How to Remember What You Read: 5 Methods That Work

You read the whole chapter. Every page made sense. You close the book, someone asks what it was about, and all that comes out is the chapter title.

Why you forget what you read

Reading feels like knowing. While you read, each sentence makes sense, and that smoothness feels like learning. But recognizing an idea when it's in front of you is much easier than producing it from memory. In a classic experiment, students who reread a passage felt the most confident they'd remember it, and remembered the least a week later. Students who tried to recall it instead remembered much more: 56% of the ideas against 42% (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006).

Reading is all input. Memory gets stronger when you pull something back out of it. Reading straight through never asks you to.

Forgetting is fastest at first. Without coming back to new material, you lose a lot of it early, and the rest fades more slowly. That pattern goes back to Ebbinghaus in 1885 and has been replicated since (Murre & Dros, 2015), though the exact numbers depend on the material. More on the forgetting curve.

5 methods that work

A major review of common study techniques rated them by how well they work across students, materials and tests (Dunlosky et al., 2013). These five are the best-supported ones you can use while reading.

1. Recall after each section

Close the book and write down the main points from memory. Then open it and check what you missed. This is practice testing, one of only two techniques the review rated "high utility". It's the single most useful habit on this list. Here's how active recall works.

2. Ask why as you read

As you read, keep asking why something is true and how it connects to what you already know. "Why did the price of bread matter so much in 1789?" Answering those questions yourself, instead of just reading on, was rated "moderate utility" in the review: promising, with less classroom evidence than recall.

3. Write notes in your own words, with the book closed

Don't copy sentences out of the text. Write what it means, in your words, after you look away. Learning researchers recommend this over copying word for word, because to rephrase something you have to decide what matters (Fiorella & Mayer, 2016). Be aware that summarizing takes practice: the big review rated it low because many students write summaries that just shorten the text. One line per idea, in your own words, is the version that works.

4. Come back after a few days

Recall the main points again a few days later, before you reread anything. Spreading your study out like this was the other "high utility" technique in the review, and it's one of the most reliable findings in learning research (Cepeda et al., 2006). Here's how to space your studying.

5. Explain it to someone

Explain the reading to a friend who hasn't read it, or out loud to yourself. The places where you stumble are the places you haven't understood yet. Explaining and teaching are among the methods Fiorella and Mayer found most helpful.

Habits that don't do much on their own

• Highlighting. It feels active, but it doesn't ask you to recall anything. The review rated it low utility.
• Rereading. Fine as a first pass. As a way to study for an exam, it was also rated low utility, for the reason above: it feels like knowing.
• Reading with lyrics playing. Songs with lyrics are among the most distracting background sounds for reading; instrumental music was no worse than plain background noise (Vasilev, Kirkby & Angele, 2018). More on music and studying.

What we don't claim

• "You forget 70% in a day" or "90% in a week". Those numbers come from misreading Ebbinghaus's experiments with nonsense syllables. Forgetting is fast at first; the rate depends on the material.
• That handwriting your notes is better than typing. The study usually cited for that didn't hold up cleanly when it was repeated (details here). Write in your own words on whatever you use.
• That a fixed number of reviews locks a reading in forever. How often you need to come back depends on how long you need to remember it.

FAQ

Is highlighting effective for remembering what you read?

Not on its own. A major review of study techniques rated it low utility. If you highlight, use it to mark what to recall later, then close the book and recall it.

How do I remember textbook readings for an exam?

Recall after each section, write the main points in your own words, and come back to them a few days later before rereading anything. Then once more in the week before the exam.

Does listening count? Can I remember lectures and audiobooks the same way?

Yes, the same rules apply. Pause every few minutes and recall what you just heard. Here's how that works for lecture recordings.

How many times should I review what I read?

There's no magic number. Come back a few days after reading, and again closer to the exam. Each time, recall first, then check.

What's the best way to take notes on a reading?

Close the book and write from memory, in your own words. Short points, one per idea. Then check them against the text.

Keep reading

• Active recall: the study technique most students skip
• What is spaced repetition, and why does it work?
• Music with lyrics while studying: what the research says

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Repeatica is the agentic study space for students. Put everything from your courses in one place. Repeatica gets you through the exam, and makes sure you keep what you learned. Learn it once.

Sources

• Cepeda, N. J., Pashler, H., Vul, E., Wixted, J. T., & Rohrer, D. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(3), 354-380. doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.3.354
• 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. doi.org/10.1177/1529100612453266
• Fiorella, L., & Mayer, R. E. (2016). Eight ways to promote generative learning. Educational Psychology Review, 28(4), 717-741. doi.org/10.1007/s10648-015-9348-9
• Murre, J. M. J., & Dros, J. (2015). Replication and analysis of Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve. PLOS ONE, 10(7), e0120644. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0120644
• Roediger, H. L., III, & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-enhanced learning: Taking memory tests improves long-term retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249-255. doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01693.x
• Vasilev, M. R., Kirkby, J. A., & Angele, B. (2018). Auditory distraction during reading: A Bayesian meta-analysis of a continuing controversy. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 13(5), 567-597. doi.org/10.1177/1745691617747398