Best Active Recall Strategies

Have you ever went into a test feeling like you know the material, but then slowly realized that the information is just not in your head?

You start to panic and . . . it’s all downhill from there.

This is a problem of retention and every student faces it at some point.

Active recall is a method of studying that forces your brain to remember and stimulates your memory throughout the learning process. It moves information from your short-term memory to your long-term memory.

Active recall is a process of repeatedly testing your memory to promote correct recall from memory.

What Active Recall is NOT:

• Listening to lectures.
• Taking notes or copying notes.
• Doing problem sets from a textbook.
• Outlining/organizing notes or lecture slides.

These are PASSIVE methods of learning and they are guaranteed to fail you when test time comes around.

These are good initial steps in the learning process, but don’t waste too much time on these because the real learning comes through active recall.

Recognizing information is NOT the same as recalling the information.

Best Active Recall Strategies

Flashcards. You’re familiar with this method. Flashcards are the simplest method of active recall. Every time you try to remember what’s on the other side of the card, you’re forcing your mind to remember the information.
Summaries. After reading a section in your textbook, close the book and write down everything you can recall from that section. Write out the concepts and the ideas in your own words. If you remember vocabulary words, write out the definitions in your own words as well. Go back, skim the textbook and see what you forgot, jot it down. Go to a fresh page and do it again.

Teach back. After a lecture or reviewing a powerpoint presentation, teach the new material to someone else. Put the notes away and begin teaching the information, one concept at a time, to someone else or to yourself in the mirror. You’re tricking your mind into remembering what was just passively taught to you. If you get confused or off track, that’s okay. Start with what you remember, review the material, close the book, and start again. Every time you begin again, you’ll remember something else and the information will start to stick.

Questions. Here is one of my favorite ways to learn a new concept. Review the material (passively reading or listening), then write out every question that you have on the subject. Just brain dump the questions on a fresh page. After you have about 10-20 questions, go back and answer them (without looking at your notes.) Guess if you have to, but do your best at not looking at your notes until the end.

Repeated testing. Taking practice quizzes and tests are good ways to force your mind to remember information as well. But use caution: this is not the best way to learn new information, concepts, or ideas. New learning is best studied using methods 2, 3, and 4 above. This method is more useful for discovering holes in your memory. There is a difference in practicing for the purpose of retrieval vs practicing to discover what you have not learned yet. That’s because tests and quizzes do not focus on repeated retrieval specifically. It’s a great method, but do not depend on it exclusively for learning.

What you need to know to make active recall work for you:

• Always review the material first, before your active recall session.
• Don’t stress if you don’t completely understand a concept or idea at first. Go ahead and begin the active recall sessions. Learning is a process. The more you use and recall the material, more you’ll understand and retain.
• Active recall requires multiple sessions. Expect to repeat the process more than once.
• Try to review with active recall in the same order every time. For example, if you’re using active recall to learn diabetes drugs, try to teach back the same way each time or summarize the chapter at the same starting point each time.
• If you can’t remember something, that’s okay! You’re learning. Active recall is practice at remembering. Write down or verbal summarize all that you can remember, then go back to review, then start over. Yes, it takes time, but it more productive than hours of passively listening or writing notes.

Does active recall really work? The classic study that started the wave of active recall can be viewed here.

The bottom line? Students who practice active recall can remember about 80% of new information compared to 34% in the control group.

What do you think? Going to give active recall a shot?
Let me know how it goes! Leave a comment below!

Cheers!