The BEST Way to Learn ANYTHING (Especially Anatomy)!!! | Institute of Human Anatomy

I've been teaching human anatomy and physiology for nearly 10 years now and the most common question that I get from my students by far is, Justin, how can I better learn and study my anatomy? And I've now taught thousands of students in the classroom, so I know what works and I know what doesn't work. And while there are many effective study methods out there, there is one in particular that consistently stands above all the others. And that's what we're going to talk about today. So what is this secretive study method? Well, first off, it's not a secret. You can do just a basic Google or YouTube search for like best study methods or top 10 study methods, and you will find this either at the top of every list or pretty much right there at the top. It's called active recall or a form of it is called the Feynman technique, which we'll discuss what that means in a second. But I'm not doing this video because I've seen it at the top or near the top of all those other lists. I'm doing this video because I know from personal experience that it works. I've been using active recall since as long as I can remember, before I even knew that it was called active recall. And I've now seen countless students all succeed using this technique. So you're probably wondering then, what is active recall? In essence, active recall is simply actively engaging in the study material itself or the study process itself. And that's in comparison to a more passive form. So a passive form of studying would look like, let's say like you have flashcards or a textbook, and all you're doing is reading it and then moving along. Like I can't tell you how many times I've seen students open their textbook or their lecture manual, read from the top left of the page down, go to the right side, and then turn the page and basically like nod to themselves as though they just studied. When in my eyes, I'm like, you didn't really study anything. You just read something, right? Passively studying is a terrible way to ensure you know what you're talking about. It can be great for memorization, but there is a big difference between memorizing something and learning something. So here's a real easy example of that. Have you ever been super excited to tell someone something? And then as soon as you start telling them the story, you realize you have no idea what you're talking about, right? Like let's pretend you just learned something about genetic engineering. And you're like, hey, you got to listen to this. It's so cool. So genetic engineering is where they start editing your chromosomes or is it your DNA? Are chromosomes made of DNA? And then before you know it, you're like, well, crap, I have no idea what I'm talking about. I guarantee you've been there because we've all been there. Well, it's not that what you were talking about wasn't exciting or interesting. It's that you just have no idea what you're talking about because you just passively engage with the material. You watched a YouTube clip about it or you read a blurb about it. That is not the same thing as learning. All you did was come across some information and now you were testing yourself with it by saying it out loud and realizing you need to do more work. Now, I want to be clear, there are actually different types of active recall methods, but the one that I'm most comfortable with is very similar to what's called the Feynman technique. Now, it's named after Richard Feynman, who was an amazing physicist. If you don't know anything about Richard Feynman, after this video, you should totally go nerd out on Richard Feynman because he is one of the most incredible physicists to ever live. But he had an amazing technique for learning. And what's so cool about it, at least in my mind, is that I've been doing something very similar to that my entire life. I am in no way claiming that I am on the level of Richard Feynman. I, he's up here and I'm like, you know, like through the floor. But it validates it for me because then I'm like, you know what, I did, I stumbled upon something really cool. I know this actually works. And it's pretty simple. So what Richard Feynman would do is he would actually make lists of the things he knew. And what he would then do is try and explain that and say that out loud, whether he's literally talking to someone or he's not, but he's saying it out loud. And he would try to explain that topic in as many different ways as possible, like for certain age ranges, right? So say like for a 10-year-old, for a 20-year-old, for a 40-year-old, different professions, different levels of expertise. Because what that would do, it was really just enlighten him to how much did he actually know on that particular subject? And he didn't just do this with things that he was an expert on. He did this with things that he was interested in. So like, say broadly, you'd write physics or chemistry or biology. And then he would just start explaining it. And then he'd start like segmenting it out into these smaller pieces and seeing if he could explain those. And what would inevitably happen is he would run into a place where he's like, well, I don't know that. He would literally find the gaps in his knowledge. But instead of stopping there, instead of getting frustrated, he would then go look into it. He would research it. He would study it. And then he would come back and he'd do the same process again. This is what I believe to be the most effective and best interpretation of active recall. The reason why I know this method works is because when I very first started teaching, I'm talking my first week of teaching, I realized something. I remember clearly looking