Technique 4: Perfect Practice Makes Perfect

You probably already know that rote learning doesn’t work. Simply reading and re-reading through notes doesn’t do much to enhance your retention. Repetition can be helpful, but not when done mindlessly and without engaging in the ways we’ve outlined in previous chapters.

So, does that mean “practice makes perfect” is not true? American football coach Vince Lombardi famously updated the old adage to, “perfect practice makes perfect.” In other words, repeat the actions you want to master; don’t cement unwanted behavior or information by repeating the same mistakes over and over. You are what you practice most—so don’t teach yourself how to make mistakes, in other words!

It’s easy to see this principle in action in things like sports or playing a musical instrument. But what exactly does perfect practice look like to you and your goals? Start with the fundamentals. Break down skills, new pieces of information or processes and make sure that you can perform or recall each one before trying to do the same with the bigger chunk.

Once you’ve mastered that, assemble a few simpler units and practice them together. If you make a mistake, stop, slow down and go back to the fundamentals. Try again later, but don’t keep on and on hoping that with enough attempts you’ll simply blast through any obstacles or misunderstandings.

As before, ask questions. Become curious about why something is difficult and address your efforts there. Switch things up if necessary. Later, when you’re comfortable, you can up the challenge level. Be careful of prematurely taking on more challenge than you’re ready for—this seldom inspires you to learn faster and can often backfire, leaving your confidence shaken and teaching you some bad habits along the way.

Consciously seeing your study or learning efforts as a practice shifts your focus from outcomes and onto how you can continually be better in process. Don’t worry about becoming a virtuoso, or even finishing this piano piece. Only pay attention to this small section, to this melody, to this few seconds in front of you. Don’t become too reliant on practicing the things you can already easily do. If you find yourself plateauing, you need to up the challenge.

Some skills will benefit from patient and diligent practice, and some skills will require you to focus on thinking smarter rather than harder. The only way to know what your practice demands of you is to regularly appraise and update your methods, being honest about what works. At the same time, a practice is for the long haul—improvement won’t happen overnight, but in sometimes imperceptible degrees.

If the skill you want to develop or the knowledge you hope to acquire doesn’t lend itself well to learning in increasingly challenging chunks, then a great way to practice is by testing yourself. It may seem a little old-school, but it makes sense: you will perform better on a written test if your practice is to complete many different versions of that test rather than make endless mind maps or notes.

If you go for this method, however, be proactive in your approach. Use the test itself as a form of questioning and appraisal of your process thus far. A good trick is to deliberately tease out the material you most struggled with and focus on that—even bringing your full awareness to an error and understanding why you made it improves your chances of not making it next time round.

How well do you know the material? What gaps in your knowledge has the test revealed? How did you actually perform under “test conditions”? These questions will make sure you’re learning in a way that actually matches the end goal of doing well on that test.

o lead to better retention. A: 2006

Why should that be? There have been suggestions that what is being practiced in this case is repeated retrieval—i.e., deliberately asking your brain to go and fetch a previously stored memory. Retrieval-based learning practice may seem basic and old-fashioned, but it has proven effectiveness when it comes to meaningfully retaining information.

Retrieval practice is best done as soon as possible after you learn a new fact or piece of information. The first time you encounter a new word in a second language, for instance, quickly repeat the word, then quiz yourself later at various intervals to give your brain the chance of retrieving that memory. This way, you are practicing the skill you want to develop—the act of retrieving the piece of information you have stored.

Another technique is to close the book, and quickly tell yourself what you have just read. Not only will anticipating having to do this prime your mind for more focused reading, you’ll give yourself the chance to actually cement the memory right off the bat. This is in turn can deepen your understanding of all subsequent steps, meaning that when you do finally combine all the separate elements, they’ll come together more smoothly and with more lasting comprehension.

Try past papers or practice tests if you’re writing a school exam or similar, or set up conditions in which you can do a practice run that closely mimics the final goal you’re working toward.

A final word on what NOT to do

In reading the above four techniques, you might have wondered why some other seemingly great techniques were omitted. What about all the methods you were taught at school? In truth, there is no single method for every student and every topic. What is likely to be most effective is a mixed approach that is tailored to each student and their own needs—an approach that can be adjusted and tweaked along the way.

However, there are certain techniques that have definitely gathered evidence for being less than useful. These are those old habits we default to without thinking, and they can sometimes do more harm than good. If you revert to any of these methods, you may find yourself wasting time and energy that could have been better used to learn more efficiently.

Re-reading important texts is seldom useful. We’ve seen that reading is most effective when done with focused purpose. Read without a strategy and your brain has no reason to retain anything. Better to read fewer times but with more focus than simply read the same content over and over.

Similarly, highlighting as you read has not been shown to enhance learning. It’s little more than a habitual action, and can even trick your brain into thinking that by highlighting, the material is somehow “banked,” and can now be forgotten. If you’ve never actually gone back to look at, compile or organize highlighted sentences from a book, you have positive proof that doing so serves little purpose.

Another pitfall to avoid is getting bogged down with overly complicated note-taking strategies or learning methodologies. If you’re spending more time learning the learning method than the material itself, you may be dealing with a solution that is more complex than the problem it’s meant to solve, and worse, confusing or overwhelming yourself.

It’s counterintuitive, but try not to overlearn. Your brain can only do so much—forcing it past its natural limits won’t make you smarter, or help you learn faster, It will only exhaust you and make it harder to learn. Avoid cramming information in, multitasking or flitting around with material and techniques that are really only acting as distractions.

Finally, take with a pinch of salt any far-out claims of “learning styles” and how you need to convert material into your unique and preferred method of learning. The truth is, there’s very little evidence that human beings have different learning styles. It was once suggested that learners could present with a predominantly visual, auditory or even kinesthetic learning style. But a comprehensive report in the Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, presents randomized trials that show there really isn’t any difference between visual and auditory learners.

The review’s many prominent authors found that the evidence for different learning styles was often weak or contradictory, and that there is no real reason to drastically change the format of your learning. Some learners find audiobooks and material more pleasant and convenient, but don’t expect a miraculous boost in intelligence, memory or critical thinking simply because you used a more exotic learning model.