Strategies for Effective Learning

Information on effective learning strategies. This information comes almost entirely from the book Make It Stick by Peter Brown and Improving Students’ Learning with Effective Learning Techniques, a meta-study by the Association for Psychological Science.

Highly Effective Strategies

Spaced Repetition

• Combats “the forgetting curve” by repeatedly returning to topics in spaced intervals
• How to apply: Take notes and learn a new topic. Then return to the notes in an increasing interval for as long as the information is relatively retained (e.g. 1 day, 3 days, 7 days, 30 days)

Testing

• Frequent no-stakes testing significantly improves learning and information retention
• How to apply: Take a practice test on learned material. Free recall and short answer tests may be best but cued recall (flash cards, multiple choice, fill in the blank) are also good

Elaborative interrogation: Self-questioning (asking why?) or self-explanation (explaining details to yourself) is a simple form of self-testing and can improve recall. Learning by “doing” is also a form of testing by forcing you to recall and use your knowledge.

Moderately Effective Strategies

Interleaving

• Mix together different (but similar) topics. Return to old ones and reflect on how the information relates
• How to apply: After learning a new topic, go back and briefly review multiple past lessons: test yourself on them.

Summarizing

• Summarizing, especially by self-explanation / active recall can improve learning
• How to apply: After finishing a section, attempt to write a summary and go back and fill in gaps. The Cornell note-taking method incorporates this strategy.

Questionable Strategies

Re-reading

• Re-reading can help get a better overall picture but is a poor strategy for retaining finer details
• Avoid mass re-reading in one session and instead pair it with another strategy (e.g. spacing, testing)

Imagery

• Only beneficial for retaining information on easy-to-visualize topics

Bad Learning Strategies

Cramming

• Does it need an explanation?

Highlighting Text

• Provides little-to-no benefit over reading the text without highlighting

Multi-tasking

• The human brain has a switching cost when changing its focus to a new task

Improving Productivity

Improving productivity is largely about eliminating bottlenecks, such as multi-tasking, distractions, or psychological factors.

• Find ways to create deadlines; both short deadlines (hours / days) and long-term (weeks, months, or years)

Lower your cognitive load by splitting up time into:

• Planning: Time for planning any micro-tasks to be completed
• Decision making: Time for making decisions, especially if requiring research, discussion, or planning
• Work: Time for completing the micro-tasks / overall project