A look at optimizing your wine study habits. Looking at Note Taking, Study and Memorization techniques for wine. By Certified Wine Educator and Banfi award winner Jordan Cowe

1. Studying Efficiently Saving time and understanding wine

2. Learning and Me
Before
• Bad short term memory
• Short attention span
• Mediocre academic career
• Memorization was my enemy
• I never properly studied for
courses or exams

3. Learning and Me
After
• Passed CWE 1 year, 5 months
and 2 weeks after first day of
work in wine industry
• Banfi award for highest score
• Youngest CWE
How does that happen?!

4. What Changed?
• I studied Learning.
• I applied the Research to myself.
• I worked harder than I've ever worked before.

5. Studying wine
It's not that hard!

6. Theory
Extremely easy to learn:
• Perfectly tailored to use multiple
senses.
• Actively involves 4 major
senses.
• Can be studied using all 5.
• No complex theories.
• Completely fact based.

7. Reality
Hard to learn!
• Pass rates incredibly low.
• Constantly reinforced
anecdotally.
• Each of the high level exams
only have a few hundred
successes in 40+ year histories.

8. Why do we think it's hard to
learn?
Perception vs. Reality

9. Involves huge volumes
of information!

10. Tasting is hard to learn!

11. There's lots of different
systems and foreign
words!

12. Why is it actually hard to learn?

13. We Teach Inefficiently

14. We Learn Inefficiently

15. We use outdated methods!

16. When do you think the forgetting Curve was
discovered?

17. When do you think the benefits of spaced
repetition were discovered?

18. When do you think the Testing Effect was
discovered?

19. When do you think modern memory techniques
were pioneered?

20. The Topic Isn't the Problem!
We are the problem!

21. Let's look at how we fixed us!

22. How we learn!
• Forget about learning styles!
• All* Humans learn best using
multiple techniques together.
• Remember memory is fluid.
• Eliminate distractions!
• Focus on what you find mentally
stimulating.

23. Learning Methods

24. Method Number Always
Taste Incessantly, Read Relentlessly!
• Learning and memory rely on context
• The more you read and the more you taste the more
context you create
• Read for fun
• Taste everything deliberately

25. Step #1: Understand
the Big Picture
• Big Picture Concepts =
Universal Anchors
• Learn the big picture concepts
first and how they relate to each
other
• Build on this in layers
• Bonus: With the big picture you
can often make educated
guesses when needed

26. How do I build the
big picture?
• Take a look at light wide
reaching overviews.
• Understand History.
• Anecdotes and Fun stories of
interest.
• Wine is tied to society
• Understanding the culture =
understanding the wine

27. Step #2:
Fundamentals
• With big picture developing ask
3 questions:
1. How is wine made?
2. How do I personally
perceive aromas and
taste?
3. What are the Major grapes
and general climates of
Major regions?

28. How do I build the
fundamentals?
• Study winemaking
• Make wine
• Play with structural components
• Study a SLIGHTLY more
detailed resource

29. Step #3: The Details
• Focus on STUDYING the
details only once you have a
solid foundation.
• Always study slightly further
than you need to.
• Prioritize your learning.
• Find a concise resource,
encyclopaedias are awfully
inefficient.

30. How do I retain the
details?
• Learn memorization and study
techniques.
• Adapt your approach constantly
to what works best.
• Always try to anchor the details.
• Avoid studying in isolation.
• Study frequently!

31. The Techniques
How to retain everything (Well most of it.)

32. What are we looking at?
• General Study Techniques
• Wine Hack Study Approach

33. What is the Wine Hack Study Approach?
• Assembly lining the wine study process
• Easy and Efficient Study Techniques
• Concise Study Materials
• As little wasted time as possible
• Relies on 3 Concepts mentioned earlier.

34. Concept #1: The
forgetting curve
• Hermann Ebbinghaus
discovered in 1885!
• Memory of a subject declines
exponentially after learning.
• Predictable time periods.
• Effect = Memory fades, after a
week or a month you might
remember 10-20%

35. How do we defeat this?

36. Concept #2: The
Testing Effect
• Testing Increases Recall
• All material not just tested
material
• Works best immediately
after learning
• Questions = Not too easy,
Not too hard
• Greatly decreases slope of
forgetting curve

37. Concept #3: The
Spacing Effect
• Also discovered by
Hermann Ebbinghaus in
1885
• Each subsequent exposure
resets the forgetting curve.
• Each exposure reduces the
slope of the curve.
• Gradually increasing time
between exposures
solidifies long term
memory.

38. What not to do?
• Avoid Speed Reading!
• Highlighters!
• Don't mindlessly abuse flash cards!
• Don't Read Passively!
• Don't study while driving!

39. Technique #1: Active
Reading
• Always have a pen and paper
when reading to study.
• Take notes about what you
read!
• Ask yourself questions about
what you read.
• Turn the TV, Music, etc. off!

40. Effective Note Taking
• Don't take detailed word for
word notes.
• Only write down important
information.
• Wait until end of paragraph or
page.
• Summarize info.
• Write sample test questions.

