How to study better

This programme is psychoeducational content. It is neither a diagnosis nor a treatment. If your difficulties with reading, writing, arithmetic or staying focused are long-standing and resist good methods, they deserve an assessment: section 17 says when and with whom. If study stress has been stopping you from sleeping, eating or living for weeks, or if dark thoughts appear, talk today to a doctor, a student health service or a helpline in your country. Allow thirty-five minutes of reading.

1. Before you begin

Who this programme is for

For you if you spend time on your lessons and the results don't follow. You re-read, you know the page, you feel ready — and on the day of the test, the answer doesn't come. You conclude that you have "a bad memory" or that you are "not cut out for this".

For you if you are preparing for an important exam, a competitive entrance exam, a driving theory test, a professional certification, and you want every hour to count.

For you if you are going back to study or training after years away, and you fear you no longer know how to learn.

For you, finally, if you are learning a language or a demanding technical field — programming, accounting, anatomy — and you feel you forget things as fast as you learn them.

If you are the parent of a primary or lower-secondary school child and you are looking for ways to support them, our programme Helping your child study better is written directly for you. The principles are the same; the way to pass them on is not.

How to use it

Read it once all the way through. Then choose two techniques, not ten, and apply them to a single subject for three weeks. That is long enough to see a difference in the next test, and short enough to keep going.

Expect one thing: good methods at first seem less effective than bad ones. That is the subject of the next section, and it is why most people give them up after a few days.

2. Why the methods we use spontaneously mislead us

Ask ten pupils how they revise. Most will tell you: re-read the lesson, highlight, make revision notes, look at the answers to the exercises. These methods have one thing in common: they give a quick and pleasant feeling of mastery. They have a second thing in common, less visible: they produce little lasting learning.

The fluency illusion

When you re-read a page for the third time, it feels familiar. The sentences flow, you anticipate what comes next, nothing surprises you. Your brain interprets this ease as a sign that the information has "gone in". In reality, recognising information when it is in front of you and retrieving it when it is no longer there are two very different operations. And it is the second one that an exam demands.

The same illusion operates with the worked answer to an exercise: as you read it, everything seems obvious. "I would have got that." There is no way of knowing until you have tried, on a blank sheet, without the answer beside you.

Performance and learning

Research distinguishes two things we constantly confuse. Performance is what you get right while you are working. Learning is what remains days or weeks later, and what you can use in a new situation.

The two do not always go together. Some conditions push up immediate performance and produce little learning: re-reading, repeating the same thing ten times in a row, practising a single type of exercise. Other conditions make the work more laborious in the moment, and produce far more solid learning: trying to recall, spacing, mixing. Researchers have called these desirable difficulties — desirable because the effort they demand is precisely what makes things stick.

The practical consequences

Three consequences follow from this, and they organise the whole programme.

Your feeling of mastery is not a reliable measure. You need an external measure: testing yourself.

A session that feels difficult is not a failed session. If you struggle to retrieve an answer, it is often because you are learning.

Time spent is not the right unit. Two hours of re-reading can be worth less than forty minutes of questions.

An example

Inès, in her penultimate year of secondary school, is preparing for a history test. The evening before, she re-reads the chapter three times, highlights the dates and copies out a neat revision sheet. She goes to bed confident. The next day, faced with the question "explain the causes of the 1929 crisis", she remembers the page, the colour of the highlighter, where the paragraph was — and not the causes.

The following term, she changes two things. She closes her exercise book and writes down everything she remembers on a blank sheet, then checks. And she does this three times, spaced over a week, rather than once the night before. She spends less time overall. The sessions are more unpleasant. Her mark goes up considerably.

3. What research says

What is firmly established

Testing yourself makes things stick. Trying to retrieve information from memory consolidates it more than re-reading it for the same amount of time. This is one of the most replicated findings in the psychology of learning, in the laboratory and in the classroom, in children and in adults, for facts as well as for reasoning.

Spacing makes things stick. For the same amount of study time, spreading sessions over several days produces a far more lasting memory than concentrating them in one. This has been known since the end of the nineteenth century and has never been contradicted.

