Sep 25, 2022

Active Recall: The Study Technique to Keep You on Your A Game

Hey Integra readers! The school year has just started but some of us are already feeling the strain. With homework, clubs, jobs, a social life, and family life, you may find that schoolwork is slowly taking over your life. Or worse, getting pushed to the back burner…

Two of the main reasons that people procrastinate studying is because they simply don’t know where to start or they don’t understand the material being taught. Isn’t it so annoying when even after you spend hours studying, none of the information seems to stay in your brain?

Are you tired of rereading your notes for hours and still not remembering a thing? Do you ever wonder why all your hours of studying just aren’t paying off?

The reason this happens is because the most popular study methods, like rereading your notes and watching videos, are passive study methods. While these methods are really great for learning material, they aren’t very useful when you’re trying to keep that material in your head.

For that, you are going to need to use active study methods. Active studying is when you actively test your knowledge on the material. When we reread our notes or watch a video, we aren’t testing our brain for anything. We are simply consuming the information. Active recall allows you to see if you can actually remember the material, rather than just being able to recognize familiar concepts. We are exercising our brain when we make it remember and retrieve information. This exercise makes our brain stronger and better!

Active recall is great for many things, such as…

Helping you gain a better understanding of the material
Strengthening your long term memory (making you less likely to forget important stuff)
Do better on tests!
Studying smarter not harder (active studying methods are quick and effective!)

You might be wondering, does this mean I have to stop taking my ultra-detailed notes? Of course not! By combining passive and active recall methods, you can find study methods that work for you. Passive study methods are still really useful for learning new things, especially if those are the methods you are used to using. Active recall simply allows us to

remember that information better. This is because active recall stores knowledge into our long term memory, rather than our short term memory.

Here are examples of some passive study methods and when they can be helpful…

Watching a video (learning new material)
Reading a textbook (learning new information)
Rereading your own notes (quickly memorizing a key concept you already know)
Highlighting notes (separating the helpful and not so helpful information)
Listening to a lecture (quickly storing lots of information into your short term memory)

But this article is all about active study methods, and how they can help you spend less time studying while still learning everything you need to know. Here are some active recall studying methods you can try out!

Blurting

Blurting is a new revision technique that is quickly gaining attention online for its effectiveness and simplicity. If you have a test coming up soon to study for, this may be the study method for you!

Blurting tests your brain to see how much information you can remember about a specific topic.

First, you decide on a topic you want to revise. Then, you write down everything you can remember about the topic. This is also commonly known as word vomiting.

Alternatively, for even more revision power, you can split the topic into main headings. Then, give each heading key questions to answer. Without looking at your notes, try to answer all of the questions, providing as much detail as you can.

After you write down everything you possibly can, it's time to bring out your notes and compare the two. Are there any key concepts you forgot? Is there any information on your blurt sheet that is incorrect?

By doing this, you can see which topic areas you are confident in and which ones require a lot more work. Then, you can spend most of your time studying and reviewing the topics that need more work. After a solid review session, complete another session of blurting to see if your knowledge and application of the topic improved!

Here is a website that explains blurting more thoroughly.

Flashcards

Flashcards are a fairly popular study method for subjects where there is a lot of memorization.If you have to memorize lots of details, key words, and vocabulary, flashcards will be perfect for you!

Lucky for all of us, making flashcards is fairly simple.

On the front side of the card, write down a key term, question, or topic. Remember to only use one flashcard per idea to keep everything organized.

On the back side of the card, write down the definition of the term, answer to the question, or brief explanation of the topic respectively.

When practicing with your flashcards, try to guess the answer while looking at the front before flipping it to read the back. This helps your brain remember key concepts with only a single prompt. After you’ve got your flashcards, you can practice with them as often as you need to in order to keep that information in your head! It is recommended that you study concepts you don’t know very well more often.

Here is a website that thoroughly explains flashcards and how to best use them!

Flashcards are especially great to use in combination with the next active recall method…

Practice Problems

Practice problems are a great way for you to get a feel for the questions on a test. In subjects like math and science, it always helps to be prepared! Practice problems, in addition to blurting and flashcards, allow you to test your knowledge before a test and see which areas need some extra work.

