Why rereading feels good and does little

Rereading notes and highlighting produce a strong sense of familiarity, and familiarity is easily mistaken for knowledge. The material looks recognisable, so it feels learned. Then the exam asks you to produce it from nothing and the feeling turns out to have been about the page, not about you.

The uncomfortable rule underneath most of the evidence on studying: methods that feel harder in the moment tend to produce more durable learning than methods that feel smooth.