Study Like a Nobel Prize Winner: What Is the Feynman Technique?

Richard Feynman got the Nobel Prize in Physics so he can be trusted in such things as learning about complicated things. He developed a Feynman study technique that remains one of the most effective methods today.

Many of us face the same challenge when we study—we often do it passively. While we may memorize facts or terms, we fail to organize them into a system, and we struggle to apply the knowledge in real life. Feynman introduced a simple, yet powerful, feynman technique for learning to transform this process, making learning more effective and practical.

Who is Richard Feynman

Richard Feynman got the Nobel Prize in 1965 for his fundamental work in quantum electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of elementary particles laureate. He was considered one of the 10 greatest physicists in history. Richard Feynman is also known for his role in the Manhattan Project, which led to the creation of the atomic bomb during World War II. He struggled with depression for a long time after the bombing of Hiroshima.

According to his diaries, Feynman never took pleasure in medals or public recognition—he was this kind of a special person who loved the process of exploration and sharing his knowledge with others. This passion made him a remarkable professor and a popularizer of science. He was known for being fun-loving, easy-going, and deeply curious about the world, qualities that made him a brilliant scientist.

Feynman believed there were two ways to learn: the first is to memorize the name of something without truly understanding it; the second is to fully grasp the object or process. 

In the first case, the knowledge is shallow and easily forgotten. In the second, the deeper understanding stays with you for life.

While preparing for the oral qualifying exam—a ritual that every graduate student must go through—he decided not to review summaries of well-known physics. Instead, he went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he could be alone, and opened a fresh notebook. On the title page, he wrote ‘Notebook of Things I Don’t Know.’ 

For the first, but not the last time, he reorganized his knowledge. Over the next few weeks, he broke down every branch of physics, ‘oiled’ the parts, and put them back together, always looking for rough edges and inconsistencies. He tried to find the core of each subject. When he finished, he had a notebook he was especially proud of.

— writes his biographer James Glick in the book «Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman»

This paragraph describes what Feynmnan’s technique is. And as we see, it led him to the Nobel Prize.

What Is Feynmnan Technique?

Now that we learned who was professor Feynman, let’s go into detail about what his method is. It has 5 steps.

Step 1. Identify The Topic

 “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.” Richard Feynman  

Choose a specific topic you want to study and write it at the top of a notebook page. Be clear and intentional: pick a subject you can explain in one or two pages. You won’t be able to cover everything about evolution, microeconomics, or psychology in a single page. Instead, focus on smaller, more specific concepts. 

For example, if you’re studying literature, don’t just write “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Break it down into manageable topics like “Theme of racial injustice in the novel” or “Symbolism of the mockingbird.”

Why is this important? By selecting a focused topic, you acknowledge what you don’t know, and this is the first step in the learning process in the feynman study technique. 

Step 2: Explain The Topic Simply

 “If you can’t explain something to a first-year student, then you haven’t really understood”. Richard Feynman

Now, write down everything you know about the subject as if you were teaching it to someone. But you’re not teaching your smart adult friend; instead, you’re explaining it to a child, whose vocabulary and attention span are only enough to grasp basic concepts and relationships. Another method is to place a rubber duck on the table and try to explain the concept to it. The idea of feynman technique for studying is that explaining something to a simple or even inanimate object forces you to use the most straightforward language possible. You could also try explaining it to your cat or pet fish.

Using complex vocabulary and jargon can sometimes mask a lack of understanding. If you can’t explain the terms and ideas clearly, it’s a sign that you don’t fully understand what you’re talking about.

To deepen your understanding, don’t just retell the material—write down everything you remember on a piece of paper without referring to the textbook or your previous notes.

Writing out an idea from start to finish in simple language, as if explaining it to a child, forces you to understand the concept on a deeper level and clarify the connections between ideas. This approach helps you explain not just what something is, but why it works that way. By combining teaching and writing, feynman technique helps you build confidence in your knowledge. When you truly understand something, it becomes clear. You can explain it thoroughly, identify exceptions, and spot logical inconsistencies. As this happens, you gain confidence in your abilities and the motivation to tackle more complex subjects, knowing you have a strong foundation of knowledge.

