I used to teach a few memory classes to first-year psychology students.

Every year, I asked them the same question: “Who relies on reading and rereading as their main study strategy?”

And every year, most hands went up.

It makes sense because reading and rereading feels like making progress.

But here’s the thing: Rereading mainly improves recognition (“this looks familiar”), not retrieval (“I can explain this from scratch”). And when it comes to exams or presentations, retrieval is the skill that matters.

Here are 7 science-backed strategies that beat rereading and help you remember what you learn.

1. Elaborate on what you learn.

Connect new information to what you already know.

If you can form connections between pieces of knowledge, they're no longer isolated but rather part of the bigger picture, and it will be easier to access them. By elaborating, you also engage more actively with the new knowledge.

Ask yourself:

• What does this mean to me?

• Can I relate this to something in my life or about myself?

• How does this relate to other things I know?

• How could I create a mental image of this?

2. Test yourself often.

Testing is one of the most effective techniques for learning. It should be a regular learning strategy, not just something you do in an exam.

It works because instead of just “putting in” new information, you practice pulling it out, as in an exam. It also reveals what you do not yet know.

Try this:

• Create questions about what you’re learning and answer them without looking.

• Try to explain what you’re learning to yourself or another person.

• Use textbook or online practice questions (or generate some with AI) to test yourself.

3. Organize the information.

Build structure: topics, subtopics, and relationships. Organized knowledge is easier to retrieve because your brain has a map. It also reduces mental load.

Try this:

• Elaborate mind maps or schemes.

• Organize information by topics and subtopics.

4. Watch out for illusions of learning.

I started this newsletter with my students’ favorite study strategy: Reading and rereading.

If you reread the information, it will feel easy and fluent, which is why people love this strategy.

But: It feels easy because you’ve seen it before, not because you could reproduce it.

Rereading creates the illusion that you know everything, but you must ensure that you can reproduce the knowledge without looking at it, too.

5. Consider your inner state and context as you learn.

The whole learning situation matters. Your brain stores not only what you learn, but also cues from the situation: where you are, what you see, and how you feel.

There’s a super cool study from 1975 in which divers learned a word list either on land or underwater and reproduced it the next day, on land or underwater. Results showed that those who changed the context (i.e., studied underwater but reproduced on land or vice versa) remembered fewer words than those who studied and reproduced the list in the same context.

The study shows: If your learning situation and the situation where you must access the knowledge later are similar, you remember the content better.

So:

• Make your learning situation and the situation where you must reproduce the contents similar.

• Another option is to switch between different learning contexts during your study sessions, so the knowledge becomes less dependent on your surroundings.

6. Space out your learning sessions.

What’s better, a continuous 8-hour learning session or 4 sessions of 2 hours each?

According to science, it’s the second one: spacing out learning sessions helps you remember the content better.

It’s called the spacing effect.

Instead of one long study session, divide your studies into several shorter sessions, ideally over different days, to learn more effectively.

7. Leverage sleep.

Sleep is where most of your memory consolidation happens: Your memories stabilize during sleep.

Sleep is an essential tool for learning, and sleep loss harms attention and memory.

So:

• Make sleep your top priority.

• Don't sacrifice sleep to have more study time.

• Move your study sessions to late afternoons and evenings, or do a recap before bed if you study earlier in the day. What you study before bed is prioritized for overnight consolidation.

Wrapping up

Not all learning techniques are effective.

In fact, the most popular technique (rereading) feels productive, but it’s ineffective.

By leveraging the science-backed tips outlined in this newsletter, you can make new knowledge stick.

That’s it for today!

And now?

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Until next time!

Best wishes,

Patricia (Dr. Schmidt) from creatorschmidt.com.