hi I'm David Meyers psychology author 
and hope college psychology professor 
I'm here to help you learn how to make 
things memorable so that you can learn 
and remember more from your classes and 
perhaps get better grades as well you 
might want to pull out something to 
write or type on because the first thing 
you need to learn about learning is that 
the more actively you process and 
rehearse information the better you will 
retain it let me ask you were you ever 
told that the best way to prepare for a 
test is to reread the chapter over and 
again that the purpose of tests is 
simply to assess what you've learned 
that you should study but one topic at a 
time in the same place for lengthy 
periods if so and if you believe these 
things do you find yourself struggling 
to remember all those new concepts in 
your courses well don't despair there 
are more effective ways to learn here 
are some strategies that if put to work 
in your own studies will help you better 
retain what you're learning the big idea 
which has now been confirmed in lots of 
experiments by memory researchers like 
Henry roediger and mark McDaniel is this 
to submit new learning in your mind what 
helps more than rereading is repeated 
self testing and rehearsal of what 
you've learned the memory searchers call 
this the testing effect we also 
sometimes call it the retrieval practice 
effect or test enhanced learning so for 
example in one experiment Geoffrey 
carpaccio Henry wrote agar and students 
learn forty Swahili words some of them 
kept re studying the words others retain 
those words much better if instead they 
spent the time repeatedly testing 
themselves on the words and so the 
principle here is that testing is not 
just a way to assess learning it's also 
a way to improve learning we learn and 
remember material best and we put it in 
our own words when we rehearse it and 
then retrieve it and that's a testing 
effect and it's a phenomenon that I 
built into my text through the sq3r 
study method sq3r refers to it's five 
steps s for survey Q for question and 
then the 3 R's read retrieve review so 
the study a chapter first survey take a 
bird's eye view scan the headings notice 
the chapter organization next question 
before you read each main section try to 
answer the learning objective question I 
posed at the beginning you probably 
won't be able to answer but that's fine 
trying and failing to retrieve the 
answer is actually quite helpful to 
learning those who test their 
understanding before they read and 
discover what they don't know often 
learn better next read actively search 
for the questions answered read actively 
and critically ask questions take notes 
make the ideas your own they ask how 
they relate to your life then having 
read retrieve the main ideas 
periodically pause in your reading and 
rehearse what you just read ask yourself 
yes 
test yourself repeatedly to help you do 
this in my books I offer periodic 
retrieval practice opportunities 
throughout each chapter with each one of 
these you can rehearse what you've 
learned and you can check your answers 
and reread as needed if you struggle a 
bit that's fine a certain level of 
difficulty or challenge is desirable 
it's better than questions that are too 
easy for you or impossibly hard 
and then finally the last our review 
read over the chapter organization and 
your notes also one other thing it 
really helps if you distribute your 
study time don't cram if you want to 
remember for five minutes well you can 
just repeat something over and over but 
if you want to remember for five months 
or five years then study and test 
yourself off and on every week or so 
spaced out your study time do it in 
different places okay let's put the 
testing effect to work you might want to 
pause and ask yourself what is the 
testing effect and how does it work the 
testing effect is the fact that 
recalling the answer when we call 
retrieval practice boosts memory for 
example at test time and let me ask you 
another question what are the steps of 
sq3r do you remember 
the sq3r steps our survey question read 
retrieve review 
so in summary test test test take 
advantage of self testing and self 
checking opportunities second be active 
in your learning put things in your own 
words connect new ideas with important 
things in your life 
third distribute your study time space 
study least a much better retention than 
does cramming now I know I know some 
people learn and remember more easily 
than others just as some people 
naturally are faster or stronger but for 
all of us muscles grow stronger with 
exercise and so do our mental muscles 
thus the good news is that tests enhance 
learning is one way in which you can 
strengthen your memory muscles now just 
ask yourself one last time what is a 
testing effect