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The 5 Most Effective Study Techniques You Were Never Taught in School
Imagine you’re studying for a professional certification, trying to cram info about new products into your head. Or maybe you’re out to ace that online coding course you signed up for. How do you study? For many adults, the answer is to do the same things we did back in school — reread the material, highlight key passages, scan your notes, and maybe make a few flashcards.
We rely on these study techniques because they seem sensible and straightforward. But just because they’re familiar and easy doesn’t mean they’re effective. In fact, research has shown that many popular approaches to studying are pretty useless.
Highlighting key passages, for example, does basically nothing to help you retain information, repeated studies have shown. Rereading study materials is a wildly inefficient way to study. Last-minute cramming might help you pass an exam, but you’re almost guaranteed to have forgotten the material a few days later.
The bad news is many of us waste a tremendous amount of time on suboptimal study techniques. The good news is there are plenty of better, science-backed approaches we can use — if we just take the time to learn about them. Here are five:
