00:00right so it's been a few years since
00:01i've graduated from university but i
00:02still always get a bunch of questions
00:04from students asking for study tips on
00:05how to do well on their exams so in this
00:07video we're gonna go through my 20 top
00:09tips for studying that i used to do
00:11pretty well in my exams while i was at
00:12school and also studying medicine at
00:13cambridge university while building this
00:15youtube channel and having a business
00:16and trying to have some semblance of a
00:18social life and enjoying the journey
00:19along the way let's go and we're going
00:20to split this video up into five parts
00:22that is target revision technique
00:24friends and balance and tip number one
00:26is to scope the subject what this means
00:28is that for every subject that we have
00:29to prepare for that we have an exam for
00:31we want to create some sort of tree
00:32diagram that gives us a visual
00:34representation of everything that we
00:36need to learn in the subject often one
00:37of the things the students struggle with
00:38is not appreciating where a given
00:41factoid or fact or concept fits within
00:43the wider picture and so the way we want
00:45to think of it is like we want to build
00:46up the tree from the trunk and like the
00:49kind of branches first before we worry
00:51about the little details like the leaves
00:53but if you're in a lecture and you're
00:54covering like a leaf over there
00:55somewhere down some random branch it can
00:57be very hard to like appreciate how it
00:59fits into the wider picture and so as
01:01long as we scope the subject at the
01:02start of our curriculum at the start of
01:03a course at the start of our revision
01:05period that will really help in terms of
01:07just appreciating where stuff fits in
01:09the benefit of this is that you can also
01:11then color code the areas that you're
01:12weak in so i like using a kind of red
01:14amber green traffic light based system
01:17for all the topics and so at a glance
01:18for every subject anatomy physiology
01:20chemistry physics whatever i can see
01:22immediately okay these are the red zones
01:24and therefore those are the areas that i
01:25want to focus my revision on and that
01:26brings us to tip number two which is to
01:28really focus on your weaknesses when
01:30we're starting for exams there's the
01:31very easy temptation to focus on the
01:33things that we are good at so people
01:34invariably revise chapter one and
01:36chapter two of everything far more than
01:38chapters 19 and 20 at the back of the
01:39book and really the point of the color
01:40coding system is that it really helps us
01:42target our specific weaknesses like if
01:44you know you're really good at maths and
01:45you know you suck at french like i did
01:46in school there's no point spending ages
01:48focusing on maths or spending exactly
01:50the same amount of time focusing on
01:51maths and french it's all about
01:52recognizing okay i don't need to do much
01:54work in this particular subject i'm
01:55going to put a disproportionate amount
01:57of effort into the stuff i'm bad at so
01:58that i can get to a point where i'm
02:00really good at all of the things in real
02:01life this is actually probably bad
02:02advice in general in real life we do
02:04better and we get ahead and all that
02:06stuff by focusing on the things we are
02:08good at rather than by trying to improve
02:09all of our weaknesses to a reasonable
02:10standard but generally in school and
02:12university exams it's not the case that
02:13like if you get an amazing mark in one
02:15subject that makes up for bad marks on
02:16the other subject we do have to kind of
02:18play this game of getting all of our
02:19stuff to a reasonably high level if
02:21we're optimizing for exam results at
02:23school or at university and tip number
02:24three is to use a retrospective revision
02:26timetable now i've got a video all about
02:28this which will be linked up there and
02:30in the video description which i think
02:31several hundreds of thousands of
02:32students have found really helpful the
02:34idea behind a retrospective revision
02:35timetable is that it's different to a
02:37prospective revision timetable normally
02:39when we make a revision timetable we
02:40like to list out that ah on this day i'm
02:42gonna study this this and that on you
02:44know then next week i'm gonna study a
02:45bit of renal physiology and a little bit
02:47of upper limb anatomy and a little bit
02:49of like the krebs cycle in biochemistry
02:50and we create this like theoretical plan
02:53which a is an exercise in
02:54procrastination because just creating
02:55that prospective revision timetable is a
02:57bit of a waste of time and b i don't
02:58know if you're anything like me you
02:59never end up actually sticking to that
03:00theoretical timetable because real life
03:02gets in the way there's social stuff
03:03that happens and we find that maybe i'm
03:05good at that thing but not of that thing
03:06and so this theoretical plan ends up
03:08just going out the window instead what i
03:09like to do is use a retrospective
03:11revision timetable and i've been using
03:12this for my exams from like second year
