3-Bullet Summary

You’ll benefit more from reading the article the whole way through. But, if you’re pressed for time, here’s a condensed version of The Ultimate Guide on How to Study Effectively for Top Grades:

• There are loads of different ways to study and it can be easy to pick ones that are ineffective.
• The key to understanding whether a study method is effective is by identifying whether it is active or passive.
• There are just 5 steps to studying like a Strong Student: getting into a state of intense focus, knowing what you need to look out for, noting down questions and keywords, answering those questions, and reviewing your answers.

Do You Have What it Takes?

It’s the beginning of term. You’re feeling very bittersweet. On the one hand, you kind of feel fired up. The summer was long and you’re now feeling a subtle urge to attack year ahead of you. On the other hand, you feel tired. That Monday morning feeling has hit like a truck — a stark contrast to the relaxation you experienced over the break.

You enter the classroom. The smell of whiteboard pens lingers faintly on the air, caressing your nostrils as you sit down at your desk. The teacher’s there at his desk. He looks up and sees that people are arriving. He stands up and clears his throat. Then, he starts talking, “This month, I have a surprise for you all.” Your ears perk to attention. “A surprise test.”

Instantly, you enter fight or flight mode. Your heart rate increases and a slight sweat crawls down your neck. “What kind of evil person would tell their students that they’ve got an exam coming up on the first day back!” you cry internally.

The teacher continues: “The content for the test is the material we’re covering over the next two weeks.”

Your heart now pounds faster than ever before. For you, this is the worst-case scenario. You hate not having time to revise effectively — and your teacher’s literally just told you that you’ve got barely two weeks to master all the content you’re going to be studying in class.

The pressure’s on. Do you have what it takes to study effectively? Can you remember all the material you’re going to cover in such a short timeframe?

Introduction

If you would’ve put me in the boots of the student above when I was in year 12, suffice to say a meltdown would’ve occurred.

Frankly, I used to suck at studying. Everything I’d read or take notes on would be forgotten within minutes. In fact, it made me insecure, and to compensate for the deficiencies I thought I had, I’d study for 8 hours per day. Ironically, I’d use the exact same methods I employed in class. I thought this would make me better at using them, and through sheer willpower I’d establish the power to memorise what I’d read or listen to.

But, when I finished sixth form, I had an epiphany.

It was the summer holidays. Like most students, I was bored. So, I decided to doom scroll YouTube, until I stumbled across a YouTube video on study methods one day. The YouTuber basically said that certain study methods, no matter how hard you try with them, aren’t effective for building knowledge subject-specific knowledge and skills. Then, I thought back to my time in sixth form and realised that the very methods I utilised fitted into the category that the YouTuber highlighted.

Therefore, I was doubling down on something that was ineffective at its core. In other words, by focusing my time and energy on study methods that weren’t very good at doing what I needed them to do, I was essentially piling dookie on top of dookie and expecting to make a beautiful skyscraper!

From that very moment, a spark inside of me flickered. I decided to pursue a journey. Specifically, I wanted to discover how to study properly, and what the highest-performing students do to retain the information they’re shown.

In today’s guide, I’m going to show you exactly what I found.

When I tell you that what I’m about to show you is lifechanging, I’m not exaggerating. If you’ve downloaded my totally free, science-backed eBook The 10 Secrets of Strong Students, then you’ll know that the study methods I unearthed and used in university allowed me to maintain the top grades I achieved in sixth form, but with 25–50% less time per day dedicated to studying!

So, if you also want to…

• Start remembering what you’re shown.
• Spend less time studying whilst getting more out of it.
• Get better grades.

…then the framework I’m about to show you is your golden ticket!

However, before we can fully leverage the framework, we must understand the principles underlying it. What’s the point in being shown how to do something if you don’t know why it works? Therefore, in the next section, we’re going to explore the concepts that the YouTuber taught me and which changed the way I studied forever.

Active vs Passive Learning

Imagine that two people are learning to ride a bike.

