Rereading feels productive. It mostly is not.

Rereading your notes is comforting. The words look familiar, the ideas make sense and you finish feeling prepared. Then the exam, the interview or the meeting asks you to recall it with the page closed, and much of it is gone.

Recognition is not recall

Seeing something and thinking "yes, I know this" is recognition. Producing it from memory is recall. They feel similar while studying and behave very differently under pressure. Rereading trains recognition.

Change one: test yourself

After each section, close the book and write down what you remember. Then check what you missed. It feels harder and slower, and that effort is exactly what makes the memory stick.

Change two: come back later

Instead of one long session, return to the same material the next day, a few days later and a week later, for a few minutes each time. Each return, just as you start to forget, strengthens the memory more than another hour today would.

Neither change needs an app or more time. Just close the book a little earlier than feels comfortable.