Understanding helps you remember. Information linked to what you already know, and whose "why" you can explain, is forgotten less quickly than isolated information.

Sleep plays a part in consolidation. What you learn before a night's sleep is better retained; a sleepless night before an exam impairs memory and reasoning.

Worked examples help beginners. Studying a detailed, step-by-step solution helps more than tackling problems alone when you are discovering a topic. The advantage reverses as you become more expert.

What is promising, with limits

Mixing types of exercise improves the ability to recognise which method to apply, especially in mathematics and in learning categories. The effect is well documented but less general than the first two principles.

Explaining to yourself or to someone else improves understanding, provided the explanation is actually produced, not simply listened to.

What is not established, or is false

Learning styles. The idea that everyone is "visual", "auditory" or "kinaesthetic", and would learn better if teaching matched their style, is one of the most widespread beliefs in education. It has been tested many times and has not been confirmed. Everyone benefits from seeing and hearing, from diagrams and words. You may prefer a format; that is not the same as the format that makes you learn.

Brain-training games. They make you better at the game itself. Large reviews of the literature show no convincing transfer to school learning or general intelligence.

Music that makes you more intelligent. The "Mozart effect" was a tiny, short-lived initial result that was not confirmed in later syntheses.

Left brain and right brain. Some functions are more lateralised than others, but nobody is "left-brained" or "right-brained", and no method based on this idea has a demonstrated benefit.

We only use ten per cent of our brain. False. All regions of the brain are active, at different times.

Learning while you sleep. Listening to a lesson during the night does not let you learn new content. Sleep consolidates what was learned while awake; it does not replace learning.

4. Principle 1 — Test yourself instead of re-reading

In one sentence. Every time you fetch information from your memory, you make it easier to find the next time.

What is at stake. We often imagine memory as a filing cabinet: you file things away, then take them out. That is misleading. The act of taking information out changes the memory trace itself. A memory that is often recalled becomes stronger and more accessible; a memory that is only re-read stays fragile, even if it feels familiar.

Testing yourself therefore does two things: it makes you learn, and it tells you what you know. The second is almost as valuable as the first, because it corrects the fluency illusion.

Concrete forms

The blank sheet. Close the lesson. Write down everything you remember about the chapter: ideas, definitions, links, examples, diagrams. Then open it again and add, in another colour, what was missing. This is the simplest technique and one of the most powerful. The part in colour is your plan for the next session.

Questions. Turn every heading in your lesson into a question. "Photosynthesis" becomes "What is photosynthesis, where does it take place, what does it produce?" Answer without looking.

Flashcards. A question on one side, the answer on the other. Especially suited to vocabulary, definitions, formulas, dates and technical terms. Less suited to long chains of reasoning.

Exercises and past papers. Redo an exercise you have already corrected without the answer. Work through past exam papers under exam conditions.

Recalling out loud. Walking, on public transport, in the shower: "what did we do yesterday in biology?" No materials needed.

The rules that make testing work

Try before you look. The benefit comes from the effort of recall. Flipping the card after one second cancels most of it.

Check afterwards. Testing yourself without feedback can consolidate a mistake. Always check, and correct what was wrong.

Accept being wrong. Studies show that an unsuccessful attempt at recall, followed by the right answer, helps you remember better than simply reading the right answer. A mistake during a study session is not a failure: it is preparation.

Don't stop at the first success. An answer retrieved once may not come back the next day. A card is only "known" once it has been retrieved in several different sessions.

Common obstacles

"It's discouraging, I don't know anything." That is the most useful information of the session. You are finding out now, not on exam day.

"I waste time making the cards." Making cards is not revising. Make few, quickly, and spend most of the time using them. Ready-made cards work too.

"I don't have time to test myself and re-read." Replace part of the re-reading with testing. A first reading remains essential for understanding; the following re-readings are the first things to cut.

5. Principle 2 — Space it out

In one sentence. Three twenty-minute sessions spread over a week make things stick better than one hour the night before.

