just like study themselves and deal with the content by themselves.
[04:11] I mean I think a lot of people will say that um you know it's only possible for you to not get tutoring because you're capable of teaching yourself.
[04:21] Someone would say like well I can't teach myself you know what would you say to that.
[04:24] Yeah so I get that a lot like oh you know you know my brain doesn't work that way.
[04:28] Oh you know it's just because you're really smart you know like that's why you're you know able to do these things like you're just really lucky.
[04:34] And to that I say like that was not the case um for a long time.
[04:40] It's not like I was able to independently study to the extent that I did now.
[04:45] Like sure you know I admit that like you know during High School I definitely did have like natural ability and I was definitely able to like you know succeed academically.
[04:53] You know more like I guess in the formative years of high school you know without much intervention.
[04:58] But I think that the main thing is that if you are more aware of the techniques you're using and you use that to enhance your
[05:05] own natural abilities whether that's you know naturally really good or not you will definitely see benefit and the benefit will be much more than just simply tanking on like you know natural ability am I just kind of doing stuff randomly and just hoping for the best in which case you can't really blame like natural ability you can't say oh it's just my fault that I was like not born like a genius well I mean you know people are born with all sorts of like natural variation ability but the important thing is what you do with that right like you use that ability in order to achieve things you don't just rest on your laurels and then be like oh well if only I was you know 200 I IQ points higher then I would be able you know I'd be able to do this yeah I I think the thing is that like people really underestimate themselves um and the potential like when I first started working with students I didn't really know how far you could train someone to be good at studying you know I figured that if you kind of like achieving a 70% like you can you can train yourself to get to like an 80 if you were like at a
[06:05] if you're failing you can train yourself
[06:06] to get to a point where you're like
[06:07] passing or doing like kind of around the average level
[06:09] now I just realized the extent that you can train yourself in like a formal education setting
[06:13] I don't know about like actual IQ Point increase or whatever because I mean IQ points in themselves are a little bit kind of like you know it's like controversial really about how significant really is but the amount that you can actually improve
[06:24] especially for high school how much you can really improve just by training yourself is like you can easily go from getting like 60% to 90s from just training
[06:34] I mean there's actually someone in the course that we all know very well who joined the course going in the 60s and is achieving in like the high 90s
[06:43] in fact I don't actually know if you know this but there multiple but there's well I mean this uh this guy I I won't say their name um but they got interviewed by their teacher during like a they got caught up in like a parent teacher interview or something and then they've basically like accused him of cheating
[07:00] yeah because he improved too much and then he was just like n like
[07:05] I'm just doing it like this now because like and he like explained it and the teacher just like didn't believe it.
[07:11] They were just like nah that's like funny.
[07:13] Like it's like the ultimate compliment when like you improve so much that not only do you get accused of cheating but even after explaining why you're not cheating no one even believes you because it doesn't seem realistic.
[07:23] So I just thought that was you know it was it was pretty funny.
[07:28] So anyone watching you know this recording I would say like you know just don't be too dishe hardened like a lot of these self-limiting beliefs that we form about ourselves in terms of like what we doing something in a certain way and that way is flawed then our experience is not going to be a true reflection of our potential.
[07:46] It's just a reflection of the way that we've tried to do things.
[07:50] I've worked with so many students that are excellent now that they just thought like I'm just like an idiot basically like academic achievement will never be for me.
[07:58] Like they only gaze longingly across the room to like you know the genius in their class you know thinking I'll never be like that and now people are gazing.
[08:07] longingly at them so yeah a message of hope I guess yeah I actually have a whole video on this and then I kind of like dissect it and pull out all my notes and kind of saw the progression of them um so kind of my story is that in Primary School um I was doing okay I did have my first shares of B's with my some of some A's um definitely wasn't the top student uh and I definitely had some sees as well.
[08:30] Archer's list of academic achievements is very long he's currently a medical student at flenders University and he has been receiving results that are equivalent to a final year medical student only in his third year of uni.
[08:47] When he was in high school he basically did double or triple what normal students do and he got first place and top scores and every single assessment in every single subject so he did nine High School subjects instead of the five that you need to graduate and simultaneously two University papers where he got high distinction for both.
[09:07] papers and A+ for all of his subjects.
[09:09] naturally he got a 99.95 AAR which is the highest possible Mark in the nation.
[09:14] and he was also State ranked which means that he got the highest Mark in the state for four of his subjects.
[09:21] he got one of 26 South Australian Commendation Awards.
[09:24] he's currently going through medical school with a perfect GPA and throughout all of this he's been founding and managing businesses and working full-time hours on top of all of his studying.
[09:36] so Archer basically got the highest possible grade for everything while doing two to three times more than everyone else.
