Exams enhance learning

Metacognition—thinking about your thinking—enables selection of effective learning strategies. Students with strong metacognitive skills:

• Engage in retrieval practice rather than passive rereading
• Space their learning instead o...

Retrieval is when you try to recall what you've learned. There are many ways to do this, some better than others.

Why it works: It strengthens your memory and interrupts forgetting. The act of retrieving information helps facilitate long-term recall.

How to ap...

The generation effect shows that self-generated information is remembered better than information merely read or reviewed. This occurs because:

• Active construction of answers strengthens neural connections
• Effort required fo...