What is at stake. As soon as you have learned something, forgetting begins — quickly at first, more slowly afterwards. Coming back to information just as it starts to fade, and making the effort to retrieve it, slows down the next round of forgetting. Each spaced return strengthens the trace more than an immediate return, which merely reactivates what is still fresh.

That is why cramming the night before seems to work: it boosts the next day's performance. But what was learned in one night fades within a few days. For a one-off test, that may be enough. For a subject in which each chapter builds on the previous one, and for an end-of-year exam, it is a very bad calculation: you have to learn everything again.

A simple schedule

There is no perfect interval, but there is a robust guideline: the further away the deadline, the longer the gaps between revision sessions can be.

For a test in a week: a first session today, a second in one or two days, a third two or three days later.

For an exam in several months: the gaps can gradually lengthen, from a few days to several weeks.

An easy rhythm to remember for a new lesson: the next day, three days later, a week later, a month later. Each time, test yourself first; re-read only what doesn't come back.

Revision boxes

For flashcards, an old and effective method uses several boxes. All cards start in the first box, reviewed every day. A card you get right moves to the next box, reviewed less often — every two days, then every week, then every two weeks. A card you get wrong goes back to the first box. That way you spend your time on what you don't know, and you see what you do know just often enough.

Spaced-repetition flashcard apps automate this principle and calculate the intervals for you. They are very useful for languages, medical or legal vocabulary and formulas. Their trap: piling up hundreds of cards a day until you give up. Add few new cards, but every day.

Common obstacles

"I forgot between sessions, so it's useless." Partial forgetting between two sessions is not a sign that spacing is failing. It is the condition for its effectiveness.

"I don't think of it." Put the return sessions in your diary when you learn something, like appointments. A revision session that isn't scheduled almost never happens.

"I have an exam tomorrow and I've done nothing." Then do what remains most useful in little time: test yourself rather than re-read, sleep rather than stay up, and note for next time that you will need to start earlier.

6. Principle 3 — Mix it up

In one sentence. Alternating types of problem forces you to choose the method — and that choice is exactly what is missing on exam day.

What is at stake. In a textbook, the exercises in a chapter all use that chapter's method. You therefore know in advance what to do, and you practise applying the method, not recognising it. On exam day, the problems come mixed, and the first difficulty is knowing which is which.

Working with interleaved exercises — a probability problem, then a derivative, then a sequence, then probability again — is more laborious in the moment and gives the impression of doing less well. Yet studies in mathematics, and in learning categories such as painters' styles or bird species, show a better ability to identify the right method afterwards.

How to do it

Block first, then mix. When a topic is completely new, a few exercises of the same type help you understand it. As soon as the method is known, mix.

Mix what looks alike. The benefit is greatest for things you confuse: two similar formulas, two grammatical tenses, two types of legal reasoning.

Make your own mixed sheets. Take exercises from several chapters, remove the headings, shuffle the order. Past papers do this work for you.

The limits

Interleaving is particularly useful where you need to discriminate — choose between several procedures or categories. For memorising a list of independent facts, spacing and testing matter more. And mixing things you don't yet understand mainly produces confusion.

7. Principle 4 — Understand before you memorise

In one sentence. Information linked to other information has several access routes; isolated information has only one.

What is at stake. Learning a fact by heart without understanding it is possible, but fragile: all it takes is for the question to be asked differently and it becomes inaccessible. Understanding means weaving links — with what you already know, with examples, with causes and consequences. Each link is an extra route for finding the information again.

The techniques

Ask why and how. For each idea: why is it true? how does it work? what is it for? what would happen if it weren't the case? These questions turn a definition into understanding.

Look for concrete examples. An abstract idea becomes easier to remember and recognise when you associate it with two or three different examples. A single example risks being confused with the idea itself.

Link it to what you know. How does this chapter extend the previous one? How is it similar to something you saw in another subject? What contradicts what you used to think?

Combine words and images. A diagram, a timeline or a table next to the text help understanding, whatever your supposed "style". Two conditions: the image must be placed near the text that explains it, and it must not be decorative. A useless diagram distracts.

