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Comment by bgee | Hacker News Reader

If you need to remember printed material (for an exam etc.), I highly recommend this product [0].

It's basically a blue highlighter and a red transparent plastic sheet. You first highlight the stuff you want to test yourself on, and when you are ready you can cover the material with the red sheet. Now the highlighted words just became redacted like in a released CIA doc.

There is a review on Youtube that let you see how it actually looks [1].

[0]: https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B01C02NOMQ/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_...

[1]: https://youtu.be/et14d3cafcQ?t=58

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Highlighting notes, and re-reading notes are the two study techniques that students think are most effective, but studies show are less effective.

Spaced repetition, repeated testing yourself on the material, questioning yourself to prompt you to work your memory recall, are shown to be the most effective.

Sources discussed and referenced in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukLnPbIffxE

Agreed. In college (30 years ago) I found a brochure on the "SQ3R" method - Skim, Question, Read, Recite, Review. As an ADD person it revolutionized my college achievements. I could deliberately attack the learning process and get (something) out of a subject with my limited attention.

While highlighting and re-reading notes might not be as effective as SRS quizzing, I still think there's a lot of value in writing the notes themselves. It sort of acts as the "summarize and share" part of this article (you're sharing with your later self).

I got frustrated with writing notes in one app, then making SRS cards out of them in another app, so I made one that combines the two[0]. I'm still trying to nail down the best workflow, but something like:

1) Read/watch material.

2) Summarize material in note(s)

3) Create cards from note(s) and study with SRS.

Works pretty well I think.

[0]: https://mochi.cards

For people wondering SRS means spaced repetition software

Very common in Japan. Most test prep books in Japan come with red plastic sheet and important phrases and sentences printed in red in books.

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