8 Best Memorization Techniques Every Student Should Use

Short answer: The memorization techniques with the strongest research support are retrieval practice (testing yourself instead of rereading) and spaced repetition (reviewing over several days instead of cramming). Interleaving, elaboration, self-explanation, dual coding, chunking and mnemonics add to them. Combine two or three, and recall lasts weeks rather than hours.

Most students study by rereading and highlighting because it feels productive. The research is clear that it is one of the least efficient ways to make information stick, and switching methods usually saves time as well as raising scores.

Key points

• Test, don’t reread: Self-testing produces better recall days later, even though rereading feels better in the moment.
• Space it out: Several short reviews over days beat one long session of the same total length.
• Two clear winners: Practice testing and spaced practice were the only methods rated “high utility” in a major 2013 review.
• Mix problem types: Interleaving teaches you which method to use, not just how to use it.
• Ask why: Explaining ideas in your own words ties new facts to what you already know.
• Mnemonics as backup: Memory tricks suit arbitrary lists but are a supplement, not a full study system.

• 10 study techniques compared in the Dunlosky review
• 2 rated high utility: practice testing and spacing
• 1 week later, self-testers recalled more than rereaders
• 5 min later, rereaders scored higher (short-term only)

How does memory actually work when you study?

Learning something has two halves: getting information into memory (encoding) and getting it back out (retrieval). Most students focus only on the first half.

Yet every time you successfully pull a fact out of memory, the memory gets stronger and easier to find next time.

Forgetting is also normal and predictable. In the 1880s Hermann Ebbinghaus showed that memory for new material drops quickly at first and then levels off, and a 2015 replication published in PLOS ONE confirmed his forgetting curve. The techniques below work because they either interrupt that curve at the right moments or build richer connections so there is more to hold on to.

What are the 8 best memorization techniques?

These are ordered roughly by strength of evidence. The first two do the heavy lifting; the rest make them work better for specific kinds of material.

1. Retrieval practice: test yourself instead of rereading

Close the book and try to recall what you just studied: write it out, answer practice questions, or use flashcards. In a well-known study, Roediger and Karpicke (2006) found that students who practiced recalling a passage remembered more of it two days and one week later than students who reread it.

Interestingly, rereading won on a test given five minutes later, which is exactly why cramming feels like it works.

• After each study block, write down everything you remember on a blank page, then check your notes.
• Turn headings in your notes into questions and answer them without looking.
• Struggling to recall is a good sign. That effort is what strengthens the memory.

2. Spaced repetition: spread reviews over days

Reviewing the same material in several short sessions spread over days beats one long session, even when total study time is the same. The review of learning techniques by Dunlosky et al. in Psychological Science in the Public Interest rated distributed practice as high utility because it helped learners of many ages and ability levels.

• A simple schedule: review new material the next day, again a few days later, then about a week later.
• Flashcard apps such as Anki schedule reviews automatically, showing cards you miss more often.
• For a test, start reviewing at least a week out, not the night before.

Tutor tip: Small and steady beats occasional marathons. Our SAT tutors suggest something as modest as five official practice questions a day from the College Board question bank, because a tiny daily habit is easier to keep than a long weekend session. The same idea is behind our advice on preparing to retake the SAT or PSAT.

3. Interleaving: mix up your practice

Instead of doing 20 problems of the same type in a row, mix several types together. Blocked practice lets you run on autopilot; mixed practice forces you to decide which approach each problem needs, which is the skill tests actually measure.

Dunlosky and colleagues rated interleaved practice as moderate utility, and much of the supporting evidence comes from math practice.

• In math and physics, finish a chapter’s homework, then add a few problems from earlier chapters.
• Shuffle your flashcard decks across topics rather than studying one deck at a time.

Mixing works best once each skill is solid on its own. When a tutor finds one specific weak spot, the first step is often a short burst of focused drill on just that technique:

“Say I’ve found that a student is weak at synthetic division. I’ll spend time on synthetic division alone, teaching the algorithm until they’re really fluent with it.”