03:14of med school onwards and the idea there
03:16is that instead of planning what we're
03:17going to do in advance we actually just
03:18plan it on the day and we again we focus
03:20on our weaknesses we figure out okay
03:22where are my red zones today you know i
03:23was read on physiology so let me study
03:25some of that i was read on neuroanatomy
03:27so let's study a little bit of that and
03:28then once we've studied it we put the
03:30date down next to the subject and then
03:32we can color code it based on how well
03:33we did on that subject on the day and so
03:35at the start we have a long list of
03:37topics and they're all red because we
03:38don't know any of it but then over time
03:40they slowly go amber and they slowly go
03:42green and if you want more details on
03:43that you can check out the actual video
03:44on the retrospective revision timetable
03:46all right part number two is revision
03:47and tip number four is that note-taking
03:49is broadly a waste of time now this is a
03:50bit of a controversial take but there's
03:52a bunch of studies that show that
03:54students like one of students favorite
03:56strategy for studying is to summarize or
03:59take notes from the stuff that they're
04:00consuming in lectures or the stuff
04:02they're watching videos about or the
04:03stuff they're reading in textbooks but
04:05there's a decent amount of evidence that
04:06says that simply taking notes and
04:07summarizing with the book open
04:09proverbially is not a very effective way
04:11to learn because it's quite a passive
04:13thing and it's very easy for us to do
04:14now generally we have this misconception
04:16when we're trying to learn stuff that
04:17learning should be easy and when
04:19learning is easy it feels we feel
04:20productive yeah i've just done three
04:22pages worth of notes but actually the
04:23way that memory is formed and the way
04:25that we build those connections between
04:27concepts and topics is by putting effort
04:29into it and in a way the more effortful
04:32it appears the harder it seems to us the
04:34more likely our brain is to form
04:35connections between those relevant
04:37things and the more likely we are to
04:38actually know the topic that's why most
04:40students method for taking notes is a
04:41little bit of a waste of time because
04:42all you're doing is just summarizing the
04:43material whereas there's a bunch of
04:45other techniques that have been shown in
04:46the scientific literature where they've
04:47done hundreds of studies looking at
04:49evidence-based study tips that are way
04:50better than taking notes now if you're
04:52starting a subject where you actually do
04:53need to take notes let's say you're
04:54studying english literature at
04:55university where there is no easily
04:57accessible revision guide and you do
04:59need to have some sort of novel
05:00interpretation of madame bovary or
05:03something to that effect then in that
05:05sense taking notes makes sense because
05:06you genuinely do need to condense the
05:08information down and get a hot take on
05:10it that you can then memorize for the
05:12exams whereas if you're studying
05:12something like medicine or science
05:14subject you already have tons of
05:15revision guides there's already students
05:16in the years above who've already
05:18written a bunch of notes you've got
05:19loads of free stuff available on the
05:20internet and so in that context i think
05:22taking notes is broadly a waste of time
05:23and instead we should be focusing on the
05:25more effective and efficient study
05:26techniques and speaking of those study
05:28techniques the next tip is to focus on
05:30understanding first now again one of the
05:32mistakes that students make which i made
05:33a lot when i was a student is to try and
05:35just memorize stuff as we go along but
05:37the way that we should try and study is
05:39broadly we need to understand stuff
05:41first and we need to memorize it second
05:42understanding it basically means being
05:44able to explain it to a 12 year old or a
05:47five-year-old or however year old you
05:49have a friend or nephew or any son or
05:51daughter basically we want to understand
05:52things enough to explain them to a
05:54five-year-old and there's a quote from
05:55einstein which is that if you can't
05:56allegedly from einstein which is that if
05:58you can't explain it to a 12 year old
05:59you probably just don't understand it
06:00well enough this is also famously called
06:01the feynman technique named after
06:03richard feynman who apparently was just
06:04like a fantastic communicator and really
06:06good at physics and stuff but one of his
06:08key skills was in being able to break
06:09down concept topics and explain them to
06:11kids and that's what understanding
06:13really means like it's not really about
06:14whether you know can a five-year-old
06:15understand it but it's more about can
06:16you explain it to someone that doesn't
06:18really have a baseline level level of
06:19knowledge on the topic and
06:22can you answer the why why why questions
06:25that they're going to inevitably ask and
06:26the idea is that for each topic you try
