Thank you and greetings from Italy! This video is a valuable source of information. :) I'd like to ask you for advice: I'm 56 years old and I've used the "transcribe" method all my life. I learned a lot but with great difficulty, and what's worse I have consolidated a habit. Every time I try to apply a more efficient method I immediately get discouraged. Do you have any advice on how to slowly "re-educate" my way of learning? Thank you for these precious reflections, keep it up!
Ciao Barbara! Thanks for watching and for your question. I'd like to start by asking the purpose of your notes? Are you taking notes for work? For personal purposes? Are you taking a class? Depending on the purpose, the specific note-taking method will change. My video was focused on taking notes in a classroom setting but many of the same principles apply. For starters, I'd look for ways to make it "harder" for you to transcribe. If you're typing your notes, switch to handwriting, since it's much harder to transcribe by hand (that said, you've said you're 56 years old and built up a habit of transcription, so maybe you were able to transcribe by hand). Another way to make transcription harder is to force yourself NOT to take ANY notes except for in specific intervals. For example, if you're taking notes on something you're reading, force yourself to only take notes after reading a specific number of pages. If you're watching a video, force yourself to watch a certain length before taking any notes. This will force you to hold more in your head, which will feel uncomfortable at first, but will become more natural over time. Good luck and thanks again!
@@adamdistefano Ciao Adam! Thank you for your kind reply! I take notes by hand both following live courses and reading books. And yes, as you guessed, I am very fast at writing by hand! It was taught to me by my high school teachers and I have continued to practice this way. I think for me the main point is to determine the focal points of the explanation and build the encoding phase around them, rather than reproducing what I hear on paper and reviewing it many times later. It's a change of mental perspective, rather then a new technique to learn, isn't? I like your suggestion. Since one of the online courses I take is taught in Tibetan with translation, I could use switching between languages to apply your suggestion (listening without writing during Italian translation, taking notes during Tibetan). What do you think about it? It might work? Thank you so much! See you in the next video!
@@68babi Using the periods of time when the material is in a different language to take notes could certainly work (could you also pause the video?). With regards to taking notes on material you're reading, I usually recommend not highlighting or taking notes as you're reading, but rather jotting down notes at the end of a section or chapter. If this is a topic you're interested in, I highly recommend "How to Read a Book" by Mortimer J Adler. With regards to coming up with your own phrases, given that you clearly speak multiple languages, you could take the notes in a different language than the material you're learning! For example, if you're learning the material in Italian, take notes in English. That said, I wouldn't worry too much about coming up with DIFFERENT terms. Instead, I'd focus on grabbing the most important terms, and then spending time thinking about how they relate to each other. This is also a good opportunity for you to make connections with OTHER material outside of what you're currently learning. Making those outside connections is a powerful way to improve your retention of the material, because you'll be creating different paths to access it. Best of luck on your continued learning journey!
Thanks for the great video I’m studying psychology and I’m currently doing something similar in looking for relationships between keywords But for the exams I’ve to know a lot of details and some facts Isn’t it similar in law where you have to memorise and know details?
Thanks! To answer your question, whether we're talking law, psychology or any other discipline, memorizing should always be a last resort. As much as possible, you need to understand the underlying principles (hence understanding the connections between concepts) and this will allow you to arrive at the right conclusion, even if you haven't memorized anything. For instance, I don't remember any of the specific legislation I learned in law school, but because of my understanding of how the legal system works and has evolved, I can still assess how a specific issue would be handled In fact, in life, I'd argue that memorization is a giant waste of time, because you'll ALWAYS forget memorized information unless you're constantly re-learning it, so you're better off learning the principles and looking up the details when needed (this is what professional lawyers and psychologists do... as well as doctors, academics, business people and every other professional I know of...). All of that said, for school, unfortunately, we still do a lot of memorization-based testing (which, I'm the first to admit is not helpful to students). In those cases, where you absolutely NEED to memorize specific things that can't be learned through the concepts we review in this video, the best memorization technique I've found is flash cards (or their digital equivalent). Again, their usefulness is short term, and really only relevant for school, but if you have to memorize something for school, that's your best bet. Best of luck in your studies!
@@adamdistefano wow thanks a lot I’m testing to put the concepts into relationships and even definition or specific details or facts could be attached later on without using Flashcards I just want to keep the amount of flash cards as low as possible
Thank you and greetings from Italy! This video is a valuable source of information. :)
I'd like to ask you for advice: I'm 56 years old and I've used the "transcribe" method all my life. I learned a lot but with great difficulty, and what's worse I have consolidated a habit. Every time I try to apply a more efficient method I immediately get discouraged. Do you have any advice on how to slowly "re-educate" my way of learning?
