Interleaving Explained: Why Mixing Up Your Revision Works Better
Most students revise one topic until they feel they "know" it, then move on to the next. It feels productive and tidy. But decades of memory research point to a slightly uncomfortable truth: the revision that feels the smoothest is often the least effective. One of the most powerful fixes is also one of the least known – a technique called interleaving . If you have already read about active recall and spaced repetition, interleaving is the natural third pillar. It costs nothing, needs no apps, and can make the difference between recognising an answer and actually being able to produce one in the exam. Here is how it works and how to use it. What is interleaving? Interleaving simply means mixing different topics or types of problem together in a single revision session, rather than doing them in separate blocks. The opposite – doing all of topic A, then all of topic B, then all of topic C – is called blocked practice . A blocked maths session might be: 20 questions on ...