Effective study methods: a practical guide for Moroccan collège and bac students

Effective study methods have one thing in common: they make your brain fetch the information instead of rereading it. Testing yourself without looking at your notes, and spreading revision over several days, are the two techniques rated most useful by research in cognitive psychology. Rereading, highlighting and summarising, the habits most students rely on, come near the bottom.

These methods cost nothing and you can start tonight. Here is how to revise effectively, technique by technique, with examples from Moroccan collège and lycée subjects, a weekly plan for 2nd year bac and 3rd year collège, and advice for parents.

What research says about effective study methods

In 2013, the psychologist John Dunlosky and four colleagues reviewed the research on ten learning techniques that students commonly use. Their review, "Improving Students' Learning With Effective Learning Techniques", rated each one as high, moderate or low utility (summary of the study).

Two other memorisation techniques, the keyword method for vocabulary and picturing images while reading, were also rated low. Low does not mean useless: it means other methods give you more for the same time. A 2007 guide from the IES, the research arm of the US Department of Education, points the same way (IES practice guide).

Why rereading and highlighting mislead you

Rereading makes the material familiar, and familiarity passes itself off as knowledge. A page that is entirely yellow has not been sorted. Copying notes out neatly is mostly rereading with a pen. And cramming the night before lasts a few hours, at the cost of sleep.

Rereading after a self-test, to correct your mistakes, is still useful. The problem is when these habits replace testing.

Test yourself: the best return on your time

In 2006, Roediger and Karpicke had university students read short texts. Some reread them, others tried to recall them from memory. On a test five minutes later, the rereaders did better. Two days and a week later, it flipped, even though the rereaders felt more confident.

Every effort to retrieve something strengthens it, and testing reveals the gaps before the class test, not during it.

How to do it tonight

• Blank page: notebook closed, write down everything you know about today's chapter, then fill in the gaps in red from your notes.
• Maths and physics-chemistry: redo an exercise corrected in class without looking at the solution. Stuck? Look at one line only, then cover it again.
• SVT (life and earth sciences): redraw a diagram from memory, label it, then compare with the textbook.
• History and geography: cards with an event on the front, and the date and consequence on the back.
• French and Arabic: for a set text, such as La Boîte à merveilles in 1st year bac, write down from memory the characters, the themes and three key passages. In Arabic, make up your own examples for each grammar rule.
• Past papers: regional and national exam papers from previous years, done against the clock, are the closest thing to the real exam.

Space your revision instead of cramming

In the late nineteenth century, Hermann Ebbinghaus learned lists of meaningless syllables and measured his forgetting: fast at first, then slower. A 2015 replication (Murre and Dros) found the same curve.

In 2006, Cepeda and colleagues analysed more than 300 experiments: for the same total study time, spaced sessions led to better long-term memory than sessions bunched together, and the further away the exam, the longer the gaps can be. Cramming may rescue tomorrow's class test, but it will not last until the national exam in June.

How to do it tonight

• For each chapter covered in class, put three reviews in your planner: the next day, a few days later, then one to two weeks later. This is a rule of thumb, not a scientific formula.
• Every review is a test (blank page, cards, exercise), not a reread.
• Sort your cards with the Leitner system: a card you get wrong goes back to box one, a card you get right moves to a box you check less often.
• Ten minutes on the bus or in a grand taxi is enough for a round of cards.

Mix up your practice, especially in maths and physics

Most students do ten exercises on sequences, then ten on functions. Rohrer and Taylor (2007) compared this blocked approach with mixed practice on calculating the volumes of solids. During practice, the blocked group did better. On a test a week later, the advantage clearly reversed.

An exam question does not tell you which chapter it comes from: you have to recognise the type of problem, then choose the method. Mixed practice trains exactly that choice. Dunlosky and colleagues rated it moderate overall, with strong effects in maths.

