PERRIO

 Priming is any technique that you use before a main learning event — a class, lecture, or study session — and it's done before you encounter a topic for the first time. It helps your brain filter the information and recognize that this new information is relevant, so it moves forward into deeper processing. If you skip priming, everything after this starts suffering — you become overloaded and overwhelmed, your memory is leaky, and you won’t be able to retrieve knowledge effectively because the material was not primed — it’s like being thrown a ball when you're not ready to catch it.

Encoding is the processing part of learning — it allows your brain to make sense of information and put it into your memory. Effective encoding involves techniques to organize and process information, such as grouping things together, simplifying, using analogies, and finding connections and relationships to make ideas more intuitive, simpler, and easier to understand. This stage is where most people struggle, because it takes mental effort and thinking — but this is the active part of active learning. Without good encoding, you’ll continuously forget what you've studied. Encoding is not a binary process; it lies on a spectrum where the goal is efficiency in your processes so you can move information into memory quickly.

Encoding : A3 Sheet

Reference refers to note-taking. When you try to learn and process everything at once, you get overloaded very quickly. If you get bogged down in details, your brain power will be drained. Some details are so fine that they’re just a distraction during initial learning. So, put them somewhere else — use flashcards, a second brain app, or tools like Obsidian. It’s a parking lot, a dump for fine details that you can revisit later without slowing down your primary encoding process.

Retrieval is the act of taking information from your memory, testing yourself, and challenging your ability to use and apply that knowledge. It is a necessary component of learning because it both tests your ability and helps reprocess and repackage information, which strengthens your memory and deepens understanding.

Interleaving is essential. It means hitting topics from multiple perspectives, not just one. If you only review material in the way you learned it, your knowledge becomes narrow. But with interleaving, you can handle curveballs, concept combinations, or anything out of scope. These are the kinds of questions that separate the top learners from everyone else.

Overlearning is studying more than you need to — going slightly out of scope, aiming for a higher standard, and relying on repetition. It may involve practice questions, flashcards, or reviewing again and again. This phase is repetitive by nature and leads to faster recall and enhanced fluency. However, it’s optional unless you're preparing for competitive assessments or aiming for a very high standard. Unfortunately, many learners use it as their first strategy, which is a mistake — because they're really just compensating for bad encoding with excessive repetition.