[09:45] uh which mom wasn't really proud of uh but basically my mom gave me a bet.
[09:47] she said if you get A's in high school then I'll pay you till this day I still haven't been paid for that so that was a big scam.
[09:56] uh but essentially uh that that kind of made me uh put the effort in and kind of put my head down and um in year seven sorry year eight and nine you know my grades did
[10:08] definitely see a big spike essentially.
[10:10] just from effort and that's obviously the main thing that a lot of students do anyway.
[10:13] and that was also the thing for me then kind of in year nine my grade started to dip a little bit more despite the effort.
[10:19] especially in English and that was really unsettling for me.
[10:24] now for the kind of personality that I think I have I really don't like being limited by things.
[10:28] so I really really will push and try anything that I can to really unleash my potential in a way.
[10:36] and so similarly like I even remember in year 9 I kind of retaught myself all the grammatical structures and how to think about English because it was my first language.
[10:44] I never really learned it so I kind of just always like thought about and guessed where to put commas and things.
[10:49] and so I think that kind of carried out going into year 10 where I put even more effort in again and it did pay off.
[10:55] but eventually when I uh moved on to to year 11 and year 12 where I started to really knuckle down on just like very I guess like hardcore incremental Improvement like every single day I I would be thinking about.
[11:09] how have I you know improved today and what can I focus on for tomorrow?
[11:13] the trend that I'm getting here between you know both yourself and Derek is that you're very like there's a very very strong emphasis on observing the process and being like really really process driven right and that is rare you know?
[11:25] because if I think back to like when you know it's kind of funny really because I'm kind of like a learning coach now and that's what I do for a literal living but when I was if I think back to like when I was going through high school I was such a crappy student man.
[11:39] like I played a lot of games I don't know if I even like thought about things like did I even have thoughts I just feel like I was like some mindless amoeba just like floating around.
[11:49] I distinctly remember like literally lying in bed one night and that's the it was the first time that I ever had the self-realization that like personal improvement could actually be kind of like a worthwhile thing to venture into and that was actually when I was thinking about what new game I should play at the time I was like really
[12:10] ripping through like heaps of Korean you know like these free-to-play like MMO games they were like coming out left right in center.
[12:14] it's essentially exactly the same game but I would only play up until the point where it starts getting like slow to level up and I like quit and then I play like a new game.
[12:23] I was like I was thinking about that one day because I was getting through so many games I was running out of games to play and I was thinking like why am I doing this like why do I never like get to the end game you know and I just get bored and it was because I only really enjoy the process of like leveling up.
[12:37] like I like that feeling of like progression and just like that kind of that dopamine headit I guess of progression and speaking of leveling up one way that I've been doing that in my own life is using short form who's the sponsor of this video if you don't already know.
[12:49] short form creates these book summaries and book guides they're a great supplement for books that you may already be reading or listening to on something like audible.
[13:00] I've recently been listening to the courage to be disliked on Audible and I've also been traveling around Australia so it's been really helpful for me to be able to get some of those key ideas and be walking
[13:11] around the city and not need to write down notes or jot down anything as I'm walking along.
[13:15] One of the things that short form does that nowhere else does at least to this level is that they consolidate the ideas from the book against other similar books and publications.
[13:25] So you're able to get not just the author's perspective perspective but you can actually use it as a springboard for further reading and learning.
[13:32] This particular book talks about this thing called Adler's psychology or Tey and it's not something that I was super familiar with so it was great for me to see what other books are saying and then go ahead and read those or listen to those as well.
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[14:00] You get 5 days unlimited access and 20% off your annual subscription.
[14:05] And I was like man if only like I could have progression in my own life or like level myself up and like
[14:13] Man, imagine if I could have like stat points and then I just like put them into like intelligence. Like, oh man, my life would be so good.
[14:18] And then I was like, wait, I can actually do that. That was like a light bulb moment for me.
[14:23] Which now that I think about it, I don't know if that means that I was like just a really like dumb kid.
[14:27] Like, I just feel like that's a really like low hanging dim light bulb to have gone off, given that I think I was like 16 or something when I first had that thought.
[14:37] And at that point I was like, okay, I'm going to start like doing push-ups and stuff, like I'm going to increase my like strength stats.
[14:44] That was like the first time I ever thought about like looking at personal development.
[14:46] But I don't think I was ever as process driven as you and Derek until I was probably in like my second year of uni where I realized like my high school ways of doing things were just completely not working.
[14:58] And like that was probably the first time I really had that like super intensive process focus on doing things.
[15:00] So speaking of uni, tell me about how things change for you guys when you went into uni.
[15:06] So I just recently entered uni, so I guess the most obvious thing is that the
[15:13] mode of like learning and like delivery.
