What is Active Recall and Spaced Repetition?

Tests (e.g. quizzes or past papers) use active recall. However, testing can still be passive if they are presented with high amounts of cues like is done in multiple-choice tests. These testing methods are less effective. 

What Does the Science Say?

The authors of this 2019 study go on to describe how spaced repetition and active recall are both examples of a category called “desirable difficulties”. These are memorising strategies that are initially slow and effortful at the time learning but are better for long-term memory retention.

Students often do not realise that these difficult strategies contribute more to learning than easier methods like re-reading the text. 

In this 2014 study, the authors describe some of the evidence behind active recall. 

Two groups were given questions to read and understand. They found that even though the second group had more than double the study time, they ended up performing just as well as the first group. 

This is because the first group used active recall while the second group didn’t. 

Therefore, active recall is superior as it can achieve the same results in less than half the time.

Another experiment split up a group of people at a party. Half were asked to remember names normally while the other half were asked to repeat the names after hearing them (thereby using active recall). 

The group who used active recall remembered over 11 names while the other group only remembered less than 6 names. 

This again shows how much better active recall is.

Practical Example

Here’s an example of how you can use active recall in real life. 

Let’s say you take notes during your class. 

When you go home and review what you did in that lesson, are you just going to re-read the notes?

Of course not!

So, what do you do?

You should add questions to the end of your notes. The questions don’t need any answers as they will be there in the notes above. 

Then when you next re-visit the top, you try answering the questions.

This ensures you are using active recall and being efficient with your learning. 

Answering questions takes a lot more effort than just reading.

You may feel that it takes too much effort and that you aren’t getting enough done. But trust me, once you put this into practice you will go away knowing the entire topic off by heart.

Below I have listed some other ways that you can put active recall into practice.

• Past papers – The single best way of revising in my opinion. These not only test your knowledge but are specific to the exam you want to take. The downside is that one’s specific to the exam you do may not always be available.
• Questions – The next best thing after past paper. They may be at the end of the chapter in a textbook or online question banks. Do them!
• Anki – a great tool for if you need to memorise a list of tedious things. If you aren’t sure how to use Anki then click here for my step by step guide!
• Questions after taking notes – This is as mentioned in the example above. If you ever make notes then you should put questions at the end of them. When you come to review the notes you should look at the questions you have made rather than the notes themselves.