Getting it wrong: surprising tips on how to learn

There's a GREAT article in scientific america talking about some of the latest research on how to learn.

When you have 15 free minutes you should ready this. (You probably have 15 minutes when driving to school, so why not download instapaper to your iphone, and read it on your phone).

Some highlights:


People remember things better, longer, if they are given very challenging tests on the material, tests at which they are bound to fail. In a series of experiments, they showed that if students make an unsuccessful attempt to retrieve information before receiving an answer, they remember the information better than in a control condition in which they simply study the information. Trying and failing to retrieve the answer is actually helpful to learning. It’s an idea that has obvious applications for education, but could be useful for anyone who is trying to learn new material of any kind.

By challenging ourselves to retrieve or generate answers we can improve our recall. Keep that in mind next time you turn to Google for an answer, and give yourself a little more time to come up with the answer on your own.


The article seems like it practically lifted my FARMIPS idea from today's class, but it talks about how you can adapt this method to any course—imagine making a super study guide for history, or English. How much could you rock those classes?

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