[15:16] like of teaching is much different so.
[15:18] like obviously you have lectures in.
[15:19] unique you attend tutorials workshops.
[15:21] it's a lot more independent and I think.
[15:22] that the main thing is that in high school there's lots of scaffolding so.
[15:26] like there's always someone like kind of holding your hands or like like pushing you to do stuff you know.
[15:29] like if you don't hand in your homework and stuff like the teacher will like follow up so I feel like there's like a lot more accountability in high school.
[15:38] whereas in a uni like if you don't show up to like lectures and stuff no one cares so essentially it's up to you to actually put the work in and that's when if you've spent like your entire High School career relying on tutoring it can be an issue because You' like so you've become so accustomed to like just not really being your own person and uh you don't know what to do that's the first thing.
[15:58] the second second thing is that the content gets hotter University level.
[16:01] I don't know maybe it's because I'm doing medicine but like the content is a lot more there's more breadth there's more depth it's just like harder like academically in every way so I just feel like it's just yeah like you know you think that you've got it under control.
[16:14] but then you get into it's like a new challenge.
[16:16] I think a lot of people don't realize that high school is a great time to start the reflective process.
[16:21] because you don't want to have to handle the high volume, high pace, high intensity and develop all these new systems and processes and habits at the same time as trying to deal with that.
[16:30] like you want to have some habits and processes of like reflection and improvement and you want to have worked out quite a few things before you enter into uni.
[16:39] because you're going to have to then work out other things when you're in uni regardless.
[16:41] you don't want to have to work out like everything from scratch while you're there.
[16:46] you know like the analogy I always give like you guys have probably heard this like I don't know like hundreds of times by now but like you know don't learn to swim while you're drowning.
[16:52] it's interesting because like the whole mid school thing right is that people don't connect the dots.
[16:54] that if in order to even enter into a program you need to have results that are like in the top 1%, then that means that literally everyone in that program receives those types of grades.
[17:06] so the curriculum that is designed for people that are only like that is obviously naturally going to be more challenging.
[17:15] than what you would expect for the you know 99% of people that you know.
[17:21] if your pinnacle of academic achievement is literally where another degree's entry point starts.
[17:25] the even more funny thing is is like on that point cuz thought about it a lot.
[17:29] some of our actual assessments require that the I don't know like bottom 30th percentile or 40th percentile all fail.
[17:36] so literally all these people who became top of schools and stuff most of them are going to experience like failure for the first time in their life cuz literally 30% or 40% of us have to fail.
[17:44] yeah the way that I say it is like I talk to these um students that are in high school and they're like oh yeah like I'll be all good or uni because I'm like doing kind of well.
[17:54] and it's like okay cool like so if you were to take like are you in like do you think you're in like the the top 10 students in your in your year group.
[18:01] and then they'll be like maybe or like maybe not.
[18:03] and I was like okay well what if you take like the top three from like every single school in your entire area.
[18:09] do you think that you would be in like the top 10 of like a class of only the top three students of every school in your area.
[18:13] and they' be like oh probably not.
[18:15] and it's like well that's basically
[18:17] what you need to be to be all good when you're actually like in the degree.
[18:22] so uh but they don't believe it.
[18:23] I didn't believe it.
[18:25] yeah I thought Ivy was the peak.
[18:27] others who were maybe at the top of their schools when they suddenly put in this position where ARA mentioned like suddenly they're in the bottom 30 or bottom 40.
[18:33] how do you think this affects them.
[18:35] it's a huge hit to the ego um and I'm not saying that getting the top marks is necessarily healthy or it's like the best mindset to have um.
[18:44] obviously getting those top marks is just like at least for me I'm not really obsessed or fussed about getting the top marks.
[18:50] I just want to do my best and if my best is you know getting high marks then that is my best.
[18:54] but yeah for these students I think a lot of the time it's like you know oh like is it really about doing my best or is it now just like just get enough to like get through.
[19:03] a lot of my classmates you know didn't really adapt to that very well because they created a lot of anxiety a lot of imposter syndrome uh was was pretty common especially in the clinical years.
[19:12] uh you know people get hit with that quite a lot like even me when I was going through like pre-clinical years I
[19:17] was like oh I'm like pretty all good and then when I went through clinical years.
[19:20] I was like man I suck like I seriously suck and that was when I realized like I was still not very good at studying at that stage compared to the systems I've got now was very like loose and just random.
[19:32] and then I realized like the method of studying that I was using was so not optimized for like how I actually needed to learn it which is why I'm so like pedantic about when I'm you know talking to medical students like I'm I'm always saying like you need to learn it in a way that is like going to be clinically relevant for you you know and exams are getting B and that they're becoming more and more aligned to that than it used to be like 10 15 years ago.