Study worked examples when you are a beginner. Faced with a new type of problem, read a detailed solution carefully, asking yourself at each step why it is done. Then cover the end and try to work it out. Then do a similar problem on your own. As you progress, these detailed solutions become unnecessary, even a hindrance: move on to problems without help.

Mind maps and revision sheets

Making a mind map or a revision sheet is not useless: it is a way of organising and linking. But the value lies in making it, not in looking at it. A sheet you re-read ten times falls back into the fluency illusion. A sheet you redo from memory, then compare with the original, becomes a test.

8. Principle 5 — Explain it

In one sentence. If you can't explain it simply, you haven't understood it yet.

What is at stake. Explaining forces you to put ideas in order, fill the gaps, find the words. This work reveals what you thought you knew and don't. Studies that are now well established show that pupils who spontaneously explain to themselves the steps of a worked example learn more than those who merely read it — and that this can be taught.

The techniques

Self-explanation. When reading a proof or a solution, stop at each step and say, out loud or in writing: "we do this because…". If the "because" doesn't come, you have found what needs work.

Explaining to someone else. A classmate, a brother or sister, a parent, a friend who doesn't know the subject. Their naive question is often the most revealing.

Explaining to an imaginary beginner. Write an explanation for someone younger, without jargon. Every technical word must either be removed or defined.

Teaching in a study group. Share out the chapters; each person prepares and explains theirs to the others, then everyone asks questions about the others' chapters. The group must remain a place for questions, not for collective re-reading.

The main obstacle

Listening to a clear explanation — a teacher, a video — gives the impression of having understood. This is often true in the moment and false the next day. A well-made video is a good starting point, never an end point: close it, and explain it again.

9. Knowing what you know

In one sentence. The most costly mistake is not failing to know, it is believing you know.

What is at stake. To organise your revision, you are constantly deciding what you have mastered and what you haven't. If that judgement is wrong, you spend time on what you know and neglect what you don't. And that judgement is systematically too optimistic straight after re-reading, and much more accurate when you test yourself after a delay.

The techniques

Judge after a delay, not straight away. Just after studying a topic, everything seems known. Wait a few hours or until the next day, then ask yourself: "could I answer a question on this?" — and check by answering.

Sort into three piles. After a testing session: "known without hesitation", "retrieved with difficulty", "not known". Only the first pile can be spaced widely. The other two come back soon.

Predict your mark. Before handing in a paper, write down the mark you expect. Compare when it comes back. A regular gap in the same direction tells you how to correct your judgement.

Analyse your papers. For each mistake, one line: I didn't know; I knew but didn't retrieve it; I misread the question; I ran out of time; I made a careless slip. These five causes don't call for the same remedies. More work doesn't fix a misread instruction.

10. Getting organised

Planning backwards

Start from the exam date and work backwards. List the chapters. Estimate the time for each, then multiply by one and a half: estimates are almost always too short. Put the first sessions as early as possible, and plan spaced return sessions for each chapter, not just one session per chapter.

Keep the week before the deadline free. It will absorb any delays, and if there are none, it will be used for past papers.

Short, defined sessions

An effective session has a precise goal — "redo chapter 4 from memory and exercises 2, 5 and 7" — and a short duration, between twenty-five and fifty minutes, followed by a real break. "Revise biology" is not a goal, it is a subject, and it invites you to turn pages.

A break that rests you is a break without a screen: getting up, drinking something, walking, looking out of the window. Checking your messages during the break uses the same resource as the work.

Procrastination

Putting off revision is not laziness. It is almost always avoidance of discomfort: the task is vague, too big, boring, or threatening — the fear of finding out that you don't know. Research syntheses show that procrastination increases when the deadline is far away, the reward distant and the task unappealing. Each lever corresponds to one of these causes.

Make the task clear. Write down the first physical action: "open the maths book at page 34 and do exercise 1".

Make it small. "Ten minutes of flashcards" gets started. "Revise the whole syllabus" never does.

Bring the deadline closer. Set intermediate deadlines, ideally with someone else: a classmate you test each other with on Thursdays.

Set up the situation. Decide the evening before what you will do and at what time, and leave the materials open on the desk. Phrase it as "if… then…": "if I get home at 5 pm, then I do my flashcards before my snack".

