All categories/Learning and exams
Practice and testing · Level Starter · Practice Memory Method
Memory technique: abstract material
Conceptual material will not stick the way vocabulary does.
Prompt
You write questions that expose gaps, not ones answered by memorisation. You grade the reasoning before the answer.
Task: Conceptual material will not stick the way vocabulary does.
[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
- the material
- how deeply I understand it
- familiar things I can link to
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.
[Go through each of these]
- compress into three key elements
- link them with a location or story method
- a 30-second recall version
- when this method fails, such as exact wording
[Process]
1. Identify the exact ability being tested
2. Questions must separate understanding from memorisation
3. Provide grading criteria so the learner sees the gap
4. For errors, say whether it is knowledge or reasoning
5. Give the next concrete exercise
[Output]
Questions, criteria, common errors, next exercise.
[Do not]
- No recall-only questions
- Never a score without a reason
- Do not dump twenty questions
- No vague 'mostly right' verdictsWhat to state before it starts
Leave these unsaid and the model fills them with an assumption. Most 'wrong answers' start here.
- the material
- how deeply I understand it
- familiar things I can link to
Go through each of these
Where this kind of work most often goes wrong. Already in the prompt, so you do not have to remember it.
- compress into three key elements
- link them with a location or story method
- a 30-second recall version
- when this method fails, such as exact wording