HOW TO STUDY
Particularly following the
first exam, I am often asked about how to study for Psych 101. There is no reason
to wait until that time to become concerned about study techniques. In order to
try to help, I have put together few suggestions below from the published
literature on study skills.
Suggestions About How to
Study
- Work on psychology by doing the reading and
assignments when they are due, a little bit at a time. No athlete would
prepare for a big game by sitting around doing nothing for weeks and then
staying up late the night before intensively working out. The same
principle applies to learning. LEARN THE MATERIAL AS YOU GO ALONG. You will have to take responsibility for
learning the material as you go along. You should not have to spend hours
studying for the exams. By the time the exam is near, you should already
know the material.
- Take responsibility for your own performance.
Blaming roommates, textbooks, time of class meetings or whatever will not
improve your performance. If you are not spending two to three hours in
good, dense, quiet study for each hour in class, you are not doing enough.
- At the end of each paragraph in the reading, stop
and ask yourself what you have learned--if the answer is "nothing"
read it again, and--if necessary--again. As you find important things,
paraphrase the information in your book notes. "Important things"
means more than just definitions. They also include study findings and
summaries of areas of research.
- Throw out your highlighters. They give you the
false sense that you’re engaged in meaningful processing. Research has
shown that the best students do not use highlighters nearly as much as
poor students (who often have rainbow colored texts by the end of the
semester).
- Read for about 45 minutes or so--after that your
efficiency drops. Stop and do laundry for 15 minutes or something like
that before you go back to reading.
- At the end of each reading session, take the
important things that you have found and write them out as
questions--without answers-- on 3 X 5 cards (you can put the answers on
the back of the cards). If you have answers in front of you, the cards
will not be a good study aid. Do the same with your notes from class.
Write these as multiple-choice-style questions. That is, put as much
information as you can in the question. The answer will usually be a
single word or two. Test yourself with these at intervals. If you can get
someone else to do this too, ask them your questions and have them ask you
theirs.
- Study in a place which is quiet and in which you
will not be disturbed. Plan to work very hard when you read and study.
Many failing students think that studying is nothing more than reading the
book over and over with the stereo blasting or the TV on and people
running in and out while the phone rings. They spend hours at this, but
they are not really doing anything useful. To make an analogy--it would be
like trying to increase physical fitness by walking slowly and having an
ice cream cone every two blocks. This is fun, but it does not result in a
hard body. Laying around in front of a TV chatting with friends while
scanning a book is also fun, but it is a complete waste of time as far as
learning is concerned. To get fit, one must work the muscles, get out of
breath, and sweat. In order to learn, one must WORK hard and intensely,
focusing on the task at hand. No pain, no gain. Sorry.
- Study in the time of day during which you are
most alert. Do not put studying off until you can hardly keep your eyes
open. Successful students report that they make good use of the situation
where they have an hour or two between classes. It is easy to waste that time
by returning home and doing things of little consequence. Much work can be
accomplished during the day by finding quiet places which are near where
your classes meet and hitting the books.
- It is probably not worthwhile to re-copy your
lecture notes after class. It is a very good idea, however, to leave some
space in your notebook as you are taking class notes. Then, as soon after
class as you can, review the notes and add to them. Clarify things you
have not recorded in sufficient detail. Write out the examples used in
class while they are still fresh in memory. Add examples from your own
life. This is also the time to WRITE questions that you have about the
material. This would also be a good time to work up the questions
mentioned in number 6, above.
- Tell the stories of the course to other people:
parents, friends, partners or anyone. If no one will listen, tell the
stories OUT LOUD to your dog, spider plant or desk lamp. Before exams, you
should be able to tell these stories in considerable detail, without
notes. That is how you can tell you know the material. At first, as you
are learning the story, you will have to refer to notes, but as you tell
it over and over, you will need the notes less and less.
- The academic support center is staffed by
professionals whose expertise is improving your learning. Take advantage
of them.
Following
these steps exactly will not be easy at first. If you do poorly on an exam, the
first thing you will have to admit is that you have to do something DIFFERENT
if you expect your grades to be different. A second thing you could have to
admit is that you may have managed to get through high school and subsequent
life without maximum efficiency in learning how to learn. Most students who do
not do well are either (1) not working long enough or (2) not working
efficiently.