Bloom’s Taxonomy for Self-Learners: Study at the Right Level

Bloom’s taxonomy sorts thinking into six levels: remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate and create. For a self-learner, its real use is as a set of questions you ask yourself. If you can only answer the “remember” questions about a topic, you have memorised it. If you can answer the “apply” and “evaluate” ones, you have learned it.

Below you will find what each level means in plain terms, a bank of study questions for every level, one topic worked all the way up the ladder, and the two mistakes that make the taxonomy less useful than it should be.

Where the six levels come from (and what changed in 2001)

The original framework was published by Benjamin Bloom and colleagues in 1956 as a way to classify educational objectives. In 2001, Lorin Anderson and David Krathwohl published a revision that most people now mean when they say “Bloom’s taxonomy”. The revision did two things worth knowing.

First, it turned the category names into verbs. “Knowledge” became remember, “comprehension” became understand, and “synthesis” was renamed create and moved to the top. Second, it added a separate knowledge dimension, so a learning goal has a thinking verb and a type of knowledge.

Iowa State University’s teaching centre made a clear summary of the revision, and Boston University hosts a copy of that model of learning objectives handout. It lists nineteen specific thinking processes under the six categories. It also makes a point most summaries skip: the levels are drawn as steps, but the boundaries are not always clean, and analyzing or evaluating can be just as demanding as creating.

The levels as questions you can ask yourself

Teachers use the taxonomy to write objectives. You can flip it around and use it to test yourself. Here is each level with the processes Anderson and Krathwohl listed and the kind of question that checks it.

Level	What it means	Self-test question
Remember	Recognise or recall facts	Can I write the key terms and definitions without looking?
Understand	Explain, summarise, classify, compare	Can I explain this to a friend in my own words, with an example they have not heard?
Apply	Carry out a procedure in a given situation	Can I use this on a fresh problem, not the worked example from the book?
Analyze	Break into parts and see how they relate	Which parts matter most here, and how do they depend on each other?
Evaluate	Check and critique against criteria	Is this argument or solution sound? What would make it fail?
Create	Generate, plan, produce something new	Can I design my own example, project or variation that uses this?

Notice that “understand” is a much bigger category than people expect. It covers interpreting, giving examples, classifying, summarising, inferring, comparing and explaining. Most of what feels like learning when you read a good book sits here.

One topic worked up all six levels

Say you are teaching yourself basic personal budgeting from a library book. Here is how the same topic looks as you climb.

1. Remember: List the difference between fixed and variable expenses, and name three of each from memory.
2. Understand: Explain why a sinking fund for car repairs is not the same thing as an emergency fund. Give a fresh example of each.
3. Apply: Take last month’s bank statement and sort every line into the categories the book uses.
4. Analyze: Look at the sorted statement. Which two categories drive most of the month-to-month swing? Is the swing coming from one-off purchases or habits?
5. Evaluate: The book recommends the 50/30/20 split. Judge whether it fits your actual numbers, and say what you would change and why.
6. Create: Build your own budget template for the next three months, including the rule you will use when an unexpected bill arrives.

Most self-learners stop at step 2. They read the chapter, it makes sense, and they move on. Steps 3 to 6 are where the knowledge becomes something you can use, and they are also where you discover what you did not really understand.

How to use the taxonomy in a normal study week

You do not need a special system. Add one habit to your existing routine: at the end of each study session, write one question from a level above where you worked that day, and answer it at the start of the next session.

• If you read and took notes (remember, understand), finish by writing an “apply” question for tomorrow.
• If you practised problems (apply), finish with an “analyze” question: why did the method work here and not there?
• If you are near the end of a topic, set yourself an “evaluate” or “create” task, such as critiquing a worked solution in the book or writing your own exam question.

This pairs well with the Feynman technique, which is essentially a structured way to test the “understand” level, and with the habit of asking sharper questions while you learn.

Two mistakes that waste the framework

Treating the levels as a strict staircase

You do not have to master every fact before you try anything harder. Attempting an “apply” or “create” task early often shows you which facts you need, and that makes the remembering easier. The Iowa State handout notes that lower-order skills provide the foundation for higher ones, but it also says learning activities usually mix several levels. Move up and down freely.

Thinking “remember” is the low-value level

The opposite mistake is to dismiss memorisation as shallow. You cannot analyze a historical argument if you keep forgetting who did what, or evaluate code if you do not remember the syntax. Fast, accurate recall frees up attention for the harder levels. Flashcards and quizzing still have a place; they are just not the whole job.

The knowledge dimension, briefly

The 2001 revision also sorted what you are learning into four types, from concrete to abstract:

• Factual: terms and specific details.
• Conceptual: categories, principles, theories and models.
• Procedural: how to do something, and when to use which method.
• Metacognitive: knowledge about your own thinking, including which strategies work for you.

For self-learners, the last one is the quiet win. Every time you notice “I always think I understand this kind of chapter, then fail the problems”, you are building metacognitive knowledge. Write those observations down; they are the most personal part of your study plan.

Quick check: what level are you really at?

Pick the topic you are studying right now and try this in five minutes:

• Write three key facts without notes. (Remember)
• Explain the main idea out loud in under a minute. (Understand)
• Solve or use it once on something new. (Apply)
• Name one situation where it would not work. (Evaluate)

Whichever line you got stuck on is your next study session. If you want to see the questioning side of this with children, our sister site has a good piece on teaching children to think through Socratic questioning, and the same moves work on yourself. Adults can also borrow the oldest trick in the book: teach the topic to someone else and listen for the questions you cannot answer.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the six levels of Bloom’s taxonomy in order?

In the 2001 revision the order is remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, create. The original 1956 version used nouns (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation) and put evaluation at the top. Most current teaching material uses the revised verbs, so that is the list worth learning.

Is Bloom’s taxonomy outdated?

It is old, but it is still widely used to write course objectives because it gives a shared vocabulary for “how deeply should someone know this?” Its weakness is the neat pyramid shape, which suggests a strict order. Use it as a checklist of question types rather than a ladder you must climb one rung at a time.

Can I use Bloom’s taxonomy for skills like music or sport?

The cognitive taxonomy covers thinking, so it fits the theory side of a skill well, such as music theory or game strategy. Physical practice is better handled by deliberate practice methods. You can still use the top levels: analyzing a recording of yourself or creating your own exercise are genuinely useful tasks.

How do I write my own study questions with it?

Combine a verb from one level with the specific content. “Compare X and Y” is understand, “Use X to solve this” is apply, “Which assumption in X is weakest?” is evaluate. Keep a short list of verbs on an index card and write two questions at the end of each session.

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This article was drafted with AI assistance and reviewed by the Life Learning Journey editorial team. Read our editorial standards.