This Is How To Study Well
With the
first round of exams creeping around the corner for many students, some may
have forgotten or are wondering what's the best way to study their material and
be able to recall the material effectively and accurately on exam day.
Preparing for any exam is stressful and students may face a mental burn out and
call it quits by the fifth hour into the library study session. Others enter
into a sense of security by being able to retrieve the correct answer on their
flashcard, but once they take the exam, memory retention and recall cues of
these students betray their confidence and they may score less than desired.
Studying well takes effort. It takes patience and the motivation to sometimes
work hard for the answer and not give up and put flashcards in the "try
again" pile.
Any new
material we learn goes through 3 memory processes: encoding, storing,
and retrieval. Encoding the material is being able to understand what is said by
one person in our short-term memory. Storing is being able to retain the information
in your brain. Retrieval is being able to retrieve that material out from your long-term
memory when cued. The underlying goal here is to potentiate material into our
long-term memory through the method of memory consolidation. It is not
enough to just passively look over one's notes and hope that the material
sinks in, but actively rehearsing the material and using methods such as
concept maps, mnemonics, flashcards, and practice exams aid the consolidation
of information from your short term memory to your long term memory.
Elaborative rehearsal is by far the most effective way of encoding information into your
long-term memory. The name itself suggests that you elaborate, you expand, you
bring in new material with the material you have already learned to deepen your
understanding of the material. If you want to study well, it takes effort and
actively making new connections between your study material and a related
material exercises your brain to think outside the box and induce better
learning and retention. You can practice elaborative rehearsal by making a
concept map of your study material and have all the main points in bubbles and
connect them to smaller bubbles that provide examples, definitions, or even practice
problems of the main point. Mnemonics, flashcards, and practice exams are also
effective ways to study IF you are reorganizing and rewriting the material in
your own words. Making those mental connections with the material and being
able to clearly rephrase them helps consolidate what you know to what you
learn. Be wary of these methods because students are often subject to feel safe
thinking once they get the answer right on the practice exam or guess the right
answer on the flashcards 3x, they put that back into the study pile along with undigested
material. Instead, separate the flashcards you know by heart into one pile and
do not mix with material you do not know into a separate pile. Do not study
practice exams from other students because that is their knowledge of the material,
not yours. Making your own mental connections is what will help you perform
best on exams that use multiple choice to cue your memory retention or
short-answer prompts to challenge your memory consolidation.
Five plus
hours in the library will not do you justice on exam day. Periodically blocking
2 hours to study each day with these methods takes a relatively good amount of
stress away from the studying process. Studying should be about studying smart,
not easier or shorter. These methods are backed by neurological brain study on
long-term memory potentiation. Over time, these methods should become more
rewarding than looking over notes and calling it a day and it will show on your
exam day performance.
Posted by "Katherine Tran" (3)
I found this post to be very helpful, since I have midterms coming up this week. However, I do have a few questions. What are some of your thoughts on how sleep factors into memory consolidation? Many papers suggest that sleep can play a major role in the consolidation and retrieval of information. Also, I have a few computer science friends that use a technique called "Rubber Duck Debugging" to learn and explain their programming. Could this technique be used to study for exams?
ReplyDeletePosted by: Nicholas Georgette
Hi! That's a great question. It is no surprise that sleep plays a big role in repairing of the body, processing of information, and of strengthening neuronic activity that was exercized during the day. What is the "Rubber Duck Debugging"? Sleep does help with consolidation of material. When you play a sport, learn music, learn new academics, etc, your brain needs time to process these things and neuronic activity in those areas of your brain will be strengthened! For example, those who have practiced consistently soccer, has more active optical and motor brain activity when scanned. In the same way, during sleep, your brain consolidates what you've learned and one tip is before you sleep, run through information lightly thru your brain. It aids in better retrieval the next day when you recall what you have consolidated in your long term memory. I will say though, that doesn't mean you just assume you can study and cram and then hope sleep takes care of the rest. "Sleeping on hit" helps best when you also actively study the material daily
DeleteYour description of mental consolidation and elaborative rehearsal reminds me of what many teachers are calling "active learning". When trying to understand a concept, asking yourself applicative questions of the material being studied is the best way to gain understanding and excite your brain activity. One way of actively learning which I've heard of is called "association"; in this method, a person makes connections between material being studied and seemingly unconnected bits of information from his or her own life. An example of this method would be if someone were studying Erikson's Theory of Development and connected the theory to the name of their best friend, Erik; from this connection the person studying could recall the theory's contents from their long-term memories of their friend. Would this type of memorization method fall into the category of memory consolidation or elaborative rehearsal? What are the differences between memory consolidation or elaborative rehearsal?
