Use the “Detailed Quiz” to Challenge Yourself While Studying
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While studying, you can simply memorize phrases and facts long enough to pass an exam, but you really need to strive to retain the knowledge for the long term. Why spend so much time, effort (and money) if not preparing for the future? One way to do this is by using “questioning”—a technique that helps you learn more effectively by challenging the facts you’re learning. Even if you’re just trying to pass an exam, this will help you understand how concepts are related, which will help you remember them better before the exam.
What is a clarifying interrogation?
Research is an essential part of learning, which is why it’s at the core of some of the best study methods, such as SQ3R and KWL . Using these methods, you lay out what you might already know before you begin studying, quickly skim the material to formulate questions that will guide you through the reading, and then answer them as you go. These are excellent methods for maintaining interest and curiosity, helping you focus and truly learn.
In general, when researching, you need to not only memorize the information presented but also delve deeper and understand it by asking questions. As I mentioned earlier, when using SQ3R or KWL, you ask questions before you start reading to find answers. When using clarifying questioning, you ask questions as you read.
By asking questions, you discover answers and establish connections that aren’t immediately apparent in the text, allowing you to better understand what’s being said. This concept makes sense: when a friend tells you a compelling story, you ask clarifying questions, right? By asking questions, you automatically become more engaged in the learning process and retain what you’ve learned better because you’re getting answers to the points you were wondering about.
How to Learn with Clarifying Questioning
For this to work for you, you need to evaluate the facts of your material. Let’s say you’re studying accounting. One of the facts you learn is that you record debits before credits. You might get by and do reasonably well on tests simply knowing this fact without thinking about it further—but if you really want to understand the material, it would be helpful to figure out why you record debits before credits. When performing clarifying questioning, you ask yourself questions like these after reviewing your facts to fully understand the meaning of it all. Here, your clarifying question would be, “Why do we record debits before credits?” Your next question might be, “Why do we record debits as a positive number?” The reason it’s done this way is to more easily reflect incoming cash on the credit side.
You can even go deeper by working backwards: Why do accountants keep a journal? What exactly do accountants keep? Who sees an accountant’s journal? What is included in a journal entry? What is a debit? What is a credit? Why do they keep a journal? When do they keep a journal? The better you understand the basic concept, the more questions you can ask, and the better you’ll grasp the fundamental fact that you journal debits before credits. Eventually, the rationale for recording debits before credits will become so obvious that the fact itself will be more than obvious. Of course, that’s the order you do it in, and if that order is all you need to know for your test, you’re doing great.
So, start by identifying the key facts you need to know. You can easily do this by writing them down as you read the text, notes, or lecture. Any statement or basic fact will do. You can also try using artificial intelligence, like Google NotebookLM or ChatGPT, to generate facts. As a test, I simply asked ChatGPT, “What are the key facts worth learning for accounting?” It returned 16 answers, almost all of which would be perfectly suitable for a longer quiz. For example, the program told me that International Financial Reporting Standards are used in many countries for financial reporting. This probably answers the quiz question itself, but to really get to the heart of the matter, I might ask, “Why do countries need a set of accounting standards? Which countries use IFRS?”
If you use ChatGPT or a similar tool, just make sure it provides you with reliable facts; check them to ensure their accuracy. Better yet, use the other tool I mentioned, NotebookLM, since it extracts information only from the materials you provide. Upload your course materials—slides, scanned chapters, instructor handouts, etc.—and ask it to extract key facts. You can also use the program to create flashcards, quizzes, mind maps, and informational podcasts, but these are designed for completely different learning approaches. (Try them after you’ve finished carefully asking questions!)
On a separate sheet of paper, write down these questions about the available evidence, and then begin researching the answers. Answers may come from materials unrelated to your lecture, notes, or texts, so don’t be afraid to dig deeper. However, in most cases, try to stick to what’s provided, unless your instructor asks you to research the information yourself. Ultimately, answering these questions will help you make the connections necessary to fully absorb and retain the material.