The best study techniques backed by science are practice testing (quizzing yourself) and distributed practice (spreading study over several days). A widely cited 2013 review by John Dunlosky and colleagues rated both as high utility, and rated highlighting and rereading as low utility, even though most students rely on them.
What the Dunlosky review looked at
In 2013, Dunlosky, Rawson, Marsh, Nathan and Willingham published a long review in Psychological Science in the Public Interest. They examined ten popular learning techniques and asked a practical question for each: does it help across different learners, materials, tasks and test types? They then rated each technique as high, moderate or low utility.
| Technique | Rating | In plain words |
|---|---|---|
| Practice testing | High | Quiz yourself instead of rereading |
| Distributed practice | High | Spread sessions over days and weeks |
| Elaborative interrogation | Moderate | Ask yourself why a fact is true |
| Self-explanation | Moderate | Explain steps or ideas to yourself as you go |
| Interleaved practice | Moderate | Mix problem types in one session |
| Summarisation | Low | Writing summaries (helps only with training) |
| Highlighting | Low | Marking text as you read |
| Keyword mnemonic | Low | Useful for some vocabulary, narrow otherwise |
| Imagery for text | Low | Picturing what you read |
| Rereading | Low | Reading the same material again |
Ratings describe how widely a technique has been shown to work, not how pleasant it feels. Low does not mean useless. It means the evidence is thinner or the benefit is limited to certain conditions, and that better options are available for the same time.
The two that top the list
Practice testing
Testing yourself forces you to pull information out of memory, and the pulling is what strengthens it. This is the testing effect, shown by Roediger and Karpicke in 2006: students who tested themselves remembered more a week later than students who spent the same time restudying, even though the restudiers felt more confident. Practice testing can be flashcards, past papers, closed-book questions, or writing down everything you remember about a topic.
Distributed practice
Spreading study out beats cramming for long-term retention. Cepeda and colleagues reviewed hundreds of results in 2006 and found that spacing helps, and that the best gap grows with how long you need to remember something. For an exam in a few weeks, reviewing every few days is a sensible rhythm. Our guide to spaced repetition explains the schedule in detail.
The middle group: worth adding
Elaborative interrogation and self-explanation both ask you to produce reasons. Instead of reading that the heart has four chambers, ask why it needs four. Interleaving mixes topics so you must choose the right method each time, which is especially useful in maths and sciences. All three take more effort than rereading, and that effort is the point.
Why the weak ones feel so good
Highlighting and rereading make material look familiar. Familiarity feels like knowing, but an exam does not show you the page. It asks you to produce the answer. Highlighting can still be a useful first step if you follow it with testing, but on its own it is mostly a way of feeling busy.
How to turn this into a weekly plan
- Read a section once for understanding. Do not reread it straight away.
- Close the book and write or say what you remember. Check the gaps.
- Turn the gaps into questions or flashcards.
- Review the cards over days, not hours: the next day, then a few days later, then weekly.
- Mix topics in later sessions so you practise choosing the method.
- Do a full past paper or mock exam under time conditions before the real one.
A few honest caveats
- The review covers lab and classroom studies. Real courses are messier, and no technique replaces understanding the material first.
- Most of the evidence is on fairly short test intervals. Your own schedule should be tested against your own results.
- Which technique is best depends on the task. Practice testing suits facts and concepts; worked problems and past papers suit calculation and essay subjects.
Common questions
Is highlighting always a waste? No. Highlighting a few key lines while you read is a fine first pass, as long as the real work comes afterwards. The problem is stopping there, with pages of yellow and no test of what you remember.
Do I have to use all ten?
No. Two or three well-chosen techniques, used consistently, beat a long list tried once. A good default is: read once, test yourself, space the reviews, and add interleaving when you are practising problems.
How do I know it is working?
Check yourself with questions you have not seen the answers to. If you can answer them a week later without looking, the method is working. If you can only recognise the answer when you see it, you need more retrieval and less rereading.
Where Type to Study fits
Type to Study is built around the top two techniques. Flashcards are made from every key term and exam-style question and come back on a spaced schedule, quizzes check your typed answers against key points, and the recall pass hides key terms so you type them from memory. You can try it free for 7 days without a card, but the same approach works on paper with a notebook and a calendar.