How to study for an exam in 3 days (when you're behind)

Rereading your slides feels like studying because the material gets familiar. Familiar isn't the same as remembered. In a classic experiment, students who reread a passage did better on a test 5 minutes later, but students who tested themselves did better 2 days and a week later. The rereaders were also more confident they'd remember it (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006).

A large review of ten popular study techniques reached the same conclusion: practice testing and spreading study out were rated most useful, while rereading and highlighting were rated least useful (Dunlosky et al., 2013). With 3 days, you can't afford the techniques that only feel good.

1. 01Make the map (30 minutes). List every lecture, then skim each one's slide titles. Write down the topics. This is your checklist for the 3 days.
2. 02Rate each topic. Green: you could explain it now. Amber: you've seen it. Red: no idea. Start with the reds and ambers.
3. 03Learn a topic, then test yourself on it straight away. Read just enough to understand the key idea, close the slides, and answer practice questions from memory.
4. 04Keep a mistakes list. Every question you get wrong goes on it, with the slide it came from.

Start the day with yesterday's mistakes, before anything new. Coming back to material after a gap is what makes it stick, and a review of 317 experiments found that the best gap grows the longer you need to remember something (Cepeda et al., 2006). With 3 days you only have short gaps, so use every one: day-1 topics on day 2, day-2 topics on day 3.

• —Redo every question from your mistakes list without looking first.
• —Mix topics instead of finishing one completely before the next. It's closer to how the exam will ask.
• —Work through the remaining red topics the same way as day 1: learn the key idea, then test.

1. 01Copy the real format. Same number of questions, same time limit, same question types if you know them. No notes, no phone.
2. 02Mark it honestly. The score matters less than the pattern: which topics lost you points?
3. 03Spend the rest of the day on those topics, using your mistakes list and practice questions.
4. 04Stop with a light review, not a new topic. Go over your mistakes list one last time and get some sleep.

• —Highlighting and rereading. Low payoff for the time (Dunlosky et al., 2013).
• —Rewriting your notes neatly. It looks productive but you're copying, not recalling.
• —Hours making flashcards. Making them isn't studying. Answering them is.
• —Rewatching full lectures. If you have to, watch only the parts behind your red topics.