[19:55] there's still this Gap you know between like preclinical assessments and what you need in like real clinical knowledge and I always say for like medical students or even like any student that is learning where you know you have to use the knowledge somehow somewhere which you would hope at a university like it's that's most students for most most things cuz otherwise like why are you even there think about how you're going to have to actually use that knowledge and study in a way that gets
[20:18] towards that go not necessarily like hit
[20:20] a certain exam but yeah Archer what
[20:23] about you when you entered into uni cuz
[20:24] I know that kind of a lot of your
[20:26] methods and systems changed between like
[20:28] high school and uni I think this is
[20:30] going to be a very hard question for me
[20:31] to answer cuz I did University classes
[20:34] like I guess an engineering flavor while
[20:37] I was in year 12 and so I was very well
[20:39] acquainted with that kind of environment
[20:41] while being in year 12 and so then
[20:43] essentially everything that's dereck's
[20:45] talking about is kind of what ended up
[20:46] happening for me when I started
[20:48] University and medicine I was like oh
[20:49] yeah I'm in right it's co cool I'll just
[20:51] do the minimum and get the high
[20:53] distinction and move on so but your
[20:55] minimum is the high distin you like yeah
[20:58] like like most people the minimum is the
[21:00] pass like they they lower their
[21:02] standards as they get in yeah I I
[21:03] remember talking to one of my classmates
[21:05] and he got like a borderline pass and if
[21:08] you get a borderline pass you actually
[21:09] get tagged by The Faculty to like keep
[21:11] an eye on you and he was like I'm so
[21:14] happy whenever I get a borderline pass
[21:16] and I was like why are you happy about
[21:17] getting a borderline pass cuz like I was
[21:19] still I was still at that time like of
[21:21] the mental of like you know that typical
[21:22] high achieving mentality and he was like
[21:25] it just tells me that I did the bare
[21:27] minimum that I needed to do but like to
[21:30] still get by and you know when I heard
[21:32] that I was like I can admire that like I
[21:35] can admire someone who's like so
[21:37] laidback and like whose life is about so
[21:39] much more than obviously just like
[21:40] studying and and to be honest well
[21:42] they're a doctor now and they're
[21:43] actually I think they're quite fantastic
[21:44] as a doctor it's still extremely chill
[21:47] they have like a calming effect on
[21:49] everyone that's like near them that
[21:50] works with them which is probably more
[21:52] valuable than like most doctors clinical
[21:54] knowledge anyway just to be able to calm
[21:55] people down around you but yeah I always
[21:58] thought there was interesting kind of
[21:59] like different perspective but Archer
[22:01] like for you it wouldn't be about
[22:03] necessarily like the independence thing
[22:05] right but it's about how you're able to
[22:08] get what you consider as the minimum
[22:10] like get your HDs while also like pretty
[22:13] much just not really even going to med
[22:15] school almost yeah my attendance is like
[22:17] not great yeah so like what do you do at
[22:20] the moment like as you're going through
[22:21] medical school like what's your schedule
[22:23] like what's your hours filled with uh
[22:25] just
[22:26] work I don't go to practical I don't go
[22:29] to lectures I don't go to workshops I'll
[22:31] rock up to we have like a weekly test so
[22:34] that does take up my time um and I might
[22:37] study for that maybe on the uh Sunday
[22:40] beforehand just like pre- studying and
[22:42] all that um and then maybe you know just
[22:45] a little bit more into leaving before
[22:47] the test happens on the Friday but I was
[22:49] kind having a conversation with Derek
[22:50] about this in like the hours that like I
[22:52] I was kind of explaining to you know
[22:54] some students as well like the amount of
[22:56] content we're going through now has like
[22:58] double triple like almost every year but
[23:00] my study time is going down which is the
[23:03] like complete opposite uh so I think
[23:05] that at the moment on average I'm
[23:08] averaging around 5 to 7 hours a week
[23:11] outside of the clinical classes that I
[23:13] actually have to be at in terms of
[23:15] studying right yeah yeah and Derek I
[23:16] think you were saying similar like
[23:18] you're studying around sort of six seven
[23:19] hours a week pretty much yeah sometimes
[23:22] like less like sometimes like five hours
[23:24] and then the question that people are
[23:26] going to have on their mind is like how
[23:27] is that possible how is it possible that
[23:29] you're able to cuz um obviously when
[23:32] we're talking about this it's we can
[23:34] conceive of how it is not only possible
[23:36] but like quite logical actually but you
[23:38] weren't able to I don't know like just
[23:40] materialize knowledge into your brain
[23:42] like magically like there's obviously
[23:44] that process and there's obviously a
[23:46] journey that kind of it took what are
[23:48] the things that you think you do
[23:51] uniquely that other people do not do