• Person A reads all about the theory of bike riding. They read about where they need to put their feet on the pedals, how they should position themselves on the seat, and specifically where they should look on the horizon.
• Person B, like Person A, also reads about bike riding. However, every time they read a chapter, they then get on a bike and start practicing under supervision from an expert. They fall a load of times, but their supervisor is there giving them pointers.

Which person is going to learn to ride a bike faster? It’s Person B, isn’t it?

But why? Why is it that Person B will learn faster?

The answer to this question is rooted in the type of learning they’ve deployed.

Passive Learning

Person A deployed a passive learning strategy. This is learning that doesn’t require you to manually retrieve anything from your brain. In other words, it’s learning that’s easy.

Common examples of passive learning strategies include the following:

• Reading
• Rereading
• Highlighting and underlining
• Copying information down word-for-word
• Rewriting notes

Because they’re so easy, these methods make us feel smarter than we actually are. In this way, they generate what’s called the illusion of skill acquisition¹. This essentially means that because we are given the answers during passive learning tasks, we automatically assume we know and can apply them.

In our example of bike riding, Person A used reading to learn the practical skill. Although what they were reading might’ve been relevant, chances are that if they got on a bike, they would’ve been flopping around like a flounder.

This is because skill acquisition not only requires information exposure, which is what passive learning is great at doing, but also demands a lot of rehearsal and feedback².

Active Learning

For the very reason that skill development is so demanding, active learning shines.

Active learning, unlike passive learning, requires you to manually retrieve information you’re shown. In essence, you’re digging deep into your brain’s archives to root out relevant knowledge. Once you’ve manually retrieved it, you then apply it to something (i.e., you practice), receive feedback, and make new connections in your brain as a result.

Person B did exactly this. As soon as they sat on the bike, they had to manually retrieve the information they studied in the textbook. (I mean, they couldn’t read and ride at the same time, could they?) Then, when they fell over and received feedback (from pain and their supervisor), they developed new connections in their brain. These new connections reflect genuine learning and progress towards skill acquisition.

The reason we don’t usually want to perform active learning as much as passive learning is because it promotes the opposite to the illusion of skill acquisition. It makes us feel like we aren’t learning because we fail more.³.

Nevertheless, it is this repeated cycle of knowing we’ve failed (or improved), adjusting our technique accordingly, manually retrieving information, and applying it from memory that efficiently causes us to learn.

Studies have shown this. For instance, a meta-analysis (a study that analyses other studies) of 104 papers and which contained a sample of 15,896 students found that pupils with teachers that use active learning as opposed to those whose teachers use passive learning strategies achieve to a greater degree (just under half a standard deviation; about 34%, to be specific)⁴.

TL; DR: active learning is key if we want to know how to study effectively.

How to Study for Top Grades

Knowing this, clearly, the bulk of our studying should be performed actively. However, this means that we’re going to inevitably be using study methods that are challenging. Some students will be offput by this. They’ll read about the framework, say that it’s too hard and give up.

Therefore, I advise you to gradually transition to studying like this. In The Ultimate Guide on How to Achieve Goals and Forge Habits, we called this concept progressive habit overload. Start off by learning like I’m about to show you for just one subject you study. Or, you could do it for a duration of time, say, an hour per day. Then, as you get more comfortable with it, increase the number of subjects that you actively study and/or the duration of your study time spent using it. However, if you’re like me, nothing’s stopping you from dropping ineffective study methods today and making the full transition to active learning.

Regardless, active learning is a skill. You’re probably going to struggle a bit in the beginning, but, if you trust what I’m about to show you and work on getting better at/using it more daily, then you’re going to improve.

Anyway, it’s about time that we learn how to actively learn! Here are the only 5 steps to effective studying for life.

Step 1) Focus with Intensity

The first step to effective studying isn’t a tactic at all. No. It’s a rule. And, that rule is to focus as hard as you can for however long you desire to study for.

You can have the best studying framework in the world, but if you can’t actually sit down for at least 1–2 hours per day and use it without being interrupted by distractions, then you’re going to go nowhere.

