Learning & Study Skills
My child re-reads and still blanks on tests. What works better?
For parents and the students doing the work: why a familiar page can still go blank on test day, a routine to start tonight, and how to help without knowing the subject.
Updated
The short answer
For learning that lasts, close-the-book recall, spread over a few days, works better than re-reading (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006) (Dunlosky et al., 2013). Your child reads once, closes the book, writes or says what they remember, checks it, fixes what they missed, and comes back another day (Dunlosky, 2013). A major review rated re-reading low, because its benefits were inconsistent and may not last (Dunlosky et al., 2013) (Dunlosky, 2013).
Why: re-reading makes a page feel familiar, and familiar feels like knowing. But a test asks your child to pull the answer out with the book closed, and re-reading doesn’t practice that (Bjork & Bjork, 2011).
That routine uses the two habits the same review rated most useful, quizzing yourself and spreading study out (Dunlosky et al., 2013). We call them “Close the book and tell me” and “A little, often.” You don’t need to know the subject to help: hold the book and ask (The Learning Scientists, 2016).
Key takeaways
- In one survey of college students, re-reading was by far the most common study habit (Karpicke, Butler & Roediger, 2009), yet a major review rated it low for making learning last (Dunlosky et al., 2013). Read once to understand, then re-read only what a recall attempt shows your child missed (Dunlosky, 2013).
- A familiar page feels known, but feeling known isn’t the same as remembering (Bjork & Bjork, 2011). In a classic experiment, college students who re-read a passage the most felt the most confident, yet a week later they remembered the least: 40%, against 61% for students who studied it in one session and then practiced recalling it three times (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006).
- Have your child close the book, write or say what they remember, then check and fix (Dunlosky, 2013). A U.S. Department of Education guide gives quizzing on key material its highest evidence rating, “strong” (Pashler et al., 2007).
- Come back on another day. The best gap grows with the time to the test; for a test about a week away, a rule of thumb from a large study of adults is to review again after one to three days (Cepeda et al., 2008).
Why does re-reading feel like studying?
Because a second read feels smooth and familiar, and that feeling is easy to mistake for knowing the material (Bjork & Bjork, 2011). But recognizing a familiar sentence does not tell you whether you can explain it with the page closed, and that’s what a test asks (Karpicke, Butler & Roediger, 2009).
The problem
What helpsA U.S. Department of Education practice guide calls this the “illusion of knowing”: right after studying, most learners overestimate how well they’ve learned the material. Its example is the student who says, after a poor grade, “But I studied so hard” (Pashler et al., 2007).
A classic experiment shows the trap. College students studied one short passage in two 7-minute reading periods. They studied another in one period, then wrote down everything they could remember, with no answers shown afterward. The re-read passage won on a test five minutes later. The recalled passage won two days later and a week later (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006).
| Final test | Studied it twice | Studied once, then recalled it |
|---|---|---|
| 5 minutes later | 81% | 75% |
| 2 days later | 54% | 68% |
| 1 week later | 42% | 56% |
In a second experiment, college students who spent four short sessions re-reading a passage (about 14 read-throughs in all) felt the most confident. A week later they remembered the least: 40%, against 61% for students who studied it in one session and then practiced recalling it three times (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006).
It’s a common habit. In one survey of 177 students at a selective U.S. university, 84% listed re-reading as a study strategy. Only 11% clearly said they practiced recall, though more used flashcards or practice problems, which can work as self-testing (Karpicke, Butler & Roediger, 2009). So when hours of re-reading don’t show up on the test, the study method is a good first thing to change.
What should my child do instead of re-reading?
Read once to understand, close the book and recall, check and fix what you missed, then come back on another day. The routine replaces the second and third read, not the first (Dunlosky, 2013). Here it is with one middle-school science topic: how volcanoes erupt. The steps below speak to your child, so read them together.
