Are you a student who tends to study one subject for many hours but feels like the material never seems to stick? If so, the interleaving method may be for you. This method is a highly beneficial study technique where a student will cycle through multiple topics throughout a study session. For example, when studying for a history and science test using the interleaving method, a student would spend a certain amount of time, such as an hour, studying for their history test, and then an hour studying for their science test. However, after they had finished doing so, they would revisit both of these topics again in order to solidify their understanding of the material. According to studies and scientific research, this method helps students build problem-solving skills, flexible thinking, connections between materials, and establish a better long-term memory of the material.
The interleaving method is nearly opposite from a method that many students use, which is called the “blocking method.” When using this method, students spend a certain amount of time studying one subject until they feel that they adequately understand, and then move on to the next subject without revisiting the material they just learned. However, when using the blocking method, students aren’t making connections between the topics that they are learning, nor are they practicing how to recall the information they learned later in the study session, which makes it harder to learn the information long-term.
In one study, experts compared the blocking method and the interleaving method by giving students homework sheets and assigning one of these methods to each student. When the students were tested the next day, those who trained with the interleaving method scored 25% better than those who studied the homework sheets using the blocking method. When the students were tested on the homework sheets again a month later, the students who used the interleaving method’s relative success grew by 76%, proving how beneficial the interleaving method is when learning and retaining information.
At its core, using the interleaving method when studying is relatively simple; however, it can also be expanded in multiple ways. The essential idea is to cycle between the subjects you study multiple times in a study session, although the amount of time you spend on each subject and the number of times you come back to it may vary. For example, if a student needed to study chemistry, biology, and math, they could spend thirty minutes studying each subject and then return to the first subject to restart the cycle for another thirty minutes. Julian DeBusk, a Dana Hall learning specialist, recommends making a study schedule when using the interleaving method to map out the best order to study your subjects in. Additionally, she highlights the importance of applying this method in a study group and setting clear goals and time limitations.
Maia Schor ‘27 who uses the interleaving method in her studies described the way that she uses this method, “I do most of my important things, like studying for a test or working on a project first, and then cycle through some homework on a couple of subjects.” Her approach to this method shows how this method is adaptable to the amount of times you cycle through based on your study needs for the session.
Last weekend, I decided to try the interleaving method for myself. I created a study plan for the day with all of the subjects that I needed to cover and planned out the amount of time that I was going to spend on each based on the amount of work I had to do for each class. After I had finished going through my first cycle of subjects, I felt that I had accomplished most of what I had to do for the day, but I still had to finish some work and wanted to review what I had learned. Therefore, the interleaving method turned out to be perfect for me. Although I hadn’t done so in the past, using the interleaving method made a noticeable impact on my ability to remember the information that I had learned that day throughout the course of this week, and helped me perform better on my assessments.