What Do You Do When You Review Information for a Test?
10 MIN READ
Review Strategies
Boosting Long-Term Learning
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Keep returning to your learning, to remember it with confidence!
Have you always taken a training course, read a business book, or been shown how to utilise a new system, only to notice that merely a few weeks later you tin can't think any of it?
If so, chances are you didn't exercise anything with your new cognition for a while, so it faded fast. Most learning needs to be repeated several times earlier it sticks. And so, it's important that you review what y'all've learned regularly and strengthen your memory if you desire your new knowledge to really sink in.
In this commodity, we'll explore a diversity of strategies for reviewing and reengaging with data, to ensure long-term learning.
Why Review Data?
We remember things best immediately after we've read, heard or watched them. Only, as time passes, our memories begin to fade.
That'southward why reviewing information regularly is and so of import. It allows us to transfer new knowledge and skills from short-term to long-term memory, and so go along it there. The more valuable or circuitous the information is, the more effort we need to put in.
Note:
Reviewing information is the final step of the SQ3R procedure (which stands for Survey, Question, Read, Think, and Review). This is a powerful technique for helping you to remember key details of what you lot learn, and for engaging with data more efficiently and finer.
What Is a Review Strategy?
Review strategies are techniques for reengaging with data that you have already learned, then that it stays fresh in your mind. They're especially valuable when y'all're learning for a specific purpose – for example, revising for an assessment or exam.
They can also be helpful for remembering information in full general. For example, when y'all want to remember people'due south names or when you need to learn a new system or process.
The review strategies that you lot choose from the department beneath will depend on the importance of the data, and how difficult information technology is to acquire. Y'all'll also need to take into account your own skills and preferences as a learner, so that you can plan the all-time approach for y'all.
How to Review Finer
Use these seven strategies to review and recall information more finer:
i. Review Your Information Immediately
Spend a few minutes reviewing new information as presently as y'all've learned it. Wait through the cloth again and add to whatsoever notes that you've already fabricated. It can also help to explain any key points out loud.
This beginning review is a skilful way of checking that yous've got everything you need, and that you've understood it. Information technology will also avert y'all having to "relearn" it completely when you review information technology again later on.
Tip:
When you reread material, attempt using a reading strategy to make the process more than effective. For instance, if you've just finished reading a affiliate in a concern book, take some time to review the section headings and the conclusion. This volition aid y'all to fix what you've learned in your listen.
2. Schedule Further Reviews
Call back, it takes repeated attempt to movement information into your long-term memory. So it'due south vital to review material frequently. Otherwise, key details will inevitably sideslip abroad.
Memory good and psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus' nigh famous discovery – the "Forgetting Curve" – shows how new information can fade from memory over time, unless you take the time to review it. Ebbinghaus' inquiry also revealed that each fourth dimension you review data, you lot can look a picayune longer earlier doing so over again.
Try to revisit your learning at regular intervals. For example, afterward your initial review, schedule another one after a day or 2, and so afterwards a week, two weeks, a month – and at increasing intervals later on that.
System is crucial here. Try scheduling fourth dimension for your reviews by adding them to your To-Do List or Action Program. Alternatively, create calendar reminders or ready your mobile device to notify y'all when information technology's time for your next review.
3. Test Yourself
Every time you review something, include an element of testing. This will uncover whatsoever gaps in your noesis, highlight key areas that yous demand to focus on, and reinforce your learning.
For case, you could cover up the original material and see how much of it yous can write or speak near from retentivity. Fifty-fifty improve, go a friend or colleague to test you on your knowledge!
Alternatively, use a review app for testing yourself. Quizlet, for example, allows you to have quizzes on diverse subjects or create your own quizzes, while FlashCards+ enables you to add images to your quiz cards, increasing the range of information you can review. Another app, Studystack, lets you play games with your review notes.
iv. Rewrite Your Notes
Rather than merely making notes once and hoping that they sink in, review them regularly – and improve or add to them each fourth dimension. This is a great way to keep information fresh and clear.
Y'all can do this rapidly with keywords and bullet points. Or, if yous want to explore the material in more depth, endeavor transferring it into a menstruum chart or a labeled diagram, such every bit a Listen Map®. This will provide you with a colorful representation of your notes, which can help to give you lot an overview of the subject and the key areas within it.
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5. Teach Someone Else
One of the most powerful ways to embed learning is to teach it to someone else. Find a willing "pupil," and explain to him or her what you've been learning.
This has several benefits:
- It quickly reveals any aspects that y'all don't understand or can't recall, pinpointing where your knowledge is weakest.
- Information technology can heave your confidence to use and apply your knowledge.
- Your "pupil" may inquire you questions, which will test your knowledge even more deeply – and, in the procedure, strengthen your grasp of the bailiwick.
6. Put Your Learning Into Action
Merely rereading your notes is unlikely to aid you to recollect them in the long term. Instead, try to apply what you've learned.
In some instances, this will happen naturally. For case, if you're trying to master a new software application, you'll likely need to go through it a few times before it'southward stock-still in your mind.
Other material might be harder to utilise practically. If this is the case, the following tips tin reinforce what y'all've learned:
- Brand an infographic to summarize a affiliate from a textbook.
- If you lot want to think people's names, try doing a quick sketch of their faces, with their names written below each one.
- After a presentation, apply your cell phone to tape a brief account of what was said.
- If you're preparing for an exam, write yourself a quiz (with answers!) to test your knowledge afterwards.
vii. Know When to Accept a Break
Finally, make certain that you don't overdo it! Information technology can be tempting to "cram" when revising for an exam, but unless you accept regular breaks, you may risk exhaustion.
Research shows that sleep plays an of import office in creating long-term memories. And it's not just because you concentrate ameliorate when you feel fresh. Sleep is an active part of the learning process, helping to sort and transfer information from short-term to long-term memory.
How to Encourage Others to Review and Retain Knowledge
If you lot are the one passing on information to others – for case, if you're hosting a workshop or giving a presentation – there are several things that you can do to help them to retain that knowledge:
- Provide a clear summary of what y'all've told them at the end of the workshop or presentation. This will prompt people to review the data immediately.
- Encourage people to ask questions to reinforce their understanding and encourage engagement with your ideas.
- Don't relay information merely once. Instead, return to it – even if just briefly – in future communications, such equally emails or subsequent presentations. Effort to present it in a slightly dissimilar way each time, to keep people interested and engaged.
- When the information is especially important or complex, encourage people to review it regularly, especially at cardinal moments – before a meeting, for example, or while doing prep work for an upcoming projection.
- Encourage your people to talk over the things that they've learned, and help them to find ways to put their new knowledge and skills into practice.
Key Points
If we want to recall and retain information in the long term, so we need to review information technology regularly. Otherwise, our retentivity will begin to fade and the things that we've learned will exist lost.
Review strategies are a bang-up way of helping us to move data from our brusk-term to our long-term memory. There are several strategies you tin utilize to do this:
- Review your information immediately.
- Schedule further reviews.
- Test yourself.
- Rewrite your notes.
- Teach someone else.
- Put your learning into activity.
- Know when to have a break.
You can also aid others to review and retain information by summarizing it effectively, encouraging people to question and discuss information technology, and circumvoluted back to it at regular intervals.
Source: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newISS_05.htm
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