Read once, with a question in mind
Don’t just read and highlight. Before reading, turn each heading into a question. At the end of each section, say what you learned as if you were explaining it to someone else (Willingham, 2023).
Try this tonight
Open tonight’s section. Turn each heading into a question, such as “What makes a volcano erupt?”, and read once to answer them before you reach for the highlighter.
Close the book and tell me
Close the book, then write, sketch or say everything you remember. Write or say each answer before you check, so you can’t fool yourself (Willingham, 2023); covering your notes with your hand and writing them out works too (Dunlosky, 2013). Guessing when you’re unsure hasn’t been shown to hurt, at least for facts and vocabulary, as long as you check afterward (Pashler et al., 2007).
Try this tonight
Close the book. For three minutes, write and sketch everything you remember from tonight’s section, words and arrows both (for the volcano chapter: what happens before and during an eruption). No peeking.
Check, then fix only what you missed
Open the book and check every answer, including the ones you felt sure of. Without the right answer afterward, mistakes made while quizzing yourself tend to come back on later tests (Pashler et al., 2007).
Here’s what checking catches. Say you wrote “lava” for the melted rock inside the volcano. The book says it’s called magma while it’s underground, and lava once it flows onto the surface (National Geographic Education). A third read can glide right past that difference. A closed-book attempt puts it on the page.
If almost nothing came out, the piece was too big: re-read a smaller part, or take a hint, and try again. You should be able to recall at least some of it for the practice to help (EEF, 2021).
Try this tonight
Tick what you got right. Fix the misses in a different color and re-read only those parts. Star them: tomorrow’s session starts with the stars.
Recall takes more work than re-reading (Dunlosky, 2013), and your child may feel they know less (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006). That’s expected: how easy studying feels is a poor guide to how much sticks, and the effort is part of why it works. Researchers call this a desirable difficulty (Bjork & Bjork, 2011). A hard attempt isn’t a failure. It shows where the next explanation, example or practice turn should go (Dunlosky, 2013).
What is active recall, and does it really work?
Active recall means pulling what you’ve learned out of memory instead of reading it again. Researchers call it retrieval practice or practice testing, and its benefit the testing effect (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006). It can be a brain dump on a blank page (some students call it “blurting” (Birmingham City University)), a practice quiz, a flashcard answered before you flip it, or covering your notes and writing them out (Dunlosky, 2013).
Yes. It’s one of the best-supported study habits there is (Dunlosky et al., 2013), and it holds up in real classrooms, not just labs. A review of 50 classroom experiments with 5,374 students found a consistent benefit, with more than half of the effects medium or large (Agarwal, Nunes & Blunt, 2021).
Practice the kind of thinking the test will ask for. In experiments with college students, quizzes on facts alone didn’t help with questions that asked students to apply or analyze what they’d learned. Quizzes with those higher-order questions, or a mix of both, did. In a 6th-grade history class, mixed and higher-order quizzes helped too (Agarwal, 2019). If the test says “explain why”, practice explaining why.
How can I help my child study if I don’t know the subject?
Ask, don’t teach. Have your child close the book and explain, listen, then let them open the book and check. You don’t need to know the material: let your child do most of the talking (The Learning Scientists, 2016).
You may already be the study partner. In a survey in one Midwestern school district, about a third of middle schoolers said they normally study for tests with a parent or guardian (Agarwal et al., 2014).
Be the quizzer, not the re-teacher
Keep it short, calm and ungraded. Start with questions your child can mostly answer, and if they get stuck, give a hint or point to the page instead of re-teaching it.
- “Close the book and tell me what this page is about.” Then wait. Silence is thinking time.
- “Teach me one thing from tonight.”
- “Why does that happen? How do you know?” Questions like these are meant for once the basics are in place (Pashler et al., 2007).
- “Which ones did you miss last time? Let’s start there.”
