Ali memorises about 50 essay plans for his third-year psychology exams with spider diagrams (2015)
story · status: told 8×, last update 2020 · last event: retold (2020-08-20) · owner: Ali
Origin known from later mentions
2015 in the title is when this began; it first appears in the videos read here in 2018, so the earlier part is known only from what is said later.
About: active recall, spaced repetition
| date | event | what | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018-03-24 | told | For his essay-based psychology exams Ali predicted about 50 possible essay titles from the lecture notes and subjects, made an essay plan with about seven references for each, and memorised all of them by drawing spider diagrams over and over. | Exam Revision Tips with Ibz Mo 00:07:46 |
| 2018-04-04 (happened 2015) | retold | For his third-year psychology exams, his best ever, Ali made about 50 essay plans and memorised them over two months by drawing closed-book spider diagrams. | How to study for exams - Evidence-based revision tips 00:16:38 |
| 2018-04-09 | retold | For his third-year psychology exams Ali's spreadsheet listed the essays to learn for each of the three papers; once he had read an essay and drawn its spider diagram, he wrote the date. → refers to Exam Revision Tips with Ibz Mo | How to Study for Exams - Spaced Repetition · Evidence-based revision tips 00:14:55 |
| 2018-04-14 | retold | For his psychology essays Ali memorised entire paragraphs, references included, word for word with Anki, introductions above all. | Last Minute Study Tips, Flashcards, Essays & Maths - Exam Revision Q&A with Cambridge students 00:20:04 |
| 2019-02-24 (happened 2015) | retold | Ali repeated his implicit-versus-explicit memory essay seven times by active recall, drawing its spider diagram from memory until he could write any essay on the topic, citing 10 papers. | How to study for exams - The Retrospective Revision Timetable 00:09:56 |
| 2019-04-09 (happened 2015) | retold | With his essay memorisation framework Ali memorised about 45 to 50 essay plans for his third-year psychology exams, using active recall, spaced repetition, flashcards and spider diagrams. | How I ranked 1st at Cambridge University - The Essay Memorisation Framework 00:14:04 |
| 2019-04-09 (happened 2015) | update | Ali reveals that his third-year prize for best exam performance was actually a joint award with another student, who beat him by a few decimals of a percentage point, so he technically came second. | How I ranked 1st at Cambridge University - The Essay Memorisation Framework 00:15:11 |
| 2020-03-13 | retold | For his third-year exams Ali picked three modules, wrote down all their past essay titles, predicted a few more, planned a first-class essay for every one and memorised them all: about 50 essays. → refers to How I ranked 1st at Cambridge University - The Essay Memorisation Framework | The KEY Study Techniques for Exam Success 00:29:35 |
| 2020-08-20 | retold | At university Ali memorised the intermediate packets of his essays and, in his head, dragged and dropped them into any relevant essay, such as one on memory; he says the method helped him rank first in his year group one year. | The Second Brain - A Life-Changing Productivity System 00:08:23 |
What is said about it
4 statements, by date (the events above are the turns of the thread; these are the details).
- 2018-03-24 · Exam Revision Tips with Ibz Mo — Ali studied psychology in his third year at Cambridge, examined entirely by essays: four papers of three essays each, with an hour per essay. — 00:07:11
- 2018-03-24 · Exam Revision Tips with Ibz Mo — Ali says he got a first in third-year psychology and came joint top of the year, which he puts down to his essay-plan method. — 00:07:46
- 2018-03-24 · Exam Revision Tips with Ibz Mo — Ali: In Ali's psychology exams eight of the 12 essays matched plans he had prepared; for the other four he drew a quick spider diagram from his other plans just before writing. — 00:08:16
- 2018-03-24 · Exam Revision Tips with Ibz Mo — Ali says he has no photographic memory: his exam results came from the spider-diagram method and spaced repetition. — 00:08:45