[23:54] that allows you to have this kind of
[23:56] experience of going through not only
[23:58] University but actually going through
[24:00] medical school which is I mean ID say
[24:02] most people would agree Medical School
[24:04] tends to be the most academically
[24:06] challenging uh degree of all the
[24:08] mainstream kind of degree Pathways in
[24:11] most countries in the world that's the
[24:12] case I think the primary thing for me
[24:15] but um I have a pretty strong curiosity
[24:17] and so I basically need to know the
[24:19] first principles and fundamentals of
[24:21] pretty much everything that I'm learning
[24:22] to kind of be satisfied with it I think
[24:24] another mindset thing I had with me
[24:26] through high school was that I wasn't
[24:27] ever satisfied with just accepting the
[24:30] answer that a teacher gave I'd always
[24:31] try to find fault in it and then often I
[24:34] would and then that would bring up a
[24:35] discussion and so going into University
[24:38] that's something that I do still such
[24:40] that a lot of the stuff like the smaller
[24:42] details that I may have to remember for
[24:44] I don't know an exam coming up it just
[24:46] becomes obvious so there's no need for
[24:48] flash cards or no need for more practice
[24:50] questions or anything because those
[24:51] foundations are there with a logical
[24:53] framework to kind of Step through you
[24:55] know a question that may get presented
[24:56] to me so as a learning coach I'm going
[24:59] to step in and say that like a lot of
[25:01] people will listen to that and just feel
[25:02] like that's just magic in their eyes uh
[25:04] in their ears all they heard was step
[25:06] one be overpowered and just learn but
[25:09] it's you know what you're really talking
[25:10] about here is because there is an innate
[25:11] curiosity inate drive but you have to be
[25:13] able to wrap that around a method a
[25:15] system in which you're able to activate
[25:16] and utilize that Curiosity and pull
[25:19] through Concepts and you know um some
[25:21] people like what you know Derk was
[25:22] saying how your inherent natural ability
[25:26] you know is going to affect you to a
[25:28] certain point but it's sort of about
[25:29] what you're doing with it like if people
[25:32] don't have that innate curiosity for
[25:34] example like what about a subject that
[25:36] you don't really tend to enjoy studying
[25:38] as much like what do you do there where
[25:40] you don't just naturally feel that
[25:42] Curiosity i' kind of force it so the
[25:45] clear example I always think about is
[25:47] like I'm always really annoyed when we
[25:49] have to learn about plants in biology
[25:51] and even when we kind of had to do it a
[25:52] little bit uh in med school as well so
[25:55] I'd find any way to relate it to I don't
[25:57] know maybe the aspects of biology that I
[25:59] enjoy more how it can relate to disease
[26:01] or how it makes it relevant to I guess
[26:03] our medical content and then I'd also
[26:05] relate it to physics because I mean I
[26:07] did some engineering stuff before as
[26:08] well and I'm really interested in that
[26:10] so I find that so I can kind of have
[26:11] that as my Bridgeway my Gateway um to
[26:14] kind of learn those fundamentals more
[26:16] easily and then go from there so this
[26:18] this is a cognitive skill right and and
[26:20] people can learn this skill like if
[26:22] you're not interested in something you
[26:24] can develop the skill of being able to
[26:27] create relevance Force curiosity to an
[26:30] extent and then you know you can develop
[26:31] the skills to then work your way down to
[26:33] the first principles because that's
[26:34] another big thing is that people
[26:35] struggle to find the first principle in
[26:37] the first place because it's often not
[26:39] directly or explicitly taught and so
[26:42] that's one of those big barriers is that
[26:43] people with very high natural deep
[26:45] processing abilities are often able to
[26:46] find those first principles much more
[26:48] clearly their line of inquiry is much
[26:50] clearer and more like straightforward
[26:52] and they can kind of get to that first
[26:53] principle and work their way up more
[26:55] naturally whereas people that aren't
[26:57] naturally able to to do that it feels
[26:59] like it feels like a magic trick because
[27:01] it just the that black box is like you
[27:03] don't know how that's actually happening
[27:05] but again that's actually like a process
[27:07] that can be trained like you can train
[27:08] yourself to be able to have a certain
[27:11] line of inquiry that allows you to find
[27:12] these first principles very quickly and
[27:14] you can train yourself to be able to
[27:16] take that and then develop stuff on it
[27:19] kind of like what you're talking about
[27:20] and actually cuz you've kind of always
[27:22] had you know good deep processing
[27:24] compared to like before kind of I you
[27:26] know we work together a lot more
[27:27] extensively and we went through like the
[27:29] systems and the methods and the
[27:30] techniques to kind of like weaponize it
[27:31] a little bit more what's the difference
[27:33] like for you in terms of subjectively
