Study Basics: Set Yourself Up for Success
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Now that you understand how memory works, let’s shift our focus to study strategies that help you remember and use your newfound knowledge. But first, ask yourself how you feel about studying. Do you dread it? Find it boring? Feel anxious about it?
If you have negative views of studying, try changing how you think about it. Instead of seeing studying as a task that you have to do, consider it an opportunity for you to build valuable skills and work toward your goals. For example, suppose you want to become the first person in your family to get a college degree, or you want to get a certificate because you’d like to make a career change. Each hour of studying gets you one step closer to achieving your long-term goal.
This doesn’t mean that studying will always be easy. If your friends, family members, or coworkers are out having fun while you’re home reviewing notes the night before a test, you might be tempted to say, “Maybe I can finish this later …” no matter how motivated you are to do well. And sometimes you might have so many obligations competing for your attention that you let studying take a backseat to other commitments. But as challenging as situations like these can be, they’re opportunities to show that you can be persistent, that you’ll keep trying and keep doing the work needed to achieve your goals. Persistence also helps when you encounter the inevitable setbacks. For instance, if a study strategy doesn’t produce the result you want on the first attempt, you can try it again. If it still doesn’t work, you can experiment with other strategies until you find one that does work.
In this section we describe tried-and-true study strategies for mastering course material. As you consider them, keep in mind that memory and studying are closely intertwined with the vital skills we discuss in other chapters, such as reading, note taking, and test taking. For example, to study effectively, you need the notes you took on your reading assignments and lectures. In addition, the information you learn by studying helps you answer exam questions and complete class projects. Studying is, without a doubt, a key component of academic success.
With this in mind, check out the following study strategies to see which ones appeal to you most.
CONNECT
TO MY CLASSES
How do you usually study for your classes? Do you break up your studying into small chunks of time spread across multiple days? Do you study for fewer but larger blocks of time? Describe which scheduling tactics have worked best for you, and why.
Space Out Your Study Time
What’s the most productive way to learn new material? Space out your studying across multiple days and study in small blocks of time.7 For example, if you have ninety minutes to study before work each morning, try spending thirty minutes each on psychology, math, and biology. Then do the same thing the next day and the day after that. Why is this strategy effective? Think back to the budget spreadsheet example earlier in the chapter: The more you work with the material, the more you remember about it. By contrast, trying to “cram” large amounts of information into your brain all at once (especially late at night) leads to poor performance on tests.8
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Maximize Study Opportunities
To make the most of study opportunities identify brief periods of time that are going to waste and turn them into mini study sessions. For instance, if you have thirty minutes between classes, use some of that time to review your chemistry notes. If you have a fifteen-minute break at work, use it to look over flash cards you created for a class. Small bits of time here and there add up, and if you’re a busy student on the go, taking full advantage of these moments is crucial. And thanks to mobile technology, studying anywhere is easier than ever. You can put your notes on your smartphone or tablet, and quickly review them while you’re waiting in the doctor’s office or commuting on the bus.
Minimize Distractions
As useful as technology is as a study aid, take care that it doesn’t become a distraction. If you text while you’re reading notes on your phone or you glance up from your notebook each time you get a new e-mail, you’ll have trouble creating long-term memories of the information you’re trying to study. Although multitasking may seem like a good idea, your mind isn’t truly capable of focusing on more than one thing at a time, so distractions prevent you from giving your full attention to the material you’re trying to learn.9 For tips on how to eliminate distractions while you’re studying, see the organization and time management chapter.
FOR DISCUSSION: Ask the class to share their top technological distractions (e.g., Netflix, Instagram, Snapchat). As a class, brainstorm ways to curb these distractions. Write each suggestion on the board. Place a star next to the top ten suggestions. Create a handout for each student to refer to as needed.
Join a Study Group
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Have you ever heard the saying “There’s strength in numbers”? When it’s time to study, working with other students can help you learn and improve your performance on tests.10 There are several types of study groups. Many schools offer Supplemental Instruction for especially difficult classes, which consists of study groups led by students who did well in those classes in the past. Your instructors might also set up study groups for their classes to encourage students to work together. Alternatively, you can create your own study group with classmates who want to support one another and work together. If you set up a study group yourself, create an agenda to help the group focus on particular topics at each meeting. Without some kind of direction, group members may end up wasting valuable study time.
Supplemental Instruction: A student-led study program for especially difficult classes.
Before attending a group meeting, spend time studying on your own, and identify specific questions you’d like help with. For instance, if you’re struggling to understand the ins-and-outs of interest groups in your American Government class, ask the study group leader or your study partners for help. And be prepared to teach others in the group about topics you understand well. One of the most powerful ways to truly understand material (not just memorize it) is to teach it to someone else. A study group gives you that opportunity.
Make Connections
You can make lasting memories of new information by linking what you’re studying to your life, to a familiar situation, or to memories you already have. For instance, Cecily is studying for a midterm exam in Introduction to Biology, and she needs to remember the main parts of an animal cell. As she studies, she sees that one part of the cell, the Golgi apparatus, is made up of flat, oblong shapes that are connected and stacked on top of each other. Their function is to process carbohydrates and proteins and sort them for transportation throughout the body. To Cecily, the Golgi apparatus looks a lot like stacked pancakes. She thinks about her favorite breakfast: pancakes and bacon, which provide the body with carbohydrates and protein. Now that she’s made an association between that breakfast and the Golgi apparatus, it will be easier to remember what she learned when she takes the midterm.
WRITING PROMPT: Ask students to think of a time when they made a connection between a new idea in class and a personal experience in their life. Is their memory for this information stronger because of that connection? Why or why not?
When you make connections and apply information to other situations, you’re using a powerful process called elaborative rehearsal. In elaborative rehearsal, you associate the meaning of new information with other information already stored in your memory, making it easier to recall the new information later. As an added bonus, making connections requires critical thinking — a vital skill that helps you evaluate, learn, and use new information at school and at work.
Elaborative Rehearsal: The process of making connections between new ideas and other information already stored in your memory.
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