Save Information by Checking Yourself, Not Re-Reading
If you want to learn something new – perhaps a foreign language – you will probably learn it by reading and rereading the same words and phrases over and over until they become firmly established. But in reality, you will be more fortunate if you just start testing yourself.
In a study by Temple University, researchers looked at two different methods of retaining information: examining and then testing oneself based on the information (what they call retesting ), or simply examining and then examining a few more ( retesting ). The researchers found that the latter was effective in the short term (for example, after five minutes), but retesting was better over time for retaining information. They reported:
Two experiments examined recall under the following two study conditions: (1) retest: a study followed by multiple recall studies, and (2) retest: multiple studies without tests. At a retention interval of 5 minutes, retest yielded a higher level of memory than retest. When the retention interval was increased, forgetting occurred much faster in the study setting, with repeated test manipulations leading to a higher memory at an interval of 7 days.
You’ve probably done this in your own research. If you are trying to learn a language, you look at a word, then put your hand on it and try to pronounce it yourself. This is retesting, and research shows it is worth more of your study time than trying to memorize a word just by looking over and over again.
Business Insider cites a similar study and goes into more detail on how effective this strategy is. Check out their full post at the link below.
Different rates of forgetfulness after research versus test trials | National Center for Biotechnology Information via Business Insider