Note: This article is based on a lecture by psychology lecturer Paul Penn, in which he tells us about studying effectively.
However, I had prepared well for this exam and was feeling confident. I inhaled deeply before looking at the first page of the exam book. Obviously, I wasn't the only one whose confidence in studying for the exam was misplaced, but until I started teaching psychology 12 years later, I didn't fully comprehend why.
Unfortunately, psychological research shows that we frequently fail to accurately monitor and evaluate our level of knowledge or skill, or what is known as our "metacognitive ability," which tends to give us an inflated perception of our own understanding and knowledge.
This motivates us to persist in ineffective study habits that covertly but persistently undermine our learning efforts. This is easy to demonstrate by examining some of the best study practices and looking at the misconceptions they reflect about learning. Let's get things started by looking at this perennial favorite, which is “cramming.”
Cramming means memorizing things through intense application right before an exam. However, learning in this way can result in only a little correlation between the information.
I think we've all been there at some point. Exam materials left out on the desk the night before a big test and a variety of energy drinks that are supposed to be more effective than caffeine. Productivity is the norm and a part of the daily routine. After all, there comes a time when you must intensify your academic efforts.
According to research, many students use the intensive study method as part of a well-planned strategy. However, psychology studies conducted since the late 19th century have shown that breaking up study time into several shorter sessions is more effective than condensing work into a single marathon session. This is referred to as the "divergence effect." It is one of the few incontestable discoveries in psychology, and it is unclear why many of us don’t take advantage of it.
Another common study approach is to frequently re-read the material. It is not difficult to explain why students adopt this approach. If you read a passage from a text repeatedly, you will begin to feel that the text is familiar to you, and you will probably interpret this feeling of familiarity as progress. Unfortunately, this perception of progress is often illusory as it fails to take into account the vital difference between studying and examination conditions. It always seems easy when you have the answers in front of you, but unfortunately, most tests do not allow you this feature.
Furthermore, relying on passive re-reading of the material exposes a deeper misunderstanding of how memory works. We frequently consider memory to be more like a crude camera. Memory is not like those cameras with a "single-lens reflex," even more so than those of the Victorian era, which required 30 minutes of standing to take a portrait. At the time, people had to stand perfectly still or their image would be destroyed. This creative concept of memory makes us believe that the amount of time we give the information to be remembered ultimately determines how well it is remembered.
Our memory does not passively reproduce materials. Rather, it effectively reconstructs it according to our previous knowledge, experience, and expectations. To stick to the photographic analogy, memory action is more like the filters in a photo-editing suite than it is a camera. Using our memory effectively is less about maximizing exposure to new material than it is about knowing how to use our prior knowledge, experience, and expectation filters to integrate this material with what we already know.
So you see, the most common study methods are not, for the most part, what psychologists recommend. Furthermore, I am aware that even when faced with evidence that methods such as cramming and re-reading are relatively ineffective, you will probably always be tempted to fall back on these habits.
You may argue, “Cramming is what got me this far; it can’t be completely ineffective.” This is true; it's not completely inefficient. However, there are much better alternatives, especially if your goal is to memorize what you study for a while. If I had studied well for my geography exam all those years ago, I would now be able to remember more information than the names of four coastal erosion mechanisms. So, let's talk about some of the best substitutes.
The methods I am about to advocate are good practices regardless of the subject you are studying, and implementing them does not require any prior knowledge of psychology. By making fairly basic changes to the way you study, you can improve your learning, keep up with high-achieving students, and turn studying from a chore to endure into an activity that can be enjoyed.
What you need to do to study effectively
1. Take some breaks between studying sessions
As previously stated, it is best to divide the time you have available for studying into more brief sessions rather than one extended one. If you are thinking about using the "divergence effect" in your studies, you may wonder if there is an optimal way to keep some time apart between the study sessions. Is there an ideal number of sessions? Is there an ideal time period between sessions?
Fortunately, the easy instructions on scheduling study sessions are sufficient, and the number of sessions you allocate doesn’t result in any major issues. Nevertheless, if you have 12 hours devoted to studying a subject, it is better to have six Two-hour sessions than to study over two six-hour sessions.
In terms of the length of the intervals between sessions, research suggests that longer periods tend to be associated, up to a certain extent, with better retention of information. However, because studying is often done over a limited time frame, you should prioritize the number of sessions where you can get the longest possible break between sessions.
2. Study related subjects interchangeably
We often think that it is best to divide subjects into categories when studying or to allocate time to one topic and finish revising it before moving on to the next. However, recent research has consistently indicated that alternating between different topics—referred to as “overlap”—can be more effective, especially for topics that are similar in nature and can be slightly confusing.
For instance, if you are studying psychoactive drugs, you might want to look at various drug classes. For example, stimulants, depressants, and hallucinogens. You can approach these topics in one of two ways: Classification or overlapping: the categorization approach entails studying each drug class in turn. For example, you would finish your review of stimulants in full before moving on to sedatives and finally to hallucinogens.
Alternatively, you can include drug classes by structuring your research around their subclasses, such as their definitions, models, mechanisms of action, and profiles of their psychoactive effects, their respective works, and lastly, the profiles of psychological effects.
