Practice on Hard Mode

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If you are like me, you are a recovering notetaker. Whenever you hear something noteworthy or read important info in a book, you want to write it down.

You may even use a pen and paper.

It’s hard to break this habit when it comes to learning, even against your better judgement and the overwhelming evidence in Make It Stick (Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014).

You may think you need to go cold turkey and never jot down an idea again, but have no fear. I have a way for you to assuage your notetaking urges, while using the three “keystone study strategies” that interrupt forgetting and help you participate in effortful learning (Brown et al., 2014). 

The three study strategies incorporate retrieval practice, spacing practice, and interleaving practice.  

Here’s what us avid notetakers can do below.

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Retrieval Practice

Think of a list of three to five questions you will ask yourself while reading each chapter of a textbook. 

Write these questions down (yay notetaking!). 

Read the chapter, but do not take notes or highlight while you’re reading. 

At the end of the chapter, write down the answers to your questions from memory – no peeking! 

Once done, check your answers in the book and elaborate on what you wrote down.

Question examples from the book (Brown et al., 2014):

What are the key ideas?
What terms or ideas are new to me?
How would I define them?
How do the ideas relate to what I already know? (pp. 201-202).


Interleaved and Spaced Retrieval Practice

Spaced practice can be done on any chapter by waiting at least a few days before quizzing yourself again. But if you want to combine interleaving and spacing, you can try this.

After you’ve read at least three chapters, start interleaving your practice – meaning, quiz yourself on chapters out of order.

For example, after finishing chapter eight of your book: quiz yourself on chapter eight, using the method above. Then quiz yourself on chapter four, then chapter one, then chapter six, etc. until you’ve practiced each chapter you’ve read. 

This is retrieval practice on hard mode, and it leads to stronger learning.

And remember, all of this practice can be checked in your notebook where you’ve previously written down all your chapter answers. 

Notetaking for the win!


Resource
Brown, P.C., Roediger, H. L. III, & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make it stick: The science of successful learning. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

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