Did you get frustrated when you were not able to recall that particular concept, legal provision or an auditing procedure, just a few days after having spent hours trying to read and re-read it countless times, highlighting and underlining it verbatim, and even making a summary of what you read? I have, time and again, in the past, but not anymore.
If you have found yourself grappled with similar learning challenges and want to experiment with some research-backed scientific learning techniques that are found to be more effective and efficient, you have come to the right place.
By changing nothing, Nothing changes - Let's get to the point!
In the little time we have together, we discuss:
1. The Common Pitfalls: Some of the most popular intuition driven learning techniques amongst students which usually give a sense of having mastered what you read but ends up being ephemeral (a.k.a. the illusion of competence) and underscoring why that happens?
2. Introducing Scientific Techniques for learning: We then lay down the foundation for a few learning techniques that researchers have found to be effective and efficient. However, they remain either unknown to many or are applied with lesser conviction than the other popular (but far less effective) techniques. We include in our discussion, the many ways in which these techniques benefit the whole learning and long-term retention process.
A brief review of an effective study tool and a few words of wisdom end this discussion.
The Common Pitfalls: Quick Learning, Quick Forgetting!
More often than not, students end up using those techniques which they believe to be the most effective (although they may not be). Not to blame them entirely, these techniques do sound effective and have helped many get through the exams they started preparing for, the night before the exam.
More detailed post: Are CA exams all about Memorizing?
But in case you are more interested in retaining your learning and comprehension over the long term (which you should be, indeed!), you should deliberately avoid these techniques (referred to as “pitfalls” here).
Coming to the pitfalls first, let me start with my anecdote itself.
The picture (although not as aesthetically pleasing to eyes) perfectly brings home the point I made earlier about some popular learning techniques that simply give you no more than an illusion of competence ephemerally. I always believed it worked even when it didn’t unless it finally dawned bright on me (thankfully) that I got it all wrong!
It just doesn’t stop there, there are few more, which although need no introduction but do need a critical assessment that has been due for years now (the list includes techniques that you may have hitherto believed to have worked when in fact, it was merely your belief in them that made it all work):
1. Highlighting & Underlining: Highlighting and underlining the text even before you understand something or before having first recalled it without looking at the page after a few days, is quite common to come across. It can fool you into thinking that it is entering into your brain when all you are doing is a hand exercise.
2. Passive Re-reading: It’s true that sometimes re-reading the text may help in simply understanding what we read but continuing to re-read may not turn out productive when it comes to long term retention. As an analogy, it may be like solving a question by keeping the solution in front. It might feel as if you could connect all the dots in an instant, but once you don’t have it in front of you, you would be left guessing even where to start. Sitting passively and running your eyes over a page may instead be a good eye exercise. However, one must note that re-reading at spaced intervals is rather quite effective (Spaced Repetition is discussed later in this reading) and so much more, if done after forming a better understanding of the BIG Picture even if done after a long period of time. This is where you may get many wonderful moments of epiphany! (I know how amazing those moments feel, I usually start jumping out of excitement!!)
3. Massed Practice: Massed Practice refers to studying something for longer periods of time at a stretch but less frequently over a period of time. While this method may feel efficient and is capable of helping a student pass an exam, it is not a great long-term solution. It usually leads to a trade-off between early comprehension and long-term retention. Most students, whether they realize it or not, use distributed practice to master many different activities, except studying. Think of learning a new language, dance performance or playing basketball.
4. Jumping right into questions before learning the right way to do them: Let me admit it first, I tried that with Auditing Standards (without even looking at the application and explanatory material which meaningfully joins together abstract pieces of text). Usually, much of what I read made full sense and was much easily understandable when I reread it. However, this didn’t help much when I tested myself on questions that were new or had interconnections between various standards or those that I did after a good deal of time. It just felt as if it had vaporised in thin air, and I realised (thankfully) that diving into waters without learning would just end up drowning me. Although it feels so much easier to go through 25 questions than 250 pages but believe me without comprehension, trusting your memory may not be a wise choice especially on the day when you never know what may come in the question paper. Btw, not testing the real waters even after having learnt to swim is no better.
5. Summarisation (or “making notes”): Despite being too time-consuming, summarisation still finds validation from almost everyone. Not to deny that it’s actually effective but only if done in the right manner. Writing things down simply and concisely may help you get a gist of a particular topic instantly that can save you time from re-reading the whole thing which would anyway lead you to the same conclusion. However, don’t confuse it as a memory tool. It can act as a good comprehension tool where you draw connections between different items and hence, help yourself to make sense of what you read but for remembering it and retaining it, re-reading your summary won’t turn out to be much effective. Reproducing something that already exists is far less effective than writing questions that test you on it. (Active Recall methods would be discussed later in this reading).
Introducing scientific techniques for learning
The learning techniques we discuss here are way more effective in transmuting what’s stored in one’s working memory (which is as volatile as RAM of a computer) into long term memory (similar to something stored on HDD which can be retrieved later with much ease).
