Effective Study Techniques Backed by Research

A 2013 review in Psychological Science in the Public Interest evaluated ten of the most common study techniques for effectiveness. The results were striking: the two most popular methods, highlighting/underlining and rereading, ranked among the least effective. The most effective methods were largely unknown to students.

Why Most Popular Study Methods Don't Work

Highlighting and underlining create an illusion of learning. The act of highlighting feels active and productive, but it requires almost no cognitive processing. You're marking text without generating understanding. Studies consistently find that students who highlight perform no better on tests than those who don't, and sometimes worse, because the highlighting gives false confidence that they've "learned" the material.

Rereading is similarly ineffective. It's easy, familiar, and generates a feeling of fluency, reading text you've read before feels smooth, which the brain misinterprets as comprehension. But fluency is not the same as understanding, and recognition of material when you see it again is much weaker than the ability to recall it independently.

Retrieval Practice: The Most Powerful Study Method

Retrieval practice, testing yourself on material rather than reviewing it, is consistently the most effective study technique in the research literature. The "testing effect" has been demonstrated in hundreds of studies: actively retrieving information from memory strengthens that memory trace far more effectively than additional exposure to the material.

In practice, retrieval practice means: closing your notes and trying to recall what you just read; using flashcards (physical or digital, like Anki); completing practice problems and practice exams; explaining a concept from memory; or writing everything you know about a topic before reviewing your notes to find gaps. The uncomfortable feeling of struggling to recall something, "the desirable difficulty", is itself the mechanism of learning. If it feels too easy, it's probably not working.

Spaced Repetition: Study Less, Remember More

Spaced repetition exploits the "spacing effect", the cognitive science finding that information studied in multiple sessions spread over time is retained far better than the same total study time concentrated in a single session (cramming). Cramming works for a test tomorrow; it produces almost no long-term retention.

The optimal spacing intervals increase over time as memory consolidates: review something once after a day, then after three days, then a week, then a month. The Anki flashcard application implements a spaced repetition algorithm automatically, scheduling reviews at optimal intervals. Medical students and language learners have embraced it widely because the efficiency gains are dramatic.

Interleaving: Mix Topics Instead of Blocking

Blocked practice, studying one topic completely before moving to the next, feels more productive than interleaving, but it isn't. Interleaved practice, alternating between different types of problems or topics in the same session, produces better long-term retention and better ability to apply knowledge flexibly. This is counterintuitive because blocked practice feels smoother; interleaving introduces the friction that drives deeper learning.

A math student who practices all fractions problems, then all percentage problems (blocked) will feel more confident than one who mixes them (interleaved). But on a test days later, the interleaved student consistently outperforms the blocked student. The same effect has been found in foreign language learning, medical diagnosis training, and artistic skill development.

Elaborative Interrogation and Self-Explanation

Asking yourself "why" is a surprisingly powerful study tool. Elaborative interrogation, generating explanations for why facts are true, forces deeper processing of material. Why does the spacing effect work? Because consolidation of memories requires sleep and repeated retrieval. Engaging with the underlying mechanisms rather than memorizing surface facts produces richer, more durable knowledge structures.

Self-explanation (explaining material to yourself as you work through it) works similarly. It forces you to identify gaps in understanding that passive reading would have disguised.

The Pomodoro Technique for Study Sessions

For sustained study sessions, structured work and break intervals prevent the concentration fatigue that makes prolonged study ineffective. The Pomodoro Technique, 25 minutes of focused work followed by a 5-minute break, provides a simple structure that many students find helpful. Read our full Pomodoro Technique explainer for more detail.