Therefore, before even considering to follow the rest of the steps in this framework, you must pledge to yourself that you’re going to fully dedicate your mental energy to it. If you want advice on how to focus, read The Ultimate Guide on How to Focus for Maximal Productivity. In it, you’ll uncover the 6 Ds of focus that every student must master if they are to be successful.

In short, however, you must consider the following:

• Distractions — Create a distraction-free, comfortable environment.
• Distracting devices — Any device with the potential to distract you, if you’re not using it for work, must be off and out of sight. If you work with a device on, disable notifications for all apps, as well as lift to wake.
• Direction — Set clear, ambitious goals. Having purpose dictates the actions you perform and prevents you from being distracted.
• Diet — Utilise intermittent fasting to work with better. Avoid eating carbohydrate-rich meals until later in the day or after you’ve completed a good amount of work.
• Deep Rest — If you want to focus, then you need to sleep the optimal duration for your body. Working with sleep deprivation is like working whilst being drunk.
• Delayed Gratification — Start thinking long-term rather than short-term. Realise that what you do in the present directly correlates with what you’ll be like in the future.

Step 2) Know What you Need to Study

Once you’re focused, you’re going to direct your studying. In essence, you’re going to learn in advance exactly what to look out for.

There are many ways to do this. However, there are two that stand out:

1. Learning objectives
2. Past paper questions

Learning objectives are essentially mission statements that pertain to topics. Topics are the components of modules, which make up the courses you study, and they may have subtopics within them. For example, if your course was nutrition, there may be a macronutrient module with three topics: proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Within these topics, there may be subtopics. Within fats, for instance, there may be subtopics dedicated to different types of fats, like trans fats, polyunsaturated fats, etc.

Usually, learning objectives will be bullet points that outline what you need to learn. If you Google your subject, the exam board your institution works with and specification, you’ll be shown the learning objectives for each topic in your course. (If you’re at university, then the course specification will be provided for each module you study. Email the module convenor for it if you don’t have it already.)

For example, Googling ‘A Level Sociology AQA specification’ takes you to a page that walks you through exactly what you need to know for each module’s topics. Below is a screenshot of the learning objectives for the topics in the Education module.

You can also find learning objectives at the start of textbook chapters. These are also really helpful for telling you in advance what to look out for.

Past paper questions are what they say on the tin. They’re questions that other students on your course had to answer before you. They, like learning objectives, give you a very good idea of what you should look out for when studying a topic. I recommend making a document that collates all the past paper questions you can physically access. That way, you can look out for trends regarding what you’re likely to be assessed on.

Once you’re aware of the learning objectives and past paper questions surrounding the material you’re going to study, I recommend transforming them into a few questions that you’ll be able to answer when you’re finished.

For example, say we’re studying a textbook chapter related to the functions of the education system for A Level Sociology. This corresponds to learning objective one shown in the screenshot above. We would make a question like this:

‘What roles and functions does the education system perform?’

Don’t skip this step. By writing down these overarching learning objective questions, you direct your studying. You’ll know what to actually look out for, and not blindly take notes that aren’t even that important.

Step 3) Take Questions and Keywords, Not Answers

Once you’re focused and have your overarching learning objective questions written down, you’re going to expose yourself to information (i.e., the stuff you want to study). This could be any of the following:

• Lecture/Class material, such as PowerPoint presentations
• Assigned readings, articles, books and textbooks
• Videos
• Audio, like podcasts

However, instead of taking notes like everyone else, you’re going to make yourself very uncomfortable and do two things.

First you’re going to write down the questions that the notes you want to take would answer.

For example, let’s imagine you were assigned a reading task on the extinction of certain dinosaurs. In the material you’re reading, there’s an extract on the Tyrannosaurus rex. It says that it went extinct 65 million years ago. Instead of writing down when the T-rex went extinct, you’ll write down the following question:

‘When did the T-rex go extinct?’