How to do it tonight

• 2nd year bac: take six exercises from three chapters you have already studied (sequences, functions, complex numbers) and shuffle them. Before solving each one, write one line naming the method you plan to use.
• Physics-chemistry: alternate RC circuits, RL circuits and mechanics.
• 3rd year collège: mix equations, simultaneous equations and linear functions.
• On a brand new chapter, start with exercises of one type.

Understand to remember: explaining, worked examples, diagrams

Ask why, out loud

Asking yourself "why?" and explaining each step of a solution, to yourself or to someone else, links new material to what you already know. Dunlosky and colleagues rated these techniques moderate, and the IES guide counts asking deep questions among its best-supported recommendations.

In SVT, ask yourself why fermentation releases less energy than respiration. In physics, explain to a younger brother why the voltage across a charging capacitor rises more and more slowly. If the explanation stalls, you know what to work on.

Worked examples, then remove the steps

The IES guide recommends alternating worked examples with problems you solve alone, then gradually removing the steps you are given. In practice: read a worked past-paper exercise and justify every line, solve a similar one alone, then a third where you only look at the start of the solution.

Combine diagrams and words

A timeline in history, a force diagram in physics, a sketch of cellular respiration in SVT: linking text and diagram helps understanding. Picturing images while reading, on the other hand, was rated low. What helps is real diagrams, redrawn from memory.

Sleep, phones and the Pomodoro technique

Sleep is part of revision

Sleep plays a role in consolidating what you have learned, and a tired student concentrates less well. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends 8 to 10 hours per 24 hours for 13 to 18 year olds (AASM recommendation). An all-nighter before an exam is a bad trade.

Keep the phone in another room

In 2023, UNESCO pointed out that simply having a phone nearby, with notifications coming in, is enough to pull students away from the task at hand (UNESCO). During the session it stays in another room, and class WhatsApp groups wait for the break.

Pomodoro: a tool, not evidence

Devised by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s, the Pomodoro technique alternates 25 minutes of work with a 5 minute break, and a longer break after four rounds. It does not have the same level of evidence as the techniques above: it is a tool for getting started. End each block with 5 minutes of blank-page recall.

A weekly revision plan, and how parents can help

The sample plan

Short sessions on weekday evenings, a longer one at the weekend: adjust this template to your timetable and journey to school.

The Sunday review is the key moment: mistakes notebook, weak chapters, next week's reviews. For exam-specific strategy, see our guides to preparing for the national bac exam and the 1st year bac regional exam.

How parents can help without nagging

• Swap "Have you revised?" for "Tell me what you learned today." You do not need to know the subject: a clear explanation, in darija or in French, is a good sign.
• Offer to be the quizmaster, cards in hand. An older brother or sister can do it too.
• Protect the conditions: a quiet corner, a box for phones, regular bedtimes.
• Look at the plan together on Sunday rather than checking every evening.
• Praise effort and method, not just the mark.
• Lots of work but no progress? The problem is often method or older gaps. Talk to the teachers before deciding your child is "just not a maths person".

If you are thinking about outside support, our article on private tutoring or a small group can help you choose the format.

In Tiznit, this is what we work on in the ApexLearn academic support programme: method as much as content, with past papers done in near-exam conditions, in groups of up to 15 students or one-to-one, on site or remote. If your child already revises this way and the marks follow, they do not need extra classes.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most effective way to revise?

Test yourself regularly without looking at your notes, and spread those tests over several days. These are the two techniques rated high utility by Dunlosky and colleagues (2013).

How many hours a day should I study?

There is no proven number that suits everyone. An hour of active work each evening (self-tests, exercises without the solution) gives more than five hours of rereading on Sunday: regularity matters more than length.

How should I revise the night before an exam?

One last quick test on the essentials (formulas, dates, definitions), a look at your mistakes notebook, then bed. A whole chapter learned the night before rarely sticks, and an all-nighter costs you on the day.

Are revision cards worth making?

Yes, if you use them to test yourself: a question on one side, the answer on the other. A card that copies the course in smaller writing is just another way of rereading.

What is spaced repetition?

It means coming back to the same material several times, a few days apart, instead of covering it all in one session. Each review done as a test makes the memory last longer.