How Do Students Use Self-Testing Across Multiple Study Sessions When Preparing for a High-Stakes Exam?

Abstract

Testing is a potent learning tool, but how do students use testing across multiple study sessions? In two studies, we investigated students’ use of testing to learn course materials for a high-stakes exam across four sessions. Of primary interest was (a) whether students used self-testing similarly across sessions and (b) whether students used self-testing to reach high levels of retrieval success across sessions. In each session, students learned the same key-concept definitions with the options to test, study (Studies 1 and 2), or judge the quality of their recall responses (Study 2). In earlier sessions, students relied less on testing than studying. In subsequent sessions—when students had better learned the concepts—they relied more on testing (relative to studying), presumably to evaluate their learning progress. Furthermore, students used testing and studying to successfully retrieve the concepts within each session and hence reached high levels of retrieval success across sessions.