Overlearning is the continued practice of mastered material to make it automatic. It’s different from cramming and can be helpful for test anxiety. Distributed learning, referencing old material in new lessons, can improve retention. Overlearning is used by performers to improve their skills.
Overlearning is the continued practice or study of material or a skill long after the information or skill has been mastered. If, for example, you were studying multiplication tables or vocabulary in a foreign language, you would eventually master the material. With overlearning you continue to study the mastered material in a way that hopefully becomes automatic.
The overlearning practice is used by many schools that emphasize continued practice of the materials acquired, and by many students as well. It’s not analogous to cramming, which is studying a lot of material the night before a test. However, there are some similarities particularly in the academic environment. Once material has been learned, excess learned material cannot be retained for a school year or a lifetime. When you commit to testing, you may be able to do slightly better on testing, but your material retention may not exist for weeks or months after you take the test.
To address this pedagogical focus in schools, many schools instead work not only on teaching material, but also referencing it as a class or school year progresses. By referencing learned material and incorporating old material into new lessons, some new studies, particularly one from the University of Southern Florida conducted in 2005, suggest that students are more likely to retain the material. This practice that some schools and teachers are now employing is called distributed learning. Even if you’re taught in a more linear fashion, particularly in college or high school, reviewing your notes a few times a week can help you retain information you’ve already been tested on. This could be an effective strategy if you will be taking cumulative tests at the end of the semester or at the end of the school year.
There is a place for traditional overlearning. It can prove especially helpful if you have anxiety while taking tests. Having automated answers at your disposal can help a student feel more confident taking the test. Overlearning is a tool frequently used by people who give speeches or who have to perform in any way in front of an audience.
A violinist does not stop learning a piece that he will play once it has been initially mastered. The violinist, on the other hand, continues to practice that piece so that it is automatic and there is little chance of forgetting it when he performs to a large crowd. Likewise, actors, dancers, and other musicians can calm nervousness by overlearning their parts, and can actually improve their performance by continuing to practice beyond the initial memorization of musical lines, steps, or beats or notes.
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