The Dunlosky Ranking: 10 Techniques Evaluated
In Improving Students' Learning with Effective Learning Techniques (Dunlosky et al., 2013, Psychological Science in the Public Interest), researchers evaluated 10 commonly used study techniques across multiple criteria: efficacy, generalizability across subjects and age groups, and practical ease of use. They assigned each a utility rating: HIGH, MODERATE, or LOW.
The results challenge the habits of most students. The two techniques that received HIGH utility ratings are rarely taught in schools. The ones students use most — re-reading and highlighting — are both rated LOW.
| # | Technique | Evidence Rating | What it involves |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Practice testing | HIGH | Self-testing with flashcards, practice questions, past papers — without access to notes |
| 2 | Distributed practice | HIGH | Spreading study across multiple sessions over days and weeks (spaced repetition) |
| 3 | Elaborative interrogation | MODERATE | Asking and answering "why" questions about studied material |
| 4 | Self-explanation | MODERATE | Explaining how new information relates to what you already know |
| 5 | Interleaved practice | MODERATE | Mixing different types of problems within a single study session |
| 6 | Keyword mnemonics | LOW–MOD | Associating words with images or other memorable cues |
| 7 | Imagery for text | LOW–MOD | Creating mental images while reading |
| 8 | Summarization | LOW | Writing summaries of studied material |
| 9 | Re-reading | LOW | Re-reading notes or textbooks |
| 10 | Highlighting / underlining | LOW | Marking important passages while reading |
Source: Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students' learning with effective learning techniques. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4–58.
Why the Top Two Work So Well
Practice testing (#1)
Practice testing works because it requires effortful retrieval — pulling information from memory without looking at it. This retrieval process itself is what strengthens the memory trace. Every time you successfully retrieve an answer, the memory becomes easier to access in the future. Even failed retrieval attempts improve future learning, because the brain actively searches for the information and then updates the error when you see the correct answer.
Distributed practice (#2)
Distributed practice (spaced repetition) works because each time you review material after a gap, you are additionally engaging the retrieval mechanism. Your brain has partially forgotten the material, making the retrieval work harder — and the harder the retrieval, the stronger the resulting memory. Massed practice (cramming) skips this benefit by reviewing material before it has had a chance to fade.
Why highlighting and re-reading fail
Both are low-effort recognition tasks. They expose you to information repeatedly but never require you to produce it. There is no effortful retrieval, no encoding strengthening, no memory trace consolidation. They may help identify what is important (useful as a first pass), but as the primary study method they are severely inefficient compared to the top-ranked techniques.
How RevaldoAI Implements The Top Methods
- AI Quiz Generator: Practice testing at scale — generates MCQ and short-answer questions from your notes, AI-grades responses, and flags what you got wrong for targeted review.
- AI Flashcard Generator: Practice testing + distributed practice in one tool. Generates active recall cards from your notes with spaced repetition scheduling built in.
- AI Study Plans: Distributed practice at the session level — schedules review sessions across your available days automatically, implementing the spacing effect for your whole revision plan.
- Feynman Technique: Elaborative interrogation + self-explanation in one tool. Explain a concept from memory, get AI feedback identifying what's missing.