How to use active recall (and why rereading fails)
A 5-minute explanation plus a weekly routine you can start today.
The guide
Rereading a chapter makes the page feel familiar. Familiarity is not recall: on the exam you have to produce the answer with the book closed. Active recall means practising that exact situation.
Start by reading a short section, then close the book and write everything you remember on a blank page. Compare with the source. What you missed is your study list for tomorrow — nothing else needs to be reviewed.
A simple weekly routine: on Monday you write the questions. Tuesday to Thursday you answer two of them from memory each day. Friday you answer only the ones you got wrong. Weekend off.
Use the Flashcards tool to turn those questions into cards, and the Notes tool to keep the explanation you wrote in your own words. If you can explain it without looking, you know it.