Thank you for these precious reflections, keep it up!
Ciao Barbara! Thanks for watching and for your question. I'd like to start by asking the purpose of your notes? Are you taking notes for work? For personal purposes? Are you taking a class? Depending on the purpose, the specific note-taking method will change. My video was focused on taking notes in a classroom setting but many of the same principles apply. For starters, I'd look for ways to make it "harder" for you to transcribe. If you're typing your notes, switch to handwriting, since it's much harder to transcribe by hand (that said, you've said you're 56 years old and built up a habit of transcription, so maybe you were able to transcribe by hand). Another way to make transcription harder is to force yourself NOT to take ANY notes except for in specific intervals. For example, if you're taking notes on something you're reading, force yourself to only take notes after reading a specific number of pages. If you're watching a video, force yourself to watch a certain length before taking any notes. This will force you to hold more in your head, which will feel uncomfortable at first, but will become more natural over time. Good luck and thanks again!
@@adamdistefano Ciao Adam! Thank you for your kind reply!
I take notes by hand both following live courses and reading books. And yes, as you guessed, I am very fast at writing by hand! It was taught to me by my high school teachers and I have continued to practice this way.
I think for me the main point is to determine the focal points of the explanation and build the encoding phase around them, rather than reproducing what I hear on paper and reviewing it many times later. It's a change of mental perspective, rather then a new technique to learn, isn't?
I like your suggestion. Since one of the online courses I take is taught in Tibetan with translation, I could use switching between languages to apply your suggestion (listening without writing during Italian translation, taking notes during Tibetan).
What do you think about it? It might work?
Thank you so much! See you in the next video!
@@68babi Using the periods of time when the material is in a different language to take notes could certainly work (could you also pause the video?).
With regards to taking notes on material you're reading, I usually recommend not highlighting or taking notes as you're reading, but rather jotting down notes at the end of a section or chapter. If this is a topic you're interested in, I highly recommend "How to Read a Book" by Mortimer J Adler.
With regards to coming up with your own phrases, given that you clearly speak multiple languages, you could take the notes in a different language than the material you're learning! For example, if you're learning the material in Italian, take notes in English.
That said, I wouldn't worry too much about coming up with DIFFERENT terms. Instead, I'd focus on grabbing the most important terms, and then spending time thinking about how they relate to each other. This is also a good opportunity for you to make connections with OTHER material outside of what you're currently learning. Making those outside connections is a powerful way to improve your retention of the material, because you'll be creating different paths to access it.
Best of luck on your continued learning journey!
@@adamdistefano I will definitely read the book you recommend. Thank you again!
Thanks for the great video
I’m studying psychology and I’m currently doing something similar in looking for relationships between keywords
But for the exams I’ve to know a lot of details and some facts
Isn’t it similar in law where you have to memorise and know details?
Thanks! To answer your question, whether we're talking law, psychology or any other discipline, memorizing should always be a last resort. As much as possible, you need to understand the underlying principles (hence understanding the connections between concepts) and this will allow you to arrive at the right conclusion, even if you haven't memorized anything. For instance, I don't remember any of the specific legislation I learned in law school, but because of my understanding of how the legal system works and has evolved, I can still assess how a specific issue would be handled
In fact, in life, I'd argue that memorization is a giant waste of time, because you'll ALWAYS forget memorized information unless you're constantly re-learning it, so you're better off learning the principles and looking up the details when needed (this is what professional lawyers and psychologists do... as well as doctors, academics, business people and every other professional I know of...).
All of that said, for school, unfortunately, we still do a lot of memorization-based testing (which, I'm the first to admit is not helpful to students). In those cases, where you absolutely NEED to memorize specific things that can't be learned through the concepts we review in this video, the best memorization technique I've found is flash cards (or their digital equivalent). Again, their usefulness is short term, and really only relevant for school, but if you have to memorize something for school, that's your best bet.
Best of luck in your studies!
@@adamdistefano wow thanks a lot I’m testing to put the concepts into relationships and even definition or specific details or facts could be attached later on without using Flashcards
I just want to keep the amount of flash cards as low as possible
Bro. New to your channel & subscribed . All good info 👌.
Only one feedback to you. Please don't do continuous hand movements. It looks very odd.
Hah. Thanks for the tip. I'll see what I can do, but it's going to be hard to break a life-long habit :)
@@adamdistefano No problems bro 😊. So nice to read your replies 😊