Younger child, around 8 to 11? Give cues, not a blank page: ask specific questions, and offer a hint, such as the first letter or two, when they’re stuck (Karpicke et al., 2014) (Karpicke, Blunt & Smith, 2016). The free Five Focus Tips adapts each tip for K–2, grades 3–5 and grades 6–12.
Try this tonight
After homework, say: “Close the book and teach me one thing from today.” Listen without correcting, ask “How do you know?”, then let them open the book and check for themselves.
How far apart should study sessions be?
The later the test, the bigger the gap. For a test about a week away, review again after one to three days; for material needed at the end of the year, come back after a few weeks (Cepeda et al., 2008). Spreading study out like this is called spaced practice, or distributed practice in the research (Dunlosky et al., 2013). You’ll also see it called spaced repetition (Kang, 2016).
| When is the test? | Space reviews about… | Then |
|---|---|---|
| Tomorrow | No time to space it | Recall rounds on the main topics tonight, weakest first, checking each one. It can get you through, but it fades faster. |
| In about a week | 1 to 3 days apart | A short recall round the day before. |
| End of term or year | A few weeks apart | Keep coming back. If unsure, err on the long side. |
Those day ranges come from an online study of 1,354 adults learning facts, so treat them as a rule of thumb (Cepeda et al., 2008). The Department of Education guide advises going over key material at least twice, several weeks to months apart, and notes that spacing too far apart costs much less than spacing too close (Pashler et al., 2007). If you’ve spaced your study, a review the night before is fine (Bjork, Dunlosky & Kornell, 2013). For whether to sleep or keep studying that night, see is it better to sleep or study the night before a test?
Don’t worry about a perfect schedule such as “days 1, 3 and 7.” No schedule is magic: the best gap depends on when the test is, and what counts is coming back after a real gap, at least a day (Cepeda et al., 2008). In real classrooms, spacing study across days has had a small positive effect on average, and results vary a lot from study to study (EEF, 2021).
A little, often
John Dunlosky, lead author of the major review of study techniques, suggests that about two short study blocks a week for each class may be enough to start, each one covering new material and a revisit of older topics (Dunlosky, 2013). Start every block with recall, not reading.
For how many hours, breaks and sleep, see how to help your child study without burning out.
Try this tonight
Before closing the planner tonight, write in two recall rounds for the next test: one in a day or two, one the day before. Each starts with a blank page, not the book.
Do flashcards work, and what’s the right way to use them?
Flashcards work when your child answers each card before flipping it, and keeps coming back to the cards on later days, even after getting them right (Dunlosky, 2013). Flipping too soon turns flashcards back into reading (Karpicke, Butler & Roediger, 2009), and dropping a card for good after one right answer gives up much of the benefit (Karpicke & Roediger, 2008).
The problem
What helpsIn one experiment, college students learned Swahili–English word pairs. Pairs that stayed in the quiz rounds after the first correct answer were recalled about 80% of the time a week later. Pairs dropped from quizzing fell to about a third, and extra study of the dropped pairs didn’t close the gap (Karpicke & Roediger, 2008).
Answer first, then flip
Three rules from the review’s lead author (Dunlosky, 2013):
- Say or write the answer before you flip, then compare.
- Missed cards go to the back of the deck, so they come round again.
- Keep a card in play until it’s been right more than once, on different days.
Try this tonight
Go through tonight’s deck once, saying each answer before you flip. Misses go to the back. Cards you got right go in a pile for another day, not in the drawer.
Should math homework mix different kinds of problems?
Often, yes, once your child has the basics. In a study of 787 seventh graders in 54 math classes, students whose practice was mostly mixed scored 61% on a surprise test a month later. Students whose practice mostly came in blocks of one type scored 38%. Both groups did the same problems; only the order changed (Rohrer et al., 2020).
Mixing, also called interleaving, makes your child decide which method each problem needs, which is what a test asks. Yet more than 80% of the practice problems in six popular middle-school math textbooks came in blocks of one kind, and blocked practice can create an illusion of mastery (Rohrer, Dedrick & Agarwal, 2017).
