Almost everyone today had passed through a time in their life when they had to study. It could have been as simple as studying for a high school class test or exam or as complicated as preparing for a Finals in med school. Whatever, the nature and reason behind it might have been, studying is a familiar experience and is generally perceived to be hard. As the popular saying goes " In every cloud, there is a silver lining ", there is a silver lining in the perceived difficult and tedious task of studying and we will briefly explore them in this article.
Studying is a skill and like any other skill it can be learned, practiced and mastered. The key to becoming good at studying is to realize that studying is a skill to be acquired and improved. To study effectively, you have to build your whole study life upon two powerful pillars, ACTIVE RECALL and SPACED REPETITION.
What is Active Recall? The human brain has unlimited storage.This means that you can continue to study new subjects, learn new skills, read more news and novels for the rest of your life without ever running out of STORAGE SPACE!. Storage is not a challenge our brain encounters, RETRIEVAL is. Most tests and exams are a test of your ability to retrieve what you were taught and that , to most students, is a hard nut to crack. But if RETRIEVAL is a hard nut to crack then ACTIVE RECALL is the hammer to crack it. To practice active recall, when you are reading a topic, write down questions from the points in the material as opposed to taking notes. Instead of a taking a note like " Protons, neutrons and electrons are the 3 subatomic particles" a student using ACTIVE RECALL should write _____, ______, and _____ are the three subatomic particles? By the time you complete the material, there will be lots of questions written down. Spend a few minutes trying to answer these questions and look up the ones you can't remember. This is a conscious way of practicing RETRIEVAL and training your brain to retrieve information fast and easy. Active recall has been scientifically proven to be a very efficient studying technique and I would gladly recommend it for anybody anytime.
SPACED REPETITION: Just as bread isn't complete without butter , Active recall without spaced repetition won't take you too far.The whole concept of spaced repetition revolves around the idea that the brain forgets information exponentially and interrupting the ' decay' is a way of retaining information for longer periods. Spaced repetition means reviewing what you read from time to time but always increasing the span before each review. Spaced repetition is not exactly like re-reading as one does not necessarily need to go back and re-read the whole material from the beginning.To practice Spaced Repetition efficiently, attempt the questions written down for your active recall with time. If you feel your knowledge of a particular concept is fading, then feel free to read it up again.
These TWO study techniques can change your study life in ways you can never imagine. Active recall and Spaced repetition are not just study techniques, but a way of life. Study apps incorporating the two techniques are available to make the process easier. One of such is Anki used by millions around the world to learn anything ranging from biology to a language. Make studying easy and efficient with these powerful techniques and studying will become fun and exciting.
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