How To Study: Active Recall Technique You Should Be Using
Highlighting, rereading and summarizing are not good methods for studying. There are two effective methods to help study better, which are active recall and spaced repetition. These two can help to make you study more effective and efficient. I will be going over active recall method below.
Active Recall Theory and It's Reasoning
Most of us believe that testing ourselves after having learnt all the information is the correct process of learning. This is correct to a extent, but not the ideal situation we are trying to achieve.
Active recall involves retrieving information from memory through, at multiple stages of your studying process. The very act of retrieving information from the brain not only strengthens our ability to retain information but also improves connections in our brains between different concepts.
Research from 2013 examined hundreds of studies about effective revision techniques which concluded that active recall and practice testing are effective high utility study techniques.
Studies from 2010 and 2011 provide the research and results that active recall is a effective method for studying.
In the 2011 study, the students were split into 4 groups by the researchers. The students were tasked to learned the same material before they are tested on what they have learned. Each group was given different instructions and were given limits to learn the information.
The first group would read the material only once.
- The second group would read the material four times.
- The third group would read the material then were told to make a mind map.
- The fourth group would read the material once, then recall as much as possible.
In the verbatim test and the inference test the active recall group performed significantly better than the other groups, when asked to recall facts and concepts. The studies demonstrate that active recall is more effective than rereading material 4 times.
Perhaps many of us don't like to use active recall method because, it is mentally more draining than rereading. The focal point is revision should be cognitively demanding. For instance think about a person going to the gym and is lifting light weights, that is not going to give the person the optimal outcome he is hoping to achieve. But if the individual lifts weight that is a bit challenging, it is more likely to develop muscle faster. The same concept applies to developing the muscle of your brain. The harder it takes to retrieve information, the more effective the brain will become in storing and recalling that information in the future.
Active Recall Strategies
How can we apply active recall in our lives, and for situations in the context for studying ? We can use it in a closed book situation, Anki, and finally instead of making notes; ask questions.
Closed Book
Try to make notes while the book is closed. Learn the material before, than close the book and try writing the main concepts and ideas. Now, you can go back to the material and add any information that you may have missed.
Anki
Anki is a flashcard app that allows you to create online flashcards which you can use to test yourself in practice sessions. It uses an algorithm to give you a way to study information using the active recall and spaced repetition techniques, in this one app. Thus, you learn using these two techniques while you progress through your studies and revision using Anki.
I found Anki helpful for memorizing facts and information, the algorithm even lets you know how long has it been since you studied those flash cards; which reminds you its "due" for practice. You can modify this according to your needs. It is easy to access the app and create the flash cards. You can use it to study anytime you want.
Instead of making notes ask questions.
As a student it feels intuitively productive to write things down and make notes, but research shows that note-taking isn’t an effective study technique. Instead of writing notes, we should ask questions about the information we learn and use them with other study material for preparing and revision for school.
This strategy resembles the Cornell Note-Taking method - Where we can write questions and information about the main concepts, instead of rereading or highlighting information the typical routine. With this method we are forced to actively retrieve the information to answer the questions which strengthens the connections between information in our brains and improves our ability to recall that information in an exam.
Concluding with the idea that writing questions makes you engage in cognitive effort, and the more brain power it takes a person to recall a fact; the more mentally taxing it will be. You will be able to gain more from this way of studying than just rereading or or highlighting.