🧠 Study Skills & Note-Taking · Lesson 3 of 6
Active recall: test yourself
Practice testing, flashcards done right and the blank-page method.
The testing effect
Testing isn’t only a way to measure learning — it causes learning. Every time you pull an answer out of memory, the memory gets stronger. In many studies, students who tested themselves remembered far more a week later than students who reread the same material.
Ways to practice retrieval
| Practice problems | Do problems without looking at the worked examples first |
|---|---|
| Flashcards | Question on the front, answer on the back — say the answer before flipping |
| Blank page | Write everything you know about a topic, then check your notes |
| Teach it | Explain the topic to a friend (or an empty chair) without notes |
| Old exams | Many professors post past exams — do them timed |
Flashcards done right
- One fact or idea per card
- Write questions, not just terms: “Why does…?”, “What is the difference between…?”
- Say the answer out loud before you flip
- Keep cards you missed in the deck; set aside cards you know cold, but revisit them later
- Mix cards from different chapters
Struggle is good
Retrieval feels harder than rereading — that’s the point. Researchers call it a “desirable difficulty”. If studying feels easy, you are probably not learning much.
Tip
💡 Turn every heading in your textbook into a question, and every Cornell cue into a quiz. You just made your own practice test.
✏️ Practice: your turn
- Do a blank-page recall for your last lecture
- Make 15 question-style flashcards for one chapter
- Find an old exam or practice problems and do them without notes
- Explain one concept out loud for two minutes without looking
✏️ Study planner: turn your exam dates into a day-by-day plan
🧠 Quick quiz
Answer all 4 questions correctly to mark this lesson as done.
0 of 4 correct
All lessons in Study Skills & Note-Taking
- 🧩 1. How memory worksEncoding, storage, retrieval — and why rereading fools you
- 📓 2. Cornell notes and other note-taking systemsCues, notes and a summary — and when to use outlines, maps or charts
- 🎯 3. Active recall: test yourselfPractice testing, flashcards done right and the blank-page method
- 📅 4. Spacing and interleavingSpread out review sessions and mix up problem types
- 📘 5. Reading textbooks and articlesSQ3R, reading for the main idea and keeping up with long readings
- 📵 6. Focus and your phoneDeep work blocks, the Pomodoro technique and a distraction-free setup