ReplyDelete-David Frykenberg
Hi! Yes I totally agree, that's a great connection! With this association method, this would be elaborative rehearsal. The act of making outside connections of what you know to what you're learned then allows the material to be consolidated into your long term memory. My neuroscience professor mentioned that elaborative rehearsal is the helper to make memory consolidation work at its best. Memory consolidation is the process where in the constant maintenance rehearsal that our brain does (decluttering unpracticed/ unused knowledge away from our long term memory) in our short term memory, any processed information we take into our brain that is consistently and actively learned has a better chance of being consolidated, or moved into your long term memory. Now, this isn't permanent, you still have to practice rehearsal to keep this valuable information in your long term memory. If not, you won't be able to recall information when cued. For ex: 3 years ago, I could speak French rather well, but without actively speaking it, proper grammar and certain syntax slowly chip away and now my response rate is less than par. Hopefully that makes sense.
DeleteExams sure did creep up quickly this semester. I always find that I have a difficult time getting motivated to study for an exam and always end up waiting until last minute. I am typically someone who just re-reads my notes until I can recall the main points easily and details about those points. I found it interesting that information is stored in 3 different ways and makes me wonder why some people have a more difficult time recalling information than others. Could it be that some people are just better at recalling information because of something about their genetics?
ReplyDelete-Brianna Luciani
Hi! I understand, I'm victim to doing that too. Re-reading notes as comforting and easy as it is, won't really get information in your brain. Some people recall better than others (and I can only make a broad statement because everyone is different) because their retention and understanding of the material may be better or worse than others. It may not fully be on genetics since our brain has plasticity to it and the way we modify our study technique modifies how our brain will store that information. Maybe try this instead: have your notes by you, read it thru 2x at most then make a concept map without looking at your notes. You don't have to get all the points down, but that will really show you what you retained. Another way is to write the headers or titles of your notes on the concept map and then once you get to your concept map, you'll have a place to begin to guide you. Good luck on your exams!
DeleteI actually found this post really helpful and wish I used these techniques earlier on in college. Honestly, I tend to just cram study a day or two before the exam is. It works for me but doesn't mean that it would work for others. I found the concept of elaborative rehearsal to be the one that should be used the most often. It definitely will help engrave the information into your brain. Teachers always say to hand write your notes or to hand write all the information that you remember and too look back at the stuff you aren't comfortable with. I'm sure there has been a lot of studies with these methods, I'm curious to see the numbers that show what ones students use. As you wrote this, did you relate to any of these methods for how you study? Is there one that you use more than the other? Really informative post.
ReplyDelete-Matt Cayer
Hi! I loved what you wrote and great question thank you for asking! Personally, my method depends on the type of material I am studying. Anything with practice problems and numbers (organic chemistry or calculus) I will practice as much as I can over and over. The more conceptual based information such as evolution, genetics, or cell and molecular bio courses I've taken, I have learned that I best learn those material through concept maps. I need something to look at and not just read. Concept maps help my brain organize information because my brain thinks very fast. Another way that I study which I didn't mention in the blog post, I will face the wall or a board and teach the material. Helps a lot and can be fun. Flashcards I am skeptical about because sometimes I can get the flashcard right just by chance or because I just "got it" that day and that breeds a false sense of confidence for me. I tried my hand at flashcards again with the challenging method I mentioned w flashcards in the blog post, and that really helped me recall information well when I took my exam. You'll have to find what works for you. Sometimes making yourself study like this takes too long, too much effort, or just makes you frustrated, but be kind to yourself and give yourself 30 to 1.5 hour each day putting a little something in. I hope this helps
ReplyDeleteI found this article especially helpful. I should also add that reviewing a concepts within 24 hours after its been introduced is also very effective . for instance review your notes from a class the day of before bed .
ReplyDelete- fredjah Desmezeaux
This was actually really interesting and helpful. Normally when I read articles like this I kind of roll my eyes because everyone learns so differently. But this is presented so well and you made it simple enough to understand without inundating us with information. Really well done.
ReplyDeleteLiz Clark