We ranked the 9 worst study strategies students continue to use, from the ineffective to the harmful and unhealthy. Find out what common study strategy nearly every student gets wrong.
Let’s work our way up the list, starting with number nine.
9. Speeding Through Practice Questions
The ninth worst study strategy is speeding through practice questions without taking the time to review them.
While practice questions can be a very effective, active form of studying, moving through them too quickly won’t give you the same results.
When you get a question right, it’s tempting to skip reviewing it since you already nailed it. Students often only take the time to review incorrect answers, but you can get a question right because of a lucky guess or without thoroughly understanding why it is the correct answer.
Review all practice questions to solidify your understanding of the material. Read through the question, formulate an answer, check it, and then review. While this will take more time than speeding through to the next question, that time isn’t wasted. You can also batch reviewing all questions at the end rather than one at a time.
Approaching practice questions in this way enables you to learn and retain much more per question. Instead of only understanding the answer to one specific question, you’ll understand the underlying concept, which you will be able to apply to different scenarios in the future.
8. Flashcards for Recognition, Not Recall
The eighth worst study strategy is using flashcards for recognition instead of recall. Recall is the mental search for information, and recognition is the mental familiarity with information. When a person recalls something, they reflect on any memories related to it until they remember it. When a person recognizes something, they don’t have to reflect on any memories related to it because they’re already familiar with it.
Flashcards are meant to prompt recall. Based on what’s on the front, what will be on the back? And unfortunately, many people use flashcards incorrectly. Simply flipping to the back right away without trying to recall the answer is no different than passively rereading your textbook or notes, and it’s not how you’ll be tested on test day.
You won’t be reminded of the function of the lymphatic system before you’re asked a question about it. It must be something you’re able to recall on your own.
Combining the active recall of flashcards with spaced repetition is one of the most powerful ways to memorize information. Instead of reviewing the same information every day, review it right when you’re about to forget it. For example, if you learn something one day, look at it again after 24 hours, then again after 72 hours, and so on. This will of course vary based on the complexity of the information and what other connections you can readily make to it.
Scheduling spaced repetition on your own requires a great deal of energy. We suggest using spaced repetition software like Anki. We have a playlist of tutorials that go over how to use Anki effectively. If you’re studying for the MCAT, Memm is a more focused and improved version of Anki that addresses its shortcomings.
7. Studying in Groups of More Than Three People
The seventh worst study strategy is studying in groups of more than three people.
Now, we’re not knocking studying with other people, but studying with more than two other people at once is distracting and offers diminishing returns. Keep your groups to two or three people, including you.
However, studying in a small group can be an effective technique if you’re only studying with one or two other people. One of the biggest advantages here is the added motivation and accountability. When you don’t feel like studying, having someone else there with you who is studying too normalizes the behavior and decreases the activation energy needed to get started or to keep going.
Plus, studying with one or two other people gives you the ability to teach what you’ve learned. Teaching the material reinforces it for yourself while also helping out your fellow classmates. You can also ask your study partners to teach you something if there’s a concept you’re struggling with. This immensely powerful study strategy is called the Feynman technique, and if you don’t already use it, you can learn more from our guide: Feynman Technique: How to Learn and Retain Complex Concepts.
6. Long Study Sessions Without Breaks
The sixth worst study strategy is studying for a long time without a break.
While it can feel inefficient or seem like a waste of time to take a break, this could not be further from the truth. From a time management perspective, it makes much more sense to only study when you’re at peak performance. When the words all start to blur together, don’t reach for another coffee to keep yourself going.
Instead, change up the task and rest your brain by tackling laundry, cooking, or cleaning. You could also complete healthy activities like sleeping, going to the gym, or eating. These are all tasks that still need to get done, and by spacing them correctly, you can keep up your efficiency while resting your brain between study sessions.
After giving your brain a break, you can hit the books again refreshed.
When taking a break, it’s important to get your eyes moving. Change your visual focus distance to reduce strain and tension. Look at things far away, such as outside a window, go for a walk outside, or play a game of ping pong in the student lounge. This will also help to get your body moving.
Do not turn to other computer work or scrolling on your phone when you take a break, as this doesn’t give your eyes or your cognitive functions the rest they need in between study sessions.
5. Highlighting Your Textbook
The fifth worst study strategy is highlighting your textbook. Not only is this another form of passive learning, but you’re also reducing the resale value of your textbooks.
That said, if marking up your book is an effective form of studying for you, it may be worth it. Just make sure you’re adding context, notes, drawings, or whatever you need to to add value to your own understanding of the material. Do not simply highlight notable or interesting sections. When you highlight something, you subconsciously tell yourself you don’t have to remember it because you’ve highlighted it, so you can always come back to it later.
