How to Quiz Yourself Without a Partner: Methods to Try
You can quiz yourself with nothing more than your notes, a pen and a timer. This guide compares five methods you can use alone, gives a rough time cost for each, and tells you what to do when an answer is wrong. Pick one method and try it today.
Quizzing yourself is a form of retrieval practice: you try to bring an answer back from memory before you check it. A major review rated practice testing as high utility (Dunlosky et al., 2013). The basics are in the active recall guide. This article is about choosing a method and running it well.
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Five solo methods compared
| Method | Best for | Rough time cost |
|---|---|---|
| Blank-page recall | Chapters, processes and anything with a sequence. | 5 to 10 minutes per topic, plus a few minutes to check. |
| Questions from headings | Textbook chapters and lecture notes with clear headings. | About 5 minutes to write the questions, then about a minute each. |
| Flashcards | Terms, definitions, vocabulary and formulas. | A minute or two to write each card, then seconds per review. |
| Teach it out loud | Concepts you must explain in an essay or an oral exam. | 5 to 15 minutes per concept. |
| Practice problems | Math, science, coding and anything you must apply. | Varies with the problem. Try one without notes before you look at the solution. |
The time costs are estimates, not measured figures. The methods also test different things. Flashcards and heading questions check single facts, while blank-page recall and teaching aloud show whether you can connect them. These pairings are practical advice built on the retrieval idea, and the studies we cite did not compare the five methods.
How to run a solo quiz so it counts
- Prepare the questions in advance. If you choose them on the spot, you may drift toward the easy ones.
- Close the notes and commit to an answer. Write it or say it in words. A vague feeling that you know it is easy to fudge.
- Check right away. Mark each answer right, partly right or wrong.
- Keep a tally. Write the score at the top of the page, for example 6 of 10, so next time you can see whether the same set is getting easier.
- Schedule the next round before you close the notebook. What spaced repetition is explains why.
Step 3 is not busywork. A review reports that retrieval practice is often effective even without feedback, but that feedback enhances the benefits (Roediger and Butler, 2011).
What to do when you get it wrong
A miss is useful information if you follow it with the correct answer. In one study, people took a multiple-choice test with immediate feedback, delayed feedback or no feedback. Compared with no feedback, both kinds raised the share of correct answers on a later cued-recall test (a test that gives a cue and asks for the answer) and reduced wrong answers copied from the options (Butler and Roediger, 2008). The abstract does not compare the two timings in detail, so we do not pick a winner.
- Read the correct answer in full.
- Cover it and say or write it again in your own words.
- Note why you missed it: never learned, mixed up with something similar, or simply forgot.
- Put the question back into your next quiz, and again a few days later.
One study also tried quizzing before studying. In five experiments, people asked about concepts before reading an essay did better later than people given extra study time, even when only the pretest questions they missed were counted (Richland et al., 2009). The essay was about vision and the setting was a laboratory, so treat this as modest support for trying it, not a rule. For more on checking, see why you should check every answer.
A 20-minute solo session
If you prefer cards, try a starter deck on active recall in Practice. It runs in your browser, with sessions of 10, 15 or 20 cards. Cards are one option among five, and how to write flashcards that work covers writing them.
Common mistakes
- Peeking at the notes after a few seconds. Commit to an answer in writing or out loud first. Then look.
- Choosing only the questions you expect to get right. Write the questions before you start, or pick them at random from the chapter.
- Grading yourself generously. Decide in advance what counts as right. An answer that misses the key term is a miss.
- Using only multiple-choice questions. Multiple choice can expose you to wrong options that some people then learn, and feedback reduced that (Butler and Roediger, 2008). Prefer open questions and always check the answer.
Frequently asked questions
How often should I quiz myself?
None of the sources we read for this article sets a number. Quiz a topic soon after you learn it, then again on later days. A short quiz most days is easier to keep than one long weekly session. Both points are practical advice, not findings.
Should I write my answers or say them out loud?
None of the sources we read compares the two. Writing leaves a record you can check, and speaking is faster and suits explanations. Use whichever lets you commit to an answer before you look.
What if I get most answers wrong?
Look at the correct answers, then try again after a short pause. Bjork and Bjork (2011) say a difficulty is desirable only when you have the background knowledge or skills to respond to it. If most answers still fail on material you have already studied, go back over the material itself, then quiz again. That step is our practical advice.
Is quizzing myself the same as rereading my notes?
No. Rereading shows you the answer, while quizzing hides it first. The Dunlosky review rated rereading as low utility and suggested using practice testing in its place (Dunlosky et al., 2013).
Sources
We opened each source below before citing it. See Methodology and Sources for how we check them.
- Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving Students' Learning With Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions From Cognitive and Educational Psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4-58. Open the source
- Roediger, H. L., & Butler, A. C. (2011). The critical role of retrieval practice in long-term retention. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(1), 20-27. Open the source
- Butler, A. C., & Roediger, H. L. (2008). Feedback enhances the positive effects and reduces the negative effects of multiple-choice testing. Memory & Cognition, 36(3), 604-616. Open the source
- Richland, L. E., Kornell, N., & Kao, L. S. (2009). The pretesting effect: Do unsuccessful retrieval attempts enhance learning?. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 15(3), 243-257. Open the source
- Bjork, E. L., & Bjork, R. A. (2011). Making things hard on yourself, but in a good way: Creating desirable difficulties to enhance learning. In Psychology and the Real World: Essays Illustrating Fundamental Contributions to Society (Worth Publishers), pp. 56-64. Open the source
This guide is general study help, not medical or professional advice. It was last reviewed on November 12, 2026. Spot a mistake? Tell us here.