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Why doesn’t anyone teach us how to study properly for exams?

I know students from my time at university who studied for 10 hours every day and still failed the exam. How is that possible?

What do people do differently to achieve better results in less time?

One thing I can clarify upfront: they’re not necessarily smarter.

They simply have a better study method at their disposal.

In this article, I’ll explain the Active Recall study method, which has been found to be the key to peak academic performance in numerous scientific studies.

Passive vs. Active Learning

When it comes to excelling in exams, it’s not just about the number of hours you spend studying, but rather the effectiveness of your study methods.

In a comprehensive 58-page meta-analysis conducted by Dunlosky et al. in 2013*, examining various learning approaches, the authors revealed that commonly used techniques such as re-reading, highlighting, or summarizing notes often do not yield the desired results.

But why do these methods remain so popular?

The answer is quite simple: they are straightforward and have been the traditional way of studying for a long time.

Reading and highlighting notes are very convenient.

And who hasn’t experienced this: after reading something multiple times, you might even feel well-prepared.

However, a word of caution!

When suddenly asked for specific details, many find themselves at a loss. There’s a difference between merely recognizing information and actually recalling it.

The Study Secret: How Our Brain Functions

To understand the best way to study, let’s take a brief journey into the realm of neuroscience. To make this more relatable, I’ll illustrate it using the example of Belinda.

Picture Belinda as she prepares for her upcoming exam, diligently reviewing her lecture slides repeatedly. At this very moment, various regions of her brain are operating at full capacity.

The occipital lobe is busy creating mental images of what she’s currently perusing, while the angular gyrus and the fusiform cortex are hard at work, deciphering the meanings of the words she’s reading.

Once the information has been processed, the brain dispatches it to the hippocampus – essentially the brain’s memory hub.

But here’s the twist: if you merely read through notes, only a fraction of the information tends to stick. Think of it as you would strengthening your muscles: it requires targeted exercises.

Similarly, your memory – especially the hippocampus – needs the right ‘workout regimen.’

This is where the Active Recall study method comes into play.

While straightforward reading primarily activates the visual aspects of your brain, the hippocampus often gets sidelined.

Hence, passive study techniques like reading scripts or highlighting notes pale in comparison to Active Recall.

What Is the Active Recall Study Method?

Active Recall operates by compelling our brains to actively engage in the study process. Instead of passively absorbing information through reading or listening, Active Recall encourages us – as the name implies – to actively retrieve information from our memory.

The act of actively recalling information trains the hippocampus and increases the likelihood that you’ll remember the information when you need to recall it later (e.g., during an exam).

When employing the Active Recall study method, you can retain what you’ve learned for a significantly extended period and apply it in various contexts.

Let’s explore five ways to incorporate the Active Recall learning method into your exam preparation.

#1 Stop and Recite

Following your reading of a section, momentarily set aside your study materials. Attempt to express the content in your own words.

Afterwards, retrieve the script and compare: What did you manage to remember, and where are the gaps? Fill in those information gaps using the script, and repeat the process until you’ve confidently internalized the content.

#2 Flashcards

Flashcards have been a tried-and-true study method for many students for quite some time. Even the act of creating the cards, where you must articulate information precisely, serves as an effective part of the exam prep.

In today’s digital age, you can leverage tools like Anki to craft flashcards. Anki incorporates another study method that works particularly well for memorization, known as “spaced repetition.” This means that flashcards are revisited at specific intervals.

These intervals are carefully calibrated to enhance your ability to remember the content effectively.

However, a word of caution is in order: when using flashcards for studying, it’s crucial not to overlook active recall.

What do I mean by that? As soon as you can’t explain a term or concept, flipping the flashcard to reveal the answer right away won’t be enough.

This approach does not align with active recall because it doesn’t provide your brain with the opportunity to recall the information from memory. Instead, take a moment to challenge yourself to explain as much of the answer in your own words as possible before checking the back of the flashcard.

Additionally, a small tip regarding flashcards:

They often require you to condense information significantly. This can lead to a situation where you may remember numerous isolated facts but struggle to grasp the broader context or how these facts interconnect.

#3 Create Questions: Your Path to Profound Understanding

Instead of relying solely on your study materials and flashcards, try crafting your own questions related to the content you’re studying.

This strategy encourages you to critically evaluate what you’ve learned and ensures you maintain a firm grasp of the overall context.

