Don’t Look Back At The Reference Too Often

Peeking at the reference feels free, but it lets your spotter lift the weight. The struggle during active recall is when you strengthen the memory.

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One mistake that I have seen students, even adult students, make a lot:

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

You didn’t really lift the weight.

It’s ridiculous, right? So ridiculous that it 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 of trying really hard.

The moment that it stops becoming super easy, they’re like, okay, let’s 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 struggle during the active recall process is when you are strengthening the memory.

So don’t look back at the reference right away. Try to pull it from memory. Don’t look back at the reference unless you absolutely need to.

And definitely, do not pull up the worked example and look at it side-by-side while solving a new problem. That is the worst. Never, ever do that.

Because if you do, you just shoot yourself in the foot. You shortchange the learning process.

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

(Discussed further in Math Academy Podcast 1.)

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