The ‘High Utility’ Technique for Studying for the BOC Exam: Active Recall

What else should athletic training students do if rereading, underlining, and summarizing aren’t effective methods for studying? I’ve found active recall and spaced repetition to be the most effective methods for making your studies more efficient, effective, and rewarding. Let’s dive in!

Active Recall Theory and Evidence

Often, we think learning is testing yourself after you’ve learned everything. Anything else seems counterintuitive, right? This couldn’t be further from the truth!

During your BOC exam study time, you test yourself to retrieve information from memory. By retrieving information and data from our brains, we not only improve our ability to retain it but also our brain’s ability to make connections between different concepts.

Researchers in 2013 analyzed hundreds of studies about effective study techniques and concluded that testing, or active recall, has high utility and can be implemented effectively with little training.

“On the basis of the evidence…we rate practice testing as having high…