Do not make highlighting, rereading, or summarizing your main study method
Highlighting and rereading are common, but both fell into the lowest utility category in a review of ten learning techniques. Summarizing, keyword mnemonics, and imagining pictures for text received the same rating. They are not entirely useless; their benefits apply under narrower conditions, and self-testing is often a better use of the same time.
What it takes
Nothing; this may save time. The difficulty is giving up methods that feel easy and reassuringly studious.
What you may gain
The review assessed whether effects generalized across learning conditions, learner characteristics, materials, and assessment formats. Practice testing and distributed practice received high-utility ratings. Elaborative interrogation, self-explanation, and interleaved practice received moderate ratings. Summarization, highlighting or underlining, keyword mnemonics, imagery for text, and rereading received low ratings. The authors noted that although most students reported using rereading and highlighting, neither reliably improved performance; they recommended alternatives such as replacing rereading with practice testing.
Context & considerations
Highlighting can mark material to test yourself on later. The problem is treating the highlighting itself as learning. Low utility does not mean zero benefit; it means benefits are limited to narrower circumstances or need more research. See self-testing and spaced practice for alternatives.
Research & references
Dunlosky J, Rawson KA, Marsh EJ, Nathan MJ, Willingham DT (2013). Improving Students' Learning With Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions From Cognitive and Educational Psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612453266