testing testing one two three

okay i have about fifteen billion blog posts I should have written, and should also rename this blog probably, but rather than waiting until I do these things before I write anything ever again, I'm forging ahead.

News! Research! Insights into study methods! Whoohoo! Is... is nobody else this excited?

Okay, so I actually kind of enjoy tests - why did I become an English major - what a fool I am - but anyway, tests are fun! They are challenges that, unlike so many of life's challenges (oooh did you see me just get deep), are measurable. Quantifiable, manageable, sometimes repeatable... if only all of life's obstacles could be so concrete!

Here's the news: Taking tests actually helps you learn better than studying does. Go read the article - it's okay, I'll wait!

(If you're not reading it, here's the gist: Purdue researches divided students into four groups. They all read the same passage. One group was the control (did nothing else), another studied by reading it repeatedly, another by concept mapping, and another through "retrieval practice," where they took little mini-"tests." A week later they all took a test and the retrieval practice group remembered much more than the others. There was another experiment, which also found the test-taking group remembered more later)

So, interesting: the test the "retrieval practice" group did and the test all groups took a week later were not the same. If you're thinking maybe they had an advantage because their study method and testing method were the same, well, think again - the "study" test was a free-write essay, and the "test" test was a short-answer test.  It wasn't the test format that helped.  IN FACT, in the second experiment the retreival practice group did better than the concept-mapping group on a concept-mapping test.  Let that one marinate for a while.

And, useful!  Because the "retrieval practice" method that they used is dead easy.  Dead easy.  Here's how it works: Take ten minutes and a blank piece of paper and write down everything you remember.

Okay, now go back to whatever you're studying and read it again.  Then get another piece of paper and try again.

And now you're done!

If you think about it, this method makes perfect sense.  When you test yourself, you learn what you don't know - and you practice remembering what you do know.  Whereas reading something over and over again doesn't make any sense at all - you just get really good at reading that info.  Fat lot of good that will do you come finals.

I realized that this is how I memorize poetry, too!  You can read a piece a dozen times and not learn a line.  The only way to learn it is to set it down, try to recite it from memory and see where you stumble.

So here's what I leave you with, on this Saturday night, before I have dinner and then... well, I won't be studying.  But when next you are, just remember: testing yourself, by simply writing down what you can remember, is not only one of the least painful ways to study (no eye-straining reading, no rote repetition, no flashcards!) but also, apparently, one of the most effective.

Go forth and prosper.