What’s The Experiment Chronicles theme of the week? Do your mind and body some good. It’s been a rough month for all of us with exams, projects, papers, internships, job searching, work, relationships, and the election cycle. 

Table of Contents

Work: 3R Method

Set-Up

I usually stick to outlines and summarizing notes for studying but the American Psychological Association talked about the learning benefits of closing your textbook and talking to your wall/cat/succulent about what you’ve learned. This is the 3R method. These students learn more effectively than students who only reread the material. Plus, 3R students learn the material faster than students who just take notes. Faster, better learning? Sign me up. 

A more detailed breakdown of the 3R method:

Read a section (per usual, I stick with 10-page sections), close the book, recite everything you can recall about what you just read, and then review what you’ve missed.

Results

APA said that 3R students learned the material just as well as note-takers but faster. However, it took way longer for me to go through a section using 3R instead of pure note-taking. The alternate explanation for this is that I’m simply faster at note-taking because I’ve been doing it longer. 

On the comprehension side, I don’t feel like I did too hot there either. While reading an entire section in one go helped with comprehension, that wasn’t anything new. Not to mention I felt like all the information just fell out of my head after reciting it. It’s more comforting to me to visualize my scribbles of understanding instead of relying on what incorporeal thing I said . Reciting feels like rushed understanding since I can’t use it as a reference. I could record myself, but I know I won’t listen to the tapes later. The 3R method didn’t add anything new in terms of comprehension, speed, or recall that I didn’t have with note-taking.