A guide to help students master the skills of understanding material and retaining information. Dan Willingham lays out the techniques necessary for students at any stage to succeed and thrive when learning, studying, and taking exams. When studying, the tendency is to focus on the mental tasks that we control most easily, and which create a sense of familiarity, like rereading and highlighting, But familiarity is not the same thing as retention or comprehension. Real learning comes from practices we may not be as likely to implement, like self-testing. Giving readers a peek under the hood at their own brains will help them understand which learning strategies work and why.