Anticipate the obstacle. Imagine what will stop you working — the phone, tiredness, a series — and decide in advance what you will do at that moment. This combination of a goal and an anticipated obstacle has been evaluated with pupils, with positive effects.

The five-minute rule. Commit to working for five minutes, with a real right to stop afterwards. Most of the time, getting started was the only obstacle.

11. Attention and environment

The phone

You can't do two demanding things at once: you alternate, and each switch has a cost. Revising while answering messages gives the impression of working and produces poor-quality revision that takes longer and is more tiring.

A study of students showed that those who used their laptop for other things during a lecture understood it less well — and so did their neighbours, who could see the screen.

What works best is also the simplest: the phone in another room during the session. Not face down on the desk, not on silent in your pocket. Out of reach. If you use the computer to work, close everything that isn't the task, and turn off notifications.

The place

A place associated with work helps you get started: you settle down more easily because the place itself signals what you do there. If your bedroom is also where you rest and use screens, a library, a study room or a cleared kitchen table can make a big difference.

Noise and music

A steady background sound can help some people shut themselves off. Lyrics, on the other hand, compete with reading and writing: if you work to music, choose music without words, and honestly test the difference with silence.

12. The body: sleep, activity, energy

Sleep

Sleep is not time taken away from revision. During the night, the brain consolidates what was learned during the day; what you studied in the evening and "slept on" is better retained. Conversely, lack of sleep reduces attention, working memory and the ability to learn new things the next day.

Expert recommendations suggest, on average, eight to ten hours a night for teenagers and at least seven hours for adults. During puberty, the body clock naturally shifts later: a teenager who isn't sleepy at 10 pm isn't being unwilling.

An all-nighter before an exam is one of the worst strategies available. What you gain in hours of re-reading, you lose in the ability to retrieve and reason the next day.

A few guidelines. Regular wake-up times, including at weekends. Screens out of bed. A light final revision session in the evening — flashcards, recalling the day — rather than new and difficult work late at night. A short nap early in the afternoon can help those used to it; if it is long or late, it may delay falling asleep.

Physical activity

Regular movement is good for sleep, mood and health, which indirectly benefits study. A direct effect of a session of physical activity on memorisation appears in some studies, but it is modest. Remember this above all: a walk between two sessions rests you better than a screen.

Eating, drinking, caffeine

No food or supplement has been shown to improve learning in someone who eats normally. Breakfast, regular meals and water mainly prevent you from working while hungry or during an energy dip. Caffeine improves alertness at moderate doses; taken in the afternoon or evening, it damages sleep, and that cost outweighs the benefit. Energy drinks have no place in a revision strategy, especially for teenagers.

13. Taking notes, reading a textbook

In class

Write in your own words rather than copying word for word. Rephrasing forces you to understand.

Leave space. A wide margin to add, in the evening, the questions the page raises.

Note down the examples, not just the definitions. Examples are often what is most missing when it comes to revising.

Go over it the same day, in ten minutes. Not to re-read, but to write in the margin three questions the page answers, and a two-line summary without looking. These questions will serve as a test in later sessions.

With a textbook or an article

Skim first: headings, diagrams, summary, end-of-chapter questions. You then know where the text is going.

Ask yourself a question before each section: "what am I going to learn here?"

After each section, close the book and recall the key points in a few lines. Open it again to check.

Highlight little and late. Highlighting on the first reading amounts to colouring in what you don't yet understand. If you highlight, do it on the second reading, and only what you will turn into a question.

14. By type of content

Vocabulary and languages

Spaced-repetition flashcards: few new words, but every day. Learn words in context — a sentence rather than an isolated word — and in both directions: from the foreign language into yours, and above all from yours into the foreign language, which is harder and more useful. Speak out loud, even alone. Listen to lots of material you understand almost entirely.

Mathematics, physics, chemistry

Redo the corrected exercises without the answers. Mix types of problem as soon as the methods are known. For each method, note the signs that tell you it applies. Explain the steps of a proof with "because". Work on your mistakes: go back to every failed exercise three days later.

