Transcript
This study found a simple rule that can make you learn or teach almost any skill faster. It can help you study for tests, learn to rock climb, master a video game, and a whole lot more. It's called the 85% rule, and we're going to cover what it is, why it works, and how to apply it. Welcome back to 30 Studies to Change Your Life, Learning Optimization Week, where we'll be covering science-backed methods to help you learn faster and retain that information longer. To explain the rule, I'm going to give you guys two examples for my grad school days. I was always one of those annoying, overachiever, straight-eat. students. But I had this one crotchety professor. Let's call him Bins. I remember walking out of his first exam freaking out. The class was on transistor theory, but the test had almost nothing to do with that. I later found out that it was more based on his current research project. I got a 37% on that test. I was devastated. But I spoke to a friend who was super relaxed about it. He told me that his father had also had Professor Bins, and that the class average, even back then, was usually curves it up. I remember almost nothing from that whole semester. That same year, I had a different class on electromagnetism. It was really hard to get into because the teacher, let's call him Gilderoy, was known to be good but a really lazy test giver. He always used the same questions from previous years and barely even changed the numbers around. Most people got hundreds. But just like the first professor, a year later and almost nobody remembered anything from that class. This all intuitively makes sense. We learn best when we're being challenged, but make that challenge too hard, and there's to hold on to so we just check out. But there's a sweet spot, which brings us to the study. Researchers tested out multiple learning models, both from AI research and neuroscience, trying to see how training difficulty impacts learning speed. They found an optimal error rate to be 15.87% or roughly 85% accuracy, meaning that you're trying something, but you're failing roughly one in every seven attempts. This study was theoretical, but it's been backed up by classroom data, and, most recently, a study on computer-guided rehab exercise exercises in humans. Were those who found them either too easy or too hard didn't stick with it as much as those who had a roughly 90% success rate. So if you're studying and getting more than six out of seven problems right, raise the difficulty level. But also don't start out too tough unless that's part of the actual education process. Back when I was trying to get good at Beat Saber, I made sure to set it that I was playing at a difficulty where I could hit roughly 85% of those blocks. Rather than spending too much time perfecting those levels where I was already at the 95% or wasting my time with those where I could barely hit any. I want to hear from you guys. What are the best ways you would apply this rule? Let me know in the comments.
Additional notes
This one of my favorite study hacks! Too many people make the mistake of spending too much time in the wrong parts of that Error Rate curve PMID: 31690723 #learning #science #longervideos #studyhacks #student #edutok