Start a new skill with a few problems of one kind, then mix (Rohrer, Dedrick & Agarwal, 2017). Mixing isn’t a rule for every subject: it didn’t help college students learn French vocabulary or high schoolers learn comma rules (Dunlosky, 2013), and the classroom evidence comes almost entirely from math (EEF, 2021). For a vocabulary list, plain spaced flashcards are fine.
Mix in a few old problems
The Department of Education guide gives the example of a math teacher who puts a few problems from one or two months earlier into every homework assignment (Pashler et al., 2007).
Try this tonight
Pick three older problems of different kinds from earlier chapters, ideally ones with answers in the back of the book or from a graded quiz, and shuffle them into tonight’s math homework. Before solving each one, your child says which method it needs, then checks the answer.
How strong is the evidence, and what are its limits?
In the 2013 review, active recall and spacing rated high. Mixing problem types and asking “why?” rated moderate, because the authors wanted more evidence on how broadly they help. Re-reading, highlighting and summarizing rated low as ways to make learning last (Dunlosky et al., 2013) (Dunlosky, 2013). The Department of Education guide, drawing on experiments with K–12 and college students, rated quizzing on key material and asking deep “why” questions as strong, its highest rating, and spacing as moderate (Pashler et al., 2007).
| Study habit | Rating | Best use |
|---|---|---|
| Practice testing (quizzes, flashcards, recall) | High | The core of every session |
| Spacing study over days | High | Any test more than a day away |
| Mixing problem types | Moderate | Math, once the basics are in |
| Asking “why?” and explaining (elaborative interrogation, self-explanation) | Moderate | Making sense of new material |
| Summarizing | Low | Better as a book-closed check |
| Highlighting | Low | A start: turn highlights into questions |
| Re-reading | Low | Fixing what a recall attempt missed |
Several of the classic experiments on this page used college students or adults (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006) (Cepeda et al., 2008) (Karpicke & Roediger, 2008). In one review of classroom studies, only 6% of the experiments ran outside Western, wealthy countries. The largest classroom effects were in middle school, but all of those studies came from one school district near St. Louis (Agarwal, Nunes & Blunt, 2021). An independent English evidence summary for teachers says these ideas are “neither myths to be discounted, nor silver bullets” (EEF, 2021).
This article offers learning support, not medical advice.
FAQ
Is re-reading a good way to study?
Not on its own. Save it for after a recall attempt: a missed answer shows what needs another look (Dunlosky, 2013). A major review rated re-reading low for making learning last (Dunlosky et al., 2013), and it pays off more when a recall attempt comes in between (Pashler et al., 2007). So have your child read once, close the book and recall, then re-read only what they missed.
Is highlighting a waste of time?
Not a waste, but only a start. A major review rated highlighting low as a study method (Dunlosky et al., 2013). Its lead author calls it “only the beginning”, and in one study students who highlighted did worse on questions that needed connecting ideas across a text (Dunlosky, 2013). Keep the highlighter if your child likes it, then turn each highlighted line into a question to answer with the book closed.
Does cramming the night before a test work?
It can get your child through tomorrow’s test, but it’s a poor way to keep what they learn. A review of how students study says cramming “may work fine” for an upcoming test but is “very ineffective” for remembering the material longer (Bjork, Dunlosky & Kornell, 2013). So spread study over several days, then use the night before for a short recall round (Bjork, Dunlosky & Kornell, 2013).
Will quizzing make my anxious child more anxious?
Not on average, if the quizzes stay low-stakes. Across 24 studies, mostly in real classrooms, practice quizzes went with lower test anxiety, and easier quizzes seemed to help more, though the quiz moment itself can feel more stressful than re-reading. Not every student feels calmer, and researchers don’t yet know which ones will (Yang et al., 2023). Keep home quizzes short, ungraded and easy at first. If worry about tests lasts for weeks and gets in the way of school, home or friends, talk with your child’s pediatrician (NIMH, 2024).