Content-heavy subjects — history, biology, law, economics

A blank sheet per chapter, then additions in colour. Questions drawn from the headings. Timelines, cause-and-effect diagrams and comparison tables redone from memory. For essays and text commentaries: practise producing outlines under time pressure, not just reading model answers.

Texts to learn by heart

A poem, a play, a speech, exact definitions. Cut it into small pieces. Learn the first piece, recite it without looking, then add the next and recite both. Start again the next day from memory, not from the page. Understanding the meaning and visualising the scene help a great deal.

Procedures and professional skills

For things you do — a protocol, a piece of software, a payroll calculation — practise rather than watch someone else do it. Repeat the procedure in varied conditions, space the sessions, and check yourself against a list of steps that you keep covered.

15. Preparing for an exam

Three to four weeks before

Take stock of what you know, with a test per chapter, not a feeling. Plan backwards. Start with your weakest chapters, and plan spaced returns to all of them.

The last two weeks

Past papers under exam conditions: real time limit, no notes, no phone. Mark them strictly and analyse every mistake. Keep up the flashcards and blank sheets. Don't start any completely new content in the last few days unless you have to.

The day before

A short recall session on the essentials, not a complete re-read. Prepare your materials, your journey, your documents. Go to bed at your usual time. If you can't sleep, lying quietly already rests you; don't get up to revise.

On the day

A meal, water, arrive early. Read all the questions before you start. Begin with what you know how to do. If your mind goes blank, move on: the answer often comes back when you stop looking for it.

Stress

A certain level of arousal before an exam is normal and useful: a faster heartbeat brings energy. The problem is not stress, it is how you interpret it. Studies have shown that students who were told this arousal could help them did better than those who were told to calm down. Tell yourself "my body is getting ready" rather than "I'm going to crack".

The best prevention remains preparing by testing yourself. Surveys of pupils trained in retrieval practice in class report less anxiety about exams, partly because the testing situation becomes familiar.

If your breathing races before the exam: lengthen the out-breath, breathing in for a count of four and out for six to eight, for a minute or two. Put your feet flat on the floor. Look at a fixed point in the room.

If anxiety stops you from sitting exams, causes repeated fainting or panic spells, or takes over your weeks, it is no longer stage fright: it is an issue in its own right, and it responds well to treatment. See section 17.

16. Motivation

What helps

Meaning. Knowing what what you are learning is for — for you, not in general — sustains effort. Write it in one sentence at the top of your plan.

Seeing your progress. Motivation often follows the feeling of competence. Keep a record: number of cards known, marks on past papers, recall time on a chapter. Compare yourself with yourself a month ago, not with others.

Choosing. The order of subjects, the place, the method: what is chosen is kept up better than what is imposed.

Working with others. Testing each other in pairs, setting appointments, holding each other to account.

Rewarding yourself afterwards, modestly. A reward planned for after a session you completed helps you start a boring task. It does not replace meaning.

The growth mindset

The idea that intelligence and abilities develop through work, rather than being fixed, is right. However, interventions designed to pass on this idea have more modest effects than was long claimed: large syntheses find weak effects on average, somewhat clearer in struggling pupils. Keep the useful core: a bad mark tells you where you are, not what you are. And above all, change your method before concluding that you are "not good enough".

What doesn't help

Constantly comparing yourself with the best. Waiting until you feel like it. Promising yourself a big change on Monday. Working long hours out of guilt, re-reading.

17. When the difficulty goes beyond method

Good methods help everyone. They are not always enough. Some difficulties call for an assessment, and the earlier it takes place, the more solutions it opens up — exam arrangements, specialist therapy, treatment.

Ask for advice if

Reading remains slow and effortful despite the years: you have to read several times to understand, you make many persistent spelling mistakes, you avoid reading aloud. A specific reading and spelling disorder can occur in intelligent people, and be discovered late.

Numbers remain a particular source of confusion, out of step with the rest of your results.

Handwriting is slow, painful or illegible to the point of penalising you.