Active Recall: Trying to recall (i.e. generating ideas from within) the main ideas after having read a page by looking away and then practising repetition over spaced intervals will far outweigh any other technique. Recalling at places different from your study table, say, while walking outside or while eating or even before sleep helps. Trying to recall after re-reading something is a mistake that must be avoided completely. I know it’s going to be harder but the extra effort is what it takes to strengthen the neural connections inside your brain.
Spaced Repetition: It’s a well-received technique that recalling at spaced intervals of time enhances long term retention. The real problem lies in keeping a track of what needs to be recalled, when to recall it and most important, actually putting it into practice. It’s also important to appreciate that recalling at short intervals isn’t much beneficial as it’s much simpler (& effectively not of much benefit) to retrieve the information that you have been intently focusing on some time back (which is stored in our working memory (or Short-term memory)). Let some time pass by and then try to recall what you learnt; the comprehension and the logical connections that you made at the time of reading will determine the ease with which you would be able to recall. Of all things you read here, one thing you should remember is this, “use more of Logic & less of Memory” when recalling.
Distributed Practice: Given the limited time we have, it’s better to distribute your learnings on a particular chapter or subject over time than to go through them at one shot. Think of me writing this article in one shot over 7 hrs in a single sitting vs. writing it 1 hr each day over a week. It’s not just going to be easier for me, but also I might be able to bring in fresh perspectives which I might have thought about unconsciously over the days. It’s important to appreciate here that learning is more than what you do at the study table, it happens even when you are not consciously thinking about what you read, it might happen when you go breathe in some fresh air outside or exercise. Getting good sleep is also very essential as it strengthens your comprehension of the things you read and starts making meaningful connections between the things you knew before and helps transmute what’s in your working memory (temporary memory) to your long-term memory. Yes, all this happens at a time when you are happily dreaming.
Inter-leaving: I wish somebody told me this earlier. For most of the time, this is exactly what I did: After having finished reading a chapter, I solved almost all the questions I could get on each of the topics covered and then, I moved on to the next chapter to do precisely the same. Isn’t the illusion of competence so reassuring and pleasant to pride ourselves with? The most obvious effect being massed practice, lack of spaced repetition (since it was only after many weeks (or worse, months) that I could revisit these topics) and lots of highlights, underlining, summarizing—in short, falling into the common pitfalls. Mixing up questions from different chapters in a single study session will help you in identifying connections that were hidden hitherto and also highlight differences in approaches to given problems. Better comprehension, enhanced application ability and effective long term retention would come along naturally. Of course, this can happen only after you have finished studying the whole syllabus once properly.
Practice Testing: “To know thyself is the beginning of all wisdom”. It simply fits so well when it comes to learning. The sooner you get to know your Achilles heel (what you don’t know, you don’t know), the faster you would be able to turn it into your hidden forte (what you don’t know, you already know). Practice testing is a highly effective prioritizing method. The more mocks you attempt, the better is this practice testing. To know more about the importance of Practice Testing, please read this post - Importance of Mock Tests
Conclusion
When it comes to an effective study tool, the CFA Learning Ecosystem comes to mind. It is a great example of having put the above techniques into practice. It divides the whole course into mini topics with few practice problems right after it to test your comprehension (& not memory!), gives you the option to rate your level of confidence into high to low, and gives you the space for writing your active recall questions. Further, it helps you track your progress over time and the option to take practice tests as much as you prefer.
Let me close with a little piece of (un)common sense. The above-mentioned techniques would take time to build and for you to realize their long term benefits. It’s also worth mentioning that you would still highlight, re-read or summarise pieces of information, but try to deliberately combine the above learning techniques that have scientifically proven to be effective and efficient, with a lot more dedicated focus and conviction.
In case, you found something of value to yourself here, instead of sharing this long piece of text, call up your friend and let him know. In case you know of any other effective & efficient learning technique that works pretty well for you, let me know in the comments, and we can start experimenting with it together.
Keep experimenting; keep learning!
P.S.: The Q&A A/B/C … analysis: I will leave this section for you to think about and reflect. When do you categorize a question based on its difficulty (or any other metric you find suitable)? How do you track the changes in these categories over time as you learn new things, build new connections, experience the moments of epiphany that makes previous connections stronger and also forget the few things that you learnt previously? What has been your experience with such techniques? Did something else work better in helping out find your Achilles Heel & Forte?
This entire post has been written by Jaiveer Shekhavat, exclusively for CA Exam Strategies. Jaiveer is a CA Finalist and a CFA aspirant. He is the Co-Founder of WeValue, a wealth management and financial consultancy firm catering to the needs of the retail investors by helping them make wise investment decisions. He has mastered the art of multi-tasking - meticulously managing CA Final, CFA, Articleship at PwC, Equity Research - all at the same time.
In this post, Jaiveer opens up to share techniques on how CA students need to be just a little extra cautious to make their learning effective - techniques which he himself has learnt with time and put them into practice in his prep.
I cannot thank Jaiveer enough for taking the time out to write this immensely helpful post and preparing the 2-pager handout as well. I know I have been a bit harsh on him in expecting him to write for CA Exam Strategies despite juggling so much already. But I am truly amazed at his dedication levels and the way he has absolutely streamlined his prep - as is very much evident from this post.
Thanks for reading :)
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