Here's a rule to follow to see if it's better to use the category-by-category approach or the overlapping approach. Research indicates that the overlap technique directs your attention to looking for differences between subjects. Therefore, they are most effective when you study similar topics and require more effort to tell them apart.
It is also effective under circumstances in which you have discretion over assigning information to a particular category, as might be the case if you are categorizing works of art. In turn, the method of dividing subjects by category seems to focus your attention on looking for similarities between subjects. Therefore, it is best used for subjects that can be easily distinguished and/or when the type of category is specified above, as is the case if you are studying the elements of the periodic table.
3. Focus on building your understanding of a topic, not reproducing someone else's
We noted in the Need-to-Know section above that memory is, by its very nature, primarily reconstructive as opposed to reproducible. Hence, if you passively rely on re-reading the course material, you will end up using your memory to try to reproduce the author's understanding of the topic rather than building your own.
The best way to improve your comprehension is to ask questions as you read. By doing so, you'll be forced to consider how to explain the material in your own words and with the aid of your prior knowledge and experience. To methodically include questions in your reading, you can employ a technique called “detailed questioning”. This method involves inserting questions into the text you're reading that call for an explanation on your part. Initially, you can respond to these inquiries orally while using the text as a reference. By doing this frequently, you'll eventually be able to answer these questions without ever needing to refer to the text.
When using “detailed questioning”, try to focus on the questions as much as you can. Phrasing your questions as "why" or "how” will help you achieve your objective of making the information as meaningful to you as possible, as well as come up with concrete examples of more abstract ideas. For example, you can clarify this paragraph through the question, “Why answering your own questions is appropriate to the nature of reparative memory?"
4. Adopting the technique of information retrieval and incorporating it into your studies
When people study to prepare for an exam of some sort, contrary to popular belief, we actually favor methods like rereading over exercises that test our ability to recall information from memory (recalling information exercises).
Testing can be an effective learning tool as well as a means of learning assessment. This is yet another of psychology's many powerful discoveries, as it is now considered self-evident and is known as the "test effect."
Contrary to what you might think, both success and failure in retrieving information are good for your memory. Both scores indicate confidence in your perception of your own knowledge. This information is crucial for directing your study efforts, as they are based on evidence of progress rather than guesswork.
When studying, it is not what you think you know that matters. Rather, it’s what you can prove that you know. It's odd, isn't it? Even though you may have always viewed tests as your adversary and made great efforts to avoid them, you may have actually been using them as a learning tool the entire time.
You shouldn't make the mistake of dismissing the information retrieval exercise and considering it a cynical exercise in “preparing for a test.” Its value is not restricted to situations in which you are aware of the types of questions that will be asked on an upcoming exam, nor does it depend on the conformity between the information you are recalling and the content of the test you will be taking. Moreover, the benefits of the retrieval practice are not limited to facts. Rather, it extends to include concepts and to transfer knowledge from one field to another.
You can integrate the retrieval practice naturally into your study by reading and rereading and then testing your information. This can be demonstrated by reading a short passage from the text, putting the text aside, and then recalling the information you have read using your own words before checking to make sure it is actually accurate.
Following these instructions repeatedly will enhance your confidence in your ability to interpret the text's meaning rather than its literal words. Also, you can improve your comprehension of the material you study if you write down the information you learn by heart rather than speaking it aloud.
5. Understanding the text rather than just highlighting the important passages
At this point, you will have understood that engaging with the material you are studying is essential for effective learning. However, you must keep in mind that not all interaction techniques are equal. For example, highlighting the test is a common technique that most students use. This seems like a perfectly sensible thing to do when studying. Therefore, marking out important topics should help focus your attention by excluding trivial topics to reduce the load on your memory.
However, highlighting could get uncomfortable, especially if you overuse it. Rarely, studies have shown that highlighting has a positive impact on the learning process, but the reason behind this wasn’t the highlighting technique per se. Rather, it was about the importance of the information.
In fact, research suggests that people who tend to use highlighting more frequently do so ineffectively and get the least benefit from it. It is comforting to believe that using the highlighting method has direct access to your long-term memory and functions like a scanner. However, it is not a substitute for mental interaction with the text.
Key points to study effectively
Your instinctive learning assessments are frequently incorrect and have a tendency to give you an overly optimistic impression of your progress, so you cannot rely on them to determine how effective your study techniques are.
Don’t rely on traditional, passive techniques such as re-reading the text and underlining key passages. These approaches make studying tedious and less effective because they do not take advantage of the restorative properties of memory.
The key to effective study is systematic interaction with the meaning of the material you are studying.
It is more effective to divide the time you have available for studying into brief sessions rather than cramming everything into one long study session before an exam.
It is a good idea to use the overlap method when studying related topics that are prone to confusion. Changing topics during study sessions can help you recognize differences between topics and minimize the chances that you will misinterpret them.
You should keep in mind that self-testing is an integral component of your studies. You could apply this by reading the text at hand, reading it by heart using your vocabulary, and then going back to the text to check your information. Repeat this procedure until you are confident that the information has been retained in your memory.
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