Creating questions actively engages your learning process, allowing you to forge stronger connections between the new information and your existing knowledge.

Following each chapter or section, make a note of important questions, and later, challenge yourself to answer them without consulting your notes.

#4 Engage an Audience

A highly effective way to master the material is by teaching it to others.

This process activates various cognitive pathways in your brain. Try explaining the subject of your exam to your classmates, friends, or family members.

Doing so compels you to think deeply about the topic and structure your explanation logically. Furthermore, if you encounter difficulties during your explanation, it serves as an immediate indicator of areas where you need improvement.

Pro tip: In the absence of a live audience, you can even imagine one or engage in a chat with ChatGPT. You can prepare the AI with a prompt to ask you specific questions.

If you’re interested in a dedicated tutorial on using ChatGPT for exam preparation, feel free to leave a comment under this video.

#5 Utilize Past Exams as a Recipe for Success

Reviewing past exams is like a trial run for the real test. You become familiar with the question formats and develop an understanding of what to anticipate in the exam.

When you tackle previous exams under timed conditions, you’ll also hone your time management skills and gauge your level of readiness.

An additional benefit: The more you engage in this practice, the more at ease you’ll feel during the actual exam because you’ll possess insights into what lies ahead.

The Drawbacks of Active Recall

Certainly, Active Recall boasts numerous advantages, but are there any downsides? Undoubtedly!

This method can be rather demanding. It necessitates true engagement and cognitive effort, which is substantially more challenging than simply skimming through your notes or reading the script.

Particularly with complex subjects, it can be frustrating when answers don’t readily come to mind. This study approach requires stepping out of your comfort zone and demonstrating substantial initiative.

Yes, the allure of quickly consulting your notes may be strong, but trust me, the additional effort required by Active Recall is well worth it!

*https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1529100612453266

You can’t figure out the process of finding articles for your literature review?

I hear this a lot.

The most common question I get from students is this: The topic I’m writing about is so new, there’s just no literature on it. What should I do?

In this article, we’ll get to the bottom of this. To do this, we’ll discuss the 5 biggest mistakes in searching literature for your research.

If you stick with it until the end, I even have an example for you on how you can craft an amazing literature review section, even if at first glance there seems to be no literature about the topic.

#1 Too narrowly defined search terms

The first mistake students make when trying to figure out how to search for literature effectively is using too narrowly defined search terms.

The results of a literature search can only be as good as the filtering mechanisms you use.

Let’s use a simple example. For this, we need a topic that is so new that there is little or no literature to be found on it.

The example is: Universal Wallets

Universal Wallets are storage places for digital valuables. Maybe you have your own digital wallet to store cryptocurrencies or NFTs in.

In a Universal Wallet, however, you can store not only NFTs and coins but also other things like digital identity documents or other proofs of your identity.

Boolean Operators

For searching in literature databases, finding literature can be as simple as entering search terms. Using Boolean operators can help you to be more effective in your search.

If you are doing a systematic search process that you want to document in your methods section, this is an absolute must, because it ensures replicability.

But even if you keep your search terms for yourself and write a “regular” literature review section, Boolean operators can help you big time.

Especially the “OR” operator. For example, with “Universal Wallets,” you would get a low number of hits for the search term “Universal Wallet” in most databases.

In Google Scholar, however, an algorithm automatically combines your search term with synonyms and also gives you the next best results.

But if you’re searching on another database, that’s of no help to you.

Through the Google Scholar search results, though, I came across synonyms that I would never have searched for.

Wireless Wallets, Cloud Wallets, Electronic Wallets, Hardware Wallets, Wallet System, and Mobile Wallet seem to be related terms.

From this, you could make the search string “wireless” OR “cloud” OR “electronic” OR “hardware” OR “mobile” AND “wallet” for your database search on Scopus, Web of Science and so on.

You’d have to search for Wallet System separately or use brackets to include the term “wallet system.” It’s just a bit cumbersome because here “wallet” is the first word and not the second.

Forward and Backward Search

If a refined database search yields no results, then you need to delve into some other tricks.

With a forward and backward search, you can find the sources upon which the few hits you did find are based, or sources that have cited them afterwards.

The best hit for the term “Universal Wallet” was the paper “Universal Wallets” by Jorgensen and Beck (2021). For the backward search, we simply look at the bibliography and see what we can find there.

Ha!

