As a Neuroscientist, I Use These 7 Strategies to Remember What I Learn

The most popular study strategy is ineffective, but nearly everyone uses it

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When I was still in my professor job, I used to teach a few classes on learning and memory to first-year psychology undergrads.

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. And maybe it worked well for them before entering the university. But here’s the truth: Rereading has little added benefit to initially reading the material, yet it’s the strategy students use the most:

Study strategies in a student sample, ranked by popularity. 83.6% use rereading, and for 54.8%, rereading is their No. 1 study strategy. Source

There are science-backed strategies that work a lot better than rereading.

Here are my 7 top strategies to maximize learning (and #4 explains why rereading isn’t one of them):

1. Elaborate on what you learn.