By Jenna Kinney
Have you ever found yourself the night before a huge exam cramming in hours of studying when you could have started days ago? Or have you spread your studying out when preparing for a huge exam? I would guess that most people would agree with the first question even myself would agree with ending up in that situation before a huge exam. But which method is more effective to receive the greatest outcome from the exam that you are preparing for? First is to know these are both cognitive processes the first one being massed practice and the second one being distributed practice. Distributed practice is establishing a time to practice and engage with the material you are studying, and you do this over many different times not just once. Massed practice is when the material you are studying is done repeatedly within a short period of time, and is only done once (6). Now the big question is which one is better?
Massed Practice vs. Distributed Practice
The big question now is which practice is better to utilize when studying any material especially if you have a huge exam to prepare for? In a study conducted by Chen and others it showed some insight onto this big question. There were students from 4th and 5th grade practicing different topics in math and they either did this as mass or distributed practice. In the distributed practice it was across three sessions on three consecutive days while the massed practice was one session. The researchers found that students significantly improved their performance in the material from distributed practicing then the one massed practice session (1). It seems to be that distributed practice is the better choice when studying since students have a better performance on tests when they have studied more than once. Adding onto that what could possibly be the other benefits that come from choosing distributed practice instead of massed practice.
Benefits of Distributed Practice
So what makes distributed practice such a good technique to utilize when studying material? With any topic you might be studying as a student in high school or even a freshman in their first year of college there are many benefits of distributed practice. As a freshman in college it might seem like school is overwhelming and the workload is way heavier than it had been before. But choosing distributed practice as a way to study can lift some of that weight off your shoulders. By selecting multiple different days to study a certain topic for a test it has been seen that students benefit from this by maintaining a high memory performance and retain more information for that test (3). Following that benefit another is the idea of reminding that can be an outcome from distributed practice. Say if you are studying something and it reminds you of a memory this can enhance your studying. Being able to retrieve that memory and connect it to what you’re studying can really benefit the information you are trying to retain. Having that connection can later make it easier for you to recall what you were studying and how you have this confidence now with that information (2). So is distributed practice the best choice for studying and should we eliminate the idea of utilizing massed practice. Is cramming information in the night before not the answer to studying for an exam?
What About Massed Practice
Although distributed practice has its many benefits, massed practice isn’t as terrible as it might sound compared to distributed practice. Massed practice has its benefits too just like distributed practice it just is helpful to students in a smaller way compared to distributed practice. Many students like myself tend to cram all their studying in the night before an exam. This might sound like the wrong studying choice to make, but in some cases it actually works to retain the information. If there is a specific topic that is needed to be study or a basic skill that is where massed practice can outshine distributed practice. It is like when we learn a new skill you focus on a specific part of it and repeat it till you have it down. Massed practice is that process of focusing on one thing and repeating it till you are confident in it (4). On the other hand if the information that you are studying needs to be retained for a longer period of time distributed practice would be the better option to utilize.
How to Include Distributed Practice Into Your Study Habits
If distributed practice is such a good way to study I bet you are wondering how you can incorporate it into your studying habits. First you have to decide a time you will study and be prepared to study for a selected amount of time. When you begin you might want to start with a recall of the topic you are studying. If you learned this topic in school you could pull out notes you took on it or remember back to the lesson recalling information that was important. After you spend some time on that you can focus on the learning portion of the topic you are studying. This part can be about 20 minutes with 2 to 3 sessions of that time but not consecutively you should have some breaks throughout that time, possibly 5 or 10 minutes at the end of each 20 minutes. At the end of the learning sessions you will do a little review. It can have some practice questions that can help you to retain the information you just spent time studying on. Now you might wonder how many times you should do these sessions throughout the week so you can retain the most knowledge on the topic. I would recommend doing this 2 to 5 times a week. By doing this it can help to retain the information and doing it multiple times will lessen the chance for you to forget the information (5).
The big question again is to cram, or not to cram and really there isn’t a definite answer like most would hope. Both massed practice and distributed practice have their own unique benefits and advantages. If you are needing to remember a certain topic or skill that you can focus on and repeat it till you have learned it then massed practice is the answer. But if the information needs to be retained for a longer amount of time and isn’t just one topic then distributed practice is the answer. In most cases distributed practice has many more benefits than massed practice but it really depends on the studying that is being conducted. So if you are a new freshman entering college and think you are going to struggle with all the exams and assignments you should try adding distributed practice into your study habits. In the long run you will be able to retain more information and not be panicking the night before an exam trying to cram in all that information. If you want less stress as a student distributed practice is the way to eliminate that unwanted stress.
References
- Barzagar Nazari, K., & Ebersbach, M. (2018). Distributed practice: Rarely realized in self-regulated mathematical learning. Frontiers in Psychology, 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02170
- Benjamin, A. S., & Tullis, J. (2010). What makes distributed practice effective? Cognitive Psychology, 61(3), 228–247. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2010.05.004
- Küpper-Tetzel, C. E., Kapler, I. V., & Wiseheart, M. (2014). Contracting, equal, and expanding learning schedules: The optimal distribution of learning sessions depends on retention interval. Memory & Cognition, 42(5), 729–741. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13421-014-0394-1
- Lakshmanan, A., Lindsey, C. D., & Krishnan, H. S. (2010). Practice makes perfect? when does massed learning improve product usage proficiency? Journal of Consumer Research, 37(4), 599–613. https://doi.org/10.1086/655686
- Lev Goldentouch, P. D. (2016, October 22). Distributed practice. Key To Study. Retrieved May 2, 2023, from https://www.keytostudy.com/distributed-practice/
- Sayeski, K. L., Earle, G. A., Eslinger, R. P., & Whitenton, J. N. (2016). Teacher candidates’ mastery of phoneme-grapheme correspondence: Massed versus distributed practice in teacher education. Annals of Dyslexia, 67(1), 26–41. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-016-0126-2