This will probably be one of the most random posts I’ll ever add on here. If you didn’t know, I’m a psychology major and I’m taking a cognitive psych class. For one of the assignments, we have to make a presentation on the four best ways to study. However, the gag is, I’m out here giving studying tips when I don’t even study myself! 🤷 Bear with me though because this will be a long one…
- Self-testing: flashcards
- For the occasional times that I will study, FLASHCARDS are always my to-go-to. I mainly use them for definitions. I put the word on one side and the definition on the other. That helped me in more than one way. I would re-read it and write it. After reviewing the cards, a couple times, I quiz myself and I knew I was the “ish” when I got them all right, lol. Kornell and Son (2009) wrote an article about how students believed that testing or re-reading a passage instead of self-testing was more effective for their learning. PLOT TWIST!!!! Even though the students believed this, when given the choice, they chose to self-test. The reason for the self-testing is to have an idea on what they did and did not know.
- MUSIC!!!!!!!!!
- Anyone that truly knows me will tell you that MUSIC IS LIFE!!! Therefore, it should come to no surprise that whenever I’m studying, music is playing. It’s a must!!! I need it to block out excess noise and distractions. In my mind, it’s helping me study, but in reality; it’s not. I be having a min-concert the way I start singing and making up choreography. Authors Anatasia Kotsopoulou and Susan Hallam (2010) wrote an article on how cultural differences and age are impacted when playing music while studying. Their overall findings were that the older the individual is, the more aware they are of the effect music can have, especially depending on the type of studying. Just so there’s no confusion, listening to music is fine while studying and I’m not telling you to stop. Instead, listen to instrumentals of songs you don’t know (or you’ll be like me with the min concert) and maybe take your interest in music by creating a song to help you memorize those details on the test (:
- Taking Breaks
- Because procrastination and prioritizing is a college student’s best friend 🙄 you’re up studying two nights before an exam. If you’re not in college, you may not have experienced this. On a good, non-stressful week you may study three days before and on a bad, stressful week you’ll study the day/night before, if not hours before. I know I’m guilty of it 🙈 To our surprise, we’ve been doing it wrong. We need to be studying at least a week in advance, if not sooner.
- Bell et. al., 2014 did a study on how memory is better when the study sessions are spaced out. Their results showed that a lag between encoding and restudying improves memory performance over a long-term delay. If you’re a sleeper like myself, start using it in another way. “…sleeping soon after studying can improve consolidation (creating new memories in a way they won’t be interrupted), which can result in better memory” (Goldstein, 2014, p. 203). Cramming is better than not studying at all, but we can do better. Let’s stop accepting those C’s and D’s and aim for A’s and B’s.
- Organization
- When it comes to my life, organization is a must. I hate clutter and for things to be out of place. I never thought to apply that same concept to my studying techniques, but apparently, it’s a thing 🤷
- George Miller (1956) came up with concept of chunking. Chunking is when small words can be combined into larger meaningful units. For example, let’s say you have a group of words such as; cat, book, bird, dog, homework, and class. The way you’d chunk those group of words is by putting homework, class, and book, into a group because you associate them with school and then dog, cat, and bird into a group, because you associate them with being animals.
- You can do the same with notes. I witness this a lot with everybody I know that’s in biology, nursing, etc. They draw diagrams and make labels to help them remember things. If you’re a history major you could make a timeline. Psychology majors could group together different theorists. All this is to say, it’s a way to organize to your notes and have a structure to your studying.
You know how it is when you have to take a class, just because you have to? But then find out the class is actual helpful and not that bad. That situation currently applies to me. Cognitive psychology has been one of the most helpful classes I have taken. I’ve learned a lot in these past few months, including these studying tricks. Since the beginning of the semester, I have found myself chunking more. I’d read a chapter first and then go back to highlight. I can’t wait to see how much more these tricks will benefit me in the future.
References
Bell, M. C., Kawadri, N., Simone, P. M., & Wiseheart, M. (2013). Long-term memory, sleep, and the spacing effect. Memory, 22(3), 276-283. doi:10.1080/09658211.2013.778294
Goldstein, B. (2014). Long-Term Memory. Cognitive Psychology Connecting Mind, Research and Everyday Experience (pp. 203). Cengage Learning.
Goldstein, B. (2014). Short-Term Memory. Cognitive Psychology Connecting Mind, Research and Everyday Experience (pp. 130). Cengage Learning.
Kornell, N., & Son, L. K. (2009). Learners’ choices and beliefs about self-testing. Memory, 17(5), 493-501. doi:10.1080/09658210902832915
Kotsopoulou, A., & Hallam, S. (2010). The perceived impact of playing music while studying: Age and cultural differences. Educational Studies, 36(4), 431-440. doi:10.1080/03055690903424774
American Psychological Association 6th edition formatting by BibMe.org.
#stillRising
#stillRising 