Evidence-Based Study Resources: A Free Starter Hub
A curated list of free learning resources grounded in cognitive science and open education: study strategy guides, free university courses and openly licensed textbooks.
Students are surrounded by study advice, much of it untested. These free resources are grounded in learning research or produced by universities and non-profit educators.
How to study
- The Learning Scientists offer free materials on six evidence-based strategies.
- RetrievalPractice.org collects research summaries and classroom guides on retrieval practice.
Free courses and lessons
- MIT OpenCourseWare publishes materials from thousands of MIT courses, including lecture notes, problem sets and exams.
- Khan Academy provides free lessons and practice exercises from early maths to university-level subjects.
Free textbooks
- OpenStax, a Rice University initiative, publishes peer-reviewed, openly licensed textbooks for introductory college courses.
Study guides on FlexyBlogs
- Active recall: study by testing yourself
- The Feynman technique
- Note-taking methods compared
- The Pomodoro technique for students
For teachers and parents
The same principles apply in the classroom and at the kitchen table. Low-stakes quizzes at the start of a lesson, mixing topics in homework rather than practising one type of question at a time, and asking children to explain ideas in their own words are simple, research-informed habits that need no special equipment.
Start with one strategy, use it consistently for a few weeks, and judge it by practice-test results rather than by how productive it feels.
Cover photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash.