[27:36] like how you feel with like the process
[27:37] of studying or learning and also like
[27:39] kind of the impact that it has for you
[27:41] in terms of being able to not only have
[27:43] the natural ability but like having been
[27:45] able to just like really systemize and
[27:47] and optimize it I think the easiest way
[27:48] to summarize it is just like less noise
[27:51] kind of all the stuff that I see I can
[27:54] more acutely and more easily recognize
[27:57] what are the things that are most
[27:58] important Focus there and then I can
[28:00] kind of carry on uh through that process
[28:03] so what's the impact that actually has
[28:05] well just Mak study a lot easier and I
[28:07] don't have to put anywhere near as much
[28:09] time into it and then I can get to focus
[28:10] on on all the other things that I want
[28:12] to be doing um with my time yeah cuz the
[28:14] insecurity that I think a lot of people
[28:16] have is like well if I focus on those
[28:17] principles like won't I forget all those
[28:19] details but you sort of mentioned it
[28:20] before is that when you actually do have
[28:22] this method of thinking the details do
[28:24] to a large extent become fairly obvious
[28:27] if you start from thinking all the stuff
[28:28] I need to memorize through repetition
[28:30] and through my flash cards and that's
[28:31] your Baseline that's where you're
[28:32] starting from then it might feel
[28:34] impossible to not need to do that but
[28:36] actually if you don't start from that
[28:38] Baseline and you just start from looking
[28:40] at it in terms of like more principles
[28:43] and really developing a strong schema
[28:44] and if you're able to do that quickly
[28:46] then the amount that you actually truly
[28:48] would need to wrote memorize can reduce
[28:50] to Like A fifth or like a tenth of that
[28:52] original list and that's a huge time
[28:55] save for for most people that are you
[28:57] know really flash carding heavy it's
[28:58] like going from a thousand flash cards
[29:00] to get through to like 100 I mean it's a
[29:03] massive difference yeah so like even
[29:05] when I was taking year 12 biology I
[29:06] think I had like 1,000 2,000 flash cards
[29:09] and now like in a semester of medicine I
[29:11] may only have 50 the actual level of
[29:14] detail and the depth at which you will
[29:16] know information is actually more fluent
[29:20] and more accessible than it would have
[29:22] been just purely go and it's just the
[29:24] way that the brain kind of works but you
[29:26] know we just don't believe it because I
[29:27] guess not many people talk about it
[29:28] which guess why we're talking about it
[29:30] yeah on that note of deep processing uh
[29:33] Justin has a really good article talking
[29:35] about it and I think when I first read
[29:37] article myself I think it's on jtt it's
[29:39] about depressing you had an analogy
[29:41] about comparing yellow bricks and red
[29:43] bricks when you had that comparison
[29:46] between someone who has low levels of
[29:48] depressing where they just take it at
[29:49] face value like yeah this is a yellow
[29:51] brick this is a red brick and versus
[29:52] someone who has deep processing who's
[29:54] really curious about it who's asking
[29:56] question after question about how they
[29:57] can compare uh what's this yellow brick
[30:00] for what's this red brick for which one
[30:01] is better and I actually found it quite
[30:04] interesting because never in my mind did
[30:07] I think that there were people who just
[30:09] accepted things just as they were and I
[30:11] think it's interesting because these
[30:13] sort of things like what a person's
[30:15] really thinking of when they are trying
[30:16] to study it's not something that you can
[30:19] actually observe from the outside and
[30:21] hence why it seems like it's magic Derek
[30:24] we were talking earlier today right
[30:25] about how you know that there are some
[30:27] people that do really really well but
[30:29] they have their study techniques are
[30:30] like terrible and they maybe like only
[30:32] use flash cards and you know what I said
[30:34] was that yes if you have a very high
[30:36] level of deep processing you can
[30:38] actually get away with not really being
[30:41] very good at studying at all like in
[30:43] terms of your actual technique which is
[30:45] why sometimes it's really hard to learn
[30:47] how to study properly because the top
[30:49] students aren't necessarily aware of
[30:52] what it is that they're doing that
[30:53] actually makes them a top student to
[30:55] begin with because it may actually be
[30:56] just a subconscious natural process that
[30:59] they're engaging in like who you really
[31:01] want to talk to are you know people that
[31:03] figured out how to become the top
[31:05] student like when they weren't initially
[31:07] to begin with and students that do have
[31:09] really high D processing if they
[31:10] actually developed a higher level of
[31:12] skill they probably would be able to be
[31:15] even greater like like I think Archer
[31:16] you're probably a good example right
[31:17] because like if I never really went
[31:20] through like all the techniques and like
[31:23] the proper encoding principles and all
