Andrew Chun

The Covid-19 pandemic has radically impacted student learning, thrusting students into a combination of virtual, hybrid, and in-person learning. As students are expected to adapt to various classroom settings, how students prepare for tests remains further in question. Past literature has identified two modes of study strategies that students use: restudy and self-testing. Restudy is the mental review of study resources, while self-testing is the actual solving of questions to retain information. Self-testing has consistently demonstrated its superiority in test performance and long term retention of material compared to restudy, yet is less popular than restudy. This seven-week study aimed to encourage high school students at Spackenkill High School to adopt more self-testing throughout their normal study habits. 491 students were randomly divided into three groups. Half of the students received identical weekly emails that endorsed self-testing. Of the students that received emails, half were sent from the student researcher and half were sent from a teacher. The control group received no nudge emails. To quantify changes in study habits, participants answered a weekly survey, in which they recorded the time that they spent using restudying, self-testing, and any other strategies. Students reported using restudy more than self-testing, replicating previous studies on the popularity of these strategies. Nudges did not influence the proportion of restudy or self-testing used, nor did it impact the change by week in self-testing and restudy proportions across participants.