Active recall is a study technique where you test yourself on material from memory, rather than passively re-reading or highlighting notes. It's one of the most well-evidenced revision methods, shown in educational research to build significantly stronger, longer-lasting memory than passive review.
Instead of reading your notes again and again, you turn the material into questions, cover the answers, and genuinely try to recall them from memory before checking. The effort of retrieval — even getting it wrong at first — strengthens memory far more than simply seeing the information again.
Re-reading and highlighting create a false sense of familiarity ('I recognise this') that doesn't translate into being able to actually recall the information under exam conditions. Active recall closes that gap by practising the actual skill you need: retrieving information from memory, not just recognising it.
Our free active recall study sheet and spaced repetition planner help you put this into practice.