[31:24] that sort of stuff you'd probably still
[31:26] be a pretty good student like you
[31:28] probably still be relatively well
[31:31] achieving but I am not sure if you would
[31:34] also be like working fulltime at the
[31:36] same time more than fulltime like I just
[31:39] like consistently work and then and then
[31:41] I realize oh I got to study maybe you
[31:43] should do that yeah I mean for those of
[31:46] you that don't know like Archer and I
[31:47] actually like literally work together
[31:50] like literally employed and at I can
[31:52] study so like I talk to Archer more than
[31:54] many other like human beings in the
[31:57] world yeah and like when I was going
[31:59] through uni as well like I was doing my
[32:01] I was working like 30 40 hours a week
[32:03] and at the time like my Study efficiency
[32:05] when I was actually working 34 hours a
[32:07] week when I was in like second third
[32:08] year of uni My Study efficiency was a
[32:10] lot better than when I was in my first
[32:12] year of uni or in high school but it was
[32:13] nowhere near the kind of potential of
[32:16] where it could have been and at that
[32:18] time like it was a struggle cuz I was
[32:20] working like 100 plus hours a week to
[32:23] try to fit kind of everything in and
[32:26] then when you hit clinical years or when
[32:28] you just get busier or you just run out
[32:29] of energy it's like just everything just
[32:31] starts falling off and then you just
[32:33] start sacrificing everything and it just
[32:35] feels even worse because you're coming
[32:36] from like a baseline of doing
[32:38] extracurriculars and like loving life
[32:40] and whatever and then now you're just
[32:41] like a sad slug in the library just like
[32:44] all I can do now is study and then yeah
[32:46] so when I talk to a lot of my colleagues
[32:48] you know previous classmates you know a
[32:49] lot of them are quite like they lament a
[32:52] lot about like the hobbies that have
[32:53] died and that they've kind of lost and
[32:56] how they don't really have anything
[32:57] anytime to do anything in their lives
[32:58] other than just like work go home sleep
[33:01] like regret their life choices and then
[33:03] just go back to work I was going to
[33:04] actually say like on that note when you
[33:06] talked about you know people the top
[33:07] students succeeding without actually
[33:09] much technique I find that that's like
[33:11] really true especially when you know in
[33:13] terms of shaping people's mindset about
[33:15] like what it takes to get like the top
[33:16] marks typically that's lots of past
[33:18] papers in high school so you'll get I
[33:21] guess people who are like oh like are
[33:23] really proud of the fact that they
[33:24] completed 140 biology practice papers or
[33:28] like oh did you hear that person that
[33:30] did 200 methods papers like 200 M papers
[33:33] in order to prepare for their exam wow
[33:35] they're so hardworking and like you know
[33:37] this is something that we you know I
[33:39] could never be like that hardworking and
[33:41] like that dedicated so it's something
[33:42] that's commended quite a lot whereas I
[33:45] think that what doesn't get like as much
[33:47] credit is the people who hey I did um
[33:50] one practice paper and I still got the
[33:52] same Mark or higher um and that's just
[33:55] because I spent a lot of time investing
[33:57] in myself kind of leveling myself up
[33:59] rather than just grinding away spending
[34:01] lots of time and potentially sacrificing
[34:04] other parts of your life just so that
[34:05] you can get this High Mark which
[34:07] honestly most people don't do it's only
[34:09] these people with really deep processing
[34:11] that can pull it off 99% of people who
[34:13] do this like you know grinding of the
[34:15] past papers do not get the top marks
[34:16] because you physically can't and it's
[34:19] almost like like I think of it like this
[34:20] you know if you want to do what everyone
[34:22] else is doing then you're going to get
[34:24] average results otherwise everyone will
[34:26] get the top marks but that's not true so
[34:28] stuff like past papers an the mainstream
[34:30] techniques are mainstream because
[34:32] everyone does them but not everyone can
[34:34] be like the top students therefore the
[34:36] top students must be doing something
[34:37] different or they're doing conventional
[34:39] techniques but they have something
[34:40] different in that they have naturally
[34:42] High deeper processing which you might
[34:44] not have I just want to comment on how
[34:45] Derek you really truly like internalized
[34:47] the messages that I've I've been
[34:49] teaching you over the last year or what
[34:51] or two or what whatever yeah it's uh you
[34:54] really made it your own which is great I
[34:57] think that not many people are really
[34:58] critically thinking about this kind of
[35:01] information that's presented to them and
[35:03] I think like a lot of the metrics that
[35:04] people use to measure what a good
[35:07] student or what good studying is is
[35:09] really not very meaningful it it comes
[35:11] back to what we were saying before about
[35:12] like if you don't know what it is about
[35:14] studying that actually produces the