06:27and explain it to a five-year-old in
06:28your head or a friend or whatever and
06:30when you get to the point where you like
06:32you don't know the answer to one of the
06:33questions that they're asking at that
06:34point you think okay cool that this is
06:36where my understanding ends let me dive
06:38into the textbook or the internet
06:39wikipedia or youtube or whatever and let
06:40me fill in this gap and now i'll be able
06:42to explain it to the five-year-old again
06:44and so over time we're very much
06:45focusing on how do we understand this
06:47information in the most efficient way
06:48possible but then once we've understood
06:49it we do actually have to memorize it
06:50and thankfully we have three amazing
06:52techniques for memorization technique
06:53number one is called active recall and
06:55this is the by far the number one
06:56technique in all of effective studying
06:58which i've done tons of videos on in the
06:59past over the last like five years the
07:01idea behind active recall is basically
07:02we need to test ourselves we have this
07:05erroneous assumption that to get
07:06information into our brain we need to
07:08put it into our brain by kind of reading
07:10it or consuming it but actually the way
07:11memory formation works is that to get
07:13information into our brain we actually
07:15need to try and retrieve that
07:16information from our brain so we read
07:17something once we try and understand
07:19what the deal with that thing is and
07:21then we test ourselves on the thing that
07:24we've just read or that we've just
07:25understood and then we ideally want to
07:26repeat that testing of ourselves further
07:28down the line and again this is going to
07:29seem hard but there is gallons and
07:30gallons of scientific evidence that says
07:32that testing yourself on stuff makes it
07:34far more likely for that stuff to stick
07:35there's a fantastic book as well called
07:37make it stick which is all about the
07:38science of effective learning and what
07:39the authors of that book say is that
07:40generally if you are unhappy with your
07:42grades or performance in any kind of
07:44test or any kind of exam it just means
07:45that you're not testing yourself enough
07:47testing is by far the number one way to
07:49improve your score so if you have bad
07:50marks test yourself more often more
07:52frequently and more so that it feels
07:54hard when you test yourself and i
07:55guarantee basically that that will lead
07:57to an improvement of your score so
07:58active recall was tip number one for
08:00effective memorization the second one is
08:02something called spaced repetition now
08:03again space repetition is something i've
08:05talked about ad nauseam uh you might be
08:06familiar with it basically the idea is
08:08that whenever we remember anything
08:10whenever whenever we learn anything our
08:11memory for that thing exponentially
08:13decays and this is called the forgetting
08:15curve which was discovered by a chap
08:16called ebbinghaus in like the 1800s and
08:18this is why you have that phenomenon
08:19where you read something and then a week
08:20later you try and look at it again and
08:21you just completely forgotten everything
08:22about it because that that's that's
08:24natural it's not that we are a dumbass
08:26and we can't memorize things it's just
08:27literally the way that memory works and
08:29the whole like some people have a
08:30photographic memory is a complete myth
08:32like there is no evidence that anyone in
08:33the world actually has a proper
08:34photographic memory so we all suffer
08:36from this some kind of memory decay and
08:38the idea behind space repetition is that
08:39space repetition interrupts the
08:41forgetting curve so we might study a
08:42topic on day one and use active recall
08:44to test ourselves at the end of the
08:45session then our memory is going to
08:46decay a bit and maybe the next day we
08:47would repeat the testing of ourselves
08:49and if we got stuff wrong we would look
08:50at our notes then we might repeat it
08:52four days later and then maybe a week
08:53later and then maybe three weeks later
08:54and the idea is that over time as we
08:56repeat the testing and as we space that
08:58out over time and that is what's going
09:00to lead to the forgetting curve being
09:02interrupted permanently and we're going
09:04to try and help get that information
09:05into our long-term memory this is why as
09:07well like consistency when it comes to
09:08studying over a long period of time is
09:10generally a lot better than like random
09:12bouts of intensity all in one go because
09:14even if you do like 15 minutes per day
09:16that is way better than doing like two
09:18hours at the end of the week because
09:19you're benefiting from that space
09:21repetition effect and you're benefiting
09:22from the fact that memory formation
09:24really gets consolidated when we are
09:25sleeping and so in a way the more sleeps
09:27you have in between study sessions the
09:29more likely you are to more effortlessly
09:31retain all that stuff so we've got
09:32testing we've got spacing and the third
09:34big tip for effective memorizing is
09:35something called interleaving again they
