When you finish studying, close the book and test yourself first; do not go back and reread

Compared with reading a section again, closing the book and testing yourself works better. Adding short quizzes in class raises scores by a moderate amount. When ten common study methods are ranked, self-testing sits in the top band. After one section, first write the main points from memory, then open the book and check.

Cost

No money, and total time need not rise. Turn the stretch you would have used to reread into closed-book writing from memory or doing problems. The hard part is that self-testing immediately shows what you did not remember, which feels worse than rereading.

Benefit

A meta-analysis of 222 independent studies and 48478 students: classroom quizzes raised academic scores, with a moderate effect size (g = 0.499). Effect size depends on several conditions: what study method the control group used, whether quiz format matched the final exam, whether materials matched, and whether corrective feedback was given. Also how many times the quiz was repeated, where and when it was given, how long the intervention lasted, and what experimental design was used. Another review that rated ten common learning methods one by one put "practice testing" and "spaced practice" in the highest band (high utility). The reason is that they work across ages and abilities, and have been checked across many assessment formats and real education settings.

Notes

Self-testing is to force material out of your head, not to assign a grade. Method: after a section, close the book, write the main points first, then open and check. Corrective feedback works better, so after checking answers see clearly where you went wrong. Benefit magnitude is recorded as "large" from effect size and rating. These two pieces of evidence measure scores, not hours saved, so the time-saving thresholds were not applied. Self-testing and item 15 (spread the same time over several days) are the two highest-rated methods in the same review; use them together.

Sources · 2

1. Yang C, Luo L, Vadillo MA, Yu R, Shanks DR (2021). Testing (quizzing) boosts classroom learning: A systematic and meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 147(4), 399–435. doi.org/10.1037/bul0000309
2. Dunlosky J, Rawson KA, Marsh EJ, Nathan MJ, Willingham DT (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. doi.org/10.1177/1529100612453266