There is no student who hasn’t faced stress before an exam at least once in their life. Do you feel like a sweaty cowboy in a gunfight trying to remember all those little things that might be asked during the exam?
We get it; we have all been there. Although there are numerous ways to study today, all research leads to active recall as one of the most effective methods to achieve best results at exams (and improve your learning process overall). And that’s what we are going to discuss in this article.
What is Active Recall?
Active recall is a retrieval practice performed by actively stimulating your memory for a piece of information.
Active recall is when you try to remember the answer before checking it. Simply put, it’s a practice where you put your brain through its vast scaffolded storehouse of data you have seen and heard with one goal – find one specific answer or a fact.
How Does Active Recall Work?
Active recall study method works by taking a topic you want to learn, creating questions according to the topic, and repeatedly testing your brain on those questions. The key elements of this technique are:
- You force your brain to retrieve the information;
- It ensures you actively learn it instead of passively reading it;
- It makes you acutely aware of the topic you choose.
How Active Recall Differs From Other Techniques
The active recall method is often confused with recognition. Although these have similarities, active recall is a completely different thing.
When you try to recognize a piece of information, you may have a feeling like you know it, but in reality, you don’t (or at least not well enough to recall it from scratch and answer the question).
This is one of the main reasons for poor results in multiple-choice tests. In these tests, students see a list of answers where they can find a relevant one for an answer- which pulls them into a false sense of knowing the information. But in reality, what they are really doing here is recognizing it.
Active recall is when you really understand the information so you can recall it completely from scratch (simply put, without any additional information). Active recall means active learning – a practice where students use interactive methods and participate in the process.
Passive learning, in contrast, is where students are held accountable for grasping all that is presented to them. They tend to wait for direction, information, or instruction from the teacher. In active learning, students look for different methods to increase their involvement in the learning process.
What Science Behind Active Recall Says?
Okay, you know what active recall is, but is it worth trying? Here are some of the most trusted meta-analysis research conducted on active recall:
- The meta-analysis on study techniques ranked active recall (which is called practice practice testing in the paper) as a high-utility study technique.
- Another two studies report how students using active recall outperform students that use passive study techniques, such as cramming.
- Another 2016 study shows how students improved their exam outcomes using digital flashcards and spaced repetition through a mobile app that offers language learning.
As you can see, studies on using active recall for different studying areas have shown largely positive results. Now, let’s examine why that’s the case: Why is the active recall strategy effective?
Benefits of Active Recall in Enhancing Learning
Improved Long-Term Retention
Active recall has been shown to encode information into long-term memory twice as effectively compared to other learning methods. Actively retrieving information allows students to strengthen the neural pathways associated with specific knowledge, which makes it easier to remember other topics over time.
Enhanced Understanding
Active recall technique requires students to grasp the concepts and details even before they try to retrieve them. This helps to deepen the overall understanding of the topic since students aren’t just memorizing random facts useful solely for an exam but connecting them to a broader context.
Knowledge Transfer
The process of actively recalling information enhances your brain flexibility and overall memory capacity. As a result, students can use this concept to enhance their ability to transfer that skill to new situations. This flexibility also improves critical thinking.
Personalization of Learning
Active recall practice lets you customize the learning experience. That is because students actively participate in the process and have a vast choice of flashcards or other tools used for the practice, increasing personalization throughout the learning curve.
5 Practical Methods to Apply Active Recall
Okay, but what about how to do active recall? Explore 3 step active recall. You can start today to give an active recall a try.
1. Flashcards
Flashcards are the most popular way to apply an active recall. The principle is simple: you’re shown a question, and you have to produce the answer. You can also include images, graphs, or diagrams in your study to visualize the process. The fun thing to do here will be to include a diagram without labels on the question side.
It is best to avoid multiple questions on your flashcard. Tip: Ease and speed up the process using digital flashcards by Anki Pro.
2. Whiteboard Recall
Another great application of the recall study method is the “whiteboard method. This can also be done without a whiteboard – just put a piece of paper in a sheet protector and write using an expo marker.
You can follow these steps:
- Write down what you need to know and remember on a whiteboard. Try to keep it modest, direct, and understandable.
- Read all the information out loud.
- Turn away from the whiteboard and try to verbally recall the information.
- Now, get back to your whiteboard and check yourself.
- Repeat the process as many times as you need to practice recalling the information you find the most difficult for you.
