According to Dr. Read on for 4 strategies—based in neuroscience research—that can help you study smarter, not harder. Allowing time and space for this consolidation process, also known as an incubation period, is vital. Now you have to call it back up again. That helps to solidify the information in your memory.
It helps your brain better retain it. Study methods that replicate that experience can help you perform better. That's why using flashcards can be a really effective way of studying. You are not only reviewing the material but you are essentially creating the conditions under which you will be tested. And that might require doing something a little different than how you're currently studying.
So take a minute to think about the type of exam you will be writing: is it going to be short-answer questions? Multiple choice? Applying concepts to real-life situations? That means no phones and no computers. And he provides neuroscience literature to justify it. The idea is that the deeper you engage with the material, the better you remember it. The savvy student, then, not only turns off their phone in class but also while studying for an exam or writing an essay.
Taking study breaks to exercise or drawing a few deep breaths will help your studying if they lower your stress level. While you might think late-night study sessions are disadvantageous to your academic success, research suggests they are not necessarily a bad idea.
Additionally, some psychologists even encourage students to break with their daily college-life routines, especially when it comes to studying for a midterm or final exam.
Studying at your tiredest can help your brain retain higher concentrations of new skills, such as speaking a foreign language or playing an instrument. As the memory-consolidation process does its best work during slow-wave sleep, your brain could be getting both the restoration and reactivation it needs during its time of rest. All of this means that reviewing study materials before bed can help you brain learn, even in your sleep. A change of scenery impacts learning and concentration abilities.
Psychologist Robert Bjork suggests that simply moving to a different room to study or going a step further and learning amongst the great outdoors could increase both your concentration and retention levels. Scientists have been investigating information retention and the studying process for decades. The best way to find the most effective study method for you is to test various tips, such as the ones listed below.
Scientists started exploring the "curve of forgetting" in , but the concept remains useful to today's study habits. Generally, psychologists agree this type of interval studying -- as opposed to "cramming" -- is best, and that students should study closer to the day they learned the material than the day of the test.
This controversial method of studying was a hot topic in , when a psychology professor published an article advising students against reading and rereading textbooks -- which, he argued, merely lead students to thinking they know the material better than they do since it is right in front of them.
Conversely, he suggested students use active recall: closing the book and reciting everything they can remember up to that point to practice long-term memorization. Named for its originator, German scientist Sebastian Leitner, the study method forces students to learn, through repetition, the material they know least well. The system involves moving cards with correctly answered questions further down a line of boxes and moving incorrectly answered cards back to the first box.
Thus, the cards in the first box are studied most frequently and the interval becomes greater as the student proceeds down the line, forcing her to review again and again the information she doesn't know.
Experts argue that the difference between "slow learners" and "quick studiers" is the way they study; for example, instead of memorizing, "quick learners" make connections between ideas.
Known as contextual learning, this process requires students to customize their own methods of learning, thus making connections that inspire all of the information to fall into place and make sense for them individually. Some students find that recording all information visually in one place such as on a sheet of paper or chalkboard can help to paint a fuller picture and aid their connections within the learning process.
From there, he developed a technique of deconstruction and reconstruction of ideas, in an effort to understand even the most complicated of concepts. To use this method and learn how to study effectively, first identify what you want to learn. Then, try explaining it as you would to a five-year-old. The Feynman method is ideal for using analogies to further illustrate your concept e. Research shows that students have better memory and recall abilities when they learn new information with the expectation of having to teach it to someone else.
However, these techniques lead to long-term mastery. The book Make It Stick identifies several research-proven studying techniques. Pre-test: When students practice answering questions, even incorrectly, before learning the content, their future learning is enhanced. Research has shown that pre-testing improves post-test results more than spending the same amount of time studying.
Spaced practice: Spacing out study sessions—focusing on a topic for a short period on different days—has been shown to improve retention and recall more than massed practice. The book How We Learn explains that spaced practice can feel difficult due to an initial forgetting of knowledge—reacquiring that knowledge takes effort. Creating flash cards that can be used for spaced practice and self-quizzing is effective.
Students should create different piles when reviewing the flash cards. Self-quizzing: Testing has a negative connotation in this era of standardized testing, but it is a form of active retrieval practice.
Encourage students to make test questions for themselves as they learn a new concept, thinking about the types of questions you might ask on a quiz or test. They should incorporate these quizzes into their study sessions, answering every question, even those they believe they know well.
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