Shape: study guide

A guide written to be worked through before an exam, without reopening the course. For each type of problem it solves one in full, names the traps, and leaves variants to solve. It ends with an error grid, a date to redo it, and a method sheet the learner writes from memory.

Skeleton

# <The course or the exam it prepares for>

> One or two sentences: what it covers, and for which exam.

**Shape:** [study guide](<link to this file>).

## How to use          three speeds: from zero; the session is tomorrow; the exam is near

## Objectives          as in the lesson, with ids

## <Type of problem 1>
**What this tests:** <the concept, with a link to the note that explains it>
### Method            the core report's plan and steps, each step named by its goal
> **Trap:** <the usual wrong move, as learners make it>
> **Why not:** <why it fails, then the right move>
### Check yourself    the question block; variants of the problem, answers folded
**If you meet this again:** <the one rule that transfers>

## Error grid         what went wrong on each variant: the course, recognising the type, a computation,
                      a hypothesis, the time

## Redo on            the date to redo the variants, a day or more later

## Method sheet       written from memory at the end, then compared with the guide

## See also           the lessons, sheets and decks the guide draws on

The blocks

Block	Rule	Grade	Evidence
How to use	three ways in, by the time left before the exam	convention, untested: no study of revision guides was found	instructional text
Method	each type solved once in full, in the core report's form	measured, for novices	worked examples with subgoals
Trap	the usual wrong move, refuted	measured for refutation text, g = 0.36	instructional text, strand 5
Check yourself	variants answered before their folded answers	measured (core): practice testing beats rereading	question block
If you meet this again	the rule that transfers to a new problem of the type	convention, from the core report	the core report
Error grid	the kind of each error, logged by the learner	convention, untested	none found
Redo on	the variants again, a day or more later	measured (core): spaced retrieval beats massed; the best gap grows with how long the material must last	learning science, strand 2
Method sheet	written from memory, then compared	supported with caveat: recall from memory beat elaborative study at a week (core)	learning science, strand 4

A guide to work through, not to reread. Study guides handed to students help in some studies and hurt in others, and making a crib sheet does not teach (against). Every part of this shape asks the learner to retrieve or solve; none is a summary to read again. The method sheet is written from memory, never carried into the exam.

How it derives from the topic

Topic block	Here	Change
Title, summary	the course and what the guide covers	none
Body	How to use, Objectives, one part per type, Error grid, Redo on, Method sheet	added
Contents	none: its parts are sections, not topics	left empty
See also	See also	none
(metadata)	the Shape line	names this shape

Checked by

Check	What it verifies	Kind
`lesson`	objectives tested, answers folded, as in a lesson	exact
`lesson`	traps carry a Why not	heuristic, a warning, as in a lesson
standard	the headings How to use, Error grid, Redo on, Method sheet, See also	exact
judgment	whether each part solves one problem in full before its variants	judgment

An example that passes every check: binary search.