There are two stages to this method:
<ul>
<li>The creation stage: the objective is to generate high quality essay plans for every possible title that you could receive in an exam.</li>
<li>The memorization stage: transfer all of these essay plans to memory by methodically using active recall, spaced repetition, spider diagrams, and flashcards.</li>
</ul>
Benefits of this technique: you will be able to memorize so many essay plans by the time your exam is due, that a lot of these will come up at the exam anyway (or similar ones, so you'll have the possibility to compile bits of the memorized information to generate great essays from scratch).

The Essay Memorization Technique

The three things that count:
<ol>
<li>Structure</li>
<li>Actually answering the question</li>
<li>Adding your personal touch, the elements that spice up the whole thing.</li>
</ol>
The introduction is the essential part because you are signaling to the examiner that you are doing all these things.

Making Sure You Have A Good Essay Plan

<ul>
<li>Explore the subject and find essay titles that cover the entire breadth of the syllabus.</li>
<li>Keep in mind past essay titles.</li>
<li>After you've covered those up (and gained a deeper understanding of the subject), put yourself in the shoes of the examiners and imagine what they could ask you.</li>
</ul>

Picking Up Essay Titles

<ul>
<li>Start with a question.</li>
<li>Use Google to get as much information as you can about that particular question (articles, review papers, everything that could answer your question). Keep all the information in a research document.</li>
<li> Create the plan and start developing its sections.</li>
<li>Look at the lectures and recommended reading list and finish your essay.</li>
<li>Give yourself one day to do this for each essay (keep in mind Parkinson's Law: work expands to fill the time you allocate to it).</li>
</ul>

Designing The Essay Plan

<ul>
<li>Using the memorized content blocks of the ANKI flashcards, you can build spider diagrams. </li>
<li>You have the whole structure of the essay and the keyword in your diagram. </li>
<li>Follow the same process for all your essay title. Put a date on each page.</li>
<li>Use 1 page for each essay.</li>
<li>You have to draw your essays from memory; if there are things you don't remember, actively work on those.</li>
<li>This is a great way use active recall to ensure you know everything for the exam.</li>
<li>Before the exam, you can browse through your diagrams.</li>
</ul>

Spider Diagrams

The objective of this stage is to transfer all your essay plans into your brain so that you can use them later during the exam.
Useful techniques:
<ul>
<li>ANKI flashcards</li>
<li>Spider diagrams</li>
<li>A retrospective revision timetable.</li>
</ul>

The Essay Memorization Stage

<ul>
<li>These flashcards are blocks of content that can insert into the essays you have planned. They also work for essays you have not prepared in advance: you have blocks of knowledge in your head that you can put into your new essay.</li>
<li>Everything that is in your ANKI is going to get uploaded into your brain.</li>
<li>Use them to memorize the paragraphs of your essays.</li>
<li>Use keywords at the front of the cards: for example, the title of a paper you are going to discuss in your ANKI, a theory, or a concept.</li>
</ul>

ANKI Flashcards

There are aspects questions to keep in mind at this stage:
<ol>
<li>How you decide what essay titles to choose and prepare.</li>
<li>How you plan the essays.</li>
<li>How you make sure your essay plans are high quality.</li>
</ol>

Essay Memorization: The Creation Stage

This is the last step towards effective memorization and it involves systematic spaced repetition. You can do it by using a retrospective timetable.
This technique involves creating a spreadsheet that starts with a list of subjects, topics or essays that you have put together and then inputting the dates on which you study those areas as well as color code the system to provide a visual representation as to which areas we might need to cover again.This method will give you an image of your progress and an overview of how well you know your essays.

The Retrospective Revision Timetable

Strategies and tips to ace your next exam

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How To Study Effectively For Exams

