STUDYING TO UNDERSTAND AND REMEMBER
Studying will help you accomplish two goals: understanding and remembering. While memory is a necessary tool for learning, what’s most important is that you study to develop a deep understanding of course information. When you really comprehend what you are learning, you will be able to place names, dates, and specific facts in context. You will also be able to exercise your critical-thinking abilities.
Here are some methods that might be useful when you’re trying to remember detailed information:
- Pay attention and avoid distractions. This suggestion is the most basic, but the most important. If you’re sitting in class thinking about everything except what the professor is saying, or if you’re reading and you find that your mind is wandering, you’re wasting your time. Force yourself to focus. Review your responses to the questions posed in the exercise you completed earlier in this chapter about what you’re willing to do to improve your concentration.
- Be confident that you can improve your memory. Recall successes from the past when you learned things that you didn’t think you could or would remember. Choose memory improvement strategies that best fit your preferred learning styles: aural, visual, read/write, or kinesthetic. Identify the courses where you can make the best use of each memory strategy.
- Overlearn the material. Once you think you understand the material you’re studying, go over it again to make sure that you’ll remember it for a long time. Test yourself, or ask someone else to test you. Repeat what you’re trying to remember out loud and in your own words.
- Explain the material to another person.
- Make studying a part of your daily routine. Don’t allow days to go by when you don’t open a book or work on course assignments. Make studying a daily habit!
- Check the Internet. If you’re having trouble remembering what you have learned, Google a key word and try to find interesting details that will engage you in learning more about the subject. Many first-year courses cover such a large amount of material that you might miss some interesting details unless you look for them yourself. As your interest increases, so will your memory about the topic. Make sure to check multiple online sources.
- Go beyond memorizing words and focus on understanding and then remembering the big concepts and ideas. Keep asking yourself questions like: What is the main point here? Is there a big idea? Whenever you begin a course, review the syllabus, talk with someone who has already taken the course, and take a brief look at all the reading assignments. Having the big picture will help you understand and remember the details of what you’re learning. For example, the big picture for a first-year college success class is to give students the knowledge and strategies to be successful in college.
- Look for connections between your life and what’s going on in the content of your courses. College courses might seem unrelated to you and your goals, but if you look more carefully, you’ll find many connections between course material and your daily life. Seeing those connections will make your courses more interesting and will help you remember what you’re learning. For example, if you’re taking a sociology class and studying marriage and the family, think about how your own family experiences relate to those described in your readings or in the lectures.
- Get organized. If your desk or your computer is organized, you won’t waste time trying to remember where you put a particular document or what name you gave to a file. And as you rewrite your notes, putting them in an order that makes sense to you (for example, by topic or by date) will help you learn and remember them.
- Reduce the stress in your life. Many college students experience stress because they have to juggle college, work, and family life. Stress-reducing habits, such as eating well and getting enough exercise and sleep, are especially important for college students (see the “Wellness” chapter for strategies). Remember, too, that your college probably has a counseling center or health center where you can seek help in dealing with whatever might be causing stress in your daily life.
high-impact practice 3
high-impact practice 3
- Collaborate. In your first year of college, join a group of students who study together. Your instructors or the college learning center can help you organize study groups. Study groups can meet throughout the term or can get together only to review for midterm or final exams.
- Get a tutor. Tutoring is not just for students who are failing. Often the best students ask for help to make sure that they understand course material. Most tutors are students, and at most community colleges, tutoring services are free.
As you learned in this chapter, memory and concentration play very important roles in achieving success in college because they help you understand, remember, and deeply learn the material so that you can apply that learning to your career and life.
Work Together
Is It Worth the Time and Effort to Get Organized?
With a small group of your classmates, share how organized you are in your living space and on your computer. Is your living space more or less organized than your laptop, desktop, or iPad? Do group members think that being organized is important? How does being disorganized affect time management? Work with your peer leader to come up with strategies to be more organized. Keep track of the initial time you spend getting organized, and the time you save over a two- or three-week period by being more organized.