4 prompts
Retrieval practice beats re-reading. These prompts turn sources into questions, checks and explanations instead of more text to skim.
The simple explanation is the test; the list of what it had to leave out is where the learning happens.
Explain [concept] as if to a smart 12-year-old, using only these sources. Then list what the simple explanation had to leave out, and why each omission matters. End with the three details from the sources most likely to appear on an exam.
Twenty questions across three difficulty tiers, with answers kept at the end so you can actually test yourself.
Write 20 exam-style questions from these sources: 8 recall questions, 8 application questions, and 4 synthesis questions that need at least two sources to answer. Put all answers at the end — not after each question — and cite the source each answer comes from.
One pass that extracts every term a newcomer would stumble on. Save the output as a note — or as a new source.
Extract every term, acronym or name a newcomer to this material would need defined. Output a glossary, alphabetical: term — one-sentence definition in the authors' own usage — the source where it is defined or first used.
Write what you remember, then let the sources grade you. Harsher and more useful than re-reading the chapter.
Here is what I think this material says: [write your summary from memory]. Compare it against the sources. List what I got wrong, what I left out, and what I overweighted — in that order, harshest first, with the correct version cited from the sources.