This article is for students of all kinds who want to get better at studying. I will cover preparation for study, taking notes, listening skills, mnemonics, copying notes, approaches to homework, asking questions, and studying for tests.
Learning to study is learning to
learn.
This article is for students, whether you are just starting out in
high school or college, a re-entry student, or an eternal student who wants
your life-long vocation to be a little easier.
Learning to learn is far more
important than learning the dates, the formulae or the important names in any given class. If you learn to study and do research, you can learn anything
that can be found in books or lectures. You may decide you don’t want to be
an electrical engineer after you’ve tried it a few years. If you know how to
learn, you can much more easily follow your dreams. This article will introduce
you to the art of studying. It’s a simple art and anyone can learn to do it.
These methods have been
field-tested. Some were picked up in “Re-entry classes.” Others were learned
from fellow students and even a very self-educated spouse. Everyone who
contributed to these ideas was an A student.
They are also people who love to learn. It’s easy to love something when
you are good at it.
These ideas can be
boiled down to: “If you interact with a fact or idea at least three times in
different ways, you’ll have it safely filed and accessible in your brain”. In
other words, you have learned it.Interact is the important part; it
means you engage with the material being offered to you. Simply listening to a
lecture will not do it. Mindlessly scribbling the words you hear won’t work.
They’ll slide right over the top of your brain on their way from one ear to the
other.
Preparation for classes or study sessions
Get enough sleep. There’s
something about sitting in one place for longer than twenty minutes that causes
the human body to slip into slumber. No matter how much you try to pay
attention, too few hours of sleep the night before will cause you to lose that
battle to stay awake. Even if you do train your eyelids to stay open, your
brain will not function at its best. It can also be embarrassing to snore in
class and cause your teacher to feel you are undervaluing his or her efforts.
No amount of study will surmount the ill will that could generate.
Eat something fishy (or
otherwise high in protein). Don’t eat carbohydrates or dairy as your after
school snack – you’ll fall right to sleep. Yes, that leaves out cookies and
milk. Sugar or caffeine may perk you up at first, but you will crash; a sugar
high will not sustain you through a good study session. A tuna salad or
sardines would be good, or fruit (if you must have sugar).
Taking Notes
The first decision you have to make
for note taking is what paper to use. I highly recommend using college
ruled paper with the margin line drawn about 2 ½ inches from the left edge of
the paper. This is called Cornell paper, but you can make your own if you can’t
find it. This will allow you room to jot in key words and make it easy
to find topics later, when you study your notes. If you are more comfortable
with a smaller pad, that’s all right, but I would definitely try to use the
wide margined paper when you re-copy your notes. Re-copy? Yes, we’ll get to
that in a few paragraphs.
Another decision is “to tape or
not to tape” the lecture or seminar, if allowed. I recommend that if you
tape at all, you do so only as a back up. Do not rely on the tape. For one
thing, Murphy loves tape machines; he lives in them. For another, it is not
interactive enough. If you think the tape is taking care of gathering the
information, you may not even pay attention to what’s being said. This first
meeting with the material is important, especially if questions come up and you
can ask them right away and clear up misunderstandings before they take root in
your brain.
This brings me to Listening
skills. Its important to listen actively – if for no other reason than to
insure you stay awake. Also, if you really listen and silently ask questions of
the material you will not only be interacting with the material for the first
time, but you will also find out if you understand it. You will know right away
if you have questions to ask the teacher. Try to repeat in your mind what you
are hearing, but try to immediately change it to your own words. If the
lecturer speaks too fast to do this in class, then save this method for your
study session.
Part of active listening is staying
alert for “key words”. As you jot down notes, put the words that let you
know what the point is in the left hand margin. If the professor is rambling on
about the Declaration of Independence, you may be writing his topic sentences
down in your notes. In the left hand margin you can put “D of Indep”, Thomas
Jefferson, the date, – whatever stands
out in his or her presentation. Later, when studying these notes, the key words
will be an instant guide to the rest of the material. (If you do use
abbreviations – make sure you will understand them later!)
Try to take your notes in outline
form. Usually that is not difficult to do because many professors or teachers
are lecturing from an outline. Some even give you their basic outline on the
board. Use it. Again, if you have a disorganized teacher, you may not be able
to do it now, so save it for the study session.
Remember to date and number
the top of each paper; pages can tear out of notebooks and get mixed up. My
favorite way of dating and numbering is to use the date and number like a code
at the top, such as Jan 01,2005 Page 1 is quickly and easily written as
01010501 in the upper right hand corner. The next page is 01010502, and so on.
