How to Study Effectively: 6 Science-Backed Methods (2026)
To study effectively, test yourself instead of rereading, and spread your review over several days instead of cramming. A 2013 review of 10 common learning techniques, published by the Association for Psychological Science, rated just two of them as high utility: practice testing and distributed practice. Rereading, underlining and mnemonic devices came out as low utility. Add interleaving, elaboration, concrete examples and dual coding and you have the core set of strategies cognitive scientists recommend. The rest of this guide covers how to use each one.
Quick answer: study methods compared
| Method | What the research says | Where to start |
|---|---|---|
| Practice testing (retrieval practice) | High utility in the 2013 APS review; the Learning Scientists say there is a lot of evidence for it | Section 1 |
| Distributed practice (spacing) | High utility in the 2013 APS review; the Learning Scientists say there is a lot of evidence for it | Section 2 |
| Interleaving | One of the Learning Scientists' six strategies | Section 3 |
| Elaboration | One of the six strategies; the Learning Scientists note it has more limitations | Section 4 |
| Concrete examples | One of the Learning Scientists' six strategies | Section 5 |
| Dual coding | One of the Learning Scientists' six strategies | Section 6 |
| Rereading, underlining, mnemonic devices | Low utility in the 2013 APS review | What to stop doing |
What the research says about how to study effectively
In 2013, John Dunlosky, Katherine Rawson, Elizabeth Marsh, Mitchell Nathan and Daniel Willingham reviewed 10 widely used learning techniques in Psychological Science in the Public Interest. They rated each technique as high, medium or low utility for improving student learning.
In the review, the researchers looked at 10 commonly used learning techniques and graded their relative utility (high, medium or low) in helping students make progress. Two of them, practice testing and distributed practice (also known as spacing), had high utility ratings, meaning they were helpful to students of different ages and abilities, and in a range of academic domains. Other techniques, like underlining, rereading and mnemonics, were shown to have surprisingly low utility, as they’re hard to implement well and have limited and inconsistent benefits.
In this article, they talk about 6 powerful techniques for improving learning and memory: retrieval practice, spacing, elaboration, interleaving, concrete examples, and dual coding. They also point out that few teacher-training textbooks cover these principles, so most students never get taught them. Here’s a summary of their blog post:
The Learning Scientists, a group of cognitive psychologists who turn this research into free classroom resources, list six strategies for effective learning: spacing, retrieval practice, elaboration, interleaving, concrete examples and dual coding.
1. Retrieval practice: test yourself before the test
Retrieval Practice, the practice of pulling information out of your brain. Rather than reviewing, try to recall the material. For instance:
How to do it
- After spending some time with your notes or the textbook, try writing down as much as you can on the material on a blank sheet of paper.
- When reviewing your notes or reading the textbook, transform statements or titles into questions (What are the stages of mitosis?). Then answer it before reading on.
- When using flashcards or notecards, say the answer out loud before you turn the card over.
- Do a practice problem or old test question before you’ve studied everything necessary to answer it. Then learn the remaining concepts and come back to it.
In general, try to turn any review into a game of quiz yourself. Retrieval practice isn’t always fun (that’s part of why it doesn’t happen enough!) but it’s really effective. Getting a question wrong tells you where you need to spend more time.
2. Spacing: spread your review over days
How to do it
- Spacing, breaking up your studying so that it occurs over several sessions instead of one long study session.
- Spread your studying of a given concept over time - read about a concept, revisit it the next day, and come back to it again after a few days and a week.
- End each study session with a mini practice quiz. Write a couple questions while you’re studying that you can answer at the end.
3. Interleaving: mix up problem types
Interleaving, mixing up the topics or types of problems you do within a study session. Instead of spending an hour doing only quadratic equations, alternate between quadratics, graphing, and exponent problems. Interleaving helps students distinguish among similar concepts, not only learning how to solve each type of problem, but also when to apply a given strategy to a problem. Many students know how to solve word problems when told what strategy to apply, but have a harder time figuring out what strategy they should be using to begin with. Interleaving helps with this! Interleaved problems feel harder than non-interleaved problems, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t effective, quite the opposite in fact!
