Topic
Memory, study technique, books and how we actually learn.
Spørretimen Explained
How do some people memorise a whole deck of cards? A practical walk through memory technique: the memory palace, encoding things as images, and the systems that make it possible – and how to use them yourself.
School teaches you to work right to left, because that is how you write. In your head it is the other way round. A walk-through of the techniques for addition and subtraction – round and correct, fill up to the ten, shift between the numbers, and why you never need to borrow.
What does it take to succeed enormously? Not what you think, argues Malcolm Gladwell. A walk through the ideas in Outliers – 10,000 hours, birth months, opportunity and cultural legacy – and why the book's most famous rule is misread.
Division feels harder than the other operations, but it is the method that is the problem – not the sum. A walk-through of factorising, splitting, short division, the divisibility rules for 3, 4, 7, 8, 9 and 11, and what to do when it does not come out even.
Percentages are the arithmetic people use most and get wrong most. A walk-through of the techniques – ten per cent as the starting point, the trick of turning the sum around, VAT in both directions, per cent against percentage points, and why up and down by the same amount does not return you to the start.
How do you learn the times tables without memorising a hundred facts? A walk through a technique for every table from 1 to 10 – doubling, the five rule, the digit rule for nines and the square numbers – and the few facts that genuinely have to be practised.
A method for mental arithmetic in which the times tables are replaced by one short rule per digit. The whole Trachtenberg system walked through, with the rule and an example for every digit from 2 to 12 – and how to check the answer.
Spørretimen
Career · Doctor
With John Erik
What is it like to be a doctor? John Erik talks about studying medicine in Poland, everyday life as a GP, meeting patients, responsibility, and advice for future doctors.
Resources
Oddbjørn By's Memo books teach practical memory techniques – methods for remembering names, numbers, course material and languages. Recommended by Jan Sindre on the podcast.
Norway's best-selling books on study technique. Schewe went from being an average pupil to a top student at Oxford, and shares the methods that actually work.
A visual memory technique in which you attach information to rooms and places you know well, so the knowledge is easier to retrieve. John Erik used it while studying medicine.
Chris Bailey's practical book on how attention works – how you drop into hyperfocus on a single task, and why letting the mind wander matters just as much.
There is no single study technique that works for everyone. Try things out and find the method that suits the way you learn.
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