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Active Recall: The Most Efficient Way to Study

What is Active Recall?

Active Recall is a study practice that involves questioning yourself throughout the process of reviewing information.

What are the benefits of Active Recall?

1.) Time spent studying is minimized.

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2.) Your understanding of the material will be so profound that test day will be a breeze.

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3.) Requires no external help (tutor, guardian to quiz you, etc.)

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4.) It is an excellent way to strengthen your long-term memory.

Why is it called Active Recall?

As you are studying you should actively be trying to remember, or "recall", the answers and definitions so that when it comes time for the test you have basically inscribed the topics and definitions into your memory.

     - Many students take up the habit of simply staring at their notes 

          - This tactic is rarely successful and results in one forgetting all the information in about a day.

How to study using Active Recall

1.) Determine the subject that you plan to study for 

     - Active Recall works best for memorization based courses (biology, history, world language, psychology, etc.)

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2.) Gather materials that pertain to the subject that you will be studying for

     - Class Notes, Lecture Slides, Worksheets, Homework.

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3.) Begin reading through the material and as you go through underline or highlight the main ideas and terms

     - Quizlet is a great way to organize those main ideas

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4.) Every 5-7 terms, STOP and TEST

     - Grab a random term or main idea such as "Mitochondria" or "Battle of Lexington" and attempt to define it in your own words without using any resources

     - If your personal UNASSISTED definition matches correctly with the actual answer, consider yourself done with that term 

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5.) If you cannot properly define the term you must repeat the process until you can

     - When you fail to define a term, set aside 2 minutes and repeat the definition back to yourself before trying again

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6.) Once you successfully recall the entirety of the information that will be covered on your test, consider yourself done with studying and get some rest before the test. 

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