Alex Shalman.comPractical Personal Development

In my previous article, Why Are You Still Trying, I mentioned that I failed to get into Dental School a couple of times since graduating University in ‘06. In ‘08 I finished my Masters degree, and I’m currently on the waiting list for NYU Dental School.

Whether I’ll get accepted or rejected for this coming cycle is currently up in the air, and a factor that is out of my control. What is in my control is to retake the Dental Admission Test (DAT) and reapply with higher scores.

With over 6,000 people applying for 200 spots, it doesn’t matter that my score is well above average, so now I’m shooting for the 99th percentile. The DAT is a 4.5 hour test that includes 1) Biology 2) General Chemistry 3) Organic Chemistry 4) Perceptual Ability 5) Reading Comprehension and 6) Quantitative Reasoning.

The best methods for studying the DAT might be of little use to you, but the general techniques to optimize studying are important to each of us whether we are studying for school, work, or life. I’ll share the techniques I’ve learned at University, my Masters Program, self-education, and of course my twitter friends (I often ask them for best study techniques).

Start With a Clear Intention

When you start the timer on your study session, it’s important to have a clear intention as to what you expect to get out of and accomplish in the study session. Without a clear intention you’re liable to day dream, spend too much time shuffling and organizing, and ultimately demotivate yourself from having an awesome study session.

You can get yourself into the zone of having a clear intension by starting with the end in mind. Imagine yourself on test day, and create an outline of everything that you have to know and understand by that day. Then back track each day before the exam and figure out how much of the material you need to absorb daily until you arrive back at the current moment.

At this point is should be clear what you need to do today, tomorrow, and each day after until you reach full competency on exam day. This technique will serve to keep your mind organized, and motivate you to make the most of your study sessions.

Timed Studying and the 50-10 Principle

The way I used to study was by arriving at my study destination, whether it was library or my personal desk, and assign myself X amount of hours to study. When I was hungry I ate, when I was tired I took a break, but I generally went through this whole time period studying.

Over the past few weeks I’ve done more of what I call “timed studying” then I’ve ever done in the past. The only extra tool that you need to do this, aside from your books and writing utensils, is a simple timer (whether it’s on your phone, watch, or computer).

There are two things that you will want to time yourself on. Your study times and your break times. I’ve experimented with 30 minute studying, and 5 minute breaks, but ultimately found the 50-10 setup much more productive for my own taste.

50 Minute Study Sessions. Everything I need for this session is in front of me before I begin, and the only thing I do during this time is study. My phone is on silent, my family is alerted not to bother me or use loud noises, and I’m on a mission-unstoppable to get through the 50 minutes as productively as I’m capable of.

Most of the time when the buzzer sounds I’m still in the middle of something. It’s important that you don’t continue to cross your t or dot your i at this point and RESPECT the timer. Respecting the system, and in this case the timer, is the single most important factor in discipline. It’s all about respecting and not giving way to the moral code (timer system), that you have set up for your self and your studying.

10 Minute Break Sessions. As important as it was to have an intention for your study session, it is important to have an intention for your break session. The ultimate intention of a break session is to refresh yourself so you can have a focused uninterrupted study session right after.

I use my study sessions to use the restroom, eat, drink, and do exercises and breathing techniques in order to have my body be at 100% once I begin studying. If I am hungry, the food I’ll get will be light, such as a small bite of leftovers, or a fruit.

Exercising During Break. It’s important to get the heart rate up, and to get blood and oxygen to our brains to invigorate our brains for the next study session. Exercises enables our brain to release a special protein that is conducive to creative new neuron connections and thus learning better.

Some of the exercises I do are running up and down the stairs, jumping jacks, perfect pushups, pull ups, squats, bicycle sit ups, handstands, and various dumbbell exercises. You can be creative here, and use part of your break to work on whatever you want.

Breathing Exercise. Recently I have started to implement Yoga breathing techniques, based on advice from my friend Cynthia. You can breathe in for a 4 count and breathe out for an 8 count and then increase these numbers as you get better. The main thing to remember about breathing is to forcefully exhale every last bit of air (and thus Carbon Dioxide) out of your lungs, creating room for much more Oxygen.

