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Do you want to learn the material you’re studying—like, really learn it? I’m not talking about learning enough to pass a test, but rather, learning enough that you know it for life. Then what you need to do is overlearn it. One learning theory suggests that if you overlearn, you’ll attain automaticity, or the ability to do something without having to think about it, and ultimately retain more knowledge. Here’s what overlearning is and how to do it.
What is overlearning?
You know something is serious when the American Psychological Association has a definition for it, and that’s the case here: Per the APA, overlearning is “practice that is continued beyond the point at which the individual knows or performs the task as well as can be expected.” The APA says the benefits here can include “increased persistence of the learning over time or better retention and memory.” The terminology makes sense; once you’ve learned something over the extent you need to, it becomes second nature.
Simply put, overlearning involves studying something even once you’re sure you know it, which is why this technique is overlooked and, if I’m being honest, a little annoying. It makes sense that once you get information down, you don’t want to seemingly waste time going over it, but according to this theory, that is, unfortunately, when the magic happens. Don’t stop reviewing or studying just because you succeeded in memorizing something. Instead, keep going, digging it deeper and deeper into your brain.
Hermann Ebbinghaus, the researcher who brought us the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve, studied memory in the 1890s, figuring out that as time passed, memories decreased. (That’s basically what the forgetting curve is all about and a pretty common-sense phenomenon you have certainly experienced in your own life.) According to him, overlearning happens when you keep repeating what you’re going over well past the point at which you can recall it with 100% accuracy. Think about a story you’ve told numerous times over your lifetime. If you hadn’t started reciting it at parties and on first dates, the details may have gotten fuzzy, but since you did, it’s practically a well-rehearsed performance at this point.
See, recalling it is something that takes effort. The goal of overlearning is to reach automaticity, pulling the information from your longterm memory with no effort and freeing up space in your working memory.
How do you overlearn?
The next time you’re studying, review material you already know front to back. For instance, when using the Leitner method (which involves spaced repetition of flash cards, the frequency of review of each depending on how well you did the last time you quizzed yourself on it), always review all the flashcards you’re assigned on a particular day, even if you feel like skipping them because you got them right last time. Repeatedly going over material you know well is the key to overlearning and eventual automatic recall.
What do you think so far?
Flashcards, in general, are a great way to study and they’re perfect for this, especially if you’re following the Leitner technique. Just because a flashcard has been moved into the section you study less frequently doesn’t mean you should never go back to it. In fact, if you’re trying to overlearn, it’s one of the only times I’d recommend not using Leitner—at least not right away. For the first few days of reviewing your cards, go through all of them and don’t sort them by whether you get the answers right or wrong. Just keep drilling the same information over and over again.
Another useful tool here is the practice of blurting, which is what we call it when you write down or say everything you can remember about a topic. That forces active recall—or the act of consciously yanking information out of your long-term memory—and trains you to quickly identify key details in your brain. At the end of every week, do a round of blurting, even if you nailed all the details last time around.
Schedule blocks of time in your week for reviewing materials you’ve already mastered when you’re pre-planning your distributed practice. This can be as easy as re-reading a chapter or your notes, or as complex as taking practice quizzes or using flashcards. Continually reintroducing familiar ideas to yourself will dig them deeper into your longterm memory.
