What is the best way to study?
Test yourself instead of re-reading, and spread it out over days. Quiz yourself, get the answer wrong, then look it up. Come back a day later, then a few days later, then a week later. In a vocabulary study, testing gave about 80% recall after a week, versus a third for extra studying. Use your own course material and spend the most time on what you keep getting wrong.
Drafted with AI by the StudyPDF team. We check dates, numbers and research claims against official sources and read pages on a sample basis. How we write these pages
In more detail
Most people study by reading their notes again and highlighting. It feels productive but it barely sticks. The thing that actually works is making your brain pull the answer out from memory. Close the book, try to answer, and only then check. Getting it wrong and correcting it is part of why it works.
The other half is timing. Don't cram it all into one night. The same hour of work spread across a week beats four hours the night before. Review something today, then a few days later, then a week later. Each time you almost forgot it, recalling it makes the memory stronger.
Last thing: don't waste time on stuff you already know. Find the topics you keep missing and hammer those. Studying isn't about how many hours you sit there, it's about how often you make yourself remember the hard parts.
Step by step
- 1
Turn your notes into questions, then answer them with the notes closed.
- 2
Check your answer, mark what you got wrong, and write down why.
- 3
Space it out: review again after 1 day, then 3 days, then a week, then 2 weeks.
- 4
Spend most of your time on the topics you keep missing, not the easy ones.
- 5
Try teaching a tricky idea out loud. If you can't explain it, you don't know it yet.
- 6
A day or two before the test, do a full practice run under exam conditions.
How StudyPDF helps
You upload your own lectures, notes, or PDFs and StudyPDF turns them into flashcards, quizzes, and a practice exam from exactly that material. It also tracks which ideas you keep getting wrong so it can drill those instead of the stuff you already know.
Sources
See also
More questions
How many hours a day should I study?
Fewer than you'd think, if you study the right way. Two or three focused hours of testing yourself beats six hours of re-reading. What matters is how often you come back to the material, not the total time. Short sessions across many days beat one long cram.
Is re-reading and highlighting really that bad?
It's not useless, it's just weak on its own. It feels easy, which tricks you into thinking it's working. Use it to get a first pass on new material, then switch to quizzing yourself. The recall is what actually builds memory.
Do it on your own course
Upload your lectures and ask Bo. Cited answers, plus flashcards, exams, and more built from your material.