Suppose you have a tight schedule and can only afford to spend 6 hours studying for a major exam. One common question is whether you should “mass” the hours together right before the exam (to keep the material fresh in memory), or whether you should “space” the hours apart over a few weeks.

Quite a bit of research suggests that spaced practice is generally superior to massed practice

For example, all things being equal:

You’ll get more mileage out of three 2-hour blocks than one 6-hour block, even though the total amount of time studying is identical in both cases/

So if you have a particularly busy schedule and can only spend a few hours studying, be sure to use them well.

When is the worst time to study? Late night. It has been found that after work and late hours, you are looking at degraded memory retention, mental and physical fatigue. Even more concerning is the following day when you take the exam, you will be prone to careless mistakes.