How to prepare for a final exam | High school and college

Oh crap. You’ve got a test. How are you going to study for it? 00:11 Step #1 01:31 Step #2 03:00 Step #3 05:04 Tip #1: How to use visualizations 05:40 Tip #2: On study groups 06:26 Tip #3: Be reasonable during step 3 07:03 Open vs. closed book exams 07:36 Multiple choice vs essay tests Sign up to my email newsletter, Avoiding Folly, here: My advice here is based on a few lines of literature. Steps 1 and 3, which I recommend spending the most time on, comes from the research on free recall and the testing effect. These are just better study than rereading or re-writing your notes. Typical research findings are here: Karpicke, J. D., & Blunt, J. R. (2011). Retrieval practice produces more learning than elaborative studying with concept mapping. Science, 331(6018), 772-775. Research/Memory and Revision/Retrieval practice more effective than Karpicke, J. D., & Roediger III, H. L. (2008). The critical importance of retrieval for learning. science, 319(5865), 966-968. Karpicke, J. D., & Roediger III, H. L. (2007). Repeated retrieval during learning is the key to long-term retention. Journal of Memory and Language, 57(2), 151-162. Yang, C., Luo, L., Vadillo, M. A., Yu, R., & Shanks, D. R. (2021). Testing (quizzing) boosts classroom learning: A systematic and meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin. (currently available at ) An applied research piece exploring the application of tests in the classroom. They tested both short-answer and multiple-choice tests, finding that short answer tests outperformed multiple choice tests (though both outperformed additional reading). McDaniel, M. A., Anderson, J. L., Derbish, M. H., & Morrisette, N. (2007). Testing the testing effect in the classroom. European journal of cognitive psychology, 19(4-5), 494-513. (currently available at A classic study demonstrating long-term benefits (1 month). Butler, A. C., & Roediger III, H. L. (2007). Testing improves long-term retention in a simulated classroom setting. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 19(4-5), 514-527. (currently available at ) My advice on the “outstanding questions“ box is based on the literature on self-questioning and interrogation. It’s also supposed to help you with metacognitive knowledge (which helps you study more effectively because you know what you already understand and what you’re still struggling with). Example research findings are here: Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the public interest, 14(1), 4-58. (The first two sections on elaborative interrogation and self-explanations are relevant here.) Rosenshine, B., Meister, C., & Chapman, S. (1996). Teaching students to generate questions: A review of the intervention studies. Review of educational research, 66(2), 181-221. (In most of these studies people are teaching students how to ask questions, which is an important part of the process.) King, A. (1992). Comparison of self-questioning, summarizing, and notetaking-review as strategies for learning from lectures. American Educational Research Journal, 29(2), 303-323. My advice on using visualizations comes from research on learning and visualizations (well summarized in The ABCs of Learning, citation below). Basically, they offload cognitive burden, they can be more specific than words (relating ideas and concepts in more precise ways), and they can help you identify patterns that you might not have recognized before. Schwartz, D. L., Tsang, J. M., & Blair, K. P. (2016). The ABCs of how we learn: 26 scientifically proven approaches, how they work, and when to use them. WW Norton & Company. (I’m referring to “V is for Visualization”. Great introduction to the research on learning more generally.) There are other ways of studying for tests, of course. But I think this is a pretty solid default method.