Why It Matters?

Accurately judging your readiness for an exam ensures that you have truly learned and retained the material. It also helps you know whether you are just familiar with the content or know and understand the content you are responsible for learning. 

Two things to consider when judging your readiness:

• Avoid Immediate Recall Bias: Just because you can recall information immediately after studying does not mean the knowledge is fully learned or can be reliably recalled in different contexts and over time.
• Test Under Varied Conditions: People often overestimate their understanding because they test themselves in conditions that favor good performance, leading to false confidence. Test your knowledge under varied and potentially challenging conditions to assess learning accurately (e.g., use time restrictions or reorder questions or flashcards)

How Do You Accurately Judge Your Learning?

The following are simple strategies you can use to test your readiness:

• Create a Visual: Draw a picture or diagram of the topics and concepts you are being tested on and identify connections between ideas
• Elaborate and Articulate: Describe the ideas and concepts, clarify the skill, and find connections between the material.
• Sort Cards: Create a set of cards containing specific concepts, terms, pictures, and examples/ideas that have been a part of the unit of study. Categorize cards and look for patterns and connections. Complete this activity two to three times, trying to vary your connections in various ways if possible.

When Do You Judge Your Learning?

You should be constantly judging your learning. Using various study strategies, you are constantly testing yourself and determining your readiness for a test. 

• Wait Between Study and Recall: Wait at least 30 minutes between reading something and actively recalling the information to ensure better retention.
• Regularly Test Memory: Test your memory for the content you need to know. Utilize Self-Quizzing.
• Delay Recall: Test yourself after some time has passed since you last saw the content, ensuring the material is well-learned and can be recalled later. Utilize the Spaced Retrieval method. 

Action: Choose one of the three strategies above without reviewing your notes or previous study materials. Once you have completed this task, review your study materials and determine if there are any gaps in your knowledge or understanding. If not, feel confident that you are ready for your test. If you are missing information, review the material and try to incorporate that information into your next attempt. Afterward, reflect on how these activities have deepened your understanding and connection to the material.