Tech & Learning

Make It Stick (For Real): Five Study Habits the Science Keeps Begging Us to Use

May 2026 · 4 min read

Here’s something strange. Researchers have known for decades — decades — which study techniques actually work. They’ve tested them carefully, in real classrooms, with real students. And yet most of us still revise in ways the evidence says are nearly useless.

Why? Because the techniques that work feel harder. The techniques that don’t work feel productive. Our brains, it turns out, are not very good judges of our own learning.

Let me show you what I mean.

The fluency illusion

Picture this. You read a chapter of your textbook. You highlight the important bits in yellow. You read it again. It all feels familiar — you recognise the words, you nod along, the ideas seem clear. You close the book feeling like you’ve learned it.

Then the test comes, and your mind goes blank.

The fluency illusion: reading something again makes it feel easier — but feeling easier isn’t learning. It’s just recognition. The cognitive scientists Robert and Elizabeth Bjork call the techniques that actually work “desirable difficulties” — they feel harder in the moment, which is precisely why they work.

In a landmark 2013 review, Dunlosky and colleagues ranked common study techniques. Rereading and highlighting — the two most popular methods — scored low utility. The methods below scored high utility. Here they are.

1. Retrieval practice (the big one)

Instead of rereading your notes, close the book and try to recall what was in them. Write down everything you can remember. Then check.

It will feel uncomfortable. You’ll forget things. That’s the point — every effortful retrieval strengthens the memory more than rereading ever could. A flashcard you struggle with teaches you more than a page you’ve reread five times.

2. Spacing

Don’t cram. Spread your studying out over days and weeks. Half an hour today, half an hour on Thursday, half an hour next Tuesday beats two and a half hours tonight. (This one is so important it gets its own article — next in the set.)

3. Interleaving

When you’re practising, mix things up rather than doing twenty of the same kind of problem in a row. If you’re learning maths, do a few percentage questions, then some geometry, then some algebra, then back to percentages. It feels messier and slower. It also works far better, because real exams — and real life — don’t tell you in advance which type of problem you’re facing.

4. Elaboration

When you learn something new, ask why. Why does this happen? How does it connect to something I already know? Explaining ideas in your own words — to yourself, your dog, your long-suffering parent — forces your brain to do the heavy lifting that makes knowledge stick.

5. Concrete examples

Abstract ideas are slippery. Pair every concept with a vivid, specific example. “Inflation” is a fuzzy word; “a Freddo cost 10p in 2000 and 30p now” is a memory you’ll keep.

A weekly routine that uses all five

Here’s a simple study session, around 40 minutes:

5 min — brain dump. Write everything you remember about the topic, no notes allowed.
10 min — check and fill gaps. Open the book, find what you missed, note it down.
15 min — mixed practice. Do questions from this topic and two older topics, jumbled together.
5 min — explain it. Out loud, in your own words, as if teaching a younger sibling.
5 min — plan the next session for three or four days’ time.

The methods that feel best aren’t best. The methods that feel a bit awkward and slow are the ones that actually make it stick.

References

Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). “Improving Students’ Learning With Effective Learning Techniques.” Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4–58. Read the paper.
Bjork, E. L. & Bjork, R. A. (2011). “Making things hard on yourself, but in a good way: Creating desirable difficulties to enhance learning.” PDF on the Bjork Lab site.
Brown, P. C., Roediger, H. L., & McDaniel, M. A. (2014). Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning, Harvard University Press.