Does active recall work for younger children?
Yes, when it’s guided. In a study of 88 children around age 10 learning word lists, recall with cues beat studying the list again on a test soon afterward, and the benefit didn’t depend on how well the children read (Karpicke, Blunt & Smith, 2016). Fourth graders asked to write everything from a blank page recalled only about a tenth of a text (Karpicke et al., 2014). So ask specific questions, give hints, then let your child check the page.
Can a flashcard app or an AI chatbot do the quizzing?
It can, if it makes your child produce each answer before showing it and brings missed items back on later days (Dunlosky, 2013). An app that retires a card for good after one right answer skips part of what builds memory (Karpicke & Roediger, 2008). A chatbot can explain a topic or write practice questions, but it can get facts wrong (U.S. Department of Education, 2023): check its questions and answers against the textbook or class notes, and follow your school’s rules on AI tools. Either way, the answers have to come from your child’s own memory, with the book closed.
Free next steps
Five Study Habits (free PDF) — Turn notes into a mini-quiz, plan the days to come back to it, and keep a tiny error log. Written for high school students, with a page for parents.
The Homework Peace Plan (free PDF) — Way 4, “Teach how to remember,” puts “Close the book and tell me” and “A little, often” on one page for parents.
If you’d like to talk it through with a person, email us to set up a free discovery call about MindSmart Learning, our brain-based learning program for students through 12th grade. Everything on this page works on its own, without buying anything.
Sources
All links were checked in October 2026.
- Bjork, E. L., & Bjork, R. A. (2011). Making things hard on yourself, but in a good way: Creating desirable difficulties to enhance learning. In Psychology and the real world (pp. 56–64). Worth Publishers. https://bjorklab.psych.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2016/04/EBjork_RBjork_2011.pdf A smooth second read is easily mistaken for understanding; how practice feels is a poor guide to learning; effortful “desirable difficulties” help learning last.
- 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. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612453266 (Summary page, Association for Psychological Science.) https://www.psychologicalscience.org/publications/journals/pspi/learning-techniques.html Practice tests and spaced (distributed) practice rated high utility for students of many ages and abilities; re-reading and highlighting rated low. The paper’s abstract rates mixing (interleaving), “why” questions (elaborative interrogation) and self-explanation moderate.
- Dunlosky, J. (2013, Fall). Strengthening the student toolbox: Study strategies to boost learning. American Educator. American Federation of Teachers. https://www.aft.org/ae/fall2013/dunlosky How to self-test and use flashcards, two short study blocks a week, highlighting as a start, which strategies are promising, and where mixing didn’t help.
- Roediger, H. L., III, & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255. https://learninglab.psych.purdue.edu/downloads/2006/2006_Roediger_Karpicke_PsychSci.pdf Re-reading won at 5 minutes and recall won at 2 days and 1 week; repeated re-reading raised confidence.
- Pashler, H., Bain, P. M., Bottge, B. A., Graesser, A., Koedinger, K., McDaniel, M., & Metcalfe, J. (2007). Organizing instruction and study to improve student learning (NCER 2007-2004). Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/PracticeGuide/20072004.pdf The “illusion of knowing”; quizzing and deep questions rated strong, spacing moderate; feedback and guessing; re-reading with a test in between; older problems in homework.
- Cepeda, N. J., Vul, E., Rohrer, D., Wixted, J. T., & Pashler, H. (2008). Spacing effects in learning: A temporal ridgeline of optimal retention. Psychological Science, 19(11), 1095–1102. https://www.yorku.ca/ncepeda/publications/CVRWP2008.pdf The best gap grows with the time to the test (1,354 adults learning facts online).
- Bjork, R. A., Dunlosky, J., & Kornell, N. (2013). Self-regulated learning: Beliefs, techniques, and illusions. Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 417–444. https://bjorklab.psych.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2016/07/RBjork_Dunlosky_Kornell_2013.pdf Cramming may work for the next test but is very ineffective for keeping it; space study across days, then review the night before.
