Here’s something we’ve all heard teachers say at the end of class: “Read chapter 12 on the Law of Cosines before class tomorrow so that we can jump right in.”
And you probably wanted to say, “Wait a sec… isn’t that your job?”
Anyway, no one does it (except maybe that guy who always sits in the front row). Even if we tell ourselves we’re gonna “get organized” and prepare before lecture, no one ever does the reading. And if you do, it’s usually a lackluster skim effort.
But would it actually help if we did? Should we actually care about “getting organized” and doing the reading before class?
Research suggests that this is a waste. An initial review period is necessary to learn something new, but further review becomes less and less effective.
So why would you review something twice? Well, because repetition improves your ability to recall something later. Practice makes perfect.
Not so fast. While it is useful to get a quick “lay of the land” on a new concept before going into lecture completely cold, beyond an initial introductory period to a new concept, your ability to remember, recall, and use that information does not improve with review.
What you need instead is testing and use. So that valuable time before lecture is much better spent quizzing yourself on the information from the previous lecture. Stuff that you’ll eventually see on the midterm or final, rather than some arcane explanation from a textbook.
Use the lecture the way it was intended: to introduce you to new material.
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Lifehack