Attention has been a problem since childhood, in every area — not just for study — with forgetfulness, disorganisation and sometimes impulsivity that cost you a great deal. Our programme on adult ADHD details what distinguishes this disorder from ordinary distractibility.

Your eyesight or hearing haven't been checked recently, and you struggle to read the board or follow a lecture.

Your mood has changed: no interest in anything, constant fatigue, disrupted sleep, a feeling of being useless that goes beyond study. Depression makes learning very difficult, and it can be treated.

Anxiety takes over: fear of exams to the point of not sitting them, panic attacks, avoiding classes.

Exhaustion sets in: months of work without recovery, the signs described in our programme on burnout.

Whom to ask

At school: the form tutor, the school nurse, the school psychologist or counsellor. At university: the student health service, the disability support service. For everyone: your GP, who can refer you for a speech and language, neuropsychological or psychiatric assessment, depending on the question.

And if suicidal thoughts appear, whatever the reason, don't wait: contact a doctor, an emergency service or a helpline in your country today.

18. Frequently asked questions

How many hours should I work? There is no figure that applies to everyone. The quality of sessions matters more than their length: forty minutes of testing and recall are often worth more than two hours of re-reading. A good indicator is not the time spent, but what you can retrieve without looking.

Should I make revision sheets? Yes, if you use them as a basis for testing. A sheet is for asking yourself questions, or for being redone from memory and then compared. A sheet you re-read over and over doesn't do much better than the lesson itself.

Is it better to work in the morning or the evening? Individual preferences exist, and teenagers are often more alert in the evening. Two guidelines apply to everyone: put the most demanding tasks at the times when you are most alert, and keep light revision for late evening, where it will benefit from the night.

Is re-reading my notes just before the exam useful? A last look at a few specific points can be reassuring. A complete re-read in the corridor overloads you, stresses you and makes you doubt what you knew. A quick recall of the main points from memory is more useful.

Am I a visual learner? You may prefer diagrams. But the idea that everyone learns better in a single "style" has not been confirmed. Use diagrams and words, and test yourself, whatever your preference.

I feel I have a bad memory. Very often, this is an impression produced by methods that don't make things stick. Before drawing conclusions, try three weeks of spaced testing in one subject. If the difficulty persists and also affects daily life, talk to a doctor.

Do we learn less well as we get older? Some abilities, such as processing speed, gradually decline with age. But adults have richer knowledge, which makes linking and understanding easier, and they benefit just as much from testing and spacing. Going back to study at forty or fifty is entirely possible; above all, you need to accept that the beginning will feel slow.

Do medications or supplements "for memory" help? In a healthy person, no supplement has been shown to affect learning. Taking medication prescribed for other people, without a prescription, to "keep going" or concentrate, carries real risks for the heart, sleep and mood, with no established benefit for results. If your concentration is a real problem, that is a reason to see a doctor, not to self-medicate.

Should I work with music on? Without lyrics, and only if you have checked that you don't work better in silence. Lyrics compete with reading and writing.

Are explainer videos a good way to learn? They are a good way to understand something the first time. They are not a way to remember it: after the video, close it and explain again what you saw, or do an exercise.

19. Key points

• The feeling of having mastered a lesson is not a reliable measure: re-reading makes a page familiar without making it retrievable.
• Testing yourself — blank sheet, questions, flashcards, past papers — makes things stick better than re-reading, and reveals what you don't know yet.
• Spacing sessions makes learning last; concentrating work the night before makes you succeed the next day and forget the following week.
• Mixing types of exercise teaches you to recognise the right method, which is what is missing on exam day.
• Understand before memorising: why, how, examples, links, diagrams next to the text.
• Explaining, to yourself or to someone else, reveals the gaps that reading hides.
• A difficult session is not a failed session: the effort of recall is what makes you learn.
• The phone out of the room, short and defined sessions, a real break without a screen.
• Sleep is part of revision; an all-nighter before an exam costs more than it brings.
• Learning styles, brain training and "memory" supplements don't have the effectiveness attributed to them.
• When a difficulty persists despite good methods, or has affected mood, attention or reading for a long time, it deserves professional advice.

