Most study advice students inherit is wrong: highlighting, re-reading, blind repetition and "finding your learning style" all fail under testing. The learning-styles myth is the most persistent - 93% of UK teachers still believe it despite no supporting evidence. What does work is retrieval practice, spacing and testing yourself. The habits that feel productive are usually the ones doing the least.

As with most things in life, our perception of studying is shaped by the media. More specifically hollywood.

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All of us, at some point, have watched a high school film or TV show with some sort of studying montage in it. If you haven’t here’s a gist:

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Our main character has an exam coming up.

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2 days before said exam, a mind-blowing thought comes to him…

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Oh crap! I need to study!

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Then Little Johnnie whips out his highlighter and starts working his way through the whimsical pile of textbooks on his shelf.

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Then a tune kicks in and we get hit with the cinematic camera angles and see this peppy kid studying for hours on end days before his exam until finally, the scene cuts to the day after.

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A sheet is deposited onto the corner of his desk.

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A+

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Our boy did it. He smashed it.

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Well there you go, the secrets to achieving the top grades exposed right there on the big screen.

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Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen in the real world. Using the montage as a handbook for studying would probably land you a big fat C in your next test.

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Yet year after year, batch after batch, these methods are adapted by students, unconsciously, in hopes of yielding similar results.

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The users of these methods, predictably go on to do poorly and then proceed to get berated by their teachers and told to work harder. So they hit the books and use the same method but “harder” and the cycle repeats itself.

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So today I want to debunk some of these preexisting myths you may have about studying and reveal the actual secrets to acing your exams. Right, let's get into it!

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What is myth #1 highlighting?

Highlighting is probably the most blatantly deceptive study technique that is shown in TV shows and is even peddled by teachers. Yet it is completely ineffective.

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Several years ago scientists carried out an important piece of research where they got Undergraduates (university students) to read 8,000 word articles about boredom and city life.

The undergraduates were divided into 3 groups:

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(1) control (No highlighting)

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(2) passive highlighting (This group was given text which was already highlighted)

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(3) active highlighting. (This group was told to highlight particularly important material in the text)

The three groups were each tested a week later, and the group that actively highlighted did no better than the control group :(

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Yes, unfortunately this very popular idea amongst students is not something that makes any difference to your learning abilities. To see the original research please check out (Fowler & Barker 1974 in Journal of Applied Psychology).

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In most situations that have been examined and with most participants, highlighting does little to boost performance.

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As a matter of fact it might actually hurt performance on higher-level tasks that require inference making.

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Here is Prof. Dunlovsky (2013), someone who has done extensive research into study techniques–

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“When students are using a highlighter, they often focus on one concept at a time and are less likely to integrate the information they’re reading into a larger whole. This could undermine comprehension of that material”.

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What is myth #2 rereading helps retain information?

There is a popular belief that effective studying is simply absorbing information.

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This leads many pupils to end up spending hours just rereading textbooks or notes, in hopes of getting an A grade.

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But as I've, this is a clear myth.

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Even though, it does seem like a smart technique, it doesn't work because exams aren't testing knowledge absorption, they are testing knowledge retrieval.

Absorbing knowledge and retrieving it are 2 different things.

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Being able to read something and understand it is one thing and being able to remember it is something else.

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The gap between understanding and remembering is usually why students have "tip of the tongue" moments in exams. The answer is lurking somewhere in the back of their head but they haven't practiced remembering it.

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Don't understand, think about it like this:

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A computer has 2 separate frameworks for downloading and uploading files, and the same is true for your brain.

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In an exam, your brain is downloading information onto a page. However, if all you practiced was "uploading" info in, then your download will be severely underdeveloped. Like a muscle that hasn't been worked out in a long time.

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So it is critical to ensure that you aren't leaving gaps or weaknesses within your exam strategy. Be well-rounded and well-developed. Make sure you have adequate practice answering questions and recalling info so that when you walk into your exam, you know the answers like the back of your hand.

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What is myth #3 repetition repetition repetition?

Another popular myth, do as much repetition as possible.

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Now, of course, there is nothing wrong with repetition. In fact, you have to repeat and go over stuff you do to actually learn it properly.

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However, an issue arises when you begin to overlearn material.

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Overlearning, what’s that? Surely you can’t learn something too much.