[35:16] result you just cling on to anything and
[35:18] it's like it's such an Easy Flex to be
[35:20] like oh I studied more hours than you I
[35:21] did more papers than you like I did more
[35:23] questions than you it's like well let me
[35:25] go print out your certificate for you
[35:27] but like at the end of the day we're
[35:28] still going to get the same grade or the
[35:29] same result and and this is why like
[35:31] literally everyone complains about okay
[35:33] not literally everyone figuratively
[35:35] everyone complains about how my videos
[35:37] are like too long and I go over too much
[35:38] Theory but it's like I go over the
[35:40] theory because I want people to be less
[35:43] just totally ignorant and clueless about
[35:45] this stuff and stop like just holding on
[35:47] to these random arbitrary metrics like
[35:49] you know like the thing that I always
[35:50] talk about right when people say like
[35:51] well how many hours should you study in
[35:53] fact I'm sure Archer like will still get
[35:55] questions about this like if you are I
[35:57] think a study YouTuber everyone will DM
[35:59] you and ask you like how many hours do
[36:01] you study how many hours should I study
[36:04] and you know it's just from our point of
[36:06] view it's just like the dumbest question
[36:08] well I've now just remembered that you
[36:10] had the dumbest question asked to you I
[36:12] remember I E for
[36:14] breakfast yeah what do you eat for
[36:16] breakfast cuz you just have to think
[36:17] like you know is that the thing that is
[36:19] going to make the difference which in
[36:20] the case of breakfast it's just like the
[36:22] answer is obviously no but if there was
[36:24] a magic number and if you hit that magic
[36:26] number of our of studying like you've
[36:28] got it like if you are able to study
[36:30] this number of hours you're going to
[36:32] succeed like if it was that easy how
[36:34] easy would it be to be a successful
[36:37] student like it's just it's so obvious
[36:39] that that's not the case so for anyone
[36:41] that asks how many hours should I study
[36:44] the question is exactly the same as how
[36:47] far do I have to drive to go home it's
[36:50] like completely impossible to answer if
[36:52] you don't know how far away it is the
[36:54] road you're taking the traffic
[36:56] conditions I don't know the vehicle
[36:58] you're using like it's not about the
[36:59] hours it's about like what you're doing
[37:01] in that time it's just that most people
[37:03] have no idea about what they're doing in
[37:06] that time because they lack the
[37:07] understanding about like the learning
[37:09] and the cognitive aspect around and the
[37:10] metacognition and so they have no way of
[37:13] answering that question and because they
[37:14] can't answer it they just don't ask the
[37:15] question in the first place in fact it
[37:17] should be ask the question and then go
[37:19] and learn and explore and start being
[37:22] able to answer that question I really
[37:24] like that analogy of how far do you need
[37:27] to travel to get from one place to
[37:29] another because thinking about it from
[37:32] uni to my home if I drove best case
[37:35] scenario Google Map suggest that it
[37:37] takes me 35 minutes but it doesn't
[37:39] account for the fact that I might get
[37:41] lost or I might need to pay tolls or if
[37:44] I decide to take public transport that
[37:46] Journey can actually extend up to one
[37:48] and a half hours I teach this concept in
[37:51] like webinars and things pretty
[37:52] frequently and one of the things I talk
[37:55] about is like don't measure distance
[37:56] measure display placement you know and
[37:58] if you think about it that way like I
[37:59] think people people kind of understand
[38:01] it but when it comes to learning the
[38:02] problem is not that people don't
[38:04] understand that concept like people do
[38:05] understand that concept the issue is
[38:07] that they don't know how to think about
[38:09] the actual what's going on like they
[38:11] don't know how to open up that black box
[38:12] they don't know what is going on inside
[38:14] there and so there's no quick answer for
[38:16] that like I'm sure that at the bottom of
[38:18] this video like someone's going to be
[38:19] like so what is the best way to learn
[38:21] like how do you study you know and it's
[38:23] just like it's just not that simple like
[38:25] this is something that takes you know it
[38:26] took me several years to figure out like
[38:28] it took you know Derek and Archer like
[38:31] you know years to figure out lots of
[38:33] trial and error like that obsession over
[38:34] the process and that's kind of the first
[38:36] step so it's not about how do you do it
[38:39] I guess it is about like how do you do
[38:40] it but it's not about how do you study
[38:42] it's about how do you go about getting
[38:44] better at studying and the first step
[38:46] there is to like really start obsessing
[38:47] over that process and slowly slowly
[38:50] increasing the rate of improvement or if
[38:54] you don't have time and you want to
[38:55] improve more quickly well then you got
[38:56] to join the course
[38:58] that's a good time to end the video
[39:02] [Music]