You can find practice problems in your textbook or find them online. Your teacher may even provide you with some that are catered to what your test is on. If you have friends who took the same class as you in earlier years, you can try asking them for help as you study. Either way, practice problems are a great way to prepare yourself ahead of time and find the areas of study that you have to work on more.

Feynman technique

The Feynman technique is named after Richard Feynman, a Nobel prize-winning physicist. He created an effective technique that helped many better understand the material they were learning.

This technique only has four simple steps!

1. Pick a topic. Whether it's something you’re passionate about or the subject of your next exam, pick a topic and begin making a list of everything you know about this topic. The key here is to use simple and easy to understand words. We aren’t trying to sound smart here!

2. When you think you’ve written down enough about your topic, explain it out loud as though you were explaining it to a twelve-year-old (or someone even younger). This means using simple vocabulary and interesting examples. Can you do it? Feynman realized that forcing ourselves to reword material (especially into simpler language) helped people discover areas in their topic where they didn’t quite understand the material as well as they thought they did. Like all active recall methods, this technique highlights your weak areas so you can spend more time on them.

3. Reflect and simply. Feynman states that you only understand a concept when you are able to explain it to a child. If there was something you didn’t quite understand enough to simplify, that’s the area you should be focusing on! If your definitions sound confusing, try going over your material once again, reviewing and reflecting on the parts you didn’t understand.

4. Organize and review. Once you are happy with your understanding of the topic, take your simple definitions and show them to someone else. Do they understand what you’re saying? Did they have any questions? Were there parts that were confusing or didn’t make sense? If you get criticism, apply it to your summary and definitions, making them even better. Once you are finally certain that you have learned a concept, file away your simple definition for later use. You can review this definition whenever you need to.

And that's the Feynman method. Go fetch a younger sibling or friend and give it a try!

Bonus Study Tips

Here are two bonus study tips that really helped me improve my studying game!

Pomodoro

Do you ever decide to take a break from studying…only to spend three hours scrolling through Instagram? You’re not alone!

Pomodoro is a studying technique that helps you balance out your study sessions with breaks to help you stay on track. With 25 minute study periods with 5 minute breaks in between, the Pomodoro technique is perfectly designed to maximize productivity.

There’s a real sense of urgency when you see the timer counting down from 25 minutes. Your goal is to get as much work done as possible within that time before your break. While a 5 minute break may seem short, it’s the perfect amount of time to give you a quick reprieve from whatever you were doing, but not so long that you start a new task! And after four cycles of this, which adds up to 2 hours of work, you get a 15 minute break to reward yourself. You can take that time to fetch a snack, stretch your legs, or maybe even text a friend. Just make sure you’re back for your next 25 minute session!

I use this technique all the time when I’m trying to motivate myself to just start working instead of distracting myself with countless Youtube videos and books. When those twenty five minutes start, I make sure to study until the timer is done. No social media, no games, no distractions.

It works like a charm every time!

Want to try the Pomodoro technique for yourself? Try Pomofocus!

Use a planner

When back to school time rolls around, you can often find an assortment of planners in your local store, all waiting for you to buy them and get organized. But why should you?

Planners help you plan out and organize your day. They often come in many different designs and colours, so you can find one that speaks to you! Often, a planner has allocated space for each day where you can write your tasks, goals, and other notes to keep in mind. Most planners even have a monthly page, so you can take a look at your whole month at once.

Are you really busy? Planners can help you organize your time. By scheduling your tasks and appointments, you’ll always know what needs to get done every day. This makes you so much more productive with the time you have every day, as you have everything you need in one place ready to go. Planners also ensure that you don’t forget anything important, like that english essay or dentist appointment. My favourite thing about using a planner is that I have all my commitments and tasks in one place. Also, that feeling of ticking off a task is enough to make me feel so much more productive!

Paper planners not for you? Not to worry! You can use online planners, such as Notion and My Study Life, with the same benefits! What’s more is that most online planners also have additional features that make getting organized funner and easier. If you’re someone who’s always on their device or hates carrying around a ton of notebooks, try out online planners. You may just find something that works for you!

Written by: Nevadha M