Stop Memorizing, Start Understanding: The Feynman Technique

The Effective Way of Learning: The Feynman Technique

In this article, we will explain the Feynman learning technique, a learning method that will contribute to your studies. Basically, this technique is based on the saying: "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." As we can clearly understand from this quote, if we cannot explain something in its simplest, plainest form, it means we haven't understood that topic sufficiently.

Let's start with a simple example. Let the topic be derivatives. When someone asks you "what is a derivative?", if your answer is something like "I multiply the exponent by the coefficient and then decrease the exponent by 1", there is a problem there. But if you say "derivative is the instantaneous amount of change" to this question, it means you are on the right track. If we want to detail the amount of change a bit;

Think that you are going from Istanbul to Ankara by car. The road is 450 km and it took you 5 hours to go. Finding your average speed is very easy: Divide 450 by 5, you went at 90 km per hour. This is simple mathematics.

But the police stop you in a tunnel and say "You exceeded the speed limit, your speed was 120 km/h exactly when passing in front of that radar".

The problem is this: The thing we call "exactly that moment" has no duration. If the duration is zero, how do we calculate speed (Distance/Time)? In a photograph, the car does not move, it stops. But the speedometer shows 120. That is what we call "Derivative", the speed of change in that frozen, single moment.

I assume you understood the basis of the event very well. Now let's come to how you can apply this.

Preparation: Remove all books from your desk.

Explanation: Explain the topic on a paper as if your classmate came to you 5 minutes before the exam and said "Summarize this topic for me, I didn't understand anything".

Control: Can you answer the "Why?" questions your friend would ask (imaginarily)? If you cannot, return to the source.

Result: Fit the topic into a sentence simple enough for a 5-year-old child to understand. (E.g.: "Derivative is the moment you look at the speedometer.")

If you do not experience problems in these stages and can explain the events really simply, congratulations, it means you understood the logic of the topic. What you can build on this logic is now up to you. But let's say you are having problems in the simplification stage and you cannot get anywhere by looking at books and sources. At this stage, you can use technology. You can get help by entering commands into Artificial Intelligence like "Explain the topic in the most basic form possible", "Explain in a way a small child can understand" or "Explain the topic through analogies from daily life".

Stop Fooling Yourself: The Illusion of Competence

Let's come to the most crucial and slightly painful part of the job. Why do we strive this much? Why don't we just read and pass?

Most of the time, when we read a book or listen to the teacher in class, we say to ourselves "Okay, I understood this, it makes so much sense". Everything seems very clear at that moment. But when we come in front of the exam paper, that "clarity" evaporates in an instant. Why?

Because we call this the "Illusion of Competence" in the literature. Recognizing sentences while reading a text and constructing that information in your brain are not the same thing. Highlighting the lines of the book with a highlighter pen does not mean you engraved that information in your brain. You only feel good for that moment.

The Feynman technique drops this mask ruthlessly. When you take the paper and pen and try to explain, what you actually don't know comes out clearly.

Yes, this technique is a bit annoying. It disrupts your comfort zone. You might feel insufficient in those moments where you get stuck and cannot pull the sentence together. But I have good news for you: Learning happens exactly at that moment you "struggle". If your brain never gets tired while studying, you are probably not learning, you are just repeating what you know.

In Conclusion

Learning is not a passive watching act, it is an active construction process. Therefore, next time, stop staring blankly at the pages of the book while studying.

Stand up. Turn to the empty chair in your room, the water bottle on the table, or an imaginary friend and start explaining. If you can explain "Derivative" or the topic you are studying simply to that water bottle, congratulations; that information is now yours and no one can take it from you.