Stop Rereading Your Notes: What Learning Research Says About Passing Cert Exams

Here's the study routine I see most often: read the chapter, highlight the important parts, read it again the night before. It feels productive. Learning researchers have tested that routine for years, and it's close to the least effective way to prepare for an exam.

The good news is that the methods that do work are simple, cost nothing, and fit around a full-time job. You just have to be willing to feel a little less comfortable while you study.

Testing yourself beats studying more

In a well-known 2006 study published in Psychological Science, Henry Roediger and Jeffrey Karpicke had students learn short prose passages in different ways, then checked what they remembered a week later. One group only studied, four times. Another studied three times, then took one practice recall test. A third studied once and took three practice tests.

Read that again. The group that spent the least time with the material remembered the most a week later, because pulling information out of memory strengthens it far more than reading it in again. Researchers call this retrieval practice.

A major 2013 review led by John Dunlosky, published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, rated ten common study techniques. Only two earned its highest utility rating: practice testing and distributed practice. Rereading, highlighting and summarizing were among the techniques rated low.

Four moves for any cert exam

What this looks like with a full-time job

Is your study plan built on what works?

• You answer practice questions at least three times a week, starting in week one.
• You keep a log of missed questions, sorted by exam domain.
• Old topics come back on a schedule instead of only once.
• Practice sets mix topics instead of drilling one chapter at a time.
• You've spent real hands-on time on anything the exam can test as a performance-based question.
• Your total study time is spread across weeks, not packed into the last few days.

— Scott