Jonathan Firth, School of Education, University of Strathclyde, UK As they approach the exam years, school students need a practical and well-founded understanding of how to study. This understanding should include knowledge of their own memory processes, together with skills relating to the planning and organisation of their study behaviour. As Kornell and Bjork (2007, p. 223) put it, learning successfully requires ‘having a reasonably accurate mental model of how learning works, and not being misled by short-term performance’. Such competence can contribute to a learner’s academic success, for there is strong evidence that students who study in more effective ways get better grades (e.g. Hartwig and Dunlosky, 2012). At the same time, it is widely recognised that memory is counterintuitive; good study habits are unlikely to be the default for most learners. As Kornell and Bjork also note (2007, p. 223), successful learning involves ‘going against certain intuitions an
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