41. Approach #1:
Standard Notes
• Chronological
• Point form or summary
paragraphs
• Questions follow

42. Approach #2: Cornell
Notes
• System created in 1950's at
Cornell
• Page divided in 3: 2 Columns,
small 2" row at bottom of page.
• Small Right Column = Key
Words + Questions
• Large Right Column = Main
Ideas, Point form Notes
• Bottom = Short Summary

43. Approach #3: Wine
Study Hack Notes
• First part of system
• Take notes purely in question
form
• No answers on page
• Forces you to think about topic
• Forces you to actively recall
while studying

44. Other Advice for
Notes and Reading
• Questions, Questions,
Questions
• Try to relate information to
similar topics
• Visualize information, create
mind maps, diagrams, draw on
actual maps, study labels

45. Technique #2
Taking advantage of Testing and Spacing Effects

46. Immediately After Reading
• Notes -> effective q&a pairs
• Concise, Specific, Limited
• Add to Spreadsheet

47. Why do this?
• Force retrieval
• Critical thinking opportunity
• Optimize questions
• Spreadsheet -> Flash Cards or Software

48. Method #1: Basic
Flash Cards
• Make physical cards or use app
• Review all cards in deck
cyclically
• Suffer from boredom and
wasted time
• Pure repetition and testing, not
effective spacing.

49. Method #2: Leitner
System
• Very basic spacing effect for
physical flash cards
• Gradually spaced boxes (1 day,
2 days, 4 days, 8 days, etc.)
• Success = Move up a box
• Failure = Down a box or to
beginning
• Cumbersome but effective

50. Method #3: Digital
Spaced Repetition
• Computer + Phone
• Highly Portable
• Organized
• Less complicated
• Optimizes based on
performance

51. Software Example
#1: Anki
• Popular in language learning
community
• Windows, Android and iOS
• Strictly Scheduled
• Many Extensions
• Very Utilitarian

52. Software Example
#2: Brainscape
• Web and iOS app
• Visually Pleasing and Game
Like
• Flexible Usage
• Visual feedback and rating
system

53. Caveats for Flash Cards
• Avoid pre-made flash cards
• Learn how to make effective flash cards
• Avoid overly detailed or long answers
• Detailed and Clear Questions

54. Other uses of Testing Effect

55. Practice Tests and Quizzes
• Seek out practice tests and quizzes
• Only use Trusted and up to date sources
• ie. SWE App, Bubbly Professor, Guild Somm

56. SWE Online Academy
• Easily one of the most effective resources
• Testing before learning to find weak points
• Testing while learning to check comprehension
• Testing after learning to check learning
• 3 Sets of test minimum per module

57. Other Uses of Spacing Effect

58. Scheduling extra materials
• Use a spreadsheet, app or simple calendar
• Schedule podcasts, articles, chapters, videos about
topics to cement information
• Ok to use very basic spacing

59. Spacing Effect and
Tasting
• We forget tasting involves a
large memory component.
• We usually taste topically and
linearly.
• Revisit areas often.
• Taste minimum once a week.
• Throw in ringers.
• Coravin + Spreadsheet = Blind
Tasting SRS?

60. Memory Techniques
Making the information Stick

61. Chunking
• Break lists into smaller pieces
• Any more than 5 items becomes difficult
• Break information into branches
• Forms multiple anchors
• Examples:
• Bordeaux
• Burgundy

62. Simple Verbal Mnemonics
• Some easier items work as verbal mnemonics
• Acronyms
• Phrases
• Short Stories
• Associate unknown term with similar sounding term

63. Incorporate Visual Memory
• Associate words with images
• Doesn't have to be literal
• The sillier, more unusual or sexual the better people
seem to remember
• Incorporating sounds, movement and smell into imagery
increase retention

64. Incorporating Spatial Memory
• Method of Loci or Journey Method
• Visually a familiar location or path
• Insert Visualizations Into specific places in location or
path
• For ordered lists place in specific order through journey
or palace/loci
• Astoundingly effective

65. Other Memory Techniques
• Peg or Ladder approach useful for ordered lists
• Various number techniques less relevant to wine
• Try a book or two on memory techniques and practice

66. Bridging it all together
1. Find Efficient Study Materials
2. Fill in big picture
3. Build solid foundation
4. Practice active reading
5. Practice thinking of potential test questions
6. Create Q&A pairs
7. Insert into spaced repetition system
8. Use spaced repetition system constantly
9. Use memory techniques for tricky bits
10.Write practice quizzes to gauge progress and cement information

67. Other Concepts to Explore

68. Teach
• One of the best ways to learn is to teach others
• Join a study group and take turns teaching
• Write blogs about topics you are learning
• Explain it to someone else
• Forces you to be realistic about your strengths and
weaknesses

69. Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction
• Stress and Test anxiety both slow down success
• MBSR is "meditation" based anxiety treatment
• Simple fears to severe anxiety disorders
• On par with CBT and often more effective than
medication for anxieties
• Not what you probably think of: Mindful Eating/Drinking

70. Questions
• Contact
• Twitter: @Jdcowe
• Email: jordan@oenosity.com