The most common study technique, rereading and highlighting, is also one of the weakest. It feels effective because the text gets more familiar, but familiar isn't the same as learned.
The feeling misleads us in both directions. In a randomized trial with physics students, those who worked actively learned more, but believed they had learned less than those who listened to a popular lecturer. The effort felt like a sign that things were going badly. A large review of ten study techniques gave the highest marks to two: testing yourself and spreading out your review.
Choose your path based on what you're studying for:
- Before an exam: test yourself and start early enough to spread it out.
- Alongside work: fixed times and a goal for every session.
- For your own sake: fifteen minutes a day and one question a week.
- Explain it to others if you want to take it further.
A first step today: pick a section you've read recently. Close the book and write everything you remember for five minutes. Open the book and compare. What was missing is your next study session.
The most common study technique, rereading and highlighting, is also one of the weakest. It feels effective because the text gets more familiar each time, but familiar isn't the same as learned. What works better feels harder while you do it: pulling the knowledge out of your memory instead of putting it in again, spreading your review over several days, and spending your time on what you're worst at. This guide shows you why, gives you four paths depending on what you're studying for, and a first study session to do today.
<Rereading feels like learning
When you read a text for the second time, it goes more easily. The words are familiar and the reasoning flows, and it's easy to read that feeling as knowing the content. But recognizing something when it's in front of you is a different skill from being able to recall it when it isn't, and it's the second skill that the exam, the meeting or the conversation demands.
That's why many people are caught off guard in the exam. They put in hours of reading, they felt prepared, and still their mind went blank when the question came. The same goes for the highlighter. Marking what's important is a way of reading, not a way of learning.
The effort is the sign, not the problem
In 2019, Deslauriers and colleagues at Harvard randomly assigned students in an introductory physics course to two kinds of teaching with the same content: lectures by experienced, popular instructors, or classes where the students worked through the problems themselves. Those who worked actively learned more, as measured by tests. But they believed they had learned less.
The explanation was the effort. The active approach felt harder, and the students read the difficulty as a sign that things were going badly. The smooth lecture gave a feeling of understanding that didn't match what they actually knew.
It's the same trap as rereading. What feels easy is often what gives the least, and what feels hard is often what sticks. Trust what you can recall more than how it feels.
Test yourself instead of rereading
In 2013, Dunlosky and colleagues reviewed the research on ten common study techniques, from summarizing to memory tricks. Two got the highest ratings, because they worked across many different subjects, ages and kinds of tests: testing yourself and spreading out your review. Rereading and highlighting ended up among the weakest.
Testing yourself means retrieving the knowledge. Close the book and write down the most important points in a section. Turn the headings into questions and answer them without looking. Use old exams, or have someone quiz you. Every time you struggle to remember something and succeed, it gets a little easier next time. Every time you don't succeed, you've found a gap, which is more useful than believing you know something you don't.
A simple rule: for every fifteen minutes you read, spend at least as long testing yourself.
Spread out your review
Six hours the day before isn't the same as an hour a day for six days, even though the time is the same. What's reviewed with gaps in between stays longer.
In practice that means going back to last week's material before you start on the new. A few minutes is enough: what do you remember from last time? What didn't stick gets a little extra time. It requires you to start earlier than you otherwise would, and that's the hard part. Once a week, look at what's coming up in the next few weeks, so nothing comes as a surprise.
Four paths, depending on what you're studying for
There's no setup that suits everyone. Choose based on your situation.
Before an exam. For you if you're studying for an exam or a test. Test yourself instead of rereading, and start early enough that you can go back to each section at least twice, with a few days in between. First step: count backward from the exam date and put three sessions per section in your calendar.
Alongside work or remotely. For you if there's no lecture to set the pace. Set the pace in advance: fixed times in the week, the same place if possible, and a goal for every session. A study buddy to quiz you makes it harder to put things off. How to set times so they hold is in if-then plans. First step: pick two fixed times a week and write down what you'll finish in the first one.
For your own sake. For you if you're learning something without a course: a language, a piece of software, a craft, a subject you've become curious about. The same principles apply. Spend fifteen minutes a day on it, and each week write down one thing you don't know but want to, and find out the answer before the week is over. First step: write this week's question today.
Explain it to others. For you if you want to take it further, and it's the most demanding path. You can't explain something you only recognize, so the gaps show immediately, often in the middle of a sentence. Explain it to a friend, or write the explanation in your own words and with your own examples, as if it were for someone who doesn't know the subject. Where you get stuck or start quoting the book, you've found what you need to go back to. First step: explain the last thing you learned to someone tonight, without looking at the book.
Plan the session, and start with the hard part
A study session without a goal easily turns into an afternoon with the book open. Before you start, write down what you're going to finish and which part is hardest. Then start with that. It's tempting to start with what you already know, because it feels good, but that gives the least.
Work in short blocks with one thing at a time, for example 25 minutes followed by a short break, with your phone in another room. How to set up the blocks is in the Pomodoro technique, and why a phone on the table is enough to lower your concentration is in screens and concentration.
A first step today: pick a section you've read recently. Close the book and write everything you remember for five minutes. Then open the book and compare. What was missing is your next study session.
Frequently asked questions
Which study technique is best? Testing yourself and spreading your review over several days have the strongest research support. They work best together.
Why does it feel like I know it, but I still can't remember it on the exam? Because rereading builds recognition, not the ability to recall. Test yourself without the book, and you'll see what you actually know.
How long should a study session be? Short blocks of 25–50 minutes with breaks in between work for many people. What matters is that each block has a goal and that your phone is away.
How do I get started when I keep putting it off? Make the first step so small you can't say no to it, for example five minutes with the book. More on why we put things off is in procrastination.
Is it better to study in the morning or the evening? It matters less than having the time set in advance. Put the hardest part when you're at your freshest, whenever that is.
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