Active recall for revision

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today I'm going to be talking about active recall and if you don't really know what
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that is I'll explain it to you a little bit now you can learn this in any sort of situation so
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it's really important to know about it whilst exam season is here basically active recall
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is a really effective revision technique that people use to learn and recall information so
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that it sticks in your memory you're probably wondering how does active recall work and I'm
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here to show you in just a few little steps so the first step is actually taking in information
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so that means you know reading a book looking into textbooks reading online um listening
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to an audiobook or even just listening to your lecturer talk uh any of those can be taking in
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information now you actually need to do something with the information that you've just absorbed so
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I find the best way is through repetition um it's just a personal thing you know um but I
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feel like it's really really effective you know you could be writing things down multiple times
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or you could be reading out loud multiple times whatever you do as long as you repeat it it will
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definitely definitely work once you looked over the information enough times then it's time for
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the active recall this is basically where you put every source of information that you have
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away all phones laptops you know textbooks audio books the lot put it all away then what you have
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to do is actively pull out all of the information that you've just learned and try and present it in
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the best way possible for you it really depends on what you're recalling and what it needs to be
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presented as in the real world what I mean by this is if you're learning a speech you know
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for example you're learning some some lines then the best way to recall this would be verbally cuz
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that's how you're going to say it in the real world and then if you are writing an essay for
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your exam then the best way to recall this would be by writing so you're practicing how you're
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going to do it in real life this just makes it more concrete within your memory once you believe
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that all information that you've learned has been splurged back onto the page or out loud then
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that's time to grab your sources of information back and have a little look over it see what
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you've done correct see what you've done okay in or see what you forgotten completely and then what
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you do is anything you have forgotten completely just go over and re- revise that and then do
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another active recall session there are lots of different ways in which you can do active recall
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flashcards you know re-saying the information out loud to your family or your friends explaining it
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to them or even just blurting out anything that you know anything you can remember about the topic
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onto a piece of paper or out loud my personal favourite is flashcards because you can write
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down little prompts or you can start chunking your information which is another good memory technique
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with spaced repetition you can actually train your brain to learn and recall information for
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a prolonged amount of time so for example if you learn some fresh information you go over it again
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that day and then you go over it every 2 or 3 days you are way more likely to keep that in your
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memory than if you went over it once every 2 weeks one great benefit about active recall is you can
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also take this into your actual day-to-day life so for example if you're going into uni or you're
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taking a walk you can just quiz yourself write down whatever you know on to a piece of paper
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or say it out loud or write it into your phone and you know you can take it with you wherever
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you go you don't have to be in an environment where you need to be studying to do this my
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advice would be to try this little revision trick and see how much more you can remember on command