Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood

by Lisa Damour

Even girls who study can arrive at tests underprepared because, overwhelmingly, students get ready for tests by reviewing their notes, highlighting passages, or rereading material. While reviewing the material constitutes a good first step in studying, it should only be considered a first step because research finds that highlighting and rereading are among the most ineffective study strategies of all. To return to the theater analogy, reviewing the material is the equivalent of learning one’s lines—you can’t have a play without the actors knowing their lines—but memorizing lines doesn’t make an actor ready for the play. Next, the actor needs to practice delivering her lines under playlike conditions—hence rehearsals. For test takers, this means applying their knowledge in conditions like the ones they’ll face during actual tests, such as being quizzed at home or, best of all, writing and answering their own test questions. Some of the best students I know search online for sample tests on the topics they’re studying and routinely find tests like the ones they’ll be taking. When girls actively engage with test material under testlike conditions, studies find that they learn the material more thoroughly and get better scores than students who use passive review techniques.