Highlighting is ineffective because you aren’t forced to learn or retain anything you’re reading. It’s busy work that lulls you into thinking you are accomplishing something when, really, you’re just wasting time. You can easily zone out highlighting one line to the next, and most of the time, students highlight far too much instead of zeroing in on the most high-yield information.
If you’re going to highlight, ensure the activity is active. After reading a section, summarize it yourself, and then highlight the terms or phrases that align with your summary. Try summarizing the highlighted terms of each chapter in your own words and explaining what you learned to your favorite plushy toy audience.
4. Passively Rereading Notes
Now, we’re getting to some of the big ones. The fourth worst strategy is passively rereading your notes, a very common and tempting form of studying.
While it’s easy and makes you feel like you’re accomplishing something, it’s not an effective way to study. Rereading notes takes a long time and the passive nature inhibits the rate of learning, therefore making it highly inefficient. Plus, it also doesn’t zero in on high-yield information or your personal weaknesses.
This applies to re-listening to your lectures too, something that’s become more common now that many institutions record lectures. It’s tempting because, of course, you won’t have retained every word or remembered every single piece of content, which makes you feel like you should go back and re-listen again.
However, rewatching or re-listening to your lectures is highly passive and mostly a waste of time for the same reasons as re-reading your notes. If you need clarification or think you may have missed something, utilize your textbook, your classmates, other resources, or your professor’s office hours.
3. Using Someone Else’s Notes
The third worst study strategy is using someone else’s notes because the only thing worse than passively reading and rereading your own notes is reading and rereading someone else’s. Using other people’s notes to study puts the ‘pass’ in passive technique. You aren’t bothering with the act of condensing information and writing your own notes, so you’ll retain even less.
Writing out study notes may not always be the ideal way to study, but it at least puts you in the driver’s seat. You’re able to write down which pieces of information you think are the most essential, and the more you summarize and put the content into your own words, the more you’re actively manipulating the content and the better you’ll be able to understand and retain it.
Only use someone else’s notes as an absolute last resort. For example, if you have an illness or disability that prevents you from being able to go to class, utilizing notes from other students may be helpful. When I was diagnosed with inflammatory bowel disease, I contacted the Office of Students with Disabilities, which provided a central database of other students’ notes. However, I only used these when I couldn’t attend class myself.
2. Multitasking While Studying
The next worst strategy is multitasking. While watching TV, listening to a podcast, or jumping from your textbook to TikTok and back may make studying less miserable and more enjoyable, it also makes it far less effective.
Effective studying requires intense focus, so it should feel challenging. It should feel like you’re putting in effort. Initially, this may feel uncomfortable, but it will normalize as you continue to practice and build the habit. You won’t be passively taking the MCAT or USMLE, which means you shouldn’t passively study for them either.
It’s better to live with intent and to put all your energy into everything you do, whether that’s studying, exercising, or playing Zelda.
So, if you’re casually watching our YouTube videos in the background while studying, thanks for watching, but instead, save YouTube for your breaks and downtime. In the end, you’ll be more effective at studying, and you’ll be better able to retain the advice from our study strategy videos.
1. Cramming Overnight
And finally, we’ve made it to number one. The absolute bottom of the barrel worst study strategy is cramming overnight.
Now, we’re not talking about ramping up studying in the final few weeks or days before a test or exam. We’re talking about all-nighters.
Pulling an all-nighter is the worst thing you can do before a test for a multitude of reasons, but they all boil down to the same thing: You. Need. To. Sleep.
If you stay up all night studying, you won’t retain much information in the first place since a large amount of memory consolidation occurs during sleep. The facts you need to remember to perform well on test day are a type of semantic memory stored in the hippocampus. To get strengthened neuronal connections and memory consolidation there, you need both non-REM and REM sleep.
Lack of sleep also severely hinders your attention span, alertness, and overall performance. Being awake for 17 hours straight is similar to having a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05%, and being awake for 24 hours is the same as a BAC of 0.10%. In the US, you can be charged for drunk driving with a BAC above 0.08%.
If you think showing up to your test drunk is a bad idea, don’t show up sleep deprived, as they’re functionally the same thing.
Active Learning Is the Solution
So, if you should avoid each of the study techniques on this list, what’s the alternative?
The answer is active learning, which is far more effective than any passive method. Active learning includes spaced repetition, active recall, interleaving, dual coding, and more.
To learn more about studying effectively, check out 7 Evidence-Based Study Strategies and 5 Reasons You’re Doing Active Learning WRONG.
