The best, most effective, and fastest way to learn anything is through active recall. You can learn everything you need to know right here!
If you want to become a successful student and perform well in exams, then re-reading the textbook, highlighting your notes, and watching YouTube videos aren’t enough. Thanks to active recall, is a powerful learning technique that actively jogs your memory of a crucial fact.
Let’s examine active recall’s mechanism and how using it as a high-yield learning strategy can improve your test results and GPA.
What is Active Recall?
The traditional way of learning is turned on its head by the study technique known as active recall (also known as active retrieval or practice testing). Traditionally, students learn by trying to put information into their brains. With active recall, you learn by retrieving information from your brain. Although it may sound strange, doing this is actually very simple.
The active recall involves taking a topic you wish to learn, creating questions based on that topic, and then repeatedly testing yourself on those questions. By forcing your brain to retrieve the information, it ensures that you actively learn it instead of passively reading it.
Active recall helps you become acutely aware of subjects you do not understand and that need additional attention, in addition to significantly increasing your likelihood of remembering the information.
I have already noticed a difference in my comprehension and knowledge since incorporating active recall over the past few months. The pathophysiology of a condition is readily available, I can recall the essential clinical signs, and the first-line drug is readily available.
A junior doctor’s life on the wards can be made much easier by practicing answering questions a lot. The ability to recall information quickly and accurately is a crucial skill that is best mastered as soon as possible, whether you are being grilled by the on-call consultant or trying to think of the most significant causes of vision loss.
Active Recall – How Does It Work?
Active recall is the study hack that can improve your academic performance and score impressive marks in exams. Studies show that students who used active recall study methods outperformed those who used passive study methods in terms of academic performance.
In order to learn the material and get ready for the exams, it is the most efficient method of studying. The retrieval practice trains your brain to retrieve information from your memory. You can learn to remember information for the rest of your life by repeatedly recalling it and learning it from scratch.
Students can remember the information they have learned by using active recall techniques frequently. Researchers claim that active recall retrieval practice is a more effective study technique than concept-making and re-reading.
How Do You Use Active Recall?
Here are seven useful ways to use active recall during study sessions.
Flashcards
Flashcards are the king of active recall: you’re shown a question and have to produce the answer.
If you use a lot of graphs or diagrams in your research, it can be entertaining to include a diagram with no labels on the question side. If at all possible, stay away from multiple-choice questions. You are not using active recall to find the answer when you display it along with the question. It’s much simpler just to recognize the response.
Write Questions When Note-taking
Here’s a simple way to set future you up for success — when taking notes, write questions that refer to your notes. Instead of simply reading your notes while revising, your notes will force you to actively think.
The left column of your notes is where your questions should go if you’re taking notes the Cornell way.
Stop and Summarize
Watching lectures, reading textbooks, underlining notes, etc., are all examples of activities that we commonly refer to as studying. Stopping and summarizing make it simple to put on your active recall hat. Every now and then, step back and actively try to summarize what you’re taking in.
Again, the Cornell note-taking technique will help you to keep things simple. In order to help you remember to take breaks while studying, these notes have a section at the bottom just for summaries.
Incorporate Practice Questions and Past Exams
Another chance to exercise your brain and aid in memorization is practice questions and previous exams.
It’s important to keep in mind that the goal is to train your brain to retrieve information, not to get all of the answers correct (though sometimes getting them wrong can be beneficial).
You can often find problem sets in textbooks, with answers at the back. Many professors will also give you access to previous tests or exams with the answers so you can study from them. What if you can’t find any practice tests or problem sets?
- Your school is likely not the only one that has a course like this. Try searching online to see if you can find the previous exams for courses like those at other schools that are similar to yours.
- There are several online communities where you can find crowdsourced problem sets and study notes, like the GoodNotes Community.
Pre-test before You Start the Revision
In the same vein as above, pre-tests before revision have been shown to help you intake more information during the actual study session. Prior to beginning your study session, you can benefit from problem sets and practice questions.
Or, if you’ve written questions in your notes (Tip #2), this will be a piece of cake. Simply go through your list of questions and try to respond to them. For a quick solution, you can also take a moment to run through (aka. actively recall) what you remember about the topic at hand.
Teach a Friend (Who Knows Nothing About the Subject)
Teaching is one of the best ways to learn. So find a friend and try to explain what you’re studying. By doing so, you’re actively accessing and consolidating all the information you know, to produce a simplified version.
They should be encouraged to find flaws in their reasoning and to ask additional questions about concepts they are still struggling with. You have to answer questions on the spot during this, and you have to think creatively.
Alternatively, don’t worry if none of your friends are interested. For this exercise, fictional companions also work. The goal is to rephrase your knowledge so that it can be understood by someone who is not familiar with the jargon or underlying concepts.
Stop Relying on Google
When we don’t remember something, our first instinct is to Google it. If this occurs while you are studying, try this: make an attempt at guessing the answer first before reaching for it.
Get into the practice of using Google to double-check your guess. In the future, use active recall to remember something you’ve already learned when you’re unsure of it.
After all, a word or idea you’ve forgotten was probably something you’ve already learned. You just need to find it because it’s hidden somewhere in the recesses of your mind.
Conclusion: Use Active Recall for Your Exams
When you actively jog your memory for a specific piece of information, this is known as active recall. The difficulty of recalling an answer ultimately aids in your memory of the answer, as opposed to merely reading a chapter or watching a lecture repeatedly.
Active recall is a crucial study technique that enables you to repeatedly test your ability to use your brain to understand the questions or learn the subject. Active recall has been shown in numerous studies to significantly increase memory retention and test performance.