Corux Learning The complete guide
Most students are taught what to learn, but never how to learn it. This guide brings together the study techniques with the strongest research behind them, explains why they work, and shows which one to reach for when studying isn't working.
Learning how to learn is a skill of its own. Psychologists call it metacognition: knowing how your own memory and understanding work, noticing when something hasn't stuck, and choosing a method that fixes it.
At Corux we teach it in three stages. First you absorb information: memory, reading and listening. Then you process it: reasoning, calculation and working out what it means. Finally you deliver it: writing, speaking and showing what you know in an exam. The techniques below strengthen each stage.
Evidence-based study techniques
Fixes: Forgetting what you studied
Review the same material several times, with growing gaps between sessions, instead of all at once.
The evidence: A study of more than 1,350 people found an ideal gap between first study and review, and the further away the test, the longer that gap should be.
Fixes: Knowing it on the page, blanking in the exam
Close the book and pull the information out of memory: a blank page, a question, or explaining it aloud.
The evidence: Students who practised recalling a science text remembered about 50% more a week later than students who drew concept maps.
Fixes: Memorising without understanding
Explain one idea in simple words, as if to a twelve-year-old. Where you get stuck is exactly what to study next.
The evidence: People confidently rate their understanding of everyday things, then discover they can't explain them. Explaining exposes those gaps.
Fixes: Practising a lot without getting better
Work on one specific weakness, just beyond your current level, with fast feedback on every attempt.
The evidence: By age twenty, the best violin students in a Berlin study had about 10,000 hours of focused solo practice, against about 4,000 for those heading into teaching.
Fixes: Remembering lists and sequences
Place vivid images along a route you know well, then walk the route in your mind to recall them in order.
The evidence: After 40 days of half-hour training, ordinary people went from remembering 26 words of a list to 62.
Find your fix
| If this sounds like you… | Try this |
|---|---|
| Why do I forget what I study? | Spaced repetition |
| I reread my notes but go blank in exams. | Active recall |
| I can repeat it, but I don't really understand it. | The Feynman Technique |
| I keep practising but I'm not improving. | Deliberate practice |
| I need to memorise a list, a sequence or a speech. | The memory palace |
Head to head
Rereading feels productive because familiar pages flow smoothly, but recognising a page is not the same as being able to reproduce it. In one study, students who tested themselves on new words remembered roughly 80% a week later, against roughly 35% for students who kept studying them.
Cramming gives a smooth feeling of recognition the night before, then most of it fades within days. The same total time spread over several sessions builds memories that last for the exam and well beyond it.
Put it together
Day 0
Learn the topic properly once, in class or from the book.
Day 1
Ten-minute blank-page recall, then check your notes and mark the gaps.
Day 3 or 4
Recall again. Explain the hardest idea in plain words (the Feynman Technique).
Day 7 to 10
Practice questions from memory, focused on the parts you still get wrong.
Day 21 to 30
One final recall. Most of the topic should now come out without effort.
FAQ
Combine active recall with spaced repetition: after learning something, test yourself from memory the next day, a few days later and about a week later. These two techniques have the strongest and most consistent evidence behind them.
First 1-hour class free
Live online classes for ages 6–16 that teach these techniques using your child's own school work.