This can save you lots of frustrating time later on.
Don't be afraid to ask questions
Questions are a sign
of an engaged student, the type that most teachers pray for. Don’t be afraid of
your peers' disdain either; you are doing them a favor by asking the questions
that they have too, but are afraid to ask. You are helping the learning process
along by clearing up misunderstandings, or clarifying a difficult point. I once
had a student constantly apologize for having a “dumb question.” As I told her,
it’s only dumb to have a question and not ask it.
Homework - Assigned and Self-Assigned
Do the homework the same day… as
soon as you have rested a bit. My daughter was an amazing social butterfly, but
she did her homework in the early evening, so she could indulge in guilt-free
partying the rest of the time. She was an A student too.
Your very first step is to re-copy
your notes. Whether or not you took them in outline form during class, you
will help yourself if you turn them into an outline now. They will be a lot
easier to read at “studying for tests” time. If you didn’t grasp the key words
in class, get them now. Flesh them out if you like. Try to summarize each point
your teacher made in a sentence. Try to turn this main point into a question.
Cover the notes and see if you can answer it. If your teacher was vague, or
wandered off topic, it will be glaringly evident. If that leaves you with questions
about the material you’ve been given, write them down to ask the next day. Any
teacher worth their salt will welcome questions. It means you care about the
subject they are trying to teach. It means you are paying attention.
Now do your assigned homework.
With the material from your class notes fresh in your mind, the work should be
much easier. If you have a tough time with the assignment, try to at least
figure out what parts you do understand and what parts you don’t. Write it down
in the form of questions for the teacher as well.
Use mnemonics. When you have to memorize lists, or
directions, or grouped information, mnemonics are little tricks you use
to aid your memory. Basically you mentally attach new things you are learning
to things you already comfortably know. The simplest example is remembering a
list by making a word or sentence out the beginning letters.
Studying before Tests
The way you
study before a test is different for each person. I won’t pretend that
I’ve never pulled an “all-nighter”, but I really don’t recommend it –
especially if you’re over 25. You might pass tests when you do that, but it
doesn’t mean you’ve actually learned the material – it means you’ve honed your
short-term memory. Most people don’t do as well as they do when they’ve
actually mastered the information and gotten a good night’s sleep. I do have a
few hints that can help anyone.
Go over your final version of notes
– outlined, key-worded and coherent by now.
Aren’t you glad you did all that?
Make up your own tests. Put
yourself in your teacher's shoes. Look at what he or she emphasized (the main
points you scribbled down) and turn them into questions. If you studied the way
I described above, many of these will already be in your notes. If not, make
them up now. Pretend you are the teacher. What would you ask your students if
you wanted to know if they understand your material?
Practice answering the questions
with a full and coherent paragraph. Keep practicing until you can do that.
I’m a great fan of flash cards. Put the question on one side, the answer
on the other. Practice with them for a while. Then, when you feel ready, have a
friend test you with them. Making the flash cards will be yet another time you
interact with the information. Your brain is really making some clear roads to
this material.
Be as a little child: playful and
easy to bribe. Reward yourself when you get a question right. (Don’t
forget to deprive yourself when you miss it.)I use small pieces of
chocolate. You know what works for you.
Your teacher may give you helpful
hints about what to study. The week before the tests, they may repeat main
points or even give you verbal clues like saying, “This is really important”.
Pay attention. They are not trying to trick you.
Right before the test, find away to
calm down and center. I used to go sit under the redwoods that grew everywhere
at the college I was lucky enough to attend. I would center and calm
myself. I remember when I took the GRE
test – one that would basically decide my future in graduate school. The
teaching assistant looked at the silent room, turned to the blackboard and began
to write in giant letters – B-R-E-A-T-H-E! There was a giant sigh of exhaled
breath as everyone actually started to breathe normally. She did us all a great
favor. So, remember to breathe.
Studying after tests
You learn the most from your
mistakes. The test has not only told your teacher what you have and have
not learned, it’s telling YOU! Now you know where you have to go back and
re-learn the information you missed or misunderstood. If reading the material
your teacher gave you doesn’t help, ask the teacher directly for other resources.
You can find other sources in the library or on reputable sites on the Internet
to help clear up fuzzy areas in your understanding of the subject. This leads
you into research – my favorite part of learning. It’s solving the mystery,
putting together the puzzle, ferreting out something new. But that’s another
story.