Author: Mike and Matty
Active recall is the best evidence-based study method. It involves you testing yourself and trying to recall information without aid from notes. You can find countless resources on the internet diving in-depth on the science behind why active recall works so well, so I will spare you that lecture and jump straight to the good stuff: 12 ways to use active recall to learn anything more effectively.
1. Pretesting
You can start using active recall before you even start learning. Get a hold of some old papers or practice problems and gauge how much you already know about the subject. Make sure to check your answers because that’s the most important part of this process. You want to take note of all the items you got wrong because you’re trying to benefit from the hypercorrection effect. This is when you thought you knew the answer to something, but when you end up getting it wrong, you’re more likely to remember the right answer the next time around.
2. Stop and Recite
Stop and recite is extremely effective for learning material for the first time. This works well whether you are reading a textbook before a lecture or watching a video as first exposure. As you go through the material, stop after every section (close the book or pause the video) and try to recite in your own words what exactly you just learn. The more explicit you are with a recital (like writing it out, typing it out, or saying it out), the better this method works. You’ll find that some topics are just too difficult for you to recite, (probably because it’s new to you), so make a note of it, and ask your teacher later.
3. In-Class Questions
This next method can be done during class. You want to write out questions related to the lecture topics. Write a question about every key term, heading, subheading, process, or image that you see during the lecture. You can also look at the lecture objectives or review questions for that chapter and “borrow” those questions. Writing questions can help you stay engaged during class, can help you think like a test writer, and gives you a bank of questions that you can use to test yourself later on.
4. Immediate Review
One of the best times to review new material is immediately after you learn it. After class, or later that same evening, make some time to go over the questions you wrote in class. This doesn’t need to take a very long time because you should focus on recall. Try to answer your questions as best as you can from memory, without peeking at your notes. Do you this actively by writing or typing out the answers. The answers you get right will be further ingrained in your memory, and the answers you get wrong will be good places to start when you plan to later practice your material.
5. Toggles within a Note-Taking App
Not all note-taking apps have toggles. My favorites that do have toggles are RemNote and Notion. You can easily write a question on one line, and nest the answer to that question as an indent beneath that line. By toggling the arrow to the left of the question, you’ll be able to reveal and hide the answer as needed in order to test yourself. The advantage of this method is that you can see how the questions you are studying relate to the other questions and topics in your entire curriculum as a whole. Obviously, when you take the test, the questions will come at you at random, but we’ll cover that a little later.
6. Mind Maps
This can really be used at any stage of your study schedule, but I find it helpful for me after I have a good understanding of the bigger picture. Grab a blank piece of paper, pick a topic you want to study, and you proceed to brain dump everything you know about the topic. The important part to remember here is that you can’t just throw ideas and concepts willy nilly onto the page, you have to link the concept to something already on the page. This ensures that you are not only recalling specific concepts, but also how they are related to each other in the bigger picture.
7. Teaching
Some people call this the Feynman Technique, some people call this the Protege Effect. No matter the term, the important thing to remember here is to teach from memory and not peek at your notes while doing so.
If you don’t want to talk out loud, then you can write or type out what you intend to say in script format. This will force you to put what you’re teaching into your own words. Remember that when you are teaching others about a topic, you essentially get to learn the information twice.
8. Flashcards
Once I feel like I understand the big concepts, I have to start memorizing all the details. My favorite active recall method to do this would be flashcards (specifically digital flashcards). Digital flashcards are mobile, they save time, they randomize your practice, and they use spaced repetition. I’m a firm believer that when you combine active recall with spaced repetition, you’ve optimized your learning effectiveness. Afterall, RemNote’s fundamental features are based on this very science.
9. Enumeration
This method is particularly useful for process and problem-based classes like mathematics, chemistry, physics, engineering, etc. The way it works is that you have to recall the answers to your questions in a specific order every time. It’s often difficult to memorize a list or a series of steps if there is no order to it. But if you force the constraint of a specific order, you’ll find it easier to recall. You can also get creative and make up your own mnemonics for your enumerations.
10. Occlusion
This method is particularly useful for recalling images, structures, graphs, and charts. With an image occlusion feature within study apps like RemNote or Anki, you can block out certain parts of an image to test yourself. Occlusion isn’t just limited to images. You can also occlude certain words within a paragraph for recall practice (this is called a cloze deletion). Occlusion is an easy way to create study materials out of your notes or to create flashcards if you don’t have a lot of time.
11. Problem Sets
I would start doing practice questions as soon as possible. When you find practice problems, make sure that they come with the answers and explanations to the answers. The key learning point here is that you want to understand why the right answer is right and why the wrong answers are wrong. If you are preparing for an essay or written test, try to find last year’s writing prompts and practice writing out an outline of how you would answer those questions. Prepare your essay blueprints ahead of time and commit them to memory so that if you encounter that type of question on the exam, you won’t waste any time thinking about what to write.
12. Practice Tests
Doing practice tests is the easiest way to imitate how you will be tested on the day of the exam. If you are studying for a standardized test, then doing practice tests are mandatory. You can find these by asking your professor or seniors for recommendations. The difference between practice problems and practice tests is that you are trying to simulate your actual testing environments: time yourself, take limited bathroom breaks, dress accordingly and wear what you intend to wear (including masks if necessary). The most important thing you want to get out of the practice test is to gauge which topics know you well, and which topics you need to improve on.