How to do it
- In math or physics, do a mixed problem set (a geometry question, then algebra, then a word problem) instead of 20 of the same type.
- In biology or history, alternate between related topics that are easy to mix up.
- Expect it to feel harder than blocked practice. That's normal.
4. Elaboration: ask "why" and "how"
Elaboration - thinking about WHY something is true, and HOW it works. Connecting new information to what you already know.
5. Concrete examples: make abstract ideas specific
Concrete Examples - connecting abstract concepts and definitions to concrete examples in the real world. For instance, when learning economics, it can be helpful to think of several examples of opportunity cost, and figure out what makes all of these examples opportunity cost, so that when you see a new situation on the test you’ll be able to determine whether or not it represents an opportunity cost.
6. Dual coding: pair words with visuals
Dual Coding - using pictures to represent ideas. At times you’ll already have graphs and figures to help you understand concepts. Other times, you can draw these pictures yourself. A timeline or flowchart can be helpful in history or science classes, and sketching a picture from memory during review is another form of retrieval practice.
Watch: six science-based study skills
This video from MEMORIZE Academy walks through the same family of evidence-based strategies, if you'd rather watch than read:
What to stop doing
Rereading can give you a false sense of confidence, as you recognize the information when you reread it, so you assume you’ll be able to recall it during the exam. Instead, rereading can be replaced with retrieval practice (summarizing, practice questions, teaching the material to someone else, etc.)
Highlighting can be useful if you’re turning your highlights into notecard or practice quiz questions, but it shouldn’t stop there, so use your highlights to form questions, not just to reread them.
Cramming is the antithesis of distributed practice, which is studying everything all at once!
A simple weekly plan to study effectively
Day of lecture/notes: Skim your notes from lecture and come up with 5-10 questions a good quiz on the material might ask. You don’t necessarily need to answer these yet.
Day after lecture: Answer those questions from Day 1. This is your retrieval practice. Figure out any you missed or had trouble with.
Later in the week: When doing practice problems or homework, make sure some of them refer to last week’s concepts, not just this week’s concepts. That’s interleaving.
Later still: Retrieval practice + dual coding: Close your book and notes. On a blank piece of paper write everything you remember. Next draw a picture/graph/timeline/etc. about this week’s concept(s) from memory.
Before test: Do a timed practice exam. Spend all of your review time on the questions you got wrong.
If you’d rather answer questions rather than come up with them, check out our website where we use technology to make notecards and practice quizzes based on your course material - we accept PDFs, slides, lecture notes, YouTube lectures and more, and automatically generate quizzes in your individual study space.
Writing questions and quizzes by hand takes time. If you'd rather spend that time answering them, StudySim generates notecards and practice quizzes from your own PDFs, slides, lecture notes and YouTube lessons. Each class or exam gets its own study space. The student overview explains how it works, and if you record lectures, the AI note taker turns recordings into source material you can quiz yourself on. New guides like this one go up on the StudySim blog.
If you'd rather spend that time answering them, StudySim generates notecards and practice quizzes from your own PDFs, slides, lecture notes and YouTube lessons.
New guides like this one go up on the StudySim blog.
FAQ
What is the most effective way to study?
Practice testing and distributed practice. The 2013 APS review rated these two as high utility across many ages, ability levels and subjects.
Is rereading notes a good way to study?
Not on its own. The same review rated rereading as low utility. Reread once to get oriented, then switch to answering questions from memory.
Does highlighting help you learn?
The review rated underlining and highlighting as low utility because they were hard to use well and gave inconsistent gains. Turn your highlights into questions to get more out of them.
How long should a study session be?
No single length is right for everyone. What matters more is spreading sessions over several days and ending each one with a quick self-test.
What are the six evidence-based learning strategies?
The Learning Scientists list spacing, retrieval practice, elaboration, interleaving, concrete examples and dual coding. Spacing and retrieval practice have the strongest evidence.
About the author
Jozef Gherman is the founder of xyzai.io, the company behind StealthGPT and StudySim, where he builds AI tools that help students and writers study smarter and write with confidence. He writes about study techniques, exam prep, and practical ways to use AI for learning.