TRAKBITMost students spend their study time rereading notes and running a highlighter over the textbook. It feels like progress. The research says it's mostly not.
30-second summary
- A review of ten common study techniques rated practice testing and distributed practice as the only two with high utility (Dunlosky et al., Kent State, 2013).
- Rereading and highlighting, two of the most popular habits, were rated low utility (Dunlosky et al., Kent State, 2013).
- In a college math course, spacing out retrieval practice was linked to better long-term retention, not just better scores on the next quiz (Lyle et al., University of Louisville, 2019).
Which study habits does the research actually support?
In 2013, John Dunlosky and colleagues at Kent State and other universities reviewed the research on ten techniques students commonly use. They rated each one on how well it works across different learners, materials and tests.
Two came out on top:
- Practice testing. Quizzing yourself: flashcards, practice problems, closing the book and writing down what you remember. Not the graded exam, the low-stakes kind you do on your own.
- Distributed practice. Spreading study sessions over days instead of cramming the night before.
A few others landed in the middle (moderate utility): explaining why a fact is true (elaborative interrogation), explaining to yourself how a new step connects to what you know (self-explanation), and mixing different problem types in one session (interleaving).
The habit itself matters as much as the technique. Spacing only works if you actually show up on Tuesday and again on Thursday, which is a habit problem, not a knowledge problem. Breaks count too: a ten-minute walk between study blocks is the kind of small daily routine that adds up, as you can see in what a daily walking habit does for your body.
Why do rereading and highlighting feel so effective?
Because the material becomes familiar. The second time you read a chapter, it flows. That fluency is easy to confuse with knowing the content, but recognizing something on the page isn't the same as pulling it out of memory on a blank exam.
The Dunlosky review rated rereading, highlighting/underlining and summarization as low utility. That doesn't mean they do nothing; it means the payoff is small for the time they take, and they work best as a starting point. Highlight if you like, then turn each highlighted line into a question you'll answer later without looking.
How much should you space your study sessions?
There's no single magic interval, and the best gap depends on when your test is. The pattern is consistent, though: the same total study time tends to work better when it's split up.
Keith Lyle and colleagues at the University of Louisville looked at this in a real college precalculus course, comparing retrieval practice that was bunched together with practice spread out over time. Their takeaway: how much you practice matters for the short term, but spacing is what helps the knowledge last (Lyle et al., 2019).
A practical version for a typical US semester:
- Same day: after class, write down three things you learned, from memory.
- Two or three days later: a short self-quiz on that material.
- The next week: mix those questions with the new topic.
- Before the midterm: practice exams, not a reread of the whole binder.
What does a study routine look like for a working student?
If you're taking classes at a community college while working 30 hours a week, the "study four hours a night" advice is useless. The good news is that the two techniques with the strongest evidence are also the ones that fit into small gaps.
- Tie studying to something that already happens. "After I clock out, I do 15 minutes of flashcards before driving home." This kind of if-then plan is what researchers call implementation intentions.
- Keep the session short and the material ready. Your flashcard app open, practice problems printed, no hunting for the right PDF. A lot of this comes down to designing your environment.
- Quiz first, review second. Start each session by trying to recall, then check what you missed.
- Skip the all-nighter. Cramming is the opposite of spacing: all your study time lands in one block.
Starting a new term? Pair this with a back-to-school routine so the study blocks have a fixed place in your week.
How does daily tracking help you study better?
Spaced practice has one weak spot: it's easy to skip the second and third sessions because the material still feels fresh. Logging each session makes the gaps visible.
With the TrakBit habit tracker you can set up "self-quiz: 15 min" as a habit, attach a reminder at the time of your anchor (after work, after class), and check it off when it's done. You can also configure rest days for each habit, for example the days you work a double shift, and those days won't break your streak. Miss a day that isn't a rest day, though, and the streak resets, so pick your rest days honestly at the start.
After a couple of weeks you'll see a clear picture: which days your study habit holds and which days it falls apart. That's the information you need to move the session to a better slot.
The bottom line
The study habits that work are less comfortable than the ones that don't: closing the book and trying to remember, and coming back to the material days later. Keep sessions short, tie them to a moment that happens every day, and test yourself before you review.
Ready to make it a habit? Set up your first self-quiz session in TrakBit and track it this week.
References
- Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students' learning with effective learning techniques. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4-58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612453266
- Lyle, K. B., Bego, C. R., Hopkins, R. F., Hieb, J. L., et al. (2019). How the amount and spacing of retrieval practice affect the short- and long-term retention of mathematics knowledge. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-019-09489-x
Frequently asked questions
What are the most effective study habits? In a large review of learning techniques, practice testing (quizzing yourself) and distributed practice (spreading study over several days) were the two rated as having high utility across ages, subjects and test types.
Is rereading notes a waste of time? Not a total waste, but the same review rated rereading as low utility. It feels familiar, which is easy to mistake for knowing the material. Use it as a quick warm-up, then switch to quizzing yourself.
Does highlighting help you study? Highlighting and underlining were also rated low utility. If you highlight, turn the highlighted parts into questions you answer later without looking.
How should a working student study with little time? Short, spaced sessions fit a busy schedule better than one long cram. Fifteen to twenty minutes of self-quizzing tied to a fixed moment, like your lunch break, lines up with the techniques that hold up in research.