- The Learning Scientists. (2016, September 29). Benefits of spaced practice: Simple recommendations for parents. https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2016/9/29-1 Parents needn’t know the material (“let them do most of the talking”).
- Karpicke, J. D., Butler, A. C., & Roediger, H. L., III. (2009). Metacognitive strategies in student learning: Do students practise retrieval when they study on their own? Memory, 17(4), 471–479. https://learninglab.psych.purdue.edu/downloads/2009/2009_Karpicke_Butler_Roediger.pdf 177 students at a selective university: 84% listed re-reading, 11% clearly practiced recall; flashcards can be read instead of recalled.
- Willingham, D. T. (2023, Summer). How to read difficult books: A guide for high school and college students. American Educator. American Federation of Teachers. https://www.aft.org/ae/summer2023/willingham Read with a task: turn headings into questions and recite after each section.
- National Geographic Society. Magma. National Geographic Education (encyclopedic entry). https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/magma/ Magma is molten rock under Earth’s surface; once it flows onto the surface it is called lava.
- Education Endowment Foundation. (2021). Cognitive science approaches in the classroom: A review of the evidence. Practitioner summary of a review by Perry, T., Lea, R., Jørgensen, C. R., Cordingley, P., Shapiro, K., & Youdell, D. (University of Birmingham). https://d2tic4wvo1iusb.cloudfront.net/production/documents/guidance/Cognitive_science_approaches_in_the_classroom_-_A_review_of_the_evidence.pdf Pupils should be able to recall some of what they’re quizzed on; classroom spacing has a small positive impact on average, with wide variation; mixing has been tested almost only in math; the foreword’s “neither myths … nor silver bullets”.
- Greving, C. E., & Richter, T. (2019). Distributed learning in the classroom: Effects of rereading schedules depend on time of test. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 2517. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02517/full 191 seventh graders: spaced re-reading did no better than massed re-reading a week later.
- Agarwal, P. K., Nunes, L. D., & Blunt, J. R. (2021). Retrieval practice consistently benefits student learning: A systematic review of applied research in schools and classrooms. Educational Psychology Review, 33, 1409–1453. https://pdf.poojaagarwal.com/Agarwal_etal_2021_EDPR.pdf 50 classroom experiments, 5,374 students; most effects medium or large; where the studies ran.
- Agarwal, P. K. (2019). Retrieval practice & Bloom’s taxonomy: Do students need fact knowledge before higher order learning? Journal of Educational Psychology, 111(2), 189–209. https://pdf.poojaagarwal.com/Agarwal_2019_JEdPsych.pdf With college students, higher-order or mixed quizzes helped higher-order questions and fact quizzes didn’t; in a 6th-grade history class, mixed and higher-order quizzes helped.
- Agarwal, P. K., D’Antonio, L., Roediger, H. L., III, McDermott, K. B., & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Classroom-based programs of retrieval practice reduce middle school and high school students’ test anxiety. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 3(3), 131–139. https://pdf.poojaagarwal.com/Agarwal_etal_2014_JARMAC.pdf Survey of 1,408 students in one district: who they study with (self-report).
- Karpicke, J. D., Blunt, J. R., Smith, M. A., & Karpicke, S. S. (2014). Retrieval-based learning: The need for guided retrieval in elementary school children. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 3(3), 198–206. https://learninglab.psych.purdue.edu/downloads/2014/2014_Karpicke_etal_JARMAC.pdf 4th graders recalled about a tenth from a blank page; guided recall helped.
- Karpicke, J. D., & Roediger, H. L., III. (2008). The critical importance of retrieval for learning. Science, 319(5865), 966–968. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1152408 https://learninglab.psych.purdue.edu/downloads/2008/2008_Karpicke_Roediger_Science.pdf Word pairs kept in quizzing after the first right answer: about 80% recalled a week later, against about a third.