out into the audience and I was like, oh man, like they're paying me to say words to them right now. Like they have an expectation for me to say things accurately and effectively so that they learn it so that they can then go and have a successful career. And this, as obvious as it may sound, was a huge realization for me. And so I knew I had to really be on top of my game. And that is when I started practicing my lectures. I was single. I was living by myself in my one bedroom apartment. And I was just like, it was an empty room. And I'm just sitting there doing lectures to nobody. And what was crazy is I would even pause. I would be like, does that make sense? Good, good, good. And I know that sounds ridiculous. But what happened is it's like this, it's a dress rehearsal, right? It's the practice. And what happened is it made me more confident. And I started to realize very quickly like, oh wait, I need to know how to speak that more effectively. I need to do better here. Or I got that down. Because just as important as learning what you are rusty at or need more work at is also realizing what you're actually pretty good at. And that means you don't have to spend as much time in that area if any time at all. And this helps you prioritize your studying, right? So many of my students, I've seen them studying things and going over things that they know pretty well. And I'm like, I mean, I get it. I get it. But you should really be prioritizing what you don't know. So for instance, let's say I have a student that's struggling with the scapular muscles. I would then ask them, okay, well, what's the origin of supraspinatus? What's the origin of infraspinatus? Of subscapularis, teres minor, rhomboideus major. And if I look into their eyes and see that they have no idea, my next question is always the same. I'm like, well, how do you feel with your bony landmarks? Which are the names of the spots on the scapula itself. And almost always they're like, yeah, I don't know my bony landmarks. Well, I think I figured out the problem, right? You have been studying things that you don't really need to be studying. Like so many of those same students, if I was then like, hey, can you show me what elevation of the scapula looks like? And they'll be like, oh yeah, like this. Like, okay, what's depression? Like this. And they can do certain things about scapular muscle anatomy, but they're not prioritizing their study on the areas that they just are awful at. You need to figure out where you're weakest. And most often it's at the grassroots. It's at the foundations of the concepts, especially with anatomy. I can't tell you how many people I realized struggle with medical terminology and nomenclature. And then they are surprised that they don't really understand the professor as they're talking in class. And I'm like, well, of course not. They're basically, well, not basically, they're literally speaking a different language to you than what you're used to. And you're getting hung up on what does endo mean? And how's that different than exo? That's not a good place to be. So you start there. You study there. You make sure you feel comfortable with it. You speak it out loud, whether it's to a teddy bear, to a family member, to a friend. And then you can move on. And then and only then do you move on. That's the other thing. Don't be jumping all around the place. Make sure, right? Don't leave an area. Don't leave a subject until you feel comfortable and confident with it. That is a very important thing to do and something almost no one does. They're basically, if I'm quizzing someone on the digestive system, they will read the digestive system from page one to the very last page. And then once they're there, they start over again. And they think they're studying. When instead, I'm like, if you can't tell me anything about the tongue, you shouldn't have moved on to the esophagus. And that's something that I have found most people struggle with. So in summary, what is active recall or the Feynman technique, or at least my interpretation of it and what I've seen to be successful? Here's what you're going to do. First, you are going to, whenever you're studying, I want you to go through it and figure out what you or at least what you think you know. And then I want you to test yourself and start explaining that to either a teddy bear, an open room, a loved one, a family member, you name it. And I want to see if you know what you're talking about. Once you've kind of started on there, you should start realizing where the gaps in your knowledge are. And that becomes your next area of study. And then what you do is you go back and you study that specific thing. And then you go right back and you say it out loud again. And you're going to keep doing that. And you can do this with flashcards. You can do this with a textbook. You can do this with ever or whichever study platform you like to use. Maybe you have like some online software program that you like to use. The point is you are actively engaged. You're actively recalling it. And you're forcing your mouth to put, I guess you could say, you're putting your money where your mouth is. And that is the single most important thing you can possibly do. And I promise you, this is a promise. If you start doing this, you are going to start seeing results immediately. Thanks for watching, everybody. I really hope you enjoyed this different type video. I mean, I normally were showing cadavers and kind of teaching you some stuff. So hopefully, you enjoyed this change of pace. If you did, be sure to like and comment on this video. If you haven't subscribed yet, I don't know what you're doing with yourself. 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