The finding that rereading textbooks is often labor in vain ought to send a chill up the spines of educators and learners, because its the number one study strategy of most peopleincluding more than 80 percent of college students in some surveysand is central in what we tell ourselves to do during the hours we dedicate to learning. Rereading has three strikes against it. It is time consuming. It doesnt result in durable memory. And it often involves a kind of unwitting self-deception, as growing familiarity with the text comes to feel like mastery of the content.