Attempt problems before seeing the solution

Try to solve or answer a question before you are shown how — even if you fail.

Why it works

A pre-instruction attempt — known as a productive failure attempt — activates relevant prior knowledge and creates a cognitive search that sensitizes the learner to the features of the correct solution. Even failed attempts make the subsequent explanation dramatically more memorable because the brain has already been oriented toward exactly what it got wrong.

How to do it

1. Before reading a worked example or watching a tutorial, try to produce your own answer.
2. Do not grade yourself harshly for a failed attempt — the attempt is the point, not the score.
3. After seeing the correct solution, immediately compare: what did your approach miss?
4. Repeat the problem type later with only your own attempt as a reference first.

Evidence

Research on "productive failure" (Kapur, 2016) found that students who struggled with problems before receiving instruction outperformed students who received instruction first on transfer tests — even though their scores during the struggle were poor. (rct)

Productive failure benefits are clearest for conceptual understanding and transfer; for procedural skills that require low-error repetition, worked examples first may be more efficient.

Sources

• Kapur, M. (2016), "Examining productive failure, productive success, unproductive failure, and unproductive success in learning," Educational Psychologist

Common mistake

Spending only 30 seconds on the attempt before flipping to the answer — the activation effect requires a genuine search, which takes several minutes of engagement before the payoff.