Guide
Active recall: what it is and how to use it with multiple-choice questions
Trying to remember without looking at your notes makes things stick better than rereading them. What the research says, how to turn it into a routine with multiple-choice questions, and an example to try right now.
By Michel Rodrigues, who makes CanQuiz. Reviewed on September 23, 2026.
What active recall is
Active recall (also called retrieval practice) means studying by pulling information out of your memory instead of pushing it back in. Closing the book and answering a question is active recall. Rereading the chapter, highlighting it or skimming a summary is not.
The difference sounds small and it is not. When you reread, the text is right there and everything feels familiar, so it seems you know it. When you try to recall it, you find out what you actually know, and that effort of retrieving is exactly what makes the memory last. Psychologists call it the testing effect: a test does not just measure what you know, it also teaches it.
Multiple-choice questions are a convenient way to practise it: they mark themselves, you can repeat them and they tell you straight away what you got wrong. They have one trap, which is getting an answer right by recognising it without recalling anything, and further down is how to avoid it.
What the research says
The studies this guide relies on, described without overselling them. Each one links to its original publication.
A week later, the people who tested themselves remember more
Roediger and Karpicke (2006) had students read passages and then either reread them or write down from memory what they remembered, with no feedback. After five minutes, rereading came out ahead. After two days and after a week, the students who had practised recall remembered considerably more, even though the rereaders felt more confident about their memory.
Source: Roediger & Karpicke (2006)
Practice testing is among the most useful techniques
Dunlosky and four co-authors (2013) reviewed ten study techniques. Only two were rated high utility: practice testing and spreading study out over time. Rereading and highlighting were rated low utility, and the review itself recommends practice testing instead of rereading.
Source: Dunlosky et al. (2013)
It beats building concept maps
Karpicke and Blunt (2011) compared retrieval practice with studying by building concept maps. Retrieval practice produced more learning, including on comprehension questions that required inferences, and even when the final test was to draw a concept map.
Source: Karpicke & Blunt (2011)
Not a one-off result
Two meta-analyses pool many experiments. Rowland (2014) confirms the advantage of testing over restudying, and finds a larger benefit when practice asks you to recall than when it only asks you to recognise. Adesope, Trevisan and Sundararajan (2017) conclude that practice tests help more than rereading and more than every other condition they were compared with.
Source: Rowland (2014); Adesope et al. (2017)
Multiple choice works too, with two conditions
Little, Bjork and colleagues (2012) found that a well-built multiple-choice test, with plausible wrong options, triggers recall and also helps you remember what the wrong options were about. Butler and Roediger (2008) measured the risk: without feedback, you can learn a wrong option. With the right answer shown afterwards, straight away or a little later, you score higher on the final test and repeat fewer of the wrong options.
Spread out over time, it lasts longer
Cepeda and colleagues (2006) pooled 839 measurements of spaced practice. The gap between reviews that gives the best retention grows with how long you need to remember: for an exam months away, reviews can be further apart than for one next week.
Source: Cepeda et al. (2006)
How to use it with multiple-choice questions, step by step
A simple routine built from the findings above. It works for a mid-term and for a professional licensing exam alike.
Study it once, properly
Active recall does not replace the first reading: you need something to recall. Read or listen to the topic once, making sense of it, without trying to memorise everything.
Close your notes and answer
Answer the questions without looking at anything. Before reading the options, try to say the answer in your own words: that turns recognition into recall, which is what makes it stick.
Check, and read why
Without feedback you can walk away with a wrong option. Look at the right answer and its explanation, including on the questions you got right by guessing.
Redo only the ones you missed
Go back to the questions you got wrong until you get them right. What you already know does not need another round today; what you missed does.
Come back another day, then later still
Retake the test the next day, then with longer and longer gaps. The further away the exam, the more you can space the reviews.
Try it now: four questions on this guide
This quiz reviews what you have just read. Answer from memory before opening the answer. The one you cannot remember is the one to repeat tomorrow.
Question 1 of 4 · One correct answer
In Roediger and Karpicke's 2006 study, who remembered the passage best a week later?
- Those who had reread it several times
- Those who had tried to write it down from memory
- Those who had highlighted it
- There was no difference between the groups
Show the answer
Correct answer: Those who had tried to write it down from memory
Why: After five minutes rereading was ahead, but after two days and after a week the students who had practised recall remembered more. Nobody highlighted in that study: option c is there to make you hesitate.
Question 2 of 4 · True or false
Rereading a topic tends to make you feel you know it better than testing yourself does.
- True
- False
Show the answer
Correct answer: True
Why: In Roediger and Karpicke (2006), the rereaders were more confident about their memory and still remembered less a few days later. That confidence is the trap of rereading.
Question 3 of 4 · Several correct answers
Which techniques were rated high utility in the review by Dunlosky and colleagues (2013)?
