Comment from a student:
“I was big into reading, but that’s all I knew how to do for studying. I would just read the material and I wouldn’t know what else to do with it. So if I read it and it didn’t stick in my memory, then I didn’t know what to do about that. What I learned from reading the research [on learning] is that you have to do something beyond just passively taking in the information.”
Brown, Roediger III & McDaniel (2014, 213)
We come across a lot of knowledge while we’re at school and later at a college or university, knowledge we should have mastered not only for an upcoming exam but also beyond. Unfortunately, in the course of time only a fraction of this knowledge remains with us. This is because we often tend to rely on our intuitions about how we learn efficiently – with detrimental consequences.
In recent years, cognitive psychology has intensively focused on learning strategies that promote long-term knowledge retention.
Deepening knowledge:
Interconnected thinking:
How to Study: MAKE IT STICK by P. Brown, M. McDaniel & H. Roediger III | Core Message:
Elaboration
Your brain is going numb because you’ve been cramming so many ideas from textbooks into your head for hours. In these situations, your brain quickly reaches its limits. But by assigning new meaning to the material, linking it to what you already know, and putting it in your own words there is virtually no limit to what you can learn. This learning technique is called elaboration. Researchers agree: As a learning strategy, elaboration leads to better results than simply reading your texts over and over or using your own strategy, regardless of whether you study in pairs or by yourself.
It’s essential that you establish a connection between the new material and what you already know. This way you will understand the new content better and remember it more easily.
Why and why not?
Once you are familiar enough with a topic, start asking yourself questions that will prompt you to see the main concepts and make connections between what you know and the new ideas you’re just learning. This technique will make it easier for you to remember it later.
- Ask yourself questions about HOW and WHY…
- … and answer these questions by explaining and describing.
How does X work? Why did X happen? When did X happen? What are the reasons for X? What is the result of X? And so on.
Remember:
- Learning is a process that takes time and patience. New learning experiences are always based on what you already know.
- The broader the context around the ideas you’re grappling with, the easier it will be for you to make further connections in the material you’re learning.
Study strategies: Elaboration:
The Feynman technique:
Retrieval Practice
Fact-check: Which answer is correct?
Researchers recommend that you …
- read your materials repeatedly to understand the ideas thoroughly.
- read the materials again before the exam. This helps you to recall the content quickly.
- put your materials aside and try to put the ideas into your own words.
- mark the most important points in the materials using a highlighter.
You will find the solution at the bottom of the post.
Retrieval practice:
Have you found yourself marking text when only your hand is working but your brain is somewhere else? Assume you’ve been out for a while or are having a coffee with friends. In this case, highlighting a text as well as repeatedly reading or practicing something is likely to give you a bad result because you’re not really focused and may not yet even know what is important. Repeatedly working with materials in the same way may soon mislead you into thinking that you know the topic, when in fact you haven’t fully mastered it yet.
If you want to study effectively, you need to know two things and then try them out.
- Researchers suggest a trick called active recall as a remedy for digression. It’s effective because you immediately notice when you’re digressing. The trick is simple: Concentrate on reading a section – but without highlighting anything! When you have read the first section, reproduce it without looking at the documents. If you succeed, you have two convincing items of proof: You are focused and you can immediately see how well you understood the section. If you can’t recall anything at all, you’ve wasted very little time and can immediately switch back to. In the good case, you immediately identify your knowledge gaps – where you can’t say anything or find yourself stuttering – and can go over the materials again. This way you can use your time well, and the high level of mental activity means you have a good chance of storing the content in your long-term memory.
- The first time you try active recall may feel very uncomfortable: You will feel more insecure because it’s unfamiliar and you’ll immediately notice that there are things you have not yet understood fully. But that’s exactly the point! Don’t cheat yourself out of the inconvenience! Otherwise, this trick will have just as little effect as marking text passages while your mind is somewhere else. Bear with this uncertainty and reproduce the text in a way that makes you feel confident. You’ll need more time for sure, but you’ll have understood the content well!
How do I write a summary?
Research-based studies lead us to recommend the following approach:
- Select your materials
Take the information at hand, the book, the article or the recorded video.
If you want to cover a more extensive topic or chapter, jot down questions, keywords, or subchapters ahead of time so that you can let them guide you when actively recalling what you learned.
- Retrieve actively what you learned
Put your papers aside after having read them once. Start actively recalling your knowledge by writing down or recording everything you remember. This lets you recall the information and reinforces your memory. Of course, it’s not possible to recap all relevant information right at the beginning. But by recapping, you will succeed in discovering important points and identifying gaps in your knowledge.
While doing so, don’t worry if you haven’t understood everything yet.
- Review
You learn from mistakes. Thinking more about ambiguous points or mistakes you’ve made lets you reflect on your learning and increases your learning curve. But be careful: Don’t re-read everything from the beginning, but only the sections that relate to the ambiguous points or mistakes.
- Take a break – you and your brain need it!
A certain distance to the topic is important so that you actively recall what you learned. This distance lets you evaluate whether the ideas really makes sense and how much you can remember.
- Repeat what you did – one step at a time
Very important: To practice effectively you must give yourself enough time. Each repetition helps you to remember.
- Reflect on what you did
What has worked well and what do you want to improve on?
How to use Flashcards well
How do I create my own flashcards?
- Make flashcards that have concepts rather than detailed knowledge.
- Even keywords are enough. This way you are forced to explain the terms.
- Spread out complex concepts over different index cards, if possible.
- Drawings and diagrams help you to remember information better. Draw pictures on one side of the card. This will make it easier for you to access and recall this information later.
How do I use flashcards?
Flashcards are very popular with students – and often used incorrectly and thus waste a lot of time. So, be sure to use the tricks below so that your flashcards will help you to learn actively:
- Recap: Make sure you are actively recalling the answer to the issue on hand. Check your answer only after you’ve written it down or said it out loud. That way, you won’t be tempted to think that you knew it.
- Be honest: One of the most common mistakes is that people sort out their cards too early as content they think they already know. (If you use a software, the answers are partly controlled automatically, which reduces the chances of sorting out content too early).
- Repeat: Keep using your flashcards until you can actively recall the content correctly from memory repeatedly.
- Combine topics: Challenge yourself further by combining different topics.
- Don’t forget to shuffle your cards well regularly.
How to study effectively with flash cards – college info geek:
Try out and discuss:
- How have you been studying so far? What have you found particularly difficult?
- Do you work with cards? If so, how? How effective is your method?
Resources:
- Brown, P., Roediger Ill, H. & McDaniel, M. (2014). Make it Stick. The science of successful learning. Harvard University Press.
- Weinstein, Y., Sumeracki, M., & Caviglioli, O. (2018). Understanding how we learn. A visual guide. London: Routledge.
- Blog with tips for studying: https://www.learningscientists.org/blog
- Abdaal Ali: How to study for exams.
Cover picture: “Brain Network” by Bob Holzer from the Noun Project
Icon in Chapter Why and why not: DinosoftLabs
Correct answer of the Fact-check is No. 3