active recall

concept · in 17 sources (2018–2020)

Studying by pulling information out of memory (questions, flashcards, blank-page tests) instead of putting it in; for him the single most effective technique.

Sources by year: 2018: 16 · 2020: 1

Also known as: retrieval practice, testing yourself

Also named in the threads: For his third-year psychology exams, his best ever, Ali made about 50 essay plans and memorised them over two months by drawing closed-book spider diagrams. · Ali says the next day's video (13 April 2018) will answer viewers' questions on specific study techniques, such as active recall, spaced repetition, flashcards and how to learn material in the first place. · Ali says he will make a video, with the evidence, on how to learn material in the first place. · Ali hopes another revision video will be up the next morning, to be followed by another study-with-me vlog and more vlogs.

Questions

Often together

What comes up in the same parts of the videos; the number is how many parts.

spaced repetition (18) · Anki (9) · Singapore (4) · scoping the subject (4) · interleaving (3) · Katherine (6) · Paul (6) · Microsoft Excel (2) · CGP (2) · BMAT (exam) (3)

What the videos say

The most important statements of each year; all statements.

2020

2020-06-10 (said on 2020-06-01, implied) · Music, Reading and Note-Taking - Productive Day in the Life — Ali does not trust his memory, so he takes notes on what he reads, watches and listens to, and takes them in a way that he will stumble across them again, since otherwise he might forget they exist. — 00:05:46

2018

2018-03-24 · Exam Revision Tips with Ibz Mo — Ali calls active recall the second key study technique after spaced repetition: testing yourself in a low-stakes way, outside the exam, by consistently asking yourself questions. — 00:12:01
2018-04-04 · How to study for exams - Evidence-based revision tips — Ali calls active recall (active retrieval, practice testing) by far the most important study technique: retrieving facts from the brain strengthens the connections. — 00:07:13
2018-04-09 · How to Study for Exams - Spaced Repetition · Evidence-based revision tips — Ali calls active recall by far the most important way to make studying more efficient, and spaced repetition probably the second most important. (hedged) — 00:00:00
2018-04-14 · Last Minute Study Tips, Flashcards, Essays & Maths - Exam Revision Q&A with Cambridge students — recommendation: Ali says understanding a topic comes first, and its litmus test is whether you could explain it to a friend or a five-year-old; trying to explain it is already active recall. — 00:02:12
2018-04-18 · Study With Me + 10 Productivity / Revision Tips - Cambridge University medical student VLOG #31 — recommendation: Ali's fourth tip is active recall in action: after reading over something, such as Beck's suicide scale, he writes down from memory exactly what he learned. — 00:01:27
2018-04-24 · Study with Me + Revision tips from friends - Cambridge University medical student VLOG #32 — recommendation: Ali: Revising with Charlotte, Ali draws the acromegaly and Cushing's examination diagrams from memory and fills the gaps from a master diagram, then she draws them and he fills her gaps: teaching her is active recall for him, so it helps both. — 00:03:29
2018-05-01 · First Live Hangout + Rapid-fire Q&A — Ali's theory of exam performance rests on three things: intelligence, which is fixed, and knowledge and practising exam technique, which can be worked on. — 00:17:21
2018-05-02 · Exam Study Tips for University & A-Level students - Revision Q&A with Cambridge students — Ali says medicine is not conceptually hard, only a lot of content that you memorise with spaced repetition and active recall; maths or engineering are arguably harder, so medics should drop the "medicine is so hard" narrative. — 00:14:05
2018-05-07 · Live Q&A + Hangout - Bank Holiday vibes - Ali Abdaal, Cambridge medical student — recommendation: Ali: For maths and statistics Ali advises past papers: Anki and his spreadsheet method are hard to apply there, but active recall is a way of life and past papers are a form of it. — 00:38:46
2018-05-28 · Study with Me + How I take notes - Cambridge University medical student VLOG #36 — recommendation: Ali says the story method works for many things where you have to learn a long list, not only for a topic such as the activities of daily living that lends itself well to a story. — 00:02:08
2018-05-29 · Live Stream - Hangout — Ali: The key to a good GCSE or A-level grade, Ali says, is understanding the material well enough to explain it to a five-year-old: whoever can explain the whole biology syllabus that way gets an A*. — 00:04:10
2018-06-12 · Study with me + The Magic of Categorisation - Cambridge University medical student VLOG #38 — Ali calls categorisation a magical technique and, after spaced repetition and active recall, probably the third most important exam technique: categorise anything you can, whenever you can. (hedged) — 00:01:13
…and 112 statements more in 2018 — all statements of 2018