I notice that when I’m reading a text in the Mnemonic medium, I feel a sense of safety: the details might feel quite difficult as I’m reading, but I’m confident that a review set will arrive soon, and it’ll ensure that I walk away understanding what I “should” understand. A number of other readers have reported similar feelings.
Matt Clancy says of his students: “they liked being able to watch the videos and have confidence that they got what they were supposed to get out of it, since the questions followed immediately after”
This feeling is partially misleading. It’s easy to lean too hard on the intermittent review areas, relying on them to ensure that I’ve learned the material as intended. But Understanding requires effortful engagement; if I’m not really engaging with the ideas as I’m reading, I’ll only absorb some disconnected details reinforced by the prompts, rather than a full network.
Yuanting Mao:
My feeling of uncertainty when skimming the article was greatly reduced. In fact, sometimes I did the prompts first, then looked back to find the explanations in the text.