- Practice testing
- Spreading study out over time
- Highlighting
- Rereading
Show the answer
Correct answer: Practice testing
Correct answer: Spreading study out over time
Why: Only those two were rated high utility. Highlighting and rereading were rated low, even though they are the techniques students report using most.
Question 4 of 4 · One correct answer
According to Butler and Roediger (2008), what reduces the risk of learning a wrong option from a multiple-choice test?
- Answering faster
- Seeing the right answer after you respond
- Using fewer options
- Never retaking the same test
Show the answer
Correct answer: Seeing the right answer after you respond
Why: Feedback, immediate or delayed, raised correct answers on the final test and cut the answers that came from wrong options on the first test.
Active recall and spaced repetition
They are two different techniques that reinforce each other. Active recall is about how to study: by retrieving. Spaced repetition is about when: in separate sessions, further and further apart. Dunlosky and colleagues (2013) gave both their top rating, and together they make the best-supported routine there is: questions from memory, spread out over time.
In practice, instead of taking the same test ten times the night before, do three rounds: today, a few days from now and the following week. Each round is a little harder because you have forgotten something, and that effort is what makes it last. If you would rather have something keep track of what is due each day, CanQuiz spaced repetition does it with the questions from your quizzes.
Common mistakes
Looking at the answer before trying
If you open the solution after two seconds, you have retrieved nothing. Give yourself a moment to try, even if it is only to find out that you do not know.
Getting it right by elimination and calling it learnt
On a multiple-choice test you can get an answer right by ruling out silly options. If you could not state the answer without the options in front of you, mark it to repeat.
Only reviewing what you already know
Repeating the questions you always get right feels good and teaches little. Your time pays off more on the ones you miss.
Leaving it all for the night before
Practising recall on the last day helps, but the same hours spread over several days last much longer.
Studying with poor questions
A question that gives away its own answer, or has impossible options, does not make you recall anything. Wrong options need to be believable.
Getting the questions without writing them by hand
Writing a good quiz takes time, and that time is not active recall. If you have notes, CanQuiz can turn your notes into a quiz or make the quiz from a PDF, each question with its explanation and a button to redo only the ones you missed.
If you already use ChatGPT or another AI, this instruction makes its answer open as an interactive quiz, with no account. And if your exam takes marks off for wrong answers, the score calculator shows what is at stake when you answer the doubtful ones.
If you are comparing tools, this other guide sets out the criteria worth checking and a dated table.
Frequently asked questions
What is active recall, in a nutshell?
Studying by trying to remember information without looking at it, instead of rereading it. Every attempt to pull something out of memory makes you remember it better afterwards, especially a few days later.
Is active recall the same as retrieval practice?
Yes. Active recall is the name students use; researchers usually say retrieval practice, and the benefit it produces is called the testing effect. In Spanish it goes by recuerdo activo or práctica de recuperación.
Do multiple-choice questions work, or do I need open answers?
They work. Open answers make you recall more, but a test with believable wrong options also triggers recall, especially if you try to answer before reading the options and check the feedback when you finish.
How often should I review?
There is no single schedule. The review by Cepeda and colleagues (2006) shows that the best gap grows with how long you have until you need the material. A simple rule: repeat the next day, a few days later and a week later.
Is it the same as studying with flashcards?
Flashcards are another form of active recall, as long as you try to answer before flipping them. Multiple-choice questions add options and automatic marking; flashcards make you recall with no hints. Combining both works well.
Isn't it slower than rereading?
It feels that way at first, because it is harder and you get things wrong. But that effort is what fixes the memory, and in the studies cited it pays off more a few days later than the same time spent rereading.
Sources
Every study cited, with a link to its publication (DOI). What this guide says about each one comes from its published abstract.
- Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249-255. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01693.x
- Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students' learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4-58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612453266
- Karpicke, J. D., & Blunt, J. R. (2011). Retrieval practice produces more learning than elaborative studying with concept mapping. Science, 331(6018), 772-775. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1199327
- Rowland, C. A. (2014). The effect of testing versus restudy on retention: A meta-analytic review of the testing effect. Psychological Bulletin, 140(6), 1432-1463. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037559
- Adesope, O. O., Trevisan, D. A., & Sundararajan, N. (2017). Rethinking the use of tests: A meta-analysis of practice testing. Review of Educational Research, 87(3), 659-701. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654316689306
- Little, J. L., Bjork, E. L., Bjork, R. A., & Angello, G. (2012). Multiple-choice tests exonerated, at least of some charges: Fostering test-induced learning and avoiding test-induced forgetting. Psychological Science, 23(11), 1337-1344. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612443370
- Butler, A. C., & Roediger, H. L. (2008). Feedback enhances the positive effects and reduces the negative effects of multiple-choice testing. Memory & Cognition, 36(3), 604-616. https://doi.org/10.3758/MC.36.3.604
- Cepeda, N. J., Pashler, H., Vul, E., Wixted, J. T., & Rohrer, D. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(3), 354-380. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.3.354
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