ACT English & Reading · Topic sentences and introductions
Which choice most effectively sets up the contrast the rest of the passage develops?
The Case for Spacing Out
Ask most students how they prefer to study for a major test, and a familiar answer emerges: block off a long session, reread the material a few times, and feel the specific relief of watching unfamiliar material start to look familiar. [10] Ask a century of learning research the same question, and a different answer emerges, one that most students never act on even after hearing it directly.
The finding is called the spacing effect, and it is among the most consistently replicated results in the study of human memory. [11] Spreading the same amount of study time across several separated sessions produces stronger long-term retention than massing that same total time into one sitting, even when the two groups spend identical minutes with the material. [12] A 2025 meta-analysis pooling more than three thousand students across real classrooms found a moderate but reliable advantage for spaced practice, an effect too consistent across too many independent studies to dismiss as a fluke of laboratory conditions. [13]
If the evidence is this settled, why does cramming remain the default? [14] Part of the answer lies in a separate, related finding: rereading a passage repeatedly increases how familiar it feels considerably faster than it increases how well the material will actually be recalled later. [15] A student who rereads a chapter three times in one evening experiences a real, honest sense that the material has become easy. That reaction is not fake; in fact, [16] it is simply measuring the wrong thing, recognition in the moment rather than retrieval days later.
None of this means cramming produces nothing. [17] A crammed session can genuinely improve performance on a test given the next morning, which is exactly the timeframe in which the felt-easy sensation and the actual, short-lived retention still line up. The cost shows up later, when the same material is needed again in a cumulative final, a follow-up course, or simply in adult life, and the crammed knowledge has quietly evaporated in a way spaced practice would have prevented. [18]
Study schedules built around single long sessions the night before a test are optimizing for exactly the wrong outcome: the fleeting sensation of readiness, not the durable knowledge a spaced schedule would have actually produced.
The finding is called the spacing effect, and it is among the most consistently replicated results in the study of human memory. [11] Spreading the same amount of study time across several separated sessions produces stronger long-term retention than massing that same total time into one sitting, even when the two groups spend identical minutes with the material. [12] A 2025 meta-analysis pooling more than three thousand students across real classrooms found a moderate but reliable advantage for spaced practice, an effect too consistent across too many independent studies to dismiss as a fluke of laboratory conditions. [13]
If the evidence is this settled, why does cramming remain the default? [14] Part of the answer lies in a separate, related finding: rereading a passage repeatedly increases how familiar it feels considerably faster than it increases how well the material will actually be recalled later. [15] A student who rereads a chapter three times in one evening experiences a real, honest sense that the material has become easy. That reaction is not fake; in fact, [16] it is simply measuring the wrong thing, recognition in the moment rather than retrieval days later.
None of this means cramming produces nothing. [17] A crammed session can genuinely improve performance on a test given the next morning, which is exactly the timeframe in which the felt-easy sensation and the actual, short-lived retention still line up. The cost shows up later, when the same material is needed again in a cumulative final, a follow-up course, or simply in adult life, and the crammed knowledge has quietly evaporated in a way spaced practice would have prevented. [18]
Study schedules built around single long sessions the night before a test are optimizing for exactly the wrong outcome: the fleeting sensation of readiness, not the durable knowledge a spaced schedule would have actually produced.
Which choice most effectively sets up the contrast the rest of the passage develops?
Answer and explanation
Answer: D: NO CHANGE
This choice states a specific, common answer, one long session of rereading, that the very next sentence directly contrasts with what research actually recommends, setting up the passage's central tension precisely. Choice A undercuts the contrast by claiming answers vary, when the passage's point depends on there being a common, specific default to push against. C and B both avoid stating any actual answer, leaving nothing concrete for the next sentence to contrast against.
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