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How to Study & Learn Using Active Recall | Dr. Cal Newport & Dr. Andrew Huberman

Huberman Lab Clips06:48Added Aug 30, 2026

Dr. Cal Newport and Dr. Andrew Huberman discuss the concept of active recall and its role in effective learning. Cal Newport, Ph.D. (‪@CalNewportMedia‬) is a professor of computer science at Georgetown University and bestselling author of numerous books on focus and productivity and how to access the dee

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  1. Introduction to Learning Techniques

  2. 00:02Tell me what you think of this,
  3. 00:04what I always call, protocol,
  4. 00:06if I want to learn something
  5. 00:08from a manuscript I read or a book chapter,
  6. 00:11I used to highlight things.
  7. 00:12And I had a very elaborate,
  8. 00:14extracted from my university days,
  9. 00:16system of stars and exclamation marks and underline
  10. 00:18that mean a lot to me,
  11. 00:19that, yes, bring me back to a given segment
  12. 00:22within the chapter.
  13. 00:23But a few years ago,
  14. 00:24I was teaching a course
  15. 00:26in the biology department at Stanford,
  16. 00:27and for some reason,
  17. 00:29we had them read a study about information retention.
  18. 00:35And I learned from that study
  19. 00:37that one of the best things we can do
  20. 00:38is read information, in whatever form,
  21. 00:41a magazine, research article, et cetera, a book,
  22. 00:44and then to take some time away from that material,
  23. 00:47maybe walk,
  24. 00:49maybe close one's eyes,
  25. 00:50maybe leave them open, doesn't matter,
  26. 00:51and just try and remember specific elements.
  27. 00:54How much does one remember?
  28. 00:55Then go back to the material and look at it.
  29. 00:57And I've just been positively astonished
  30. 01:00at how much more information I can learn
  31. 01:03when I'm not simply going through motor commands
  32. 01:05of just underlining things and highlighting them,
  33. 01:07but stepping away and thinking,
  34. 01:08"Okay, yeah, oh, I don't remember
  35. 01:10how many subjects there were.
  36. 01:11I'll go back and check that,
  37. 01:12maybe make a note.
  38. 01:13And okay, they did this,
  39. 01:14then they did that, and then,"
  40. 01:15and then it's crystallized.
  41. 01:16And as I say this, I realize,
  42. 01:18of course this should work,
  43. 01:20[laughing] this is the way that the brain learns.
  44. 01:23But somehow, that's not the way
  45. 01:25we are taught to learn.

  46. Discovering the Power of Active Recall

  47. 01:27Yeah, well, I'm smiling because when I was 22,
  48. 01:30I wrote this book
  49. 01:32called "How to Become a Straight-A Student," right?
  50. 01:34And the whole premise of the book was,
  51. 01:36"I'm going to talk to actual college students
  52. 01:39who have straight A's
  53. 01:40and who don't seem completely ground out, right?
  54. 01:43Like, not burnt out.
  55. 01:44And I'm just going to interview 'em, right?"
  56. 01:46And the protocol was,
  57. 01:47"How did you study for the last test that you studied for?
  58. 01:49How did you take notes for the last?"
  59. 01:50So I was just asking them
  60. 01:52to walk through their methodology.
  61. 01:53The core idea of that book
  62. 01:56was active recall.
  63. 01:58That was the core idea,
  64. 01:59that replicating ideas, what I used to say is,
  65. 02:01"Replicating the information from scratch
  66. 02:03as if teaching a class without looking at your notes."
  67. 02:06That is the only way to learn.
  68. 02:08And the thing about it was,
  69. 02:09it's a trade off.
  70. 02:11it's efficient, doesn't take much time,
  71. 02:12but it's incredibly mentally taxing, right?
  72. 02:14This is why students often avoid it.
  73. 02:16It is difficult to sit there
  74. 02:18and try to replicate and pull forth,
  75. 02:20"Okay, what did I read here?
  76. 02:22How did that work?"
  77. 02:22It's mentally very taxing,
  78. 02:24but it's very time efficient, right?
  79. 02:26If you're willing to essentially put up with that,
  80. 02:28with that pain,
  81. 02:29you learn very quickly.
  82. 02:30And not only do you learn very quickly,
  83. 02:31you don't forget.
  84. 02:32It's almost like you have a pseudo-photographic memory
  85. 02:35when you study this way.
  86. 02:36You sit down to do a test
  87. 02:36and you're replicating whole lines [laughing]
  88. 02:40from what you studied,
  89. 02:42the ideas sort of come out fully formed
  90. 02:44because it's such a fantastic way to actually learn.