- Institute of Education Sciences. An efficacy study of interleaved mathematics practice (award R305A160263). Reports Rohrer, D., Dedrick, R. F., Hartwig, M. K., & Cheung, C.-N. (2020), Journal of Educational Psychology, 112(1), 40–52. https://ies.ed.gov/use-work/awards/efficacy-study-interleaved-mathematics-practice 787 seventh graders in 54 classes: mostly mixed practice 61% against 38% a month later; same problems, only the order changed.
- Rohrer, D., Dedrick, R. F., & Agarwal, P. K. (2017). Interleaved mathematics practice: Giving students a chance to learn what they need to know. Practitioner guide funded by the Institute of Education Sciences. https://pdf.retrievalpractice.org/InterleavingGuide.pdf Most textbook practice comes in blocks; blocked practice can create an illusion of mastery; start blocked, then mix.
- Association for Psychological Science. (2009, December 16). Learning styles debunked: There is no evidence supporting auditory and visual learning, psychologists say [News release]. https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/releases/learning-styles-debunked-there-is-no-evidence-supporting-auditory-and-visual-learning-psychologists-say.html Nearly all learning-styles studies fail key tests of scientific validity.
- Yang, C., Li, J., Zhao, W., Luo, L., & Shanks, D. R. (2023). Do practice tests (quizzes) reduce or provoke test anxiety? A meta-analytic review. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-023-09801-w (accepted manuscript). https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10177686/1/Shanks_Frequent%20Tests%20%26%20TA-R2.pdf 24 studies, 22 of 25 effects from classrooms: practice quizzes went with lower test anxiety on average; easier quizzes may help more; the quiz moment can feel more stressful; who benefits less is still unknown.
- Karpicke, J. D., Blunt, J. R., & Smith, M. A. (2016). Retrieval-based learning: Positive effects of retrieval practice in elementary school children. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 350. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00350/full 88 children around age 10 learning word lists: recall with cues (a category and the first two letters) beat restudy, whatever their reading level; preliminary evidence.
- American Academy of Pediatrics. Learning disabilities & differences: What parents need to know. HealthyChildren.org (last updated September 3, 2024). https://www.healthychildren.org/English/health-issues/conditions/learning-disabilities/Pages/Learning-Disabilities-What-Parents-Need-To-Know.aspx When a child is struggling to learn, discuss your concerns with their teachers and doctor.
- National Institute of Mental Health. Child and adolescent mental health (last reviewed March 2024). https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/child-and-adolescent-mental-health Contact a health professional when signs last weeks or months and get in the way of home, school or friends; a recent drop in grades is one sign; ask your pediatrician or family doctor.
- Birmingham City University. How to revise with the blurting method. Exams and Revision (student guide, no date given). https://www.bcu.ac.uk/exams-and-revision/best-ways-to-revise/the-blurting-method Students on TikTok and study YouTube talk about “blurting”: covering your notes and writing everything you remember on a blank page, a form of active recall.
- Kang, S. H. K. (2016). Spaced repetition promotes efficient and effective learning: Policy implications for instruction. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3(1), 12–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/2372732215624708 (Abstract, University of Melbourne research record.) https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/scholarlywork/1402004-spaced-repetition-promotes-efficient-and-effective-learning--policy-implications-for-instruction Uses “spaced repetition” for spaced practice: spacing out repeated encounters with material beats massing them together.
- U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology. (2023, May). Artificial intelligence and the future of teaching and learning: Insights and recommendations. https://www.ed.gov/sites/ed/files/documents/ai-report/ai-report.pdf AI “may provide information that appears authentic, but actually is inaccurate”, including false facts (“hallucinating”).
How we made this: We updated this guide in October 2026 with the help of AI tools for research, drafting and the illustrations, drawing on the published sources listed above. It offers learning support, not medical advice.