09:37talk about this a lot in the book make
09:38it stick but the idea is that basically
09:40we want to be interleaving various
09:42different things in a single study
09:43session and they've done studies where
09:44for example let's say you've got two
09:46groups of students and you give one set
09:47of students math problems but like
09:48you've got them in blocks so like you
09:50know all of the you know topic a would
09:52be a blog topic b would be a block and
09:53topic c would be a block and then you
09:54take another group of students and you
09:56sort of interleave like abc abc cba you
09:58know that kind of thing so they're not
09:59doing all of one set of problems in one
10:01go and they find that the performance of
10:03students in the second group the
10:04interleaving group is way better than in
10:05the first group no one quite knows why
10:07this is but again maybe it ties into
10:08that thing of like when studying and
10:10when learning feels effortful like we
10:12haven't yet got like a pattern just to
10:14repeat ad nausea or ad nauseam for a
10:16single set of problems when it feels
10:17effortful that translates to better
10:18memory and so theoretically that helps
10:20improve our retention of stuff and so
10:22generally we want to be interleaving
10:23things so it's like i'm going to do
10:24three hours of just renal physiology
10:26it's generally a bad chat maybe like one
10:28hour of renal physiology followed by
10:30some heart physiology followed by some
10:31anatomy and then going back to the renal
10:33physiology that is probably a more
10:34effective way of going about it all
10:36right now we come to part three which is
10:37technique and tip number one here is to
10:39do lots of mock exams now the biggest
10:41thing here is to recognize that when it
10:42comes to studying for stuff the exam is
10:44actually not a test of knowledge it's a
10:46test of exam performance and yes in an
10:48ideal world in a dream world the stuff
10:50we'd learn at school and the stuff we'd
10:52learn in our degree would would all
10:53entirely be relevant and we'd be doing
10:55it for the sake of knowledge rather than
10:56for the sake of passing an exam in the
10:58real world and the way the current
10:59education system is designed which is
11:00not ideal but in the current world we're
11:02not doing it for the sake of knowledge
11:04we're doing it partly for the sake of
11:05knowledge but mostly to pass the exam to
11:06get some sort of qualification of
11:07qualification at the end of it this is
11:09even true of medical school you would
11:10think that the exams in medical school
11:12help you be a doctor but generally the
11:13stuff you get tested on is not the stuff
11:15that translates to you being a better
11:16doctor at least in written exams
11:18compared to clinical stuff and so what
11:19that basically means is that when we're
11:20studying for stuff we should recognize
11:22that we are optimizing our score in a
11:24game and that game is the exam we're not
11:26worried about just general knowledge
11:27across the board well we can be but
11:29again when a goal directed behavior to
11:30do better in exams therefore mock exams
11:33like past tests any any way we can get
11:34hold of past papers that is often the
11:36most high yield thing we can do because
11:38again we're tapping into the whole
11:40active recall thing and tapping into the
11:41idea that testing ourselves is just the
11:43way forward when it comes to memorizing
11:44anything but we're also kind of
11:46implicitly learning what sort of
11:47questions the examiners are asking and
11:48what exam technique looks like and if i
11:50think back to the exams at university in
11:52med school that i did the best in it was
11:54the ones in which i'd done the most mock
11:56exam papers so in a way i could get
11:57inside the heads of the examiners and
11:59kind of predict what questions were
12:00going to be asked whenever i say this
12:02people in the comments were always like
12:03oh my god this is like bad like you
12:05should be studying for the sake of
12:06knowledge it's like yes i agree in an
12:08ideal world i would be but i also have
12:09to pass an exam so you know don't hate
12:11the player hate the game as they say
12:13technique number two is to use
12:14intentional flair now this generally
12:16applies to essay exams or exams in which
12:18you have to answer questions in long
12:20form and basically the more flair you
12:21can add to that the more interesting it
12:23is to the examiner i spent a year
12:24supervising medical physiology at
12:26cambridge university and so i read
12:27dozens and dozens of essays and
12:29inevitably the ones that i felt were the
12:31best were the ones where there was some
12:32level of flair whether it was just even
12:34just like nice handwriting or you know
12:36pretty diagrams or someone adding like a
12:39really interesting introduction that had
12:40an interesting take on the subject of
12:42like how was the sodium pump discovered
12:44if someone adds like a flarey
12:46interesting kind of introduction it
12:48really makes me as the examiner feel
12:49like oh hello this is kind of
12:50interesting this is unusual especially
