Interleaving

Rather than sticking to one subject for long blocks of time (known as “blocked practice”), it’s more effective to mix subjects within your daily study routine—a technique called interleaving.

Interleaving is a learning strategy that involves switching between topics and ideas in a short space of time. It sounds counterintuitive, but jumping between topics has been found to improve recall by about 40%.

While interleaving initially feels more difficult than blocked practice (and may lead to more mistakes during practice), research shows it leads to better long-term learning and improved performance on tests.

Interleaving works because it:

• Forces your brain to continuously retrieve different types of information
• Prevents the false confidence that comes from blocked practice

Implementing Interleaving in SQE Revision

When it comes to SQE1 revision, interleaving has the additional benefit of helping to build the mental agility needed for exam day, where questions appear in a random order.

In the exam, you might go from a Land Law question to Criminal Practice, then Dispute Resolution—all within a few minutes. It is important to be able to mentally jump from subject to subject

So, instead of spending a full week on Tort before switching to Criminal Law, try breaking your day into focused sessions on different but related areas.

For example, study Contract Law remedies in the morning, then move to Negligent Misstatement in Tort—both involving duties and loss. Later, switch to Misrepresentation, which ties closely to both.

Grouping topics like this also strengthens conceptual links between different areas of law and mirrors how issues can overlap in real practice.

Varying Your Learning Environment

How often have you been told to create a dedicated space for work or study to boost your learning and recall? Maybe you’ve been told that you should turn your desk into a perfect distraction-free utopia.

Well, the research shows this may not be such a good idea.

In 1978, a trio of psychologists led by senior lecturer Robert Bjork gave 2 groups of college students a list of 40 vocabulary words to revise. One group was instructed to study in a single room, and the other group was instructed to divide their study sessions between 2 rooms.

The researchers then tested both groups to see how much of the material they had retained and found that the students who studied in 2 rooms performed far better than the students who studied the same words twice, in the same room.

What was happening here? According to the study’s authors, when the external context is varied, the information we take in is enriched, which slows down forgetting. This, they asserted, is because the brain subtly associates what it is studying with the background sensations it has while learning.

For SQE prep, this means occasionally changing where you study—perhaps alternating between home, the library, and a quiet café. This simple change can strengthen memory formation and make your knowledge more resilient.