Why It Matters?

This strategy aims to practice retrieving important information and skills from memory. This will strengthen your neural pathways and make it easier to retrieve useful information later. Periodic self-quizzing strengthens your ability to connect it to prior knowledge, strengthens memory recall, and helps identify gaps in understanding.

How do I use Self-Quizzing? 

Mastery requires both fluency in mental models and a conceptual understanding of how and when to use those models. Therefore, when reading a text or studying lecture notes, ask yourself:

• What are the key ideas?
• What terms or ideas are new to me, and how would I define them?
• Why are these ideas important?
• How do the ideas relate to what I already know? 
• How is it done (if applicable), or how should these ideas be used? Are there other ways it could be done? 
• When are these ideas applicable, or when should I use these ideas? When do these ideas not apply? Are there other rules that will increase my understanding of how this is applied?

• Quiz yourself on current information and previously learned material. You can use flashcards or create your own quiz questions. Test without looking at the answers first. Then check the accuracy of those answers.
• Create questions from answers (reverse quizzing).
• Check answers and correct mistakes.
• Identify areas of weak mastery and focus on making those areas stronger through spaced retrieval practice.

When do I use Self-Quizzing?

Implement self-quizzing as a primary study strategy, replacing passive rereading. Combine it with spaced retrieval practices to maximize retention.

Action: Make self-quizzing a core part of your study routine, replacing passive review methods like rereading. It's most effective when used regularly, allowing your brain to strengthen those pathways over time.

Challenge yourself to implement self-quizzing in your next study session. Start with one topic or chapter. Create a set of questions based on the key concepts, then quiz yourself without looking at your notes. After, reflect on how much you were able to recall and understand. Identify areas for improvement and plan your next self-quizzing session to target these.