  91. The Journey to Academic Excellence

  92. 02:47It was my key, the whole premise
  93. 02:49that got me writing that book
  94. 02:52is I went through this period
  95. 02:54as a college student
  96. 02:55where I came in freshman year,
  97. 02:57was a fine student,
  98. 02:59not a great student, but a fine student.
  99. 03:01I was rowing crew and I was sort of excited to do that.
  100. 03:04And then I developed a heart condition,
  101. 03:06and had to stop.
  102. 03:07Congenital wiring in the heart,
  103. 03:10atrial flutter thing.
  104. 03:11It meant I couldn't row crew anymore.
  105. 03:12So a prolapse of some sort?
  106. 03:13It was a circuitry issue
  107. 03:17that would lead to a extremely rapid heartbeat.
  108. 03:19It's like really rapid,
  109. 03:21like tachycardia, right?
  110. 03:22You get 200-250 beats a minute just,
  111. 03:24and it could be exercise induced, right?
  112. 03:26Which is not optimal,
  113. 03:27you could take beta blockers,
  114. 03:29which would moderate the electrical timing,
  115. 03:32but beta blockers reduce your max heart rate.
  116. 03:34And if you're a athlete
  117. 03:36where the entire thing that matters
  118. 03:37is your max heart rate,
  119. 03:38so you're doing something like a 2,000-meter rows,
  120. 03:41your performance on beta blockers just goes down.
  121. 03:43It makes no sense, it's like being a basketball player
  122. 03:45that wears weighted shoes,
  123. 03:46it's too frustrating.
  124. 03:47Right, and it also makes you super mellow.
  125. 03:49I was a pretty mellow guy.
  126. 03:50[both laughing]
  127. 03:51But I was a worst rower.
  128. 03:53So I stopped that, and I was like,
  129. 03:54"Okay, I want to get serious about my studies."
  130. 03:56I said, "I can get serious about my studies
  131. 03:57and writing," right?
  132. 03:58That's when I actually made the decisions
  133. 04:01that I then stuck with for the next 25 years after that.
  134. 04:04But one of the things I did to get serious about my studies
  135. 04:07is I said, "I'm going to systematically experiment
  136. 04:10with how to study for tests
  137. 04:13and how to write papers."
  138. 04:14And I would try this, "How did it go?"
  139. 04:16deconstruct experiment.
  140. 04:17Try this, "How'd it go?"
  141. 04:18deconstruct experiment.
  142. 04:19And active recall was the thing
  143. 04:21that turned me all around.
  144. 04:22And so I went from a pretty good student
  145. 04:25to 4.0 every single quarter,
  146. 04:27Sophomore year, junior year, senior year.
  147. 04:29I got one A minus
  148. 04:30[laughing] between my sophomore year through my senior year.
  149. 04:32It was like this miraculous transformation.
  150. 04:34It was active recall.
  151. 04:35I rebuilt all of my studying,
  152. 04:37so if it was for a humanities class,
  153. 04:39I had a whole way of taking notes
  154. 04:40that was all built around doing active recall.
  155. 04:43For math classes,
  156. 04:44my main study tool was a stack of white paper.
  157. 04:47"All right, do this proof,"
  158. 04:49white piece of paper,
  159. 04:49and just, "Can I do it from scratch?"
  160. 04:51If I could, I know that technique.
  161. 04:53If I don't, "All right, I'm going to come back
  162. 04:54and try it again later."`
  163. 04:55Completely transformed.
  164. 04:57I did so well academically,
  165. 04:58that's why I ended up writing that book
  166. 05:00that basically spread that message to other people.

  167. Mastering Material with Active Recall

  168. 05:02So I'm a huge advocate for active recall.
  169. 05:04It's really hard,
  170. 05:05but it is the way to learn new things.
  171. 05:08And as you pointed out,
  172. 05:09it is very time efficient.
  173. 05:11Oh yeah. Yeah.
  174. 05:12I mean, it was a problem,
  175. 05:13it was a social problem for me
  176. 05:15that I would have to pretend
  177. 05:17[laughing] during finals period
  178. 05:18that I was going to the library to study
  179. 05:20because I would be done studying.
  180. 05:22This active recall, it's brutal,
  181. 05:23but it's incredibly efficient.
  182. 05:25You sit down there,
  183. 05:25I would have my cards
  184. 05:27and I would mark it,
  185. 05:27"Okay, I struggled with this,"
  186. 05:29I'd put it in this pile,
  187. 05:30"I got it done," I'd put it in this pile.
  188. 05:32And so then you would just go back to the,
  189. 05:34"I struggled with it," pile,
  190. 05:35and work on that.
  191. 05:36And then make a new, "I struggled with it," pile.
  192. 05:38And these would exponentially decay.
  193. 05:40And so in a few hours, you could really master,
  194. 05:43with a few other tricks that worked,
  195. 05:44you could really master the material pretty quickly.
  196. 05:46And then, what am I supposed to do?
  197. 05:47I didn't do all-nighters.
  198. 05:49It wouldn't make any sense.
  199. 05:50Active recall is how you prepare,
  200. 05:51and it's going to take four hours
  201. 05:52and it's going to be tough,
  202. 05:53so do it in the morning when you have energy,
  203. 05:55and then you're done.
  204. 05:56I love it.

  205. Applying Active Recall in Neuroanatomy

  206. 05:57I learned essentially all of neuroanatomy
  207. 06:00looking down the microscope at tissue samples.
  208. 06:04And then I would try and take photographs with my eyes,
  209. 06:07I do not have a photographic memory.
  210. 06:08But then I would get home in the evening,
  211. 06:10look through the neuroanatomy textbook,
  212. 06:12lie down,
  213. 06:13and try and fly through the different circuits in my mind.
  214. 06:16And then if I arrived at a structure in the brain
  215. 06:18that I couldn't identify,
  216. 06:20I would then go check my notes
  217. 06:21and go back. Ah, that's perfect.
  218. 06:22So basically, I learned neuroanatomy,
  219. 06:23which I'm poor at a great many things in life,
  220. 06:27but neuroanatomy, I'm solid at,
  221. 06:30and then some, if I may say so.
  222. 06:32And it's because there's a mental map,
  223. 06:34and you can kind of move through it,
  224. 06:36fly through it dynamically.

  225. Closing Remarks and Invitation to Watch Full Episode

  226. 06:37Thank you for tuning into the Huberman Lab Clips channel.
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  228. 06:42please check out the full-length episode
  229. 06:44by clicking here.