tip to study for college students

1. Studying is not the same as reading!  

Studying and reading are not the same. We read novels, but we have to study textbooks. Textbooks are dense and introduce a lot of new material - without having great plots or characters. Thus, while reading is an important first step, it won't usually transfer the new information into your long-term memory. To do that, you have to apply ACTIVE strategies to learn the material in the book. I have listed several sample strategies below. Your friends or classmates might have others they can share with you.

SAMPLE ACTIVE STUDYING STRATEGIES

• Take Notes on the Text:  Taking notes is a much more active strategy than highlighting or underlining the text. However, do not make the mistake of writing down too much - this undermines the whole point. One good strategy is to jot down ONE or TWO main points for each "section" of the chapter. By the end of the chapter, you will have about a page - two at the most - of notes. Try not to write down things that "stick" - the ideas and concepts that you understand easily and don't really need to study (the ones that click right away and you just "get" them). Instead, jot down the concepts you have a hard time grasping or remembering. Then, study these notes along with your class-notes, rather than re-reading the whole chapter as a "study" strategy.

• Test Yourself: Another active strategy is to test yourself by making up questions about the section you just read - and seeing if you can answer these questions without looking. You can also team up with a friend and ask each other questions about the chapter. If you do not have a friend in the class, you can use the email listserve to send a query to the whole class for an interested "study buddy." (For my Spring 04 section, the email is: psyc10203s04@kenyon.edu).  Also, in the case of the Passer & Smith text, you can use the questions posed in the margins of the book to test yourself - I think these questions are quite good. The McGraw Hill website also provides an online quiz for each chapter.

• Apply Concepts to Your Life: If you can apply the concepts you are learning to your life or to something you care about (e.g., sports, politics, music, film) you are much more likely to remember them. Try to think of an example that illustrates a theory or research finding, especially one that does not "stick" very well. For instance, when learning about the bystander effect, you may think of a situation you were in when a large group of people stood by and did not help someone in need. Or, you can think of a story in the news when this happened.

• Start with the Summary: Many textbooks, including the Passer & Smith book we are using this semester, provide a summary at the end of the chapter. Many students find it helpful to read this summary first, before they begin the chapter. This structures the chapter for them and alerts them to main ideas and critical points.

• Compare and Contrast: Creating a compare/contrast chart is helpful in studying complex theories and models, or for studying multiple theories within one chapter. I have provided a sample compare-contrast chart at the end of this document.

2. Study for RECALL rather than RECOGNITION

When you take a “fill in the blank” or essay exam, you are recalling information that you learned - or pulling it out of your memory with no assistance. When you are given “multiple choices” to choose from, you are trying to recognize the correct answer among several possibilities. Most people study differently for these types of exams, thinking they need to only familiarize themselves with information for multiple choice exams. However, professors know this, and create choices that all look “familiar.” Don’t fall for this trap! Study for RECALL every time. This means that you should be able to know the answers without any prompts or hints - right "off the top of your head". When taking the exam, to prevent the other choices from misleading you, jot down the correct answer BEFORE you look at the available choices. Then, you can MATCH your answer with the closest one provided by the multiple choices.

3.  During class, write down more than meets the eye

During the lecture, you should be writing down more than what the professor puts down on the overhead, blackborad, or powerpoint. For instance, what I include in my powerpoint slides is just the "skeleton outline" of the material you will need to know. You should write something in your own words about each piece of information visually provided by the professor - and jot down any examples the professor gives. It is also good practice, within 24 hrs of the lecture, to quickly look over your notes and expand on anything that you wrote down in haste that might not make sense when you look at it two weeks later.

4.  Protect your study-time

Most of us are very good at observing other people’s boundaries. We make appointments to talk to our bosses, visit our professors during office hours, and do not expect office assistants to give back our exams during their lunch time. Yet, we do not give the same respect to ourselves during study time! We allow phone calls, friends, TV shows, noise, and other people’s needs to interfere with one of our most important tasks in college. Protect your study time by making firm and clear “do not disturb” boundaries around it - or by leaving to a private place where you can concentrate for several hours at a time.

4. Study in 45-minute chunks

Research has shown that concentration, comprehension, and memory progressively decreases after 45 minutes of solid studying. If you want to study smarter, take a 15 minute break every 45 minutes, during which time you stretch your muscles by walking around and rest your eyes and mind.

5. Keep Up with the Text

You can remember and learn a lot more information by reading and reviewing information every week than by cramming before an exam. Our long term memory is enhanced when we think and process information a little bit at a time, rather than shoving in a lot of unfamiliar details at once. Also, reviewing something familiar enhances "relearning", which helps move information into long-term memory storage. Keep up with your readings, even if it's just to skim the main ideas or summary of each chapter before or after the lecture.

6. Feed your brain

• Protein: What we eat and drink affects our concentration and memory. For instance, eating something with protein before studying (e.g., turkey sandwich, veggie burger, peanut-butter bar) will make you sharper and more alert. In contrast, going with no food or eating something high in carbohydrates (e.g., mac & cheese, french fries) will slow you down and make your mind more sluggish. This also goes for the exam itself! Make sure you eat something before taking that test.

• Caffeine and Alcohol:  Caffeine and alcohol are mind altering drugs which have long lasting effects on your brain chemistry. That means that many hours after you ingest these, your concentration and memory (as well as mood) will be affected. If you have an important exam or paper to write, keep this in mind.
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