12:53you know if you're doing one of these
12:54public exams where the examiners are
12:55reading like hundreds of scripts in a
12:57given day the more flair you can add and
12:58the more you can stand out in their mind
13:00in a good way hopefully the more likely
13:02they are to give you a decent mark and
13:03i'm going to let you in on a secret a
13:04lot of examiners don't actually read
13:06your whole essay read all of your work a
13:08lot of them get quite lazy a lot of them
13:10get a bit like demotivated especially as
13:12the day progresses and so the easier you
13:13can make it the more you can make it
13:15look as if you are the sort of person
13:17who deserves a high mark the more likely
13:18you are to get that high mark again this
13:20is not ideal you would think especially
13:22in like things like medical school and
13:23law school and stuff that the examiners
13:24are reading every single word of your
13:25essay but if you've ever tried reading
13:27like 100 essays in a go it's just
13:29genuinely really really really hard to
13:30actually read every single word so
13:32basically if we can front load the flare
13:34and if we can make if we can structure
13:36our essays and make him look pretty that
13:38really does go a long way in creating
13:39this halo effect in the eyes of the
13:41examiners and that generally translates
13:43to a better mark for ourselves so it you
13:44know it's just about the packaging it's
13:45about the marketing it's about the
13:46presentation of stuff it's not only
13:48about the content and tip number three
13:49for technique is in general you should
13:51try and bank as many points as you
13:52possibly can with coursework this
13:54applies to some university subjects to a
13:56lot of school subjects at gcc and a
13:57level or o level and a level whatever
13:59they're called these days but when there
14:00is the option to do coursework
14:01throughout the year which contributes to
14:02your final grade that is generally a
14:04good thing to do because it's kind of
14:06scary when 100 of your grade rests on
14:08that final exam so the more you can put
14:10flair and vibes and good stuff into your
14:11coursework especially if that's an
14:12option the easier the final exam becomes
14:15all right that brings us to part number
14:16four which is friends and tip number one
14:18here is to really study with friends
14:19this is something that most people don't
14:21do because they're like oh my friends
14:22are distracting but really what you want
14:23to do is you want to find a good group
14:24of friends where you vibe with one
14:26another and you're all motivated to
14:27study for the exams together you don't
14:29even have to be doing the same subject
14:31when i was in my second year of medical
14:32for example i had friends who were doing
14:34like history law medicine philosophy
14:37maths and we would all go to the same
14:38library and study together and we'd be
14:40using the pomodoro technique together so
14:41we'd study for 25 minutes then we'd take
14:42a five minute break and we created this
14:44whatsapp group that we called the
14:45pomodoro society which is still going to
14:47this day because we're all still kind of
14:48friends and yes you might take a little
14:49bit of a hit to your productivity but if
14:51i think back to my university experience
14:53a i think i was much more motivated when
14:54studying with friends but b it also just
14:56made the whole thing much more fun and
14:57if i'd been just stuck in my room on my
14:59own i would have had a lot a lot less
15:01fond memories of university especially
15:03exam term than i did because i was in
15:04the library hanging out with friends and
15:06we'd go out to lunch after a few hours
15:07of revision tip number two for starting
15:09with friends is to test each other this
15:11is a thing i used to do a lot with my
15:12medical school friends when i was in
15:13clinical school so the final three years
15:15of med school at cambridge university
15:16and the idea there is one of us would
15:17learn a topic and then we would test the
15:19other people on it or for example if i
15:21was studying a topic i would ask someone
15:22to test me on it like when you're
15:24studying with friends especially if you
15:25have a friend like in our case it was a
15:26friend called paul paul just kind of
15:28knew everything and so the temptation is
15:29there but like hey paul i don't know
15:31anything about the thyroid can you just
15:32tell me about the thyroid that's kind of
15:33bad because it's just passively trying
15:35to absorb information from another
15:36student whereas the way we do it is like
15:38right paul i don't know anything about
15:40the thyroid thyroid can you test me on
15:41it and then you can fill in the gaps and
15:43so paul would be like okay cool what are
15:44the common causes of a lump in the neck
15:46or a common causes of like a painful
15:47goiter or whatever and then i'd be like
15:48oh crap i don't know oh i think i can
15:50remember this i can think i think i can
15:51remember that and so we're actively
15:53testing ourselves and testing our
15:54friends and then our friends are
15:55hopefully filling in the gaps or if
15:57there's a gap that no one knows then
