If you’re the type of person who breaks out in a cold sweat on exam day, you may not like what I’m about to share, but the research is pretty compelling and can boost your test scores, so stick with me. You may be able to test your way to a better test score. No, this isn’t an example of education inception. Extensive research shows that testing as a study technique may improve your exam outcomes in several ways. Cramming Works – Temporarily Cramming works. Or rather, cramming works if your goal is to score well on a test and then immediately forget everything. However, for most education settings, in which new material builds on previous material, this is insufficient. Instead, most students (and educators) desire long-term retention, for which cramming is not effective. Testing Results in Long-Term Recall Enter the test effect. Testing during the learning process can enhance long-term retention of material, according to dozens of studies, including The Effect of Testing on the Retention of Coherent and Incoherent Text Material. Testing during learning is linked to long-term retention of material, whereas repeated study is only linked to short-term item retrieval. Even after a long period of time has elapsed, testing generally results in better fact-based recall than other strategies. Why Does It Work? Let’s face it: humans aren’t always the best at evaluating what we know. The process of accessing our own knowledge is called metacognitive monitoring, and it can have a dark side. If you believe…
Read More: Research Reveals a Key to Acing Tests Is… Taking More Tests
