With dreaded finals fast approaching, students have begun cramming. Studying so much material in such a short period of time is stressful, but there are strategies we can use to retain information and apply it on tests. Here are five study strategies that will save your grades.
1. Teaching
Pretending to be a teacher is great for understanding information. Teaching can help you get to know a topic with more intricacy. If you can teach it, you can understand it.
“Active engagement is the process of constructing meaning from text that involves making connections to lectures, forming examples, and regulating your own learning,” according to a study conducted by the University of North Carolina.
In an interview with Educational Therapist Vicki Bergorff, she explained that teaching someone about a subject that confuses them “can help … make connections, and then form that idea better in [their] mind.”
2.Blurting
Simular to teaching, blurting can help you retrieve information on a test. The process is to reread your notes, and then hide the answers and rewrite them. This retrieval practice is the act of recalling information learned, and it’s what we do on our exams.
According to the Birmingham City, “Instead of passively rereading notes, active recall forces your brain to retrieve information from memory, which strengthens learning and improves long-term retention.”
Active recall helps transfer information into long term memory so we can utilize it on our actual tests. Ms. Jennette Rivera, learning specialist at de Toledo High School, said in a conversation, “Writing is more challenging than just saying it out loud. You have more conventions and more things to pay attention to. So actually writing stuff is very, very helpful.”
3. Studying With Peers
Just like retrieval practice, studying with friends can create memories that benefit you on a test, plus it’s just more enjoyable.
Western Governers University explained that peer studying “is an umbrella term for activities in which
students of similar academic standing support one another’s learning through collaboration and instruction.”
Ms. Rivera said that the best part about it is the fun: “That emotion, the giggles that are going to happen are going to help you remember [the material] better.”
4. Interleaving
When studying with peers, its great to take breaks. Give yourself some time to process information. It’s one of the most important parts of studying. Frequent breaks, called interleaving, reinvigorate your mind.
Cornell Health wrote, “Taking purposeful breaks–anywhere from 5-60 minutes–from studying to refresh your brain and body increases your energy, productivity, and ability to focus.”
Ms. Rivera said to think of the brain like a cup: “You pour water into it. There comes to a point where you can keep pouring water on it, but it’s gonna spill. And that happens with our brains too.”
Similarly, Bergorff explained, “In terms of maximizing memory, [taking breaks is] a good idea…because the brain can only take so much information in.”
5. Sleep on it
Speaking of breaks, sleep is probably the single most important thing you can do to remember what you studied. Yale School of Medicine reported, “Sleep seems to offer optimal conditions for consolidation, providing periods of reduced external stimulation and increased levels of neurotransmitters that promote communication between the hippocampus and the neocortex.”
In simpler terms, sleep is the perfect time for your brain to decide what to remember, and what not to.
Ms. Rivera said if you’re struggling to find the answer to a problem, think about it before going to sleep. “Chances are the next morning or at some point the next day, you’re going to get the answer.”
Not to mention, sleep is essential for your overall health. “A lack of sleep, trauma or stress may make thinking and remembering clearly more challenging”
There are many strategies to help you study smarter and not harder, but the best thing you can do to save your grades is to take care of yourself, space things out, and not stress. You got this!