15:58someone can google it and we can all
15:59like learn together and tip number three
16:01for this is to read your friends essays
16:03so when i was at university again like
16:05me and my friends would get together we
16:06formed a shared google drive and instead
16:08of all of us preparing the same essays
16:11that we would then kind of try and
16:13memorize for the exam we kind of split
16:15up the workload so that i was doing
16:16three catherine was doing three jake was
16:18doing three more he was doing three paul
16:19was doing three columns doing three and
16:20so on and so by the end of it like we
16:22would like each individual would do
16:23three essays worth of work but then we'd
16:25have access to like 30 essays from the
16:27other 10 medics in our college and this
16:29was a great system right because it
16:30means that we are distributing the
16:31workload a lot of university revision a
16:33lot of school revision is kind of
16:35inefficient because a lot of people are
16:36kind of doing the same thing and if you
16:38poor resources and if you share your
16:39notes and stuff you can benefit a lot
16:41from the economy of scale in terms of
16:43writing essays and planning stuff out
16:45now obviously if in the exam you are
16:47trying to regurgitate a friend's essay
16:48word for word that is probably bad it's
16:50probably gonna be picked up on and
16:51that's not what i'm endorsing what i'm
16:52endorsing is use your friends notes
16:54share resources amongst yourselves and
16:56then when you're doing stuff you can add
16:57your own flair and your own vibes to it
16:58to make it your own and finally we have
17:00part number five which is balance now
17:01tip number one here is to have some sort
17:03of work space i really liked going to
17:04libraries in my first year of med school
17:06i tried working in my room and i really
17:08failed at working in my room because i'd
17:09always get distracted because my
17:10computer was there and because the music
17:11would be on and because the bed was
17:13right next door and so if i just wanted
17:15to sleep it would just be too easy to
17:16fall asleep whereas from second year
17:18onwards i started going to the library
17:19and then i made it this routine to go to
17:21the library every morning after
17:22breakfast do some work and when you're
17:23in that zone when you're in that zone of
17:25silence maybe you've got your like study
17:26with me music playing in the background
17:28link in the video description if you
17:29want to check it out on spotify there's
17:30just something about that that really
17:31helps in terms of focus this is a thing
17:33that i'm finding these days as i'm
17:35working on writing a book about
17:36productivity which is that like when i
17:38have a specific space like some kind of
17:40routine that in the morning i'm gonna
17:41wake up i'm gonna go to the gym and then
17:43i'm gonna sit down for three hours and
17:44try and write my book that is when i
17:45make the most progress whereas when my
17:47routine goes out of whack and i try and
17:48write here and there and everywhere else
17:50then it's just actually genuinely hard
17:51to to focus and so i'm big on building
17:54some kind of routine and some kind of
17:55workspace that feels productive that
17:57helps us build those healthy habits for
17:59kind of maintaining that consistency and
18:01enjoyment over a long period of time tip
18:03number two in balance is to definitely
18:04have time for unwinding there is this
18:06like over-glamorization that happens
18:08especially at university especially in
18:09things like medical schools where people
18:10are like hey i work so hard i don't have
18:12time to sleep i worked so hard i pulled
18:14an all-nighter that's generally bad
18:16obviously balance is the way forward i
18:17think students these days now no longer
18:20compete to see who can work the hardest
18:21because that kind of used to be a thing
18:23back in my day when i was in my youth
18:25but you know it's all about balance it's
18:26all about having hobbies having stuff
18:27that you can do to unwind i find it
18:29useful to actually schedule that time
18:30into my calendar because when you're
18:32enjoying work and when you're kind of
18:33turning into a game which is which is
18:34what i was big about when you're
18:35enjoying it it can be very easy to just
18:37be like oh i'm having so much fun that i
18:38just can't be bothered to i don't know
18:40go to the gym or like do the sports
18:41stuff but generally i think scheduling
18:43time for unwinding in the calendar is is
18:45really helpful i would have liked game
18:46of thrones nights with my friends we'd
18:47all hang out every week and watch game
18:48of thrones we'd do a bunch of like
18:50sports stuff together you know playing
18:51badminton playing squash that kind of
18:52thing even in the midst of exam season
18:54and i was actually in exam season that i
18:56first took up squash for the first time
18:57in my second year and we played on
18:58average like an hour a day as like an
19:00exam break and that stress buster stress
19:03reliever semi-relaxing semi-competitive
19:04thing just really helped in terms of