🎬 Check out my FREE 36-video online class on how to study for exams - https://skl.sh/2UOx68x In this video, I talk through the Essay Memorisation Framework that I used to win the top exam results prize in my 3rd year of Medical School at Cambridge University. I was studying Psychology as my intercalated BA, and using this method I created around 50 essay plans and committed them to memory. This video explains how. Enjoy xx TIMESTAMPS 00:34 - General Overview 01:21 - The Creation Stage --- 01:50 - Deciding what essays to plan --- 02:30 - How to plan the essays --- 04:57 - How to make the essay plan really good 08:10 - The Memorisation Stage --- 08:36 - Anki flashcards to memorise content blocks --- 09:50 - Spider diagrams to memorise entire essays --- 12:49 - The Retrospective Revision Timetable to systematically use active recall and spaced repetition (more info here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7o09a7t4RA) 14:10 - Wrapping Up MY FREE ONLINE COURSES: 🚀 Productivity Masterclass - Principles and Tools to Boost Your Productivity - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/productivity 🎬 Video Editing with Final Cut Pro X - From Beginner to YouTuber - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/video-editing 🎓 How to Study for Exams - An Evidence-Based Masterclass - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/studying 😃 How to be Happier - Stoicism Masterclass - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/stoicism TOOLS OF THE TRADE: 🎥 My YouTube Camera Gear - https://kit.co/AliAbdaal ⌨️ My Keyboard - Wireless Coral mechanical keyboard (Cherry Blue) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/keyboard 📝 My favourite iPad Screen Protector - Paperlike - https://go.aliabdaal.com/paperlike 🎒 My Desk Accessories + Todo List - Ugmonk - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ugmonk 📚 How I remember what I read - Readwise - https://go.aliabdaal.com/readwise 🎵 Where I get my Music (amazing for YouTubers) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/epidemicsound 🌐 My website platform (Ghost) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/ghost OTHER RECOMMENDED COURSES 📔 Effortless Output with Roam Research - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/roam 📓 Building a Second Brain - https://go.aliabdaal.com/course/basb 🎙My weekly podcast - https://www.notoverthinking.com My brother and I host a weekly podcast where we discuss happiness, creativity and the human condition. You can find it by searching “Not Overthinking” on any podcast app (eg: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts etc). BE MY FRIEND: 💌 Sign up to my weekly email newsletter - https://email.aliabdaal.com 🌍 My website / blog - https://www.aliabdaal.com 📸 Instagram - https://instagram.com/aliabdaal 🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/aliabdaal 🎮 Twitch - https://twitch.tv/aliabdaal WHO AM I: I'm Ali, a junior doctor working in Cambridge, UK. I make videos about medicine, technology, productivity and lifestyle design. I also have a weekly podcast with my brother (https://www.notoverthinking.com), and I write a weekly email newsletter that contains some quick thoughts + links to interesting things (https://email.aliabdaal.com). 🌍 My website / blog - https://www.aliabdaal.com GET IN TOUCH: If you’d like to talk, I’d love to hear from you. Tweeting @AliAbdaal directly will be the quickest way to get a response, but if your question is very long, feel free to email me at hi@aliabdaal.com. I try my best to reply to things but there sadly aren't enough hours in the day to respond to everyone 😭 PS: Some of the links in this description are affiliate links that I get a kickback from 😜

🎬 Check out my FREE 36-video online class on how to study for exams - https://skl.sh/2UOx68x 

In this video, I talk through the Essay Memorisation Framework that I used to win the top exam results prize in my 3rd year of Medical School at Cambridge University. I was studying Psychology as my intercalated BA, and using this method I created around 50 essay plans and committed them to memory. This video explains how. Enjoy xx

🍿WATCH NEXT
How I Take Notes on My iPad Pro in Medical School: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waR3xBDHMqw&t=341s
How to Study for Exams: Evidence-based Revision Tips: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukLnPbIffxE&t=602s
How I Manage My Time (10 Tips): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iONDebHX9qk&t=1s
My Favourite Note-Taking App for Students: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONG26-2mIHU&t=35s

TIMESTAMPS
00:34 - General Overview
01:21 - The Creation Stage
--- 01:50 - Deciding what essays to plan
--- 02:30 - How to plan the essays
--- 04:57 - How to make the essay plan really good
08:10 - The Memorisation Stage
--- 08:36 - Anki flashcards to memorise content blocks
--- 09:50 - Spider diagrams to memorise entire essays
--- 12:49 - The Retrospective Revision Timetable to systematically use active recall and spaced repetition (more info here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7o09a7t4RA)
14:10 - Wrapping Up

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✍️ Shortform - The BEST summaries of books - https://go.aliabdaal.com/shortform

📚  Readwise - How I remember what I read - https://go.aliabdaal.com/readwise

🎵  Epidemic Sound - Where I get my music (amazing for YouTubers) - https://go.aliabdaal.com/epidemicsound

MY KEY LINKS
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WHO AM I:
I’m Ali, a YouTuber, podcaster, soon-to-be author and ex-Doctor working in London, UK. I make videos that explore the strategies and tools that help us live happier, healthier and more productive lives. I also have a weekly podcast called Deep Dive (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChfo46ZNOV-vtehDc25A1Ug), and I write a weekly email newsletter that contains some quick thoughts + links to interesting things (https://go.aliabdaal.com/subscribe-sundaysnippets).

PS: Some of the links in this description are affiliate links that I get a kickback from 😜

📚 Check out my first book Feel-Good Productivity here: https://www.feelgoodproductivity.com/

Hey, I'm Ali, a doctor turned entrepreneur, and the world’s most followed productivity expert 😜 

On this channel, we explore evidence-based strategies and tools that can help us be more productive, and build a life that we love. 

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The Retrospective Revision Timetable

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The Essay Memorization Technique