Study Smarter, Not Harder: The Power of Active Recall + Spaced Repetition
Active recall is known as one of the best and most efficient study techniques used by students to learn their course content. Active recall requires you to actively retrieve the information from your brain, making you remember it longer.
Active recall is important for studying as it will help your brain understand, connect ideas, and remember the content more effectively. When you connect the ideas of your topic with your other ideas (on your flashcards or notes), you are helping your brain understand the bigger picture.
How Spaced Repetition Works with Active Recall to Ensure Success
Another strategy paired with active recall that helps ensure success is spaced repetition. When these two are paired together, you can truly unlock the ultimate productivity and study hack. Spaced repetition is about spacing your study intervals, instead of cramming the night before an exam or test. This allows the information to remain recent in your brain, which works with active recall to produce positive results.
Think of your brain as a library. Imagine your short-term memory as the books that are read and then hidden in the back shelves, left to be forgotten. Imagine your long-term memory as a book that is read, but actively reviewed and reread using spaced repetition.
This productive strategy will not only help you save time but will help you remember it for a longer period. This strategy will also help you “chunk” information, which is essentially breaking larger work into more manageable pieces, which also improves the retention of information in your long-term memory.
This image is the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve, which shows how the information you retain becomes forgotten over time. By strategically spacing your study intervals, you can not only ensure you remember the information but also strengthen your memory.
Instead, our learning curve could look like this with spaced repetition:
As you can see, we are retaining more information each time, by using spaced repetition. Not only are we learning more effectively but also saving time and energy. When we pair this with active recall we truly get the best work done in the most efficient timeframe.
Here are some basic steps for applying active recall + spaced repetition in your studies:
Simplifying the main idea
While writing your notes, or after you write them, cover up your notes and test yourself to see what you remember. Write down the terms and definitions that you think are correct and then check your answers. Try to put it in simple terms, as if you were going to show a person who is completely new to the content. Do this again or a few times until you feel that you have a solid basic understanding of the content. Make sure you understand and can connect the basic ideas, not just memorize terms. Remember to write this down so you can compare your work to see if it is accurate afterwards.
2. Write down everything you can remember
Now that you have a solid basic understanding of the content, it is time to take this a step further. Try to write down as much as you remember on the sheet of paper with the help of diagrams, colour coding, and more. Once again, make sure you understand and connect ideas. Remember to use your own words, as this will help you remember them better and have a higher chance of entering your long-term memory. This time you are doing more than simply revising the information in simple terms. You are actively recalling what you have learned. When you force your brain to actively think, it helps the content remain in your long-term memory. After a few times, you will see significant improvements in learning.
3. Practice using spaced repetition
Using spaced repetition regularly ensures we retain the information for longer and avoid cramming before exams. It is much more productive to review something every two days for one hour, than four hours the night before an exam (as an example). Review or practice your notes flashcards, practice tests, and worksheets regularly when you partially forget the information, then practice using active recall. This is the best way to use active recall to remember as much as possible. I highly recommend apps like Quizlet and Anki for flashcards.
Sources:
7 practical ways to apply active recall when studying. Goodnotes. (2022, August 1). https://www.goodnotes.com/blog/active-recall-studying
Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve. MindTools. (n.d.). https://www.mindtools.com/a9wjrjw/ebbinghauss-forgetting-curve
Fountain, S. B., & Doyle, K. E. (n.d.). Learning by chunking. SpringerLink. https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_1042
Ramsay. (2023, January 12). What is active recall? how to use it to ace your exams. Brainscape Academy. https://www.brainscape.com/academy/active-recall-definition-studying/
By Kasra Nouhikashani (he/him/his) | Blog Committee Member
