First read this headline: Test-Taking Cements Knowledge Better Than Studying, Researchers Say. And the lede: "Taking a test… helps people learn, and it works better than a number of other studying techniques."
Now read the following text:
Without the [chosen] passage in front of them, they wrote what they remembered in a free-form essay for 10 minutes. Then they reread the passage and [again wrote down what they remembered in a free-form essay].
In the study published in Science, the summarize-the-reading exercise was a better route to remembering material a few weeks later than just reading a passage, unguided "studying" of the passage repeatedly, or drawing a concept map. I'm not that surprised by the results because I have generally been unimpressed with concept maps; they usually omit verbs, which are important types of words when working with any language.*
But suddenly, the idea of summarizing a passage in your own words, which I used to call note-taking, is now called test-taking, at least for the purposes of the headline. So when was the last time you sat down for a test and there was one prompt: "Tell me everything you remember reading for the course"? Me, neither.
So why did Pam Belluck call it "test-taking"? I've emailed her but have not received a reply and do not expect one.
* Highly annoyed by verbless writing. Issue. Fragments. Avoidance of intellectual commitment. Problem. Data collection. Pondering. Reporting of findings. Banality. Solutions. Resistance by entrenched interests. Snores but does not have sleep apnea. Political. Social. Economic. Boxes and lines not substitutes for verbs. PowerPoint.**
** May your days be filled by climbing beautiful mountains and your enemies cursed by having to communicate in bullet points.