20. Sources and foundations

This resource is an original text written for Psychotip. It draws on published research, without reproducing material from any proprietary programme.

• H. Ebbinghaus (1885), the forgetting curve: forgetting is rapid just after learning and then slows down, and spaced relearning is more economical than massed repetition.
• Soderstrom and Bjork (2015), performance and learning: a review showing that the conditions that raise performance during practice are not always those that produce lasting learning, hence the notion of desirable difficulties.
• H. Roediger and J. Karpicke (2006), the testing effect: a synthesis of studies showing that testing yourself consolidates memory more than studying the same content again.
• Karpicke and Blunt (2011), retrieval practice and understanding: among students, practising recalling a text produces better results, including on inference questions, than building concept maps.
• C. Rowland (2014), meta-analysis of the testing effect: the advantage of testing over restudying the same content is robust, across very varied conditions and materials.
• Kornell, Hays and Bjork (2009), unsuccessful retrieval attempts: trying to retrieve an answer, even without succeeding, and then discovering it, leads to better retention than studying it directly.
• N. Cepeda et al. (2006, 2008), the spacing effect: a meta-analysis and then a large-scale study showing that spaced revision clearly improves retention, and that the optimal interval lengthens with the delay before the test.
• Kornell and Bjork (2008), interleaving in category learning: studying painters' styles mixed rather than grouped improves recognition of new works, although participants judge the opposite.
• D. Rohrer et al. (2015), interleaving in mathematics: in the classroom, mixed exercises improve results on a delayed test compared with exercises grouped by chapter.
• K. Rawson and W. Kintsch (2005); A. Callender and M. McDaniel (2009), the limits of re-reading: re-readings close together add little beyond the first reading, and their benefits for understanding remain limited.
• J. Sweller, cognitive load theory and the worked-example effect: for beginners, studying detailed solutions is more effective than solving problems alone.
• S. Kalyuga et al. (2003), the expertise reversal effect: aids that are useful to beginners become unnecessary, even harmful, for more advanced learners.
• R. Mayer, multimedia learning: words and images combined, placed close together and without decorative elements, support understanding.
• M. Chi et al. (1989), the self-explanation effect: pupils who explain to themselves the steps of worked examples learn more than those who read them.
• T. Nelson and J. Dunlosky (1991), delayed judgements of learning: estimating what you will remember after a delay is much more accurate than doing so just after studying.
• F. Sana, T. Weston and N. Cepeda (2013), multitasking in lectures: during a lecture, students using a laptop for other tasks understood less well, as did their neighbours who could see the screen.
• B. Rasch and J. Born (2013), sleep and memory: a review of the mechanisms by which sleep consolidates the day's learning.
• S. Paruthi et al. (2016), American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommendations: eight to ten hours of sleep a night from thirteen to eighteen years of age.
• P. Steel (2007), meta-analysis of procrastination: it increases with the distance of the deadline, the unattractiveness of the task and impulsivity.
• G. Oettingen et al., mental contrasting and implementation intentions: combining a goal with an anticipated obstacle and an "if… then…" plan improves commitment, including among pupils.
• J. Jamieson et al. (2010), reappraising arousal: students encouraged to view their physiological arousal as helpful obtained better results on a mathematics test.
• S. Agarwal et al. (2014), retrieval practice and test anxiety: middle and high school pupils trained in classroom retrieval practice reported less anxiety about exams.
• V. Sisk et al. (2018); D. Yeager et al. (2019), growth mindset: meta-analyses finding weak effects on average, then a national study showing a modest effect, mainly among struggling pupils.
• P. Kirschner (2017), learning styles: a synthesis concluding that tailoring teaching to a supposed style does not improve learning.
• S. Dekker et al. (2012), neuromyths: false beliefs about the brain, including learning styles and hemispheric dominance, are very widespread, including among teachers interested in neuroscience.
• C. Chabris (1999), the "Mozart effect": a meta-analysis finding no notable cognitive improvement after listening to music.
• D. Simons et al. (2016), brain training: a review concluding that there is progress on the trained tasks, without convincing evidence of transfer to general abilities.

Content last reviewed: 2026.