One paper cited there uses the term “Digital Wallet.” That’s something I could have thought of by myself.

But most often, when finding literature, I do not.

Now, searching for “Digital Wallet” yields endless results. A digital wallet is, of course, not what is meant by “Universal Wallet,” but it is still a related technology.

Thus, it’s perfectly feasible to build on the term “Digital Wallet” to describe what exactly is new about a “Universal Wallet” and why we cannot simply transfer the research on digital wallets to this more nuanced version of the technology.

#2 Inappropriate Databases for Finding Literature

The search terms are one thing. But if the database you are searching on simply does not cover enough sources, then even the best search terms and operators won’t help.

When you use databases, primarily use those in which the research of your own discipline is indexed.

A medical researcher searches on PubMed, a computer scientist on IEEE, and a psychologist on PsycNet. However, sometimes it pays to look beyond the confines of a discipline.

So make sure you also check out interdisciplinary databases. This could be something like Google Scholar, Scopus, or Web of Science.

Or you could look directly into another discipline if you already have an idea of who else might be interested in your topic outside your research field.

The more you can cover with your databases, the better. In the worst case, you find nothing there. But at least you’ve tried.

#3 Old Wine in New Bottles

Regarding “Universal Wallets,” there is certainly a difference compared to “Digital Wallets” or the good old-fashioned wallet.

However, this may not always be the case with other terms.

Take, for example, the topic of Digital Transformation.

The term has only been a trend topic for a few years, and since then, there has been a lot of research on it.

But what’s actually new about it?

Haven’t companies been introducing technology to improve their processes for 50 years?

Yes, they have. And there’s plenty of research literature on that. It’s just not found under the label “Digital Transformation.”

But if you search for “IT-enabled Organizational Transformation,” you get some hits from the last millennium!

And these hits might be relevant for someone wanting to study Digital Transformation.

So, when it comes to your topic, ask yourself: Is the topic really as new as the term describing it?

#4 Too Much Description

This mistake deals with the goal of your literature search. You want to write a literature review section on your topic and diligently cite relevant literature.

This approach isn’t necessarily wrong.

But you write a truly excellent literature section when you change your goal.

A poor literature review section merely recounts research on a topic but fails to gather enough relevant literature.

A mediocre literature review section manages to do so, but only describes what has been researched on the topic.

A fantastic literature review section gathers relevant literature, explains what has been done so far, and critiques or interprets what this means.

So, especially with a new topic, don’t focus too much on finding literature and citing every single source that somewhat fits the topic.

Instead, try to develop your own argument using a handful of relevant findings. For example, you could explain the difference between the new term and existing ones.

Or you could further develop the argument you used for motivation in your introduction.

We’ll look at an example of this at the end of the video.

#5 Your Doughnut Has No Hole

If you’re writing a non-systematic literature review section, completeness is not a criterion. So your “cheese” of literature can have holes, as long as you develop an exciting argument.

But if you have a sweet tooth, try imagining the metaphor of a doughnut.

Let’s say you’ve convinced me, and your topic is indeed so new that there’s little research on it. And Finding literature isn’t always straightforward.

What you can do then is not look for the hole in the middle, but for the surrounding dough. What are the terms and phenomena that are closely related to your topic?

Work your way through the databases, gathering literature on somewhat broader topics and terms, and approach the doughnut’s hole argumentatively.

For “Universal Wallets,” you could start with the topic of Digital Wallets, explain what Crypto-Wallets are, and from there move on to Universal Wallets.

An Example for a Literature Chapter on a “Brand New” Topic

As luck would have it, I found an excellent example for you. In their paper on “Universal Wallets,” Jörgensen and Beck (2021) did almost exactly that.

They start not with the topic of Digital Wallets but directly with Crypto-Wallets. That’s how they begin their literature review section.

When it comes to “Universal Wallets,” they continue to cite literature.

But if we take a closer look, we realize that this literature has nothing directly to do with the term.

The chapter is a perfect doughnut!

The first source they cite is titled “Digital Lifestyle.” This source is somewhat more broadly related to the topic.

Then, the authors cite sources on “The Token Economy” and “Identity Ecosystems.” These two sources are closer to “Universal Wallets,” but neither directly refers to it.

Further sources revolve around “Blockchain Identity Management Systems” and “The potential of blockchain in education and health care.”

The last source is a report from the World Wide Web Consortium on “Universal Wallets.” When the academic literature is not yet extensive, reports from industry can also be helpful.

