3 min read
“The Most Useless Study Method That No One Realizes”
Introduction
When we grow older, we tend to realize something very valuable.
The things, the habits, and even more things, that we used to think and see as normal, aren’t actually as normal or as practical as they should be. When you were younger, maybe you thought it was easier to lay your jacket on the floor, and then put it on that way rather than going through the hassle of doing it the “regular way”. If you have no clue what I’m talking about, then don’t worry about it. But if you do, hopefully I unlocked a deeply hidden memory of yours that you thought you’d never get access to again.
Yet, saying that you did the same thing just for the sake of this example, eventually, you learned that this habit isn’t actually very normal at all.
Most other people, or pretty much everyone, puts on their jacket in a completely different way. They don’t lay their jacket on the floor. They don’t even spend more than 10 seconds putting in on!
We grow out of things that are normalized, that are nothing more than every-day things, and it changes us. Depending on your school system, walking in single file lines might’ve been completely normal for years. Now, in higher level grades, pretty much everyone has forgotten about it. Sure, if you bring it up, they’ll almost most definitely recall it. But, for the most part, we don’t know what it’s like to be in that position.
With this post, I hope that I’m able to do the very same thing.
My Personal Take (don’t get offended)
I’ve tried so many techniques and methods, and over the years, I’ve adapted to a brand new one unique to today’s technological era and level of advancement. You might know what I’m talking about. However, our teachers and professors love to embrace the old techniques (no offense), the methods that are simply outdated to today’s time period.
Now, we have technology. And when I say technology, I don’t refer to the internet and the luxury of looking things up through a search engine and having access to millions of sources of information thanks to the world wide web. No, definitely not that.
Rather, I mean this: if you asked a kid what they thought “technology” was and what it might be capable of doing, you might get a response regarding some form of automation. We’re talking the automating of a task, or something “gear-related”. But, most likely, it might just be a robot. If you asked me, I would probably think of some cool electrically-powered invention or the internet. You might think of something else.
What really matters here is that the old techniques that we were used to have eventually, and as time passes, will grow out of trend, or completely.
For me, that method has been flashcards. No other method, for me, has proved to be more useless.
Explaining My Belief
Remember that this is my personal opinion, and you might think otherwise. I wouldn’t know why, or even how; but then again, this is my opinion. Feel free to believe oppositely.
Flashcards are traditionally used for memorization, and used to test a student’s ability to recall information. It supposedly tests a skill known as “active recall”. This is your ability to actively recall information even when it’s not in front of your eyes. It’s in the name. In my experience, however, using flashcards have felt nothing but like a waste of time. If anything, I might gain more just reading an oversized block of text. Seriously.
The goal of a study tactic should be to memorize as much information in as little time as possible. However, if the method you’re using doesn’t do this very effectively, and rather just doesn’t meet those requirements, then it’s not worth it. Obvious, right? Well, yes; it is. But in this case, flashcards are different. Why? Because they don’t complete either requirement. Instead, it goes in the complete reversed direction. It takes forever to, firstly write out the flashcards if they aren’t on quizlet or some other platform; and even if it’s on quizlet, to go through all the cards and even remember what you read in the past 15 minutes.
You might learn more reading a block of text with all the information you need to know in 15 minutes. You’ll store more information, and for longer; in that same amount of time. Flashcards are nothing more than a waste of time, and it’s for this exact reason.
Explanation 2 (analogy)
To better explain what I’m talking about, we’ll take two different perspectives in the same exact scenario.
There are two karate students in a karate dojo.
Student A has 50 kicks to practice, and does all of them in one session. A session is 30 minutes. They spend every single minute practicing all the kicks. He’s confident, firmly believing that his “practice” has made him a far better fighter. At the end of the day, far past the day’s session, he tries to remember just 3 kicks. He tries, but he fails. He’s forgotten almost every, single, one. Although all of his effort was evenly (or potentially unevenly) was concentrated on all kicks, it ultimately equated to nothing. He earned nothing out of it, and wasted an entire day’s session.
Student A repeats his current process until he successfully “masters” all kicks. In his terms, “mastering a kick” means just recalling how to do it and having decent form.
Student B follows a much more distinct training regime. He still has 50 kicks to practice and master, but will spread them out across several days. For the first training session, he practices just 5 kicks. That’s it. He’s not great at any of them, but with the special time he dedicated to each one, he was able to get a hang of all of them. Gradually, as the weeks go by, he naturally gets better at the kicks he’s already practiced and at the kicking styles he still has yet to learn. In the end, his efforts seemed rather futile compared to Student A, but paid off. He learned all the kicks there were to learn, and mastered them.
Student B repeats his process until he legitimately masters all kicks. They end up mastering all kick styles, with close-to-perfect form.
Which Student Does Better?
Student B does miles better, and with the same amount of time. What flashcards miss is that they prioritize the right target skill, but have a terrible approach towards it. You could definitely repeat a single specific card, and just go over it again and again. But that sucks. Flipping from the term to the definition, or the other way around, is no way to learn.
Flipping from kick 12 to kick 27 is one of the worst ways to go about remembering a skill or piece of information. Repeating different variations of it, so many that your brain refuses to remember any of them, is worse than just sticking to a core three or five and just prioritizing those. However, if you spread just going through a set few flashcards at one point in the day, and then at another point in the day, repeated until completion, then it might work.
But that takes too long, and requires far too much care. If I’m looking to do well on an exam, test, or quiz, I don’t care enough to do any of that.
Most students enrolled in traditional schooling (K-12, or different; dependent on school system) don’t have a clue as to how to go about studying properly. A lot end up cheating, or just studying the wrong way. And, if you ask me, what I definitely will tell you is that flashcards is simply not the way. You might as well just go in without studying. Your odds might be better.
Will It Work For You?
There are no facts to support what I say, no research, no backed-up experiments, just my experiences. Maybe that means something, but maybe it doesn’t at all.
So, what would I do if I’m taking a vocab quiz? Aren’t flashcards optimal?
Haha. Probably one of the worst if anything.
How To Really Study For A Vocab Quiz
In that situation, I prefer breaking each term down into it simplest and raw (sounds wrong, but it’ll make sense) definition possible. For example, you might have to remember the term “RNA” for Biology, therefore in that case, I would just remember it as the “molecule that carries genetic information between cells”. That’s it. You can even simplify it even more; just that it comes with the risk that it excludes information that is actually valuable to the term itself.
If you do that for a list of terms, you can completely knock out any set of terminology in as little time as you can imagine. It’s effective, quick, and efficient. Exactly what a study method should be.
No, I’m Not Biased
Let me make one thing clear. What I’m stating is completely based on my experiences. Sure, my experiences can definitely change my perspective on a lot of things, and make me believe things as true or false when they’re actually the reverse. But, this is much different.
I’ve had to endure awful grades on quizzes and tests because flashcards have failed me. And don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty more just like it; just that flashcards is the one method I still see pasted everywhere like an advertisement (despite how much it sucks).
How To Really Study
Study using almost any other method. Literally any other method might work better than flashcards. It’s pretty much a guarantee.
Spaced repetition, active recall, mnemonic devices, and plenty more, despite none of them being that good at all, are still better than flashcards.
Conclusion
Studying is easy. Like, it’s literally never been easier. There is no excuse to get bad grades because you simply didn’t have enough time to study or to practice. Don’t attempt something just because other people say it’s promising or not, give it a try for yourself and assess it directly. Your opinion matters, not anyone else’s.