The Magic of the 50-10. When I go through the 50-10 technique something amazing happens. I have complete concentration and motivation throughout the whole 50 minute study session. When the buzzer rings to tell me the 50 minutes are up, I think “ohh man, not yet, I still want to study more.” I get up right away regardless. I go through my 10 minute break routine, and then it hits me – the 10 minutes of ‘break’ feel longer than the 50 minutes of studying, and I’m excited to get back to studying.

Daily Exercise

Memory and brain function have been linked to exercise in many official scientific experiments. If you’re healthy, you could easily be doing a minimum of 30 minutes of light cardio every single day, and eventually work up to an hour of intense cardio workouts.

Know your body, consult a doctor for advice before starting, and remember to take baby steps when first starting up the exercise habit. Instead of starting really strong, hurting yourself, and not coming back to the exercises, it’s smart to start slow and progress whenever you’re comfortable enough to take the next step.

There are 80 and 90 year olds finishing Marathons, so there’s no reason why you can’t build yourself up to doing just 1 hour of cardio every day. I understand that if you’re handicapped in some way this presents more of a challenge, but it’s important to reach higher levels from your own baseline and not compare yourself to others.

Don’t forget about strength training. It’s very important to have the other muscles that aren’t involved in your cardio routine being firm, not flabby. If you spend your days studying, then you can throw in a few good sets of strength training several times a day during your 10 minute breaks.

Using Multiple Senses

Certain people are keener on certain study modes over others, such as auditory versus visual. It’s important to remember that visual learning is still the best way to learn, and that the other modes of studying are excellent supplements.

Since vision is dominate in learning, it’s important to get the most use out of that by using flash cards, using different colors to make notes, draw diagrams, and create mind maps. The different shapes and colors can all serve to give your memory extra triggers.

Just reading the material is usually not enough for more complicated topics. It’s important to write down notes, in your own words, in ways that will make sense to you and trigger recall of information.

When it comes to auditory learning, attending lecture might be important, but it’s not absolutely necessary. There are two different methods that I use to incorporate other senses, which are speaking, and listening.

Sometimes I read what I’m studying out loud. Other times I read the notes that I’ve made out loud. I also make personal audio recordings of myself reading my notes, and then I play them back to myself when driving, exercising, or in the background of other things that I’m doing.

I normally encourage single-tasking when studying, but I look at this as an extra supplement that doesn’t take away from your normal study time. This type of personal recording is also different from other people’s lectures, because you don’t feel compelled to stop what you are doing and takes notes – the notes are already there from when you personally created them.

Engaging the different senses helps the memories to be formed through different incoming avenues. It also allows you to recollect the information through different parts of your brain, making it more likely that you won’t forget the facts on test day.

Single-Tasking

In our consciousness, our brain is only capable of focusing on one thought at a time. Try it. Focusing in on two different thoughts is virtually impossible. While it is possible to switch rapidly between thoughts and actions, it takes time to get into a deep state of focus and concentration that is conducive to studying, memorizing, and understanding.

There are certain things that I like to do in order to enable single-tasking and optimize focus. I like to sit at a very large desk that has a lot of open space. I have all the necessary tools in front of me, so at any given time I don’t have to get up and retrieve them from another location.

Colored markers, notebook, index cards, text books, review books, water bottle, and anything else I might need in the course of a study session are right at my grasp. My computer stays at another location. I write down my questions and make a separate research session with the computer when the need arises.

The only thing I’m really doing while I’m studying is focusing in on one very narrow topic. I’m proactively reading the information and then figuring out ways to store the information, whether it be in some kind of mental chamber, or in some creative way on paper.

Nourishment and Hydration

Whether you’re vegan, kosher, or carnivore, eating heavy foods and overeating is going to make you less alert. Not something you want while going through big study sessions. For this I recommend eating a big meal in the morning, and then having really small snack size meals several times throughout your day.

Never eat to the point where you’re full. See if you can get a sense of your stomach capacity and eat to 60-75% capacity. In the morning this means a large meal, but during the small meals in your day (during your 10 minute breaks for example), it’s going to take less food to get up to 75%.

When we eat, our digestive system uses a tremendous amount of energy to digest the food, our blood sugar can get a bit wacky, and we get tired. Tired isn’t bad when we want to rest, but we don’t want to rest while we’re studying.