From this example, you can see how to write a literature review section on a topic without using a single academic source on that topic!

Avoiding the 5 mistakes I mentioned have taught you how to search literature effectively.

So from now on, “My topic is too new” is no longer an excuse. And if you meet someone who uses this excuse in your presence, send them this article! 🙂

Netnography is a qualitative research approach focused on studying online communities and their behaviors. The method was first developed by Robert Kozinets and has since become an indispensable tool for many social sciences.

In this article, I’ll walk you through the fundamentals of netnography based on Kozinets’ 12-phase process and demonstrate how you can effortlessly implement it. By aligning your investigation with this established methodology, you’ll hopefully yield insightful findings related to the online phenomenon you’re examining.

What is Netnography?

Netnography is a modification of the term ethnography, representing a research approach that deals with field research – but on the Internet.

The architect of this methodology is Robert Kozinets, who extensively details the approach in his 2010 book, “Netnography.” Now there is also an updated edition from 2015.

Up until that point, online research was keenly centered on conducting precise and quantitative investigations on social media or within online forums.

How often was a tweet liked, and how did that correlate with its reach? How do networks form on social media? What statistical correlations can be derived from user behavior?

While all these questions are vital and relevant, they aren’t the focus of netnography. Instead, netnography seeks to understand the context of such behaviors, shedding light on who exhibits certain behaviors and why.

If you familiarize yourself with the objectives of classic field research (ethnography), you’ll instantly grasp the netnographic approach. It revolves around observing groups and the behaviors of their members. Netnography simply transposes this research methodology onto the online domain.

The Phases of Netnography According to Kozinets

In the second edition of his book from 2015, Kozinets breaks down the netnographic research approach into 12 phases. Let’s delve into these together.

#1 Introspection Phase

Before you whip out your smartphone and get lost forever in the depths of Reddit, there are some fundamental questions about yourself you must address.

This step is inherently tied to the nature of ethnography. This type of research is entirely dependent on you, the researcher. This means that all your prior knowledge on the topic, your background, and your personal motivations will influence the design of your netnography.

Document the current state of your prior knowledge so that you can describe and reflect upon it in your netnography project.

#2 Investigation Phase

If you’re drafting an extended abstract or proposal for your netnography, this is the appropriate section to record answers to the following questions. If you don’t require such documentation, find another means to note them down for your own reference.

• What phenomenon do you wish to investigate? (Frame a research question)
• How do you plan to examine this phenomenon?
• What kind of data are you looking to collect for this?
• How do you intend to analyze the data?
• How will the analysis contribute to addressing the research question?
• What role do you see yourself playing during the netnography?
• Under what ethical considerations are you approaching your netnography?
• What advantages does netnography offer over other research designs?
• What risks does netnography pose in your specific case (for research subjects)?

Especially crucial to advancing with your netnography is pinpointing the “study sites” – the venues where you plan to carry out your investigation. Is it a Facebook group? A Reddit forum? A YouTube channel?

Who are the individuals frequenting these sites? What would the ideal setting look like for your research to be most effectively conducted?

#3 Information Phase

Engaging with ethical considerations before you even start is of paramount importance. With netnography, you might be entering a protected space.

Users present in that space have certain expectations about it and their privacy. When you’re collecting data from there, it’s crucial to do so ethically.

The top priority is the so-called “Informed Consent.” This means you inform members of the online community about the nature of your research and obtain their approval. At this juncture, you can draft a text or document explaining all this.

You might need to register your study with your university’s ethics committee. To pass the ethical review, you’ll need a draft of your “Informed Consent” document.

Won’t the research results be distorted if users are aware they’re being observed? Yes, this is known as Consent-Bias and is a limitation of netnography. However, you have little choice in this matter because observing without the users’ consent is deemed unethical by almost every ethics committee in the world.

#4 Initial Interview Phase

In this phase, you begin researching communities and online platforms. You have two options for this:

1. Directly search for the communities, e.g., through search engines.
2. Initially identify the individuals that can inform your research and then determine in which communities or at which locations they engage with others.

For both ways, Kozinets recommends initial interviews. So, you converse with the individuals or, for instance, the admin of a community to better understand them.

By the end of this phase, you should have a list of potential communities suitable for your netnography. The interviews with members of the communities that make it to your netnography can be repurposed later.

