Active recall vs rereading

Active recall means retrieving an answer from memory. In a meta-analysis of 272 effects, practice testing beat restudying (g = +0.51) and beat no practice (+0.93) (Adesope et al. 2017). The benefit is larger with feedback and with more tests.

What to do instead of rereading

• Close the book and write what you remember, then check.
• Guess before you read: answering a question first can help for what the question covers (St Hilaire et al. 2023), but it does little for related material nobody asked about.
• Explain it to yourself in plain words.

Where the evidence is weaker

• In math, testing is not clearly robust (Murray et al. 2025); use worked examples and spacing.
• Reported sizes vary between reviews, and the ordering is more reliable than any one number.