How many tutoring sessions per week? Why several short sessions beat one long one

Before starting tutoring sessions, the question is often asked, “How many sessions per week do you want?” ” To this question, it is possible to ask yourself whether it is better to do several short tutorial sessions or only one long one. The answer is worth considering and numerous studies are helping us to see more clearly.

Better long-term retention thanks to spaced repetition

Tutoring is often used to review for an exam or to better assimilate the material covered in class. A meta-analysis carried out in 2006 [1] precisely sought to find out whether it is more effective to revise a lot at once (all at once before the exam) or to space out your revisions over time.

The researchers analyzed more than 270 experiences where participants learned material (words, lists, associations) and then took a test. They studied the effect of the time between two revisions and the time between the last revision and the exam.

The result is clear: Spacing out your revisions is almost always better, even if the exam is just around the corner.

On average, participants' memory was 9% better with spaced sessions. The farther in time the exam is, the longer the sessions should be spaced out. For example, for an exam the next day, it is better to revise several times, close together. But for an exam in a week or a month, it's best to leave a day, or sometimes even several, between revisions. However, there is no benefit in reviewing everything at once.

For a student, this means that it is not efficient to study everything in one marathon session. With a tutor, it's best to plan several short sessions to spread out the revisions before the test. Even a small interval of a few hours or minutes already helps. In case of emergency, it is therefore possible to do several short sessions in the same day. But, if the objective is to keep the knowledge for a long time (several months or years), it is necessary to plan for more frequent revisions.

Maintain focus and avoid mental overload

Another study, published in 2021 [2], explains why short sessions are better than long ones. However, it deals more with the concept of cognitive load which consists of the amount of mental effort that our brain can handle at any given time.

When we make a sustained effort, it is possible that our working memory gets tired. This causes cognitive overload, which prevents effective learning. On the other hand, taking breaks allows the brain to recover and avoid this saturation.

By giving space between sessions, we force the brain to find the information after a certain period of time, which strengthens long-term memory. It is better to perform this technique than to simply reread or repeat the information immediately.

Although this study approaches a different angle from the previous one, it nevertheless comes to the same conclusion: It is better to do several short sessions spaced apart than to do everything at once. Thus, when using a tutor, it is recommended to favor several short sessions rather than one big weekly session where there is a risk of accumulating information without retaining it.

Conclusion

To learn effectively with a tutor, the best strategy is therefore to spread the sessions over time while promoting shorter and regular sessions. This makes it possible to remember better, to focus better and to avoid cognitive overload. Instead of studying all at once, consider distributing your revisions so that learning is more effective and sustainable.

[1] Cepeda, N.J., Pashler, H., H., H., H.,, Vul, H., Vul, E., E., Wixted, J.T., and Rohrer, D. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(3), 354-380. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.132.3.354

[2] Chen, O., Paas, F., and Sweller, J. (2021). Spacing and Interleaving Effects Require Distinct Theoretical Bases: a Systematic Review Testing the Cognitive Load and Discriminative-Contrast Hypotheses. Educational Psychology Review, 33(4), 1499‑1522. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-021-09613-w