Testing yourself beats re-reading
What they found
Trying to recall something from memory teaches far more than studying it again. A week later, students who practiced recalling remembered about 80 percent of what they learned - those who only re-studied, about 35.
How they know
Students at Purdue University learned foreign vocabulary under controlled conditions. Some kept re-reading the words, others kept testing themselves. Same time invested, radically different retention.
What it means for you
Close the notes and ask yourself what you just read - after this article, after a course, after an important meeting. The struggle to recall is the learning itself.
The limits
Proven strongest for factual material like vocabulary; the evidence for complex skills is thinner. A lab study, with students.
This is a short takeaway in our own words, not a reproduction of the study. For the method, the sample and the caveats, read the original.
