Don’t Look Back at the Reference Too Often

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One mistake that I have seen students, even adult students, make all the time is looking back at the reference too often.

Thinking that it’s free to look back at the reference when in reality, if you just reflexively look back at the reference instead of trying your best to recall from memory, you’re basically just letting your spotter lift the weight for you.

You’re supposed to be doing mental weightlifting, and you’re like, “I can’t get it up,” and then the guy behind you just lifts it for you.

And it’s, it’s ridiculous, right?

I mean, it’s so ridiculous that this kind of situation never really happens in the gym.

But it happens all the time in learning that people ask for the spotter’s help before they even get to the point that they’re trying really hard.

The moment that it stops becoming super easy, they’re like, “Ah, let’s just look back at the example.” When in reality, that is the moment when you are getting the most bang for buck out of recalling the information.

The challenge during the active recall process, that is when you’re strengthening the memory.

So don’t look back at the reference right away.

Try to pull it from memory.

Don’t look back unless you absolutely need to.

And definitely do not, under no circumstances, never do this.

Don’t pull up the worked example and look at it side by side when solving a new problem.

‘Cause if you do, you just shoot yourself in the foot.

You just shortchange the learning process.

You might get through today’s homework, but you’re not training yourself to retain it, much less do it unassisted.

This teaser is distilled from the following post, if you want to dive deeper: Don’t Look Back at the Reference Too Often .

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