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Deliberate Practice Questions

a ledger of questions

A question you answer once tells you very little. Keep a ledger instead. Before each answer, say how sure you are, then check. The answers you were sure of and got wrong go first next time, and a question leaves the ledger only when it's right in three separate sessions.

  • Moderate to start
  • High impact
  • Learn it in 2-4 weeks
  • Three sessions to retire a question
three weeks of one ledger
A ledger of five night-sky questions over four sessions in three weeks Each row is a question; each column is a session. In each cell, a letter says how sure the answer felt before checking: S for sure, T for think so, G for guess. Under it, a tick or a cross. Which is the brightest star in the night sky?: Mon wk 1 sure, wrong; Thu wk 1 think so, right; Mon wk 2 sure, right; Mon wk 3 sure, right. Retired after three right. Why does Polaris stay put while the rest turn?: Mon wk 1 guess, wrong; Thu wk 1 think so, right; Mon wk 2 think so, right; Mon wk 3 sure, right. Retired after three right. Why do planets twinkle less than stars do?: Mon wk 1 think so, wrong; Thu wk 1 sure, wrong; Mon wk 2 think so, right; Mon wk 3 sure, right. Right 2 times, still on the ledger. Which way do stars rise?: Mon wk 1 sure, right; Thu wk 1 sure, right; Mon wk 2 sure, right; Mon wk 3 not asked. Retired after three right. How do you find Polaris from the Plough?: Mon wk 1 guess, wrong; Thu wk 1 think so, right; Mon wk 2 guess, wrong; Mon wk 3 think so, right. Right 2 times, still on the ledger. The two answers that were sure and wrong are circled, to be asked first next time. A note under the table shows one: the brightest star is Sirius, not Polaris. At the bottom, next session starts with the 2 questions still on the ledger. Night sky · question ledger question Mon wk 1 Thu wk 1 Mon wk 2 Mon wk 3 Which is the brightest star in the night sky? S ✗ T S S Why does Polaris stay put while the rest turn? G ✗ T T S Why do planets twinkle less than stars do? T ✗ S ✗ T S 2 of 3 Which way do stars rise? S S S retired How do you find Polaris from the Plough? G ✗ T G ✗ T 2 of 3 Ssure Tthink so Gguess · said before checking sure, and wrong: ask it first next time right in three separate sessions: retired Mon wk 1 · the circled one Brightest star in the night sky? “Polaris, surely.” Sure. Wrong. It's Sirius. Polaris is famous for staying put, not for shining. Mon wk 4 · ask first The 2 still on, then this week's new questions.

Two circles in three weeks, and both were right by the next session. That's typical: the answers you were surest of are the likeliest to stay fixed, once you read the correction properly.

For anything you're learning over weeks

Try it now.

Cards, a notebook or a page in your notes app. Ten to twenty questions is a good bank to start with.

  1. Write the questions, answers out of sight

    One question per idea, answer on the back or under a fold. Ask why and how, not only what.

  2. Say how sure you are first

    Before you look: sure, think so, or guess. Out loud or a letter in the margin. It takes a second and it's the whole trick.

  3. Check, and keep the misses in play

    Mark it right or wrong. A miss goes to the back of the pile and comes round again in the same session until you get it.

  4. Ask the confident misses first

    Circle every answer you were sure of and got wrong. Read the correction slowly and say why yours was wrong. Next session, they go first.

    A lucky guess counts as not known yet. Read its answer too.

  5. Come back, then retire it

    Ask again in a few days, then a week later. When a question is right in three separate sessions, strike it through and stop asking.

Not studying? The same ledger works for a driving theory test, a new job's procedures or a language. “How do I ask for the bill?”, sure, wrong: that one goes first on Thursday.

Run a session

Sure, think so, or guess?

Paste your questions, one per line, with the answer after a bar: question | answer. The page asks each one, has you say how sure you are before showing the answer, and keeps a miss in play until you get it. At the end you get this session's grid and the order to ask them next time.

One per line: question, a bar, then the answer.

This session, first tries
How sureRightWrong

    Nothing you type is saved or sent anywhere. Copy the order into your notes before you close the page.

    What the studies found

    The surest mistakes are the easiest to fix.

    In 2001 Brady Butterfield and Janet Metcalfe asked people general-knowledge questions, had them rate how sure they were, then showed them the right answers. On a retest, the errors people had been most confident about were the ones they most often corrected. It's called the hypercorrection effect, and it has been repeated many times since. The usual explanation is attention: being surprised makes you actually look at the correction.

    In 2008 Andrew Butler, Jeffrey Karpicke and Henry Roediger found the other half. Showing the right answer helped most with answers people had got right but weren't sure of. Without the check, a lucky guess stays a guess, which is why the ledger asks you to read the answer even when you were right.

    An honest limit: both studies used trivia questions in a lab, with retests minutes to days later, not months. They say how to treat each kind of answer. How often to come back is what the ledger's three sessions are for, and that rule is ours, a sensible default rather than a finding.

    How sureRightWrong
    SureKnown.Ask it again in a later session, and stop once it's right three times.Fix this first.Read the correction slowly and say why yours was wrong. These tend to stick once fixed.
    Think so or guessNot known yet.Read the answer anyway; feedback helps these most.Not learned.Back of the pile, again this session, until it comes out right.
    What each kind of answer is telling you. After Butterfield & Metcalfe (2001) and Butler, Karpicke & Roediger (2008).

    The idea

    Why it works.

    Answering a question from memory strengthens it more than reading the answer does, so a bank of questions beats a page of notes. But answering once mixes up two things: what you know and what you happened to get. Saying how sure you are separates them.

    The ledger then spends your time where it's needed. Known questions come round less and less and finally leave. Confident misses, the ones that would have caught you out in an exam or a meeting, come round first.

    Keep it honest

    Habits that help.

    • Say it before you look. Confidence given after seeing the answer is worthless.
    • Answer fully. “Something about the axis” isn't right. Say the whole answer, then check.
    • Rewrite bad questions. If you keep getting one right without knowing why, it's giving the answer away.
    • Add as you go. Each week's new questions join the bank. Retired ones can come back once a month.

    Go deeper

    Keep going.

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