On Retaining Learned Information
TL;dr: Ya gotta practice!
I have a theory on retaining learned information: a big part of recall is not just training the brain initially, it’s reinforcing whatever was learned. In a nutshell: regular practice matters. Yes, you can learn merely by watching videos. But this new knowledge, these new skills: those are really only “passing through” your mind (and skillset) without the deliberate efforts of retention habits. To put it into an SAT/ACT perspective, if you’re not practicing your math, reading & writing skills like one would practice the piano for a weekly lesson, then you are most likely not developing the solid foundations required to increase your basic skills, a pre-requisite for achieving elite test scores. For one thing, that means whenever you take a practice test, you should follow it up by making 4x6” index cards for all of the questions that gave you trouble, with questions, info & answer choices on one side (the blank side), and the correct answer, and an explanation, on the other side of the index card. And then repeatedly quizzing yourself on these cards, not until you’ve memorized the answer to the question, but until you’ve understood the underlying concepts and reasoning behind the question and its correct answer, and how the question could be altered and you would still be able to answer it. If you need to make other, supplemental index cards, with formulas or whatever necessary to more fully explain any of the cards you’ve already made, hey, go for it: the more substance you can add to your physical reminders of important test information, the better.
Ya gotta practice. There’s no alternative. [Well, there is, actually: I’ve taught a student or two over the years with wildly advanced recall: to the point where a particular kid could hear a song once, and write out all the lyrics from memory afterward, for example. Those rare few kids did not, technically, need to practice. But barring those clear-cut cases of divine intervention…] It’s the reinforcing of the skills learned that’s going to build the solid foundation you need to carry you to the higher scores you’re aiming for. Absorb the concept of regular practice into your studying; just adding this one habit helps boost scores like mad.
As an aside: remember (as I discussed in the last newsletter) big changes are coming to the ACT in April on the online ACT only, and then to all ACT test-takers from Sept. 2025 onwards! These changes are all designed to make the test easier and more appealing, so all this is likely good news.