Check out these 10 practical tips to include reviewing in your routine and stop forgetting what you studied:
1. Review your notes
Taking notes is more than just writing: it’s organizing your thoughts. So, if you already have this habit, start there. Review your class notes and study material, highlighting key concepts, formulas, dates, definitions, and examples . Use colors, highlighters, and Post-its to keep everything visually organized.
2. Review at spaced intervals
There’s no point in reviewing everything at once and never looking at it again. Ideally, use the spaced review technique : review content one day later, one week later, and one month later. This activates your memory and strengthens your learning.
3. Do exercises and simulations
Practicing is an active form of review. Redo questions you’ve already studied, look for review exercises, past exams, and practice tests . This helps you test yourself and identify areas where you’re still unsure.
4. Use digital review tools
Take advantage of technology! Apps like Quizlet, or even educational games can make review more interactive and fun.
5. Make summaries, diagrams and mind maps
After studying a topic, create summaries with your own words, visual diagrams, and mind maps. This helps organize the information and serves as quick review material later.
6. Use diverse materials, such as news and videos
Reviewing doesn’t have to be limited to the course book. Watch explanatory videos, read news related to the content, and use different sources to solidify and broaden your understanding .
7. Develop questions and answer them in your own words.
Create your own questions about the material you’ve studied. Then, try answering them as if you were explaining it to someone else. This activates your memory and strengthens your understanding .
8. Teach someone (even if it’s your pet)
You only truly understand when you can teach. Explain the content to a friend, relative, or even a dummy (anything goes!). This helps identify gaps and reinforce what’s already clear .
9. Do weekly thematic reviews
Set aside one day of the week just for review. For example, every Friday, review everything you studied in Math during the week . This creates a routine and prevents cramming the day before exams.
10. Keep a “mistake notebook”
Write down any mistakes you make in exercises and practice tests. Write down the reason for the error and the correct explanation. Reviewing this notebook regularly will prevent you from repeating the same mistakes .
How important is it to do a review?
Many students focus solely on attending classes, neglecting the importance of regular review. This leads them to forget much of the material they’ve studied throughout the year.
This is related to how our memory works: throughout the day, our minds process information . Some information, very few, is retained in the short, medium, or long term, while the majority is simply forgotten over the course of a few days. Thus, if you start learning a subject from scratch, a day later you’ll have already forgotten half of what you studied. A week later, it will be only a vague memory.
To ensure that some of this information is fixed in your mind , it’s important to demonstrate its importance through repetition —that is, through review.
Review methods
Strategically reviewing content makes all the difference in your preparation for the exams or university entrance exams. The good news is that there are different methods you can adopt—and adapt—to suit your routine, schedule, and learning style.
Here are five revision methods that really work :
24 x 7 x 30 Method
This is one of the most well-known and effective methods. The idea is to review content at three specific points after the initial study :
- 24 hours later
- Detailed review, based on summaries, notes or exercises;
- 7 days later
- Faster review, focused on the main points;
- 30 days later
- Light review, just to keep the content fresh in mind.
Adaptation tip: If your schedule is tight, you can adjust the deadlines to 1, 4, or 15 days, or apply the method only to the subjects you struggle with. The important thing is not to let too much time pass without reviewing what you’ve studied.
Method studies 4, reviews 2
Created by Professor Rafael Barbosa, this method proposes a weekly balance between study and review. It works like this:
- 4 days a week are dedicated to learning new content;
- 2 days are reserved exclusively for reviewing what was studied in the previous days;
- 1 day (usually Sunday) is left free for rest.
Example:
- Monday to Thursday → new content
- Friday → Monday and Tuesday review
- Saturday → Wednesday and Thursday review
- Sunday → rest
Adaptation tip: can be reversed into weeks of intense review: 4 days to review and 2 to study new content.
Feynman Technique
This technique is simple and powerful: teach the content to someone else (or to yourself). Write down what you learned in your own words and explain it as if you were teaching it to someone who knows nothing about the subject.
If you get bogged down in the explanation, it’s a sign that you need to revisit that point further. This helps identify gaps and solidify your understanding.
Flashcards and active review
Using flashcards (question and answer cards) is great for quickly reviewing content. You can create your own or use apps like Quizlet, which automatically apply spaced review logic .
This technique promotes long-term memorization and is excellent for reviewing formulas, definitions, dates, and vocabulary.
Pomodoro Technique with review
You’ve probably heard of the Pomodoro Technique (25 minutes of focus + 5 minutes of break). But here’s a strategic tweak: use one of your Pomodoro cycles for review only .
For example:
- Pomodoro 1 → new content
- Pomodoro 2 → new content
- Pomodoro 3 → review of previous content
- Pomodoro 4 → new content
This way, you can incorporate the review without having to open up an extra block of time in your schedule.