Against the Curve
Most students study hard. The problem is that the strategies they often rely on are among the least effective ways to build lasting knowledge. I learned this the hard way: an MCAT score that put me squarely in the middle of the pack among admitted medical students, followed by a complete overhaul that carried me to the top 3% on every board exam since. This series breaks down what the research actually shows about how learning works, one principle at a time. No filler, no fluff, just the evidence, my personal takeaways, and how to apply these principles to improve your learning and performance.
New posts regularly.
Mnemonics: Cues for Facts That Have No Logic of Their Own
You can recite the cranial nerves in order and still not know what the seventh one does. A mnemonic gives you a way back to a fact without telling you anything about it. For truly arbitrary lists that can be enough, and the research shows where it stops being enough.
The Pomodoro Technique: What a Study Timer Actually Changes
You probably assume the Pomodoro Technique works because 25 minutes is the right number. In the only randomized test, a 12-minute schedule did about as well, and nobody checked whether students remembered more. Here is what a study timer can change, and where the evidence stops.
The Feynman Technique: What Explaining Does, and Where It Fools You
You probably think explaining something to an audience is the best test of whether you understand it. In one study, students who explained a text to another student did worse on deeper questions than those who explained it to themselves. The technique can still work if you change who is listening and check what you said.
Self-Explanation: Why Explaining Each Step to Yourself Works, and What It Costs
Reading a clear worked solution feels like learning. Explaining each step to yourself before you check, gaps and all, has better evidence that it carries over to new problems. It also costs time, and the research shows when that time pays off.
Elaborative Interrogation: When Asking “Why” Pays Off
You probably assume that asking why a fact is true always helps it stick. It helps most when you already know enough about the topic to answer well. On hard new material, one study found it lost to simply reading the lesson twice.
Elaboration: Why Connecting What You Learn to What You Know Changes Everything
You can space and quiz a weak memory all you want, but the review only protects what you encoded. Elaboration decides how good that material is in the first place, and most learners skip it without realizing.
Interleaving: Why Mixing Your Practice Beats Mastering One Topic at a Time
Most students practice one topic at a time until it feels solid, then move on. The research says that approach skips the hardest part of real performance, and a simple change to how you arrange your practice can fix it.
Spaced Repetition: When You Review Matters as Much as How You Review
You review material while it's still fresh because it feels productive. The research says that's the most expensive timing mistake you can make.
Retrieval Practice: Why Testing Yourself Changes What You Know
Testing yourself isn't how you check what you learned. It's how you learn it. The difference reshapes how you should be studying.