Learning how to learn

A long read

You studied for hours. Why didn't it stick?

You read the chapter. You read it again. It felt easy by the end.

Then the test came. The words were gone. What happened?

Your guess

Students studied one passage in four sessions. They read it about 14 times in all. Five minutes later they scored 83%. What did they score one week later?

Sources

Dunlosky et al., 2013
Roediger & Karpicke, 2006
Karpicke & Roediger (2008), Science
Make It Stick, Brown, Roediger & McDaniel (2014)
Taylor & Rohrer (2010), Applied Cognitive Psychology
Karpicke & Blunt (2011), Science

Read end to end and corrected: August 8, 2026. Numbers checked: August 8, 2026.