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What the recall checklist is
Each Glide chapter ends with an exam-advice page in three parts: common mistakes, a model answer marked point by point, and a recall checklist. The checklist comes last on purpose. You see where marks are lost, you see a full-mark answer, and then you test yourself.
The checklist is a short list of prompts, covering the chapter's key ideas in roughly the order it teaches them. Each prompt starts with an action word. Several, such as State, Explain, Describe and Calculate, are also command words Cambridge uses in exam questions.
Beside each prompt is an empty circle. You tick it only when you can answer that prompt from memory, without the notes.
Why answering from memory works
The idea behind the checklist is called retrieval practice: pulling information out of your memory, rather than putting it in again. Researchers have studied it for decades, in laboratories and classrooms.
In a well-known study, Roediger and Karpicke (2006) had students learn short prose passages. Some reread the passages. Others recalled them from memory, with no feedback. On a test five minutes later, the rereaders did better. On tests two days and one week later, the students who had practised recalling remembered more.
The same study found something uncomfortable. Rereading made students more confident, even though it helped less over time. Rereading feels like learning because the page looks familiar. Familiar is not the same as able to write it down in an exam.
A 2013 review of ten common study techniques, led by John Dunlosky, rated practice testing as one of only two high-utility techniques. Rereading and highlighting were rated low. The Association for Psychological Science published a summary of the review.
A recall checklist is the simplest form of practice testing. It needs no question bank, no app and no partner.
How to use the checklist, step by step
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Finish the chapter, then test
Read the chapter and its exam-advice page. Try the checklist once that day, then again a few days later.
Tip. A later attempt feels harder. That effort is part of what makes recall stick. -
Cover everything
Close the notes or turn the printed pages over. Keep only the checklist in view.
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Answer every prompt in writing
Write a full answer to each prompt on paper, as if it were an exam question. For a Calculate prompt, invent numbers and work it through.
Tip. Saying it in your head does not count. Exams are written, and vague answers feel complete until you write them. -
Check and mark strictly
Open the chapter and compare each answer with the notes. Tick a circle only if your answer was complete and correct.
Tip. Partly right is not a tick. Note what you missed. -
Repeat the gaps, then repeat the list
Reread only the sections behind the unticked prompts. Try those prompts again in a day or two, and redo the whole list a week later.
Tip. The list should get faster each time. If it does not, that topic needs past-paper practice.
An example: Chemistry 0620, Chapter 12
Here is the full checklist from the Glide chapter on experimental techniques and chemical analysis. There are eight prompts, covering apparatus, solutions, separation, purity, titration, chromatography and ion tests.
- State the apparatus for measuring time, temperature, mass and volume.
- Distinguish solute, solvent, solution and saturated.
- Select a separation method for a given mixture.
- Explain how melting point reveals purity.
- Describe an acid–base titration and its end-point.
- Calculate an Rf value from a chromatogram.
- Identify a cation from hydroxide precipitate and flame-test results.
- Identify an anion and a gas from their tests.
Take the sixth prompt, which asks you to calculate an Rf value. Rf is a Supplement objective in the 0620 syllabus, so Extended candidates must be able to state and use the equation. A cold attempt might look like this, with numbers you make up yourself.
On a chromatogram, a spot has moved 3.6 cm from the baseline. The solvent front has moved 8.0 cm. Calculate the Rf value.
If you wrote the equation, substituted correctly and gave no unit, tick the circle. If you hesitated over which distance goes on top, leave it blank and come back to it.
How other resources handle self-testing
Most revision resources build in some form of self-testing. The approach differs, and each has real strengths.
| Approach | What it does well | What to watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Question banks sorted by topic | Lots of exam-style practice, often with mark schemes | Easy to keep practising without spotting which ideas you never learned |
| Flashcards and apps | Quick, repeatable recall of definitions and facts | Cards test short facts better than explanations or calculations |
| End-of-chapter questions in textbooks | Questions written to match the chapter | Answers may be brief or in a separate book, so marking yourself can be hard |
| A checklist of prompts (Glide) | Covers the whole chapter in a few minutes, prompt by prompt | No questions, answers or marking; you judge your own answers |
A general description of common formats, not a review of any particular site.
These approaches work well together. A checklist tells you which topics you cannot yet recall. Past-paper questions then test whether you can apply them.
What the checklist cannot do
Where to go next
Pick a chapter you studied more than a day ago and try its checklist now, notes closed.