Why does interleaving feel hard at first when studying psychology?

[EmilyVG]

I’ve been trying to use interleaving to study different concepts in my psychology course, mixing up topics instead of blocking them. But I find my practice sessions feel much more frustrating and disjointed, and I’m worried this method is actually slowing me down. Has anyone else felt this initial dip when switching to this approach?

[Steven55]

I tried interleaving a few weeks ago, mixing definitions, theories, and a case study all in one session. At first it felt useless and just chaotic. My mind kept jumping topics, and I ended up with more questions than answers. But a week later I started noticing you can pull threads from different topics into a single problem, even if it feels rough. The frustration was real, though.

[Daniel_T]

Yep, that early dip was rough for me too. It looked like I was getting worse before I got better, which was hard to push through. After a while I started catching small cross topic connections in practice problems, and that kept me going.

[MasonJ]

I actually bailed on it after a week and went back to blocking. My score dipped for two days, then leveled off when I returned to old habits. Not sure if I learned more in the end, but it felt safer.

[Edward_L]

Maybe the real snag isn't the topics but the setup. One noisy room and I forgot which concept I was on, which made the mix feel even messier. I did try trimming the number of topics per session and kept going, and the mood shifted a bit, but I still wonder if I'm chasing the right thing.