Draw it to remember it: revising with quick sketches

Copying notes out again feels like work, and it fills pages. But a lot of copying happens on autopilot: the hand moves and the brain wanders off. A simple alternative has unusually solid evidence behind it, and it takes about ten seconds per idea: draw it.

What the research found

In a set of seven experiments, psychologists gave people lists of words and asked them either to draw each word or to write it out. Later, people remembered more of the words they had drawn. The advantage held when they had less time per word, when the lists were longer, and when the comparison was between different people rather than the same people doing both (Wammes, Meade & Fernandes, 2016).

The researchers also checked the obvious explanations. It wasn't just that drawing made people think harder about the meaning, or picture the word in their head, or look at a picture. Drawing beat each of those. Their best explanation is that drawing makes you combine three things at once: what the word means, what it looks like, and the movement of making it.

One honest limit: these experiments tested whether people remembered which words were on a list. They didn't test exam answers or spelling. Drawing is a strong way to make ideas stick, not a replacement for practising questions.

Five ways to use it in revision

1. Vocabulary in any language

For each new word, a ten-second sketch beside it. "Puente" gets a bridge; "photosynthesis" gets a leaf with a sun and arrows. Then cover the word and name the drawing.

2. Science processes

Draw the cycle or the system instead of copying the paragraph: the water cycle, the heart's four chambers, a circuit. Label it from memory, then check against your notes.

3. History and English texts

A quick storyboard of six boxes for a chapter of a set text, or for the causes of a war. Stick figures are fine; the point is deciding what goes in each box.

4. Maths methods

Bar models and diagrams are drawing too. If you can sketch what a word problem is describing, you usually know how to solve it.

5. Flashcards

Put a small drawing on the front instead of a word, and the word or definition on the back. Our guide to making flashcards that work has more on what to put on each side.

Make it stick for longer

• Draw, then test. Drawing helps the first time you learn something. Testing yourself later is what keeps it. Cover the labels and fill them in again in a few days.
• Space it out. Come back to the same drawings after a day, then after a few days, then a week. Spaced repetition is the reason.
• Keep it quick. It's not an art project. If a drawing takes more than about thirty seconds, simplify it.

A ten-minute session to try tonight

1. Pick ten terms from one topic you have a test on, for example ten biology words or ten French nouns.
2. Two minutes: read the terms and their meanings once.
3. Five minutes: for each term, a sketch of no more than thirty seconds, with the word written once underneath.
4. Two minutes: fold the page so only the drawings show, and say or write the word for each one.
5. One minute: circle the ones you missed. Those are tomorrow's first job.

That's it. Ten minutes, ten ideas, and a page you can test yourself on again later in the week, which is where most of the remembering is won.

Drawing can be especially helpful for students who find long blocks of text hard, including many with dyslexia. Parents can read more on our sister site: the Versed Learn blog.

Sources

• Wammes, J. D., Meade, M. E., & Fernandes, M. A. (2016). The drawing effect: Evidence for reliable and robust memory benefits in free recall. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 69(9), 1752-1776.