Step 3 Improve Your Explanation

“See that bird? It’s a brown-throated thrush, but in Germany it’s called a halzenfugel, and in Chinese they call it a chung ling, and even if you know all those names for it, you still know nothing about the bird. You only know something about people: what they call the bird. Now that thrush sings, and teaches its young to fly, and flies so many miles away during the summer across the country, and nobody knows how it finds its way.” Richard Feynman 

Learning something difficult usually takes several attempts. In the feynman technique, revisiting the original material is a key part of the process. It helps you reinforce what you’ve learned and address any areas you didn’t fully understand.

During this step, check if your explanation still includes complex terms or ask the person you taught if they fully understood it. Have them explain what they learned from your explanation to identify any gaps in understanding or areas where the concept can be further simplified.

While feedback from someone else is often helpful, it’s not the only way to review. The feynman technique remains highly effective even without external input. This step encourages repetition, helping you see learning as an ongoing process, rather than a “one-time thing.” It refreshes and updates your knowledge over time.

By actively engaging in the learning process, we make it easier to retain details. Summarizing the main points strengthens our long-term memory.

Interesting, that when you learn more, your capacity for learning increases. At first, a topic may feel like a foreign language. On the second attempt, it becomes clearer, and by the third, with a solid foundation, you start to notice the finer details that were initially overlooked.

Step 4 Organize and Сreate Analogies

Now that you have a set of handwritten notes with a simple explanation, turn them into a narrative you can tell from start to finish. Read it aloud. If at any point the explanation sounds confusing, go back to the previous step.

To better understand and remember the topic, create analogies.  By explaining complex ideas in a simple language, you get to the heart of the concept. Analogies are easier to recall and explain. Often, the material provides ready-made analogies. For example, many of us remember the phrase: “The legs of Pythagoras are equal in all directions.” Creating your analogies is even more effective than relying on someone else’s.

Keep a list of terms or words that might be unfamiliar or too complex for children (or even for a duck). If you need to use them, make sure to define them clearly, or try to avoid using difficult terms altogether. It’s also helpful to keep a topic-specific dictionary handy while refining your explanation.

Ensure that all your explanations are supported by evidence or based on the original source material. If this is challenging, revisit the source and review any areas you’re unsure about. This will help you explain those concepts more clearly and in simpler language next time.

If you follow the feynman technique for studying consistently, you’ll end up with a folder full of materials on different topics. If you take the time to review the materials in the folder a couple of times a year, you’ll realize just how much you’ve retained in your mind.

Repeat Steps Until You Master the Topic

Feynman technique emphasizes ongoing learning. If you don’t fully understand the topic after your first explanation, you return to the source material as many times as needed. The goal is to be able to recall the information easily because you truly understand the subject and can explain it in your own words.

This means you may have to repeat all the steps several times before you see progress. While it might seem overwhelming or time-consuming at first, you’ll eventually notice your understanding improving. Plus, feynman learning technique activates your brain, so learning new topics will become faster over time. Once you’ve mastered a topic, you can either expand on it or move on to a related subject for deeper learning. Or, you can take a break. After some rest, revisit the topic in the morning or a few days later to ensure you’ve fully grasped the material, especially before an exam. That is basically all you need to know about feynman study technique to succeed at any exam.

How to Combine the Feynman Technique with the Spaced Repetition Method?

Flashcards can breathe new life into the feynman technique. When used together, they become a powerful tool for memorization, helping you to achieve a professor-level understanding of the subject.

✏️ Flashcards for Active Recall — Turn complex ideas into a flashcard game. 

Write the concept you’re studying on one side and a simple explanation on the other—so clear that even a child could understand it. This approach makes learning interactive and far more engaging than a typical lecture.

✏️ Flashcards for Spaced Repetition — Repetition helps to lock information in your memory. Reviewing the same flashcard repeatedly, like a familiar ad, might feel tedious at times, but soon you’ll recall every detail with ease!

Learning should not be a boring and exhausting task. And no one should spend nights without sleep just to learn something or prepare for an exam. You just need to study smart and know the techniques to make your learning process engaging, interactive, fun, and effective. Like feynman technique and spaced repetition method.