Understanding students’ use of testing and rereading strategies for test preparation: evidence from China

To prepare for high-stakes testing, students often use rereading and practice testing strategies, two of the most widely used approaches to test preparation. This study investigated how students combine these strategies to maximise the effectiveness of their preparation. Participants were 152 third-year students at a teacher training college in China who reviewed 16 educational psychology concepts via an online platform. For each concept, students could choose either testing or rereading as many times as they wished and rated difficulty and confidence before and after each attempt. Open-ended responses captured their perceptions of both strategies. Results indicated that students preferred one-time testing but rarely reread repeatedly. Strategy choice was predicted by their confidence and the type of question used for testing. Students in this study could recognise both the direct effect of testing on enhancing retention and its indirect role as a tool for monitoring and diagnosing their learning progress.