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Well yes, actually you can. Think about it this way.

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It's like playing the 1st level of Super Mario Bros over and over again and that’s it. You might improve a bit but you actually need to play the other levels to get good at the game and finish it. It's pretty pointless repeatedly playing the same level over and over again if you can finish it easily.

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In the same way, it is pretty much pointless to keep on visiting a topic you already have mastery in, achieving 90+%. You aren’t becoming better at the subject or topic. It's a waste of time.

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Unlike playing the same level of Mario over and over again though, people don’t overlearn intentionally.

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Naturally, as human beings we are inclined to doing the easiest things possible and procrastinating on stuff we find hard, read more about how to deal with procrastination here, so if we are really good at Maths and struggle with English, then we are going to practice Maths more or topics that we find easy and enjoy, but what that means is that our English skills are neglected and we are pretty much wasting time on a topic we are already good at.

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Repeatedly going over the same topic, which you have already mastered, is pointless. Make sure that you don’t put off the harder stuff for later.

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Don’t chase the delusion of hard work by doing easy topics over and over again. You should test and challenge yourself when you are revising.

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🗓️Myth #4: does a proper study schedule mean no fun?

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Another common one. For whatever reason, people love this idea of studying and working all the time, all day long to the point of exhaustion because that’s going to bring you the best grades right? Wrong!

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Just because you have exams or tests that doesn’t mean fun goes out the window. In fact, I am a big believer in enjoying revision and studying.

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But many students don't enjoy studying for a plethora of reasons. They were taught by an uninteresting teacher or perhaps they work themselves to exhaustion and burn out. Another reason is often they aren’t even told why they should be studying in the first place! This is a point highlighted by Elon Musk.

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So make sure your son/daughter is orientated correctly. They understand why they are studying and don’t make them sit at a desk for hours upon hours; it simply isn’t going to net the best grades. If you genuinely enjoy something you are more likely to do it.

The goal is to get your child into a flow state where they are doing something easy enough that it isn’t frustrating but hard enough that they aren’t getting bored. Read more about this here.

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The best way to do this is to make sure the foundations are always in place first. So as they progress through the syllabus, it is getting harder but there aren't any severe jumps in difficulty which usually leads to the frustration and causes a hatred for revision and studying.

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Keep it moderate always, difficult enough to challenge them but easy enough that they don't get extremely frustrated.

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Work hard enough to get good results, but don't redline your child. Here's an analogy for revision:

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You need to get to a specific destination, go at 30-40mph right, and increase the speed periodically like on the motorway, don't smash the gas pedal and go at 150 mph because the engines going to end up getting damaged in the long run or you might even crash the car.

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In the same way, get your son/daughter to revise moderately hard at a consistent and steady pace every day and leave time for leisure.

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What is myth #5 you need to find a study style?

A popular phrase peddled by teachers is that everybody learns differently. You need to find a study style. Some people are visual learners, some people learn through auditory methods etc.

Now while there may be a small variation in the effectiveness of different methods on different individuals, the science is pretty clear on this, it isn't that substantial or as I like to call it "Bakwas". Ultimately, there is an optimum method on how to study which will produce good results for everyone.

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In 2004, research was conducted at the University of London using 13 different learning styles and they found that there was insufficient evidence to say that different people require different learning styles. Despite this, the concept of learning styles is such a massive industry. It was found that 93% of teachers in the UK still believe this myth despite any sort of scientific backing to the claim. "Bakwas" indeed.

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Well, there you go. 5 study myths that could be impairing your child's progress. Make sure that you keep all of these in mind and ensure that when your son/daughter is revising they use evidence-backed techniques as recommended by our own Ucademy consultants, which are covered in our weekly newsletter.

What else is worth reading?

What are the honest limits of this advice?

The evidence behind study methods is measured as an average across many students, not a promise about one. The EEF toolkit reports months of additional progress on average, with real variation underneath. What works also depends on the subject and where the gaps are.

The national picture, measured at the end of primary school:

“In 2025, 62% of pupils met the expected standard in all of reading, writing and maths, up from 61% in 2024.” — DfE, Key stage 2 attainment

What research supports these methods?

The study techniques on this page are not our opinion. Each comes from published cognitive-science research, linked here so you can read the original: