Evidence-Based Study Techniques: What Works and What Doesn’t
Reviewed by Prof. Dr. Alexander Holtermann · Updated 16 October 2026 · 6 min read
Practice testing and spaced practice work best; interleaving, elaboration and self-explanation help; highlighting and rereading do little on their own.
Key takeaways
- The 2013 review by Dunlosky and colleagues rated ten common techniques. Only two earned “high utility”: practice testing and distributed (spaced) practice.
- Retrieval practice works because recalling information strengthens memory more than seeing it again. The benefit shows up days later, not five minutes later.
- Interleaving (mixing problem types) and elaboration (asking why and how) are rated moderately useful and are easy to add to any study session.
- Highlighting, rereading and summarizing were rated low utility: they feel productive because the material looks familiar, but familiarity is not recall.
- Dual coding, combining words with diagrams or sketches you draw yourself, is a useful complement, though it was not one of the ten rated techniques.
What does the research say about study techniques?
In 2013, five cognitive and educational psychologists led by John Dunlosky published a review of ten learning techniques that students commonly use. They rated each technique by how well it works across different learners, materials, tasks and retention intervals. The review appeared in *Psychological Science in the Public Interest* and has become the standard reference on the topic.
Their verdict is clear: the techniques students use most often, such as rereading and highlighting, are among the least effective. The two techniques with the strongest evidence are the ones students use least spontaneously.
| Technique | What you do | Utility rating (Dunlosky et al., 2013) |
|---|---|---|
| Practice testing | Quiz yourself, flashcards, practice problems | High |
| Distributed practice | Spread study sessions over time | High |
| Elaborative interrogation | Ask and answer “why is this true?” | Moderate |
| Self-explanation | Explain how a step or idea connects to what you know | Moderate |
| Interleaved practice | Mix different problem types in one session | Moderate |
| Summarization | Write summaries of texts | Low |
| Highlighting / underlining | Mark important passages | Low |
| Keyword mnemonic | Link terms to vivid keywords | Low |
| Imagery for text | Form mental images while reading | Low |
| Rereading | Read the material again | Low |
Retrieval practice: why testing yourself works
Every time you pull information out of memory, you make it easier to retrieve the next time. Tests are not only a way to measure learning; they are a way to cause it. This is the testing effect.
In a well-known study, Roediger and Karpicke (2006) had students read short prose passages. Some reread the passage; others wrote down what they remembered. After five minutes, the rereading group did slightly better. After two days and after one week, the testing group clearly outperformed them. The lesson: rereading feels better in the moment, retrieval wins in the long run.
- Blank-page recall: after a lecture, write everything you remember, then check your notes
- Flashcards with questions, not just terms, and answers you say before flipping
- Practice problems and past exams without looking at solutions
- Explaining a topic aloud to a study partner without notes
Spaced practice: spread it out
Studying the same material in several sessions spread over days or weeks leads to better long-term retention than cramming the same total time into one session. Cepeda et al. (2006) synthesized hundreds of experiments and found the spacing effect remarkably consistent. They also found that the ideal gap between sessions grows with how long you need to remember: for an exam in a week, review after a day or two; for a final in two months, gaps of a week or more work better.
Spacing feels less efficient because you forget a bit between sessions. That small struggle to remember is precisely what makes the next retrieval stronger. Researchers call this a desirable difficulty (Brown, Roediger & McDaniel, 2014).
Interleaving, elaboration and self-explanation
Interleaving means mixing different kinds of problems within one session instead of doing ten of the same type in a row. In math, physics or statistics, a block of identical problems lets you apply the same procedure on autopilot. In the exam, though, you first have to recognize which procedure fits. Mixed practice trains exactly that choice.
Elaborative interrogation means asking “why?” about facts: Why does a higher interest rate reduce investment? Why do enzymes denature at high temperatures? Self-explanation means explaining to yourself how a step in a solution or an idea in a text connects to what you already know. Both turn isolated facts into connected knowledge.
Dual coding: words plus pictures
Dual coding means representing the same content in two forms, verbal and visual. You might turn a process described in your textbook into a flowchart, sketch a timeline of historical events, or draw the structure of a cell from memory and label it. The idea goes back to the psychologist Allan Paivio, who argued that verbal and visual information are processed in partly separate systems.
Dual coding was not one of the ten techniques rated by Dunlosky et al. (2013), and “imagery for text” (forming mental images while reading) received a low rating there. The useful version is active: you produce the diagram yourself, ideally from memory, which combines dual coding with retrieval practice. Decorative pictures or color-coding alone do not help much.
Why highlighting and rereading feel good but do little
Rereading makes text more familiar, and familiarity feels like understanding. This is called the fluency illusion: the material is easy to process, so you assume you know it. Whether you can produce it on a blank exam page is a different question.
Highlighting has the same problem and adds another: many students highlight too much, so the marks no longer separate important from unimportant. These methods are not worthless; a first read with light highlighting is fine. They become a problem when they replace retrieval. The test: if you have not closed the book and tried to recall something, you have not yet practiced for the exam.
A weekly routine that combines the best techniques
You do not need a complicated system. This routine fits into a normal semester and uses all the high- and moderate-utility techniques.
| When | What | Technique |
|---|---|---|
| Same day as lecture (15 min) | Write down what you remember, then fill gaps from notes | Retrieval practice |
| Same day (10 min) | Turn key points into 5–10 question cards | Practice testing |
| 2–3 days later (20 min) | Answer the cards, explain wrong answers | Spacing, self-explanation |
| Weekly (45 min) | Mixed problem set across all topics so far | Interleaving |
| Weekly (20 min) | Draw one diagram from memory per course | Dual coding, retrieval |
Frequently asked questions
What is the most effective study technique?
Practice testing (retrieval practice) and spaced practice have the strongest evidence. Combine them: quiz yourself on the same material in several sessions spread over days and weeks.
Is highlighting a bad study technique?
Not harmful, but weak on its own. Dunlosky et al. (2013) rated it low utility. Use it lightly on a first read and then switch to recalling and testing yourself.
What is the difference between interleaving and spacing?
Spacing is about time: spreading sessions on the same material over days. Interleaving is about order: mixing different topics or problem types within a session.
Do learning styles matter?
There is little evidence that matching instruction to a preferred learning style (visual, auditory and so on) improves learning. Techniques like retrieval and spacing help nearly all learners.
Is rereading useless?
Not useless, but inefficient for exams. One reread to understand material is fine; after that, testing yourself produces much better long-term retention for the same time.
Sources and further reading
- Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4–58.
- Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255.
- Cepeda, N. J., Pashler, H., Vul, E., Wixted, J. T., & Rohrer, D. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(3), 354–380.
- Brown, P. C., Roediger, H. L., & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Your university’s examination regulations and style guide always take precedence.
Related articles
- Flashcards and spaced repetitionWrite one question per card in your own words, answer before you flip, and review on a growing schedule: cards you know move back, cards you miss return soon.
- How to study for examsStart four weeks out: map what is tested, quiz yourself rather than reread, take past papers under timed conditions, and use the final week to review and sleep.
- Study scheduleA good study schedule starts from your fixed commitments, splits topics into short blocks, spaces reviews over days and keeps 20 % of the time as a buffer.
- Reading academic papersRead papers in passes: abstract, figures and conclusion first, then the full text selectively, and finally critically. Take notes in your own words as you go.
- Study groupsEffective study groups have 3–5 members, meet regularly, come prepared and spend most of the time quizzing and explaining, not rereading together.
