7 Information Retention Tips for Long-Term Learning
Returning to school as an adult learner requires balancing coursework, employment responsibilities, and personal commitments. Establishing effective study strategies can help support long-term retention and strengthen how you process new information. Below are seven research-supported methods that may help reinforce understanding as you transition back into academic routines.
1. Take Notes by Hand
Handwriting engages broader brain networks than typing, fostering deeper cognitive processing during note-taking. By involving fine motor movements and attention-rich activity, writing by hand may strengthen memory encoding and support longer-term retention of information.1 When attending a lecture, consider choosing pen and paper over a laptop — you may find that transforming the content into your own words helps strengthen conceptual understanding.
2. Review and Rewrite Your Notes
Reviewing your notes soon after class and reorganizing or rewriting them can help reinforce your understanding and improve retention. One widely recommended approach is to review notes within 24 hours, add missing details, clarify unclear points, and reorganize the material into a clearer structure to enhance comprehension and make future review easier.2
3. Self-Test for Retention
Many educational resources link self testing methods (flashcards, practice questions) with retrieval practice and emphasize that actively recalling information helps identify knowledge gaps and strengthens memory.3
4. Create a Teachable Moment
Engaging with material as if you were going to teach it — or actually preparing to teach it — helps reinforce your understanding. A 2022 meta-analysis found that students who generated teaching materials (slides, visuals, explanations) for others had significantly better learning outcomes than those who did not.4 By organizing and rearticulating what you learn, you force yourself to think critically about the structure, logic, and relationships of the concepts — which aids comprehension and retention.
5. Explain the Material to Yourself
When you’re working through challenging class material, using a self explanation approach — pausing to articulate aloud or in writing what you understand and how new concepts connect to what you already know — can support deeper learning and understanding. This encourages you to identify gaps in your understanding and reconstruct content in your own mental framework, which may help retention over the long term.
6. Use the SQ3R Method
The SQ3R method (Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review) is a structured approach for processing written information. Surveying text features, generating questions, identifying key points, reciting concepts in your own words, and reviewing material afterward can support comprehension and retention.5
7. Eliminate Distractions
When you prepare to study, choosing an environment with minimal interruptions can significantly improve concentration and information retention. Recent research shows that distractive multitasking and ambient external interruptions — such as notifications, background noise, or simultaneous unrelated tasks — are strongly associated with lowered comprehension, reduced memory recall, and impaired academic performance.6
To reduce the negative impact of distractions, consider studying in a quiet space, silencing phone or computer notifications, and avoiding multitasking. Limiting both digital and environmental distractions can help maintain attention on the material, improving the efficiency of your study sessions and supporting long term learning.
1 Van der Weel, F.R., & Van der Meer, A. (2024). Handwriting but not typewriting leads to widespread brain connectivity: A high-density EEG study with implications for the classroom. Frontiers in Psychology. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1219945/full (visited 12/19/2025).
2 Student Learning Center, Berkeley. (n.d.). Strategic reading, writing & note-taking across the curriculum. University of California, Berkeley. https://slc.berkeley.edu/strategic-reading-writing-note-taking-across-curriculum (visited 12/2/2025).
3 Washington University in St Louis. (n.d.). Using retrieval practice to increase student learning. Washington University in St. Loius – Center for Teaching and Learning. https://ctl.wustl.edu/resources/using-retrieval-practice-to-increase-student-learning/ visited (12/19/2025).
4 Fiorella, L., & Zamzow, M. (2022). Do students learn what they teach when generating teaching materials for others? A meta-analysis through the lens of learning by teaching. Educational Research Review, 37, 100475. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2022.100475 (visited 12/2/2025).
5 Nebel, C. (n.d.) SQ3R or read, recite, review. The Learning Scientists. https://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2021/3/4-1 (visited on 12/2/2025).
6 Xie, F., Zhang, S., & Liu, W. (2024). Distraction, multitasking and self regulation inside university classroom. Education and Information Technologies, 29, 23957–23979. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-024-12786-w (visited on 12/2/2025).
AIU cannot guarantee employment, salary, or career advancement. REQ2180865 12/2025