everyone's favorite study method

Hey y’all,

About a year and half ago, I made a video about a study technique called blurting, and it is—by far—the most popular study technique I’ve talked about on my account.

(Just in case you haven’t seen the video, here it is! It received over 100 million views across TikTok and YouTube.)

In this week’s newsletter, I’m going to talk about how to “blurt” (lol that sounds so weird), when to use this technique, but also why it might not be the best study method.

What Is Blurting?

Blurting is a form of short-term active recall. It’s an exercise that can help you memorize information and identify gaps in your knowledge.

Here’s how it works:

1. Review some material (e.g., your notes or your textbook) and put it away.

2. Take out a piece of paper and write down everything you can remember.

3. Go back to the material and use a colored pen to write down everything you missed.

4. Repeat this process until you can recall the main points easily.

When to Blurt

You can leverage blurting for any subject, though I find it most useful for humanities courses instead of STEM courses.

As I’ve mentioned in previous videos, doing practice problems is the key to acing your STEM exams. While blurting can be helpful for memorizing formulas and terms, you’ll make more progress applying that knowledge.

On the other hand, I feel that humanities courses rely a bit more on knowledge recall rather than knowledge execution, making blurting a better fit. For example, blurting can help you memorize key themes for a class like English or history.

I also think blurting is also a great last-minute way to study. If you’re looking to memorize as much information as possible in the shortest amount of time, I can’t think of a better approach.

The Drawbacks of Blurting

Blurting is a clever way to study—but it’s not the best way to study. It’s a surface-level exercise that’ll enable you to regurgitate facts and formulas on exam day, but it won’t give you a fundamental understanding of the content.

For a STEM exam, blurting won’t teach you how to apply that knowledge to solve actual problems.

For a history exam, blurting won’t teach you how to synthesize disparate ideas and come to novel insights.

That’s why I recommend students use blurting in tandem with other strategies—such as mind maps, the Feynman technique, and practice problems. The most effective students draw on multiple techniques and adapt their approach based on the material they’re trying to learn.

Alright y’all, if you enjoyed this letter and have made it this far, I appreciate you! And thank you to everyone who DMed me on Instagram last week letting me know they read these. :)

If you want additional study advice, come join my Discord! We have a global community of students helping each other succeed in school. Would love to see you there.

And if you need help with college applications, check out Next Admit! We have a team of Ivy League consultants eager to help you navigate the admissions process.

I’ll see you next week!

Best,
Gohar