Building Better Study Habits

“But I studied SO hard.” If that sentence, delivered over a disappointing test score, is a regular feature of your household, here’s the news that changes everything: your student is probably telling the truth. They did put in the hours. The problem is that most students study using the two least effective methods ever measured — re-reading and highlighting — because those methods feel like learning. They produce fluency, the warm sense of “I know this,” without producing recall, the ability to reach it on a blank test page. Better study habits aren’t about more hours. They’re about methods that survive contact with a test.

By Aron Boxer, M.Ed., S.P.E. – Founder of Diversified Education Services, former special education teacher, Forbes Coaches Council member.

What’s Actually Happening

Re-reading works by recognition: the material looks familiar, so the brain files it as known. Tests work by retrieval: produce it from nothing. Those are different muscles, and only one of them is being trained at most desks. Add cramming (which front-loads forgetting), passive “review” with the notes open, and studying with the phone adjacent (see our focus guide for what that costs), and you get the classic result: honest hours, dishonest feedback, test-day ambush. The fix is a century of learning science that somehow never made it into the backpack: retrieval practice and spacing.

What Actually Helps

Make self-testing the default. Notes closed: blank-page brain dumps, practice problems without the worked example, flashcards answered before flipping, teaching the concept aloud to the dog. Retrieval is double-duty — it strengthens memory and tells the truth about what’s known, which is self-monitoring in action.

Space it. Three 30-minute sessions across a week beat one 90-minute cram by a wide, replicated margin — forgetting a little and re-retrieving is precisely what cements memory. This requires starting before the night prior, which makes study habits a planning problem in disguise.

Study from the test backward. What will the teacher actually ask you to do — solve, write, compare, define? Practice that action. Reviewing chapter 5 is preparation-flavored; doing five chapter-5 problems cold is preparation.

Keep sessions honest. Phone in another room, one subject per sprint, a defined finish line (“done when I can reproduce the diagram from memory” — not “done when I feel ready,” a feeling that lies in both directions).

When to Bring in Help

Knowing these methods and running them under deadline pressure are different things — the old habits feel safer precisely when stakes are high, so students revert without accountability. A DES coach installs the new methods on live coursework: building the spaced plan for each real test, running retrieval sessions until self-testing is the reflex, and reviewing results so the student sees the method working — which is the moment it becomes theirs. It’s a core module of executive function coaching, and when the material itself is the wall, academic tutoring and study-method coaching work as one engagement. Explore the rest of the Parent Success Center for the struggles that surround the desk. For the research itself, the Learning Scientists’ free study-strategy materials are the best starting point on retrieval and spacing.

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