Awareness and use of spaced studying and self-testing: a replication-extension

Abstract

Abstract Study skills are important for success in college. However, students may not be aware of or willing to use effective strategies such as spaced practice and self-testing. This replication-extension study of Susser and McCabe (Susser and McCabe in Instr Sci 41:345–363, 2013) supports their original findings regarding spaced practice and extends the investigation to self-testing. Using the same survey method as the previous researchers, we found that college students showed awareness of the efficacy of spaced practice over massed practice and reported using it in ideal situations. Students reported greater use of spaced studying when a test was difficult, more heavily weighted, or over material of future use. Greater metacognitive self-regulation and elaboration was related to greater reported use of spaced practice. Extending beyond the original study to look self-testing, students were aware of the usefulness of self-testing. Similar to spaced practice, students reported being more likely to use self-testing for more difficult tests and heavily weighted tests. Those with greater metacognitive self-regulation were also more likely to report greater use of self-testing, although greater elaboration was not correlated with reported use of self-testing. Students with a higher GPA were also more likely to report spaced studying and self-testing. Findings suggest that students do know about some effective study strategies. Use of effective strategies may be helpful but students do not report using them in all settings. Educators may be interested in creating circumstances that encourage students to use effective strategies.

Keywords

• Study skills
• Spaced practice
• Self-testing
• Metacognitive self-regulation
• Replication-extension