Mix up your practice

When you practise one type of problem twenty times in a row, it feels easy because you know which method to use. In an exam, the questions are mixed and the hard part is choosing the method. Research on interleaving, including studies by Doug Rohrer on maths learning, found that mixing different types of problems in one session leads to better results on later tests, even though practice feels harder and slower.

For programming, mix array, string and recursion problems instead of doing one topic for a week. For exams, mix questions from different chapters.