Learn new things and make them stick.
How should you go about learning? According to Huberman Lab, testing yourself right after reading the material the first time makes an impact.
Why? Testing yourself right after reading the material for the first time offsets the brain’s barrier to forgetting new information.
The key is doing this actively, compared to reading and listening. Even if you don’t get the test right, looking at the correct answer after you come up with an answer yourself helps the learning process.
This might be why writing a mini-essay, like this one, is a way of studying that works well for me. While writing it, I’m constantly checking my interpretation and validating it with the source material, making it a self-testing process.
According to research in this field, taking a self-test after reading new material helps you remember 50% more than if you don’t.
How to test yourself, then? Open-ended short-answer questions give the best results according to studies on the subject.
To help you even further, research points out the following essential prerequisites to set you up for learning:
- good (and enough) sleep
- mindfulness (5-10 min/day makes a big difference)
- focus and alertness
- caffeine (minor gains)
The studies also show that you get the best results by spending time studying in isolation. (Teaching others is a great way to deepen your knowledge after learning.)
Changes in the neuroplasticity in the brain make us learn and forget, and this process benefits from the advice above, according to Huberman.
Is it worth a try?