The Warsaw High School Times

Graphic by Sonia Bajorek

We all picture different things when someone says the word “studying”. Some people think of sitting down reading a book. Others think of highlighting their notes. Many spend hours reviewing this or that section, be it organic chemistry or the Endocrine system. Now, what if I were to tell you that those methods are highly INEFFECTIVE. Well, here I will inform you on what many have been doing wrong!

Common things that people do wrong:

• Listening to music – Now I’m sure we’ve all listened to music while we have studied. However, it majorly disadvantages your retention of knowledge. It is important to note that there is a perception that listening to classical music is advantageous, since it evokes emotions which allow the body to calm, helping with studying, yet this is not fully proven.
• Long study sessions and single focus for extended periods – Now, it may seem like you need to study the same topic for a long time, until you feel like you understand what you are trying to learn, however that is effective. Long study sessions tire your brain, and its retention of knowledge declines, meaning that breaks are crucial.
• Reading/Re-reading – While you may need to read/re-read your notes to get or understand something small, constantly doing it and not doing other techniques subsequently wastes your time.
• Highlighting – While it may look very nice to have all your notes highlighted and while it may draw your eyes to the important parts of the text, it is a waste of time and is based on the basis of reading and re-reading your notes, which is ineffective.
• Multitasking – Many of us think ourselves able to multitask successfully, however it is almost always a waste of energy and time, and leads to your doing all tasks to a subpar level, thus wasting your time.
• Distractions – Many of us have a myriad of friends, both in real life and on social media. However, even having your phone in your eyesight can reduce your concentration. Also, having distractions as we all know can drastically reduce your concentration. So, make sure to mute your social media whilst studying. 

Ways to correct commonly made mistake:

• Take breaks and make smaller study sessions – As seen before, long study sessions are bad for retention of information, therefore it is important to take regular breaks for the purpose of clearing your mind. During this time, it would be recommended to do a mindfulness practice or some physical activity.
• Try other methods in addition – As said earlier, while reading and re-reading are okay to learn the knowledge and remind yourself of a point or fact, it is important to use other methods, which will be discussed later, so that you are able to retain this information that you acquired from reading.

Studying techniques – their benefits and negatives:

• Blurting – Blurting is a method where you pick a topic, which should be rather specific, then on a piece of paper you write everything that you know about it. This method is great for seeing what you know and what you need to review. However, it can often be difficult to be specific enough. It also does not help your exam technique.
• Past Papers – This is an effective thing to do to revise since it will often give you a wide variety of topics and will give you a chance to improve your exam technique and know what the examiner is looking for. However, it does not show you whether you know everything, and some questions can be irrelevant to your final test.
• Flashcards – This is a good way to revise since you can do it in a short amount of time and cover a significant range units, seeing what you know and what you don’t. However, it does not test whether you can phrase the answer in your own words, nor does it improve your exam techniques.
• Mind maps – This is an effective way to lay out your notes in a way which is easy to interact with and easy to revise from quickly, however it does not provide you with the opportunity to practise your exam technique.
• Re-writing – This is where you take the topic of a paragraph or sentence that you have read and you re-write it in your own words so that you can see how well you understood the topic. This is effective since it can be reminiscent of actual exam questions and gives you understanding on how well you understood the topic.
• Pomodoro – This is a way of revise, generally done by studying for 25 minutes, the  taking a 5 minute break. However, there are variations which can be done like 45 minutes of work, 15 minutes break, or 1 hour 30 minutes of work, then a 30 minute break. This is effective since it limits how much work you are doing and stops perfectionism and prevents burnout, while also making sure you don’t study the same thing for an extended time slot.

Good luck on your future assessments and exams!