3. The Feynman Technique
Richard Feynman is a Nobel prize-winning physicist. He is also known as The Great Explainer since he was able to explain complex topics in the simplest way (so any kid will understand). Another active recall application is the Feynman technique, which simply means the ability to explain the topic the way a child could understand.
By trying to explain the topic as simply as possible and using your own words, you are really able to dive deep into the subject and fully understand it. You can combine this method with active recall by challenging yourself at the end of a studying session, book chapter, or video you used to study. Once ready, try to explain what you have just learned in simple terms.
4. Write Questions When Taking Notes
When taking notes during reading or a class, write questions that refer to these notes. Reviewing notes will encourage you to think actively instead of just re-reading what you noted. These questions and notes can later be transferred to flashcards as an effective method to recall all the information once again.
5. Take Your Time & Summarize
Most learning methods we use (reading, listening, watching lectures) are passive. So, it isn’t always easy to apply active recall while you are at school or university.
However, there are ways you can still learn actively regardless of whether you study from home or during the lecture – stop and summarize. Once the lecture is done or you just read a block of information, stop and try to summarize what you just read and heard.
To make this even more effective, make notes and write questions that refer to notes (Tip #4) to recall the information later with flashcards (Tip #1).
How to Use Flashcards for Active Recall + 5 Tips
If you decided to start using active recall with flashcards, let’s quickly explore how it should work:
- Write a key term or question on the front of the card.
- Write an answer or the definition on the back of the card.
- When studying, choose a card and try to answer the front of the card before checking the answer on the back.
Aside from that, you may also want to consider tips to boost your active recall learning with flashcards:
1. One Idea, One Flashcard
Flashcards should be simple. Some topics and subjects are too complex to cover in one question or a term. Active recall also means breaking down complex subjects into more manageable chunks of information. So, it is best to use one flash card for one question, term, or concept.
2. Combine Text & Pictures
Active recall involves creating interconnections that help our brain to better recall the information that is linked with pictures. It is especially crucial for those studying anatomy.
So, combining relevant pictures with questions on the front of the card is a great practice. Add a simple picture for each question or term – it could also be a timeline, map, graph, or chart.
3. Answer Out Loud
It is proven that saying the answer out loud helps our brain to recall the information better over time.
4. Reorder and Repeat the Process
Once the first cycle of learning is done, take time and then reorder them. You can change the sequence of flashcards and start learning from answers instead of questions. In that case, you will try to recall the term or the question. Keep working on the same flashcards until you’ve correctly answered each card 3 times from different sides.
5. Break Cards into 3 Plies
When studying, you will probably have cards that you can answer easily, ones where you probably know the answer, and those where you just have no clue. While you will still want to answer all of them by the end of the day, you can divide cards into three piles: “I know that, “I probably get that,” and “I have no clue.”
Start from the easiest ones, get back to the source material with cards where you don’t know the answer at all, and finish with those where you are half sure. Repeat and repeat until you can transfer all cards to the pile “I know that!”.
Harness the Power of Spaced Repetition and Active Recall
Spaced repetition is where you space out your study sessions at intervals. For instance, you study on day 1, day 7, and then day 30.
The real gem in all is to put active recall and spaced repetition together.
Let’s say you created your flashcards and made a study session on Monday. Schedule a revision session for these flashcards in about a week. Then, schedule another revision session in 3 weeks.
The goal here is to always increase the time between your sessions. You can use Anki Pro, which will help you power up the active recall studying process. The app allows students to create online flashcards, which can be used to test themselves during the practice sessions.
Anki Pro uses an algorithm designed around active recall and spaced repetition. As a result, it also learns alongside your studies and revisions. This app is an excellent choice when it comes to boosting your studies and stopping those endless sleepless nights.
To Wrap it Up
Active recall techniques come in handy when you are studying hard yet still face issues during the exam. It is most effective when you don’t cram it all in a short period of time. Since active recall is designed to help students remember the information “from scratch” and for over a longer period of time, they will still remember all these topics or get back to flashcards using Anki Pro to refresh their memory and study something new with ease, speed, and extra convenience.
FAQ
- What is active recall?
Active recall is one of the latest active studying methods that allow students to not only remember but genuinely understand the information so they can recall it from scratch.
- How does active recall work?
Being one of the most effective memory recall techniques, active recall involves taking a subject/topic you want to learn, creating questions, and then repeatedly testing yourself on those questions until you can recall the answer from scratch.
- Is there an app for the active recall technique?
Anki Pro allows students to reduce the time and effort needed for implementing active recall into their studying process. It offers digital flashcards that users can create by themselves and use for studying a topic or a subject.
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