🎓 The Ultimate Guide to Studying

Studying for exams is one of the best things in the world. Isn’t that right?

If there's one thing that's going to completely transform our school, college or university experience, it's how to study effectively. But the weird thing about studying effectively is that we're never taught how to do it. We may get the odd bit of advice from a teacher but usually not much more than that.

I discovered all this effective studying stuff when I was in my 2nd year of medical school, and it completely changed the game for me - not only in terms of making my studying more effective but it also freed up my time to start my own business and later my YouTube channel, while still getting pretty good exam results at university.

My Free, In-Depth Masterclass

The best way to get started and learn about the most effective, evidence-based study techniques is to take my How to Study for Exams Masterclass on Skillshare. If you don't have a Skillshare subscription, you can sign up to a free 2-month trial. You can always cancel your subscription during the trial if you don't want to pay for it, although for $10/month, it's totally worthwhile.

How to Study for Exams - An Evidence-Based Masterclass | Ali Abdaal | Skillshare
Being able to study efficiently and effectively is a superpower. As students, it boost our grades, reduces our stress levels and frees up our time to do more i...
Skillshare

All posts by date

How to Apply for a Job – 14 Effective Tips

September 14, 2022

So you’ve spent hours and hours browsing the internet looking for the perfect job opportunity. Maybe you’ve found it, and you’re wondering how to ace the application – nice one. Or maybe you’re getting frustrated because no good jobs for your skillset are being advertised. This article should help with both scenarios. Over the last […]

How to Learn Anything Faster

October 15, 2021

Learning how to learn is one of those meta skills that nobody ever really teaches us. But, it’s also the number one skill we should learn if we’re looking to significantly improve our life in basically every single way. For example, when I was in med school, I spent some time learning how to learn. […]

The 5 Rs of Note Taking

September 17, 2021

The way we take our notes influences how well we learn. In short, a good note-taking technique is one that helps us remember, retain, and recall the most amount of information. Clearly, there are a number of different ways we can take notes when learning stuff. Summarising, highlighting, and creating mind maps are just a […]

The Feynman Technique

September 3, 2021

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough” – Albert Einstein (attributed) When we learn something, it’s easy to convince ourselves that we’ve understood it too. But, are we really learning effectively? Have we understood the concept or simply memorised some sentences? The problem with the learning techniques most of us use (like highlighting, summarising, […]

The Hidden Power of Boredom

April 16, 2021

We do almost anything to avoid feeling bored. As soon as our interest in an activity begins to decline we quickly turn to playing games, replying to messages, or engaging with some other easily-accessible distraction. We do this to avoid the mental discomfort of boredom. We’re never too far away from something to stimulate us […]

How to Manage Your Study Schedule – The Waterfall Method of Time Management

April 7, 2021

Let’s talk about the waterfall method to help manage your study schedule. Time is our one finite resource. Every week we’re given just 168 hours to work towards our goals, pursue our passions, and spend time with friends and family. And this is more like 80 or 90 hours once we’ve accounted for sleep, eating, […]

The Art of Reading More Effectively and Efficiently

February 26, 2021

It might seem odd to have a blog post devoted entirely to reading more effectively. After all, if you’re reading this, chances are you can read. But reading effectively and efficiently is its own skill – one that we’re never really taught how to do. Throughout our academic life, we’re programmed to believe that effective […]

The Ultimate Guide To Studying For Exams

February 22, 2021

How NOT To Study for Exams Rereading The Futility of Rereading Highlighting Textbooks Aren’t Colouring Books Bad Notetaking When Extra Work Doesn’t Produce Better Results When was the last time you were taught how to study? We have lessons on a whole a range of subjects but we rarely, if ever, see ‘Studying’ as a […]

How to Study for Exams – An Evidence-Based Masterclass

September 22, 2020

Being able to study efficiently and effectively is a superpower. As students, it boost our grades, reduces our stress levels and frees up our time to do more interesting things. But we’re never taught how to do it. Most of us rely on ‘intuitive’ techniques like rereading, note-taking, summarising and highlighting to get through our […]

Learn Anything with Flashcards – The Ultimate Guide to Anki

June 20, 2020

Learn Anything With Flashcards – The Ultimate Guide To Anki | Ali Abdaal | Skillshare Learn Anything With Flashcards – The Ultimate Guide To AnkiFinding the right tools and techniques for learning is difficult. We've all spent time at some poi… Skillshare Finding the right tools and techniques for learning is difficult. We’ve all spent […]

Videos

I've created a load of videos on my YouTube channel which talk through my study techniques in detail, but I've linked a few of my favourites here to get you started.

How to study for exams - Evidence-based revision tips
🎬 Check out my FREE 36-video online class on how to study for exams - https://skl.sh/2UOx68x Today we’re learning how to study for exams with scientifically-...
YouTube
How I take notes on my iPad Pro in medical school - Cambridge University medical student
📝My favourite iPad Screen Protector - Paperlike - https://paperlike.com/ali 🎬 My FREE 4.5-hour 36-video online class on how to study for exams - https://skl....
YouTube

My Ultimate Guide to Studying

There's a large amount of scientific evidence out there that can tell us a lot about how to study in a way that maximises our results and minimises the amount of time we have to put in. I've created these resources for you which share my recommendations.

✏️ How-To Study Guides

How To Study: Active Recall - The High Utility Technique you Should Be Using

How To Study: The Essay Memorisation Framework

How To Study: The Power of Retrospective Revision Timetables

How To Study: Spaced Repetition and My 'Magic' Spreadsheet System

How to Study: An Effective Learning Framework To 'STIC' With

And here are the 3 popular revision techniques I'd recommend avoiding too, as they've been proven not to boost performance.

Browse Topics

  1. ✍️ Writing
  2. 🎓 Studying
  3. 🎬 YouTube
  4. đź’° Money
  5. đź“” Journal
  6. 🔥 Habits
  7. 🔥 Ultimate Guides
  8. 🚀 Productivity
  9. đź›  Tools & Tech
  10. 🤑 Entrepreneurship

Search

💌 Subscribe to Sunday Snippets

"Your emails always warm the cockles of my heart"

Join a growing community of more than 180,000 (🤯) friendly readers. Every Sunday I share actionable productivity tips, practical life advice, and high-quality insights from across the web, directly to your inbox.