Caleb Nastasi, Alexander Tutoring SAT tutor

Once the technique is fluent, it goes back into mixed sets, where you practice recognizing when to use it.

4. Elaboration: ask “why” and “how”

Elaboration means connecting a new fact to things you already know by asking why it is true and how it relates to other ideas. A fact attached to a reason is far harder to lose than a fact standing on its own.

• For each key idea, ask: Why does this work? How is it similar to or different from something I learned last week?
• Use concrete examples. If you can give two real examples of a concept, you understand it.

5. Self-explanation: teach it out loud

Explain each step of a worked example, or a page of notes, as if you were teaching a friend. Self-explanation was rated moderate utility in the Dunlosky review.

• After reading a solution, cover it and explain why each step follows from the last.
• Teach a sibling, a parent or a study partner for five minutes.

Tutor tip: Listen for the moment you say “and then somehow.” That is the gap, and it tells you exactly what to review next.

6. Dual coding: pair words with visuals

Combining words with a diagram, timeline, graph or mind map gives you two routes back to the same idea. This works for everyone, not just “visual learners”: the cognitive psychologists behind The Learning Scientists list dual coding alongside spacing, retrieval, elaboration, interleaving and concrete examples as their six core strategies.

• Draw a mind map of a chapter from memory, then compare it to your notes.
• In physics, sketch a free-body diagram before writing any equation.
• Keep visuals simple. A clear diagram beats a decorated one; our guide to aesthetic note-taking shows how to keep notes both clean and useful.

7. Chunking: group information into meaningful units

Working memory can only juggle a few items at once, so group related pieces into larger units. A phone number is remembered as three chunks, not ten digits; a chemistry student learns polyatomic ions in families rather than one by one.

• Sort a long list into categories before memorizing it.
• Study in short, focused sessions of one chunk each, then use retrieval practice to link the chunks.

8. Mnemonics and the memory palace: for arbitrary lists

Acronyms, rhymes and the memory palace (mentally placing items along a familiar route, such as rooms in your house) are powerful for material with no built-in logic: the order of the planets, the first 20 elements, the steps of mitosis. Use them selectively.

Dunlosky and colleagues rated the keyword mnemonic as low utility for general study, mainly because it takes effort to build and does not help with understanding.

• Good fits: ordered lists, vocabulary, names and dates.
• Poor fits: anything with a reason behind it, like math formulas, which are better understood than memorized. See our guide on how to memorize math formulas.

“At Alexander Tutoring, we derive every formula. Instead of memorizing a formula and plugging numbers in, students see where it comes from.”

Sean Alexander, founder of Alexander Tutoring

Which memorization technique should you use for what?

What memorization habits should you stop?

• Rereading notes over and over. It builds familiarity, which feels like knowing, but it does not train recall.
• Highlighting everything. Dunlosky and colleagues rated highlighting and underlining as low utility.
• Cramming the night before. It can get you through tomorrow’s quiz, but most of it is gone by the final exam.
• Studying one topic at a time until it “feels done.” Mix in older material so it does not fade.
• Checking the answer key and moving on. A wrong answer you never examine is a mistake you are likely to repeat.

How do you build a weekly study routine with these techniques?

1. Day of the lesson: spend 10 minutes doing a blank-page recall of what was covered, then fix gaps.
2. Next day: make flashcards or practice questions for the key ideas and test yourself once.
3. Two to four days later: do a mixed problem set that includes older topics.
4. End of the week: explain the week’s material aloud or draw a one-page mind map from memory.
5. Before a test: take a timed practice test, then review only what you missed. Our multiple-choice test-taking strategies cover what to do on test day itself.

That last step matters more than most students think. Reviewing what you missed only works if you work out why you missed it.

“Too many students never learn to find their own mistakes. Error analysis is essential to growth.”

Jake Gerhardt, Alexander Tutoring math tutor

Tutor tip: Keep a simple error log. For each missed question, write one line on what went wrong (a concept gap, a careless slip or the wrong method), then turn it into a flashcard for your next spaced review.

Physics students in particular benefit from pairing these with problem-solving habits; see our tips for getting better at physics.

Frequently asked questions