A Really Inefficient Way To Learn

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Lots of people are used to spending an hour reading a chapter or watching a lecture, and then doing homework afterwards.

But that’s a really inefficient way to learn. Students who approach learning that way end up wasting most of their time.

Instead, it’s vastly more efficient to intersperse retrieval practice throughout:

1. Consume a bite-sized piece of information (with a sense of urgency but not rushing – slow down when necessary to parse and make sense of complex pieces of information, and if any connections come to mind, take a moment to consider them).

2. Practice recalling the information you consumed (including solving a few simple problems that require only the material you’ve covered so far).

3. Repeat with the next bite-sized piece of information.

Max-efficiency learning consists of students spending the vast majority of their time solving problems (and receiving feedback) on new topics and topics most in need of review, with instruction interspersed so that students receive minimum effective doses of new information right before they use it to actively solve problems and receive feedback.

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