KeplarExam Preparation: 8 Study Techniques Backed by Research (and 3 to Drop)
What learning research says about exam preparation: practice testing, spaced practice, interleaving and more, which popular habits like rereading and highlighting barely help, and how to apply it.
The best exam preparation is built on two techniques: practice testing (answering from memory) and spaced practice (studying a topic in several short sessions over days or weeks). A major research review rated both as highly effective, while popular habits like rereading and highlighting barely help. Here's what the evidence supports and how to use it.
What the research says, in one table
In 2013, a team led by psychologist John Dunlosky reviewed hundreds of studies on ten common study techniques and rated how useful each is for students.
| Rating | Techniques |
|---|---|
| High utility | Practice testing; distributed (spaced) practice |
| Moderate utility | Elaborative interrogation (asking "why?"); self-explanation; interleaved practice |
| Low utility | Summarization; highlighting and underlining; the keyword mnemonic; imagery for text; rereading |
1. Test yourself instead of rereading
Retrieving an answer from memory strengthens it more than seeing it again. In a well-known 2006 experiment, Roediger and Karpicke found that students who practised recalling a passage remembered much more of it a week later than students who spent the same time restudying it. For exams, that means practice questions, flashcards you actually answer, and covering your notes and explaining them aloud.
2. Space it out
Studying a topic on several days beats one long session with the same total time. A meta-analysis of spacing research (Cepeda and colleagues, 2006) found the benefit across hundreds of comparisons. Plan four 45-minute sessions over a week rather than one three-hour block.
3. Mix problem types (interleaving)
Practising a mix of problem types, rather than 20 of the same kind in a row, forces you to choose the method as well as use it, which is what the exam asks. In one study by Rohrer and Taylor (2007), students who practised math problems mixed together scored far higher on a later test than students who practised them in blocks, even though the mixed practice felt harder at the time.
4. Ask "why?" (elaborative interrogation)
When you learn a fact or rule, ask why it's true and answer in your own words. "Why does a semicolon need a full sentence on both sides?" Connecting new material to what you know makes it easier to recall.
5. Explain your steps (self-explanation)
After solving a problem, explain each step to yourself or to a friend. Gaps in understanding show up immediately when you can't say why a step works.
6. Keep an error log
Write down every question you miss and why. Reviewing it combines practice testing and spacing, and shows which few habits cost you the most points. Our error log template shows the columns to use.
7. Rehearse the real conditions
Take at least one full timed practice exam in conditions close to test day: same time of day, same tools, no phone. It builds stamina and reveals pacing problems you won't see in short sets.
8. Protect sleep
Sleep is when memories consolidate, and an all-nighter costs more than it gains. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine's consensus recommendation is 8 to 10 hours a night for teenagers aged 13 to 18. The week before an exam is the worst time to cut it.
Three habits to drop (or change)
- Rereading: feels productive because the material looks familiar. Replace it with covering the page and recalling.
- Highlighting: most students highlight too much and never test themselves on it. If you highlight, turn each highlight into a question.
- Summarizing without testing: writing summaries can help some learners, but the review rated it low for most. Use summaries as a source of questions to answer later.
Putting it together
A week of exam prep built on the evidence looks like this: three or four short sessions of mixed practice questions on your weakest topics, one session redoing old mistakes, one timed practice set, and normal sleep. To turn that into a calendar, see how to make a study planner. For the SAT specifically, our SAT study schedule applies the same ideas over 4, 8 and 12 weeks.
Common questions
What is the most effective way to study for an exam?
Practice testing (answering questions from memory) and spacing your study over several days. A major 2013 review of learning techniques rated these two as the most effective for students across ages and subjects.
Is rereading notes a good way to study?
It feels productive but helps little on its own. Research reviews rate rereading and highlighting as low-utility. Turning notes into questions and answering them works much better.
How long before an exam should I start studying?
As early as you can spread it out. Several short sessions over weeks beat the same hours crammed into the last few days, especially for anything you need to remember on a specific date.
Sources
- Dunlosky, Rawson, Marsh, Nathan & Willingham (2013), Improving Students' Learning With Effective Learning Techniques, Psychological Science in the Public Interest 14(1)
- Roediger & Karpicke (2006), Test-Enhanced Learning, Psychological Science 17(3)
- Cepeda, Pashler, Vul, Wixted & Rohrer (2006), Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks, Psychological Bulletin 132(3)
- Rohrer & Taylor (2007), The shuffling of mathematics problems improves learning, Instructional Science 35
- Paruthi et al. (2016), Recommended Amount of Sleep for Pediatric Populations, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine
Dates, policies and test details change. Check the official source before you make a decision.
