Students delude that studying a day before the exam is more effective than a spaced practice, while the performance shows otherwise. There are several tools, (Soderstrom and Bjork) that help to retain information for a longer time but when it comes to initial learning they have a poor results:

1. Retrieval practice (vs. passive review of previous content)
2. Spacing (vs. massing) study/practice
3. Interleaving (vs. blocking) distinct topics to study/practice
4. Generating (vs. being exposed to) the learning content
5. Varying (vs. keeping steady) the environmental context

The authors created: "created a learner-centered retrieval practice tool for an in- troductory Python programming course that spaces practice and interleaves topics." There were three research questions:

1. Do students space or mass their use of the tool?
2. Do students use the practice tool more than they were required to?
3. Does the practice tool usage correlate with higher final exam grades?