19:06making me feel more motivated to
19:08actually study while i was studying and
19:10also to feel more tired at the end of
19:11the day so i could have a good a good
19:12night's sleep because sleep is when all
19:14these memories and stuff gets
19:15consolidated and tip number three for
19:16balance is to really focus on enjoying
19:17the journey and not being so fixated on
19:19the destination this is the advice that
19:21i give to a bunch of students who come
19:22to me for advice these days like when
19:24you're a student it can be very easy to
19:25defer your happiness until after the
19:27exams or until after your degree or
19:29until you get a job and one of the most
19:31saddening things i hear from medical
19:32students is oh you know this i don't
19:33really enjoy med school this med school
19:35thing is really hard but once i become a
19:36doctor it will all have been worth it
19:38i'm always like oh that's like a
19:39dangerous way of living life because a
19:41med school is genuinely more fun than
19:42being a doctor and when you're a doctor
19:44you're obligated to be in and you have a
19:46job and the stress is different to the
19:48stress of being a medical student but
19:49also like you know being a student is
19:50supposed to be the best time of your
19:51life it's like your prime you've got
19:53loads of friends around you and never
19:55again in your life will you be in an
19:56environment where you have so much spare
19:58time and you have so many friends all
20:00around you and so really focus on
20:01enjoying that process and the way i
20:02think of it is we want to try and enjoy
20:04each day on its own merit rather than
20:06being fixated on like you know this next
20:08rung of the ladder and i will be happy
20:10when i dot dot dot so really it's all
20:12about the journey rather than the
20:13destination yes we want to optimize for
20:15studying for exams and we want to
20:16optimize for doing well and doing well
20:17in our degrees and all that kind of
20:18stuff but really you know if we're not
20:20enjoying the journey along the way you
20:22know we want to try and do our best
20:23towards journey along the way because
20:24otherwise we're just like screwing
20:25ourselves over by kind of throwing away
20:27these like potentially best years of our
20:29life for the sake of an end goal and
20:31it's only when you get to the end goal
20:32that you realize actually i kind of wish
20:34i'd enjoyed myself more along the way
20:35now if you've gotten to this point in
20:36the video then firstly thank you very
20:38much for watching but you're also
20:39probably the sort of person who
20:40appreciates leveling up their own
20:42thinking and problem solving skills
20:43which is why you might like to check out
20:44the sponsor of this video which is
20:45brilliant if you haven't heard brilliant
20:47is an online courses platform that has
20:48interactive online courses in maths
20:50science and computer science the courses
20:52are fantastic and genuinely entertaining
20:53and insightful to work through and the
20:55way they teach stuff is all based on a
20:56very first principled approach to
20:58learning it's like they would teach you
21:00a concept and then they would do it like
21:02they would find some sort of interactive
21:03way to integrate that concept into a
21:05question and then you would try and
21:06solve the problem and then you'd learn
21:07the next concept along the way and this
21:09is exactly the format that we used to
21:11have at oxford and cambridge in terms of
21:12supervisions and tutorials with like you
21:14know two of us and one kind of tutor or
21:16expert on the subject matter they would
21:18teach you a little bit of something and
21:19then you try some work it was like very
21:21kind of interactive first principles way
21:23of learning a subject my favorite
21:25courses in brilliant are the ones on
21:26computer science uh when i was applying
21:27to med school i was actually torn
21:28between med school and computer science
21:30and i ended up going for medicine at the
21:31end which was a great decision but i
21:32always kind of thought i kind of really
21:34wish i also knew more about this
21:35computer science-y stuff and so in
21:36brilliant they've got fantastic courses
21:38you know the introduction to computer
21:39science introduction to algorithms
21:40introduction to learning how to code in
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21:45math science and computer science behind
21:46what makes the world tick head over to
21:47brilliant.org forward slash alley and
21:49the first 200 people to click that link
21:50will get 20 off the annual premium
21:52subscription so thank you so much for
21:54watching this video if you got value out
21:55of this you might like to check out this
21:56video over here which is specifically
21:58about the essay memorization framework
21:59that i used to win the price for best
22:01exam performance in one of my years of
22:02med school so that'll be linked over
22:03there otherwise thank you so much for
22:04watching do hit the subscribe button if
22:06you aren't already and i'll hopefully
22:07see you in the next video bye
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