Study Strategy Audit

The strategy, as published

Exactly as it appears on the card

Part of Metacognition & Calibration in 01 Retrieval Practice, where it sits alongside its neighbouring strategies, the infographic and the thinking for the whole area.

Why you might use it

The problem it may help with

Dunlosky's review rated ten common study strategies: re-reading scored low and practice testing scored highest. Most pupils have never seen that table, and their revision habits show it.

The strategy is a structured comparison: ask students how they revise, then show them the evidence. As the card puts it, that conversation is the intervention.

What it might look like

One version of it, in a classroom

Before study leave, a tutor group lists their revision methods anonymously on slips. The tally goes on the board next to a summary of Dunlosky's ratings. Re-reading and highlighting dominate the class list and sit near the bottom of the evidence table; the session is spent on the gap between the two columns.

What to notice

Reading what happens

• The reasons pupils give for their current habits. It feels productive and I have always done it this way are exactly what the desirable difficulties research predicts, and worth naming aloud.
• Whether anything shifts by the next audit. Run it twice a year; the second tally is your evidence of movement.

Things to think about

Before and while you use it

• The point is not to shame current habits but to replace them. Pair the audit with teaching an alternative, such as the retrieval schedule, so the conversation ends with something to do.

Related strategies

Where this connects

• 🕐 The Retrieval Schedule Dunlosky's review ranked re-reading among the least effective strategies. Teach students the evidence: study, return after two days, then a week, then a month. Many students do the opposite. 01 Retrieval Practice · Spacing & Interleaving
• 🧠 Retrieval Beats Re-reading Replace re-reading with retrieval. Instead of reviewing notes, ask students to write down everything they remember, then check. The testing is the learning, not the preparation for it. 01 Retrieval Practice · The Testing Effect
• 📊 Retrieval Journals Zimmerman showed students who monitor their performance make better revision decisions. Log what came back, what did not, and what needs revisiting. It is a map of what to do next. 01 Retrieval Practice · Metacognition & Calibration
• 📜 Pick a Strategy on Purpose Flavell: planning means selecting an approach, not defaulting to one. Have students name which method they will use for this problem and why, before the first line goes down. 06 Metacognition & Self-Regulation · Forethought & Planning
• 📚 Know the Strategy Itself Flavell: students cannot deploy a strategy they have never been taught. Teach retrieval, spacing or self-explanation explicitly as named methods before expecting independent use. 06 Metacognition & Self-Regulation · Strategy Knowledge & Use

The wider thinking

Where the evidence sits

Dunlosky and colleagues' review of ten study techniques is the whole evidence base here; the audit simply puts its findings in front of the people they are about. The card’s attribution stands as published: Dunlosky et al..

The fuller picture, sources included, is in further reading and evidence for Retrieval Practice.