#5 Inspection Phase

When conducting netnography, you’re spoilt for choice. Unlike traditional ethnography, the entire internet is at your disposal, with all its possible forums, groups, and platforms.

Therefore, compare the list of potential communities with your research question and decide which communities you want to study. Think carefully about why you’re making this choice so that you can justify this decision in your research design chapter.

#6 Interaction Entry Phase

Let’s see if Kozinets manages to start all phases with an “I”.

In this phase, the focus is on devising a strategy on how you’ll interact with the users of the community.

As you might know from my other tutorials, there are participatory and non-participatory observations. This principle of minimal to maximal involvement by you, the researcher, also applies to netnographies.

A low level of participation could involve merely reading in an online forum and not interacting with users. High participation might entail conducting interviews with the community members or even posting content yourself.

However, since direct interaction at the community level can often be too intrusive, Kozinets suggests creating an Interaction Research Website. In this scenario, you design a separate website independent of the actual community.

This website then facilitates the interaction between you and the individuals. The advantage is that you’ve secured consent from all participants, and portions of the community can interact with you, while others can abstain if they choose not to engage.

You can find numerous examples of such websites in Kozinets’ book.

You don’t necessarily have to code your interaction website from scratch; you can leverage existing platforms and tailor them to your needs.

#7 Immersion Phase

In the seventh phase, you venture into the field, beginning to interact regularly with the data, topics, and individuals.

The duration and specifics of your immersion depend entirely on you and your study. For inspiration, I recommend reading the research design chapters of published netnographies. There, researchers detail exactly how this phase unfolded for them.

Don’t stress at the beginning of this phase. There’s no right or wrong, no too much or too little. Your understanding of your community and your netnography project will grow over time. The more you immerse yourself, the clearer the overall picture becomes, and the next steps naturally present themselves.

#8 Indexing Phase

This phase is about organizing your data. Often, you’ll have more data at your disposal than you can analyze.

So, the task is to compile a manageable yet meaningful amount of data to proceed with your analysis.

To do this, you’ll need to assess your data. What are particularly important data sources, and what can be neglected?

It’s advisable here to select fewer but high-quality data sources rather than many of low quality.

#9 Interpretation Phase

You’re free to choose your analysis method. Remember that Netnography is a methodology, that means that you still have to choose your methods you want to use for data analysis within this research approach.

Qualitative methods that stand for an interpretivist approach, are suitable. This includes all methods that operate on the principle of hermeneutics.

Phenomenological, existential, or humanistic approaches are also possible.

A typical analysis method that aligns well with netnography are Grounded Theory techniques. On my channel, you’ll find plenty of tutorials on various qualitative research methods.

#10 Iteration Phase

If you’re already familiar with hermeneutics, Grounded Theory, or other qualitative approaches, then this phase will seem familiar.

Netnography does not proceed linearly. This means all the steps you learn here are not conducted from 1 to 12 in sequence and then you’re done.

Netnography is meant to proceed in iterations, which is why these steps should be understood as a cycle. You can (and should) revisit any phase of your netnography and repeat steps when you deem it meaningful.

For instance, if you’ve gained a significant insight through coding with Grounded Theory, return to the Immersion Phase and look for this specific insight. That’s just one example of an iteration, and there are many more. So, perceive these phases not as rigid but flexible.

#11 Instantiation Phase

In the penultimate phase, the focus is on shaping your netnography into a tangible form. For most of us, this means producing a research paper. So, consider the best possible structure to present your netnography.

As always, my tip is: don’t reinvent the wheel, but draw inspiration from examples you enjoy reading.

According to Kozinets, there are four different forms of netnography instantiation. These are:

• Symbolic
• Digital
• Auto
• Humanistic

Discussing all these forms here would be beyond the scope. Thus, I trust you’ll dive into Kozinets’ book to acquaint yourself with them, assign your netnography to one of these types, and align your research paper accordingly.

However, the presentation of your netnography doesn’t always have to be (just) an academic text. You can let your creativity run free.

#12 Integration Phase

What happens now that you’ve completed your netnography? All the hard work shouldn’t just be read by academics; it should also have an impact on the world out there.

This could be in the form of a publication, a YouTube video, a workshop, or an event with the community you worked with.

• What can you give back to this community?
• How can your results make the (online) world a little better in a lasting way?

This phase doesn’t end with the submission of your research paper.

The netnography is now a part of you and your story.