Your brain takes up about 2% of your body weight, and it uses 20% of your daily energy. If you spend the day studying, I would argue that your brain uses even more energy. Combine that energy consumption with the exercise you do in the morning, during your 10 minute breaks, and during digestion and you’re going to burn a lot of calories.

You need to get those calories in by eating a lot of fresh and healthy food. Since your body and each individual cell is literally made from the food you eat, it makes sense to eat healthy. Don’t forget that your brain needs a lot of healthy fats to consume, which you get not from fried fatty foods, but from avocados and various nuts and seeds.

Make sure you stock up on the nutritious essentials. Just like you want to have everything on hand for your 50 minute study session, you want to have things ready for your 10 minute breaks.

Our body requires about 3+ liters of water every day. You’ll get some of it from eating a lot of fruits, but you still need to drink a lot of water to keep your body functioning like a well oiled machine. Water will make you feel more alert and well in general. Make sure you don’t forget to drink, drink, drink!

Turn off Distractions

While I do use my iPhone as a timer, I put it on silent and turn off vibrate mode. This way I don’t get distracted and look up each time I get a phone call or text message. This is important because each distraction that looks like it weighs an ounce actually costs a ton in lost focus.

When I’m studying at home, I ask my family members not to interrupt me, and not to turn the TV on too loud. Some people hate studying at home and they assume the role of a victim. They say that their family is so distracting, and there are so many other distractions in the house. I used to say this too.

I stopped being the victim by speaking up. Family doesn’t always realize they are distracting you, and are not doing it intentionally. Kindly ask them to be quieter and they will happily oblige. It’s your job to keep your study environment distraction free, not anyone else’s.

All other distractions can wait after you’ve gone through all your 50-10 study sessions. Your study is really important, and all the little distractions that pop up are usually just urgent. If you’re constantly putting out the fires and letting urgent tasks get your attention, you’ll never get to what is really important.

Reviewing

Reading something and taking notes is just not enough. Definitely not enough when dealing with such high volumes of information as the DAT. This means that it’s necessary to review, and to do this often.

After you’ve finished your study sessions and written notes, it’s important to look over the notes right away. Within 12 hours of your session, it is important to review all the information again. This is the key to getting things from short-term to long-term memory.

I also recommend reviewing things from day one every day until test day. This involves extra review for things you aren’t 100% certain about, and minor review for things you feel confident about. If you’re taking notes on a word document or paper, you will want to condense your notes each time you look at them.

Condensing your notes means using less words to explain the same concept, such as trigger words that would make sense only to you. You might also consider cutting out things that have become a complete no brainer.

When dealing with a longer study time, you might want to keep one document that is absolutely complete, and another one that you keep condensing. During the week of the test you’ll take a peek at the longer document to make sure you didn’t forget anything.

Practice Questions

Whenever studying for a test it’s important to pretest what you really know. Get your hands on any old tests, practice tests, or similar text book questions. Don’t just casually browse through the practice questions. Instead, play a game where you treat the practice questions as a real test.

In order for this game to work, you have to assign a time limit to a certain number of questions in order to keep the pressure on yourself. You’ll go through the entire question set first, and then look at the answer key to check your answers.

You’ll encounter three important types of scenarios when you go over the questions. A) You will be 100% confident in the answer and get it right. In this case, you move on. B) You’ll get the question wrong. In this case, you go back to the text book and reread the whole section to fully understand why you got the question wrong. C) You got the question right, but it was sort of, kind of, maybe a guess. You might not be so lucky on the test, so you must go back to your text and fully understand this area.

Final Words

Please note that different techniques will work better for certain individuals, that’s why it is important to both find what works for you and optimize your techniques daily.

My current daily mission, until I take this test, is to proactively study my material, in a distraction free environment, keeping up with the pace I set for myself when I was thinking with the end in mind. This allows me to be confident in my abilities, zone in and focus on the content, and do this all with a clear intention and purpose.

I like to start studying early, remain distraction free, and work into the evening. This doesn’t leave too much side room for day dreaming, or thinking of great topics to write here, so I hope you enjoy this one, which is a good reflection of what my life is looking like at the moment.

If you like this article, I would love it if you gave it a thumbs up on StumbleUpon and a vote on Reddit.

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