Whilst you’re taking your questions, it is okay to write down keywords as prompts for when you answer them in the next step. Following on from the T-rex example, you may note down the keyword ‘late Cretaceous’. This isn’t the answer you want, but it will cue you to recall the real answer — 65 million years ago — later on.

You’re going to do this until you’ve covered the material you set out to cover. This could be an entire topic, a handful of subtopics or a lecture/class (in which you were taught about a topic or subtopic).

Step 4) Answer Your Questions After You’ve Covered the Material

After you’ve covered the material, you should have a list of questions and corresponding keywords. You can now take a break and come back to them, or bite the bullet and answer them immediately.

Specifically, you’re going to answer them as best you can, in your own words and from memory. Try to be concise and answer as efficiently as possible. Use the keywords you wrote down as cues, if you get stuck. If you can’t remember the answer, don’t sweat it; we’ll address this in the next step.

This step is what makes the Strong Students Studying System so effective. You’re performing active learning in its purest form and actually training your brain! Sure, it’s harder than just copying notes from a textbook word for word, but you’re getting so much more out of it. You are going to remember more⁵, and, as a result, have to revise less in the long run.

So, although it seems hard, just remember that the work you’re doing now will put you ahead in the future — so long as you do it properly and manually retrieve information from your brain.

Step 5) Check Your Answers

For this final step, you’re going to make sure what you’ve recalled is correct. Go back through the information source, correct any misunderstandings and fill in the blanks. Moreover, if you got a question wrong, I’d like you to make it clear to yourself that you made a mistake. Add a little star, or highlight it, for example. This will show you where you must target your revision.

Some of you may be thinking certain information sources are one-time things, and that if you get a question wrong, you’ll never learn the right answer. For example, if you used the Strong Students Studying System for a live lecture or class and got a question wrong during the recall afterwards, how can you check your answers? You can’t go back in time!

Fortunately, there are a few solutions.

• Go through the resources used in the live session — Revisit the slides and sources the teacher used.
• Go through the recording of the live session — Lectures and classes are almost always recorded. If you want to check over your answers, just go over the recording.
• Use readings and textbooks — What you’re taught in a live lecture or class will 100% be based on a topic in a textbook or reading. Therefore, you’ll always have access to the material you’re taught live, just in a different format.
• Ask peers and teachers — Those who took notes in the lesson, as well as the teachers who conducted it, are excellent sources of answers to your questions.

Once you’ve answered all your questions and you’ve made clear which ones were your sticking points, congratulations, you’ve just completed an effective study session!

Final Thoughts: The Ultimate Guide on How to Study Effectively for Top Grades

It’s so hard nowadays to know how to study.

One person tells you to use the Pomodoro technique, another tells you to take notes. You have so many options, but no idea about which ones actually work.

However, this guide has cut through all the noise. You’ve learned that active study methods destroy passive ones in terms of getting you good grades. Moreover, you’ve also been introduced to the Strong Students Studying System: a step-by-step action plan you can follow today to take notes you’ll actually remember and which will serve as a valuable revision resource.

You may be thinking to yourself that this method is too hard. To that, I want to remind you that studying is a skill. This means that it will require time and effort if you want to improve at it. Don’t expect to be an active learning wizard from day one. It took me a solid few months to fully wean myself off notetaking in the traditional way. However, once I did, my grades stayed just as high as they were before, but with far less effort.

So, you’ve got two choices: study like the majority and obtain the results of the majority, or study like a Strong Student, make the most of the hours you dedicate to studying, and obtain results that will truly shock you.

I hope you implement the Strong Students Studying System and reap all the fruits it has to offer. Once you notice your grades improve as a result, why not tell us all about it on Instagram, or share it with someone you want to help get better grades?

Before closing out, though, just a quick note.

In this guide, I’ve shown you the most effective studying method. However, your ability to study effectively is built on an array of other pillars, especially those related to your health and mental energy.

If you want to discover what those pillars are, claim your free copy of The 10 Secrets of Strong Students. Your grades will thank you.

Stay Strong,

Sam.

Founder, Strong Students.