Transcript The Best Study Skills - Five Strategies You Need to

The Best Study Skills
Five Strategies You Need to
Know and Use
Reduce Interference
• What is it???
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Maria vs. Mary
• Overlearn the Material:
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Better you know the material, the less likely that interference will
occur
• To overlearn, continue studying past the point where you can
just barely recall the information.
Research shows that overlearning strengthens memory for any
material, and one of the ways it does this is by reducing possible
interference
• Make It Meaningful:
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Familiarity
Rhymes
Patterns
Other Ideas to Reduce Interferences
• Minimize Intervening Activity
• Don't Study Similar Subjects Together
• Study Different Subjects in Different Rooms
• Use Separate Study Sessions:
– Research shows that there is better remembering and less interference if
only one subject is learned during a particular study session
Space It Out
Breaking up the material of several different
subjects into multiple, separate study sessions
- Enhances memory for the material
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Limits of Attention: There is a limit to how long you
can focus on a given set of material
– During Breaks: Research suggests that your brain
strengthens memories during breaks
– Differing Contexts/Moods: Memory is aided by
environmental context: The room you study in, the
type of pen or pencil you use when studying, or even
your mood can link what you learned during studying
with what you can recall of the material during testing
Use Whole and Part Learning
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Whole Method with Extra Studying for Parts.
– Read through everything carefully once or twice
– Separate out the more difficult sections for extra study time
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Whole-Part-Whole Method.
– Go through all the material a couple of times
– Break up the material into logical parts that you study separately
– Go back and review everything from beginning to end.
• Effective for long and difficult material.
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Progressive Part Method.
– Break up the material into sections and begin studying
– Move on to studying the second part -study the first part again along
with the second part
– Helps prevent you from forgetting the material
you learned at the beginning as you go along
- Helps you organize all the material conceptually in your brain
Recite It
• When studying, pause, look away from the material, and try to
remember the facts of what you just learned
– When studying alone, consider saying the information out loud-> forces you
to pay attention
*How to Study
1. Begin by reading through the section headings of the chapter
2. Try to recall, If you have trouble
-Make a connection
-Explain the chapter to yourself or someone else
3. Study Aids: Create flash cards
-Helps in testing your memory for a large amount of material
4. Study with a partner and quiz each other
-Effective if each partner is prepared
5. Recite the facts in the chapter from memory until you know them
Benefits of Reciting
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One of the best study skills:
-Active learning which engages more than one of your
senses
- It gives you feedback so you know what part of the
material you need to spend more time on
- It forces you to concentrate & pay attention to the
material.
***Recitation is exactly what you do when being tested
- recall the material as accurately as possible from
memory
It makes perfect sense to practice during your
study sessions what you are going to be doing
on the test
Use a Study System
*SQ3R: Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review
Survey: Get a grasp of the information
• Read the preface, table of contents, and the chapter summaries. Read all the main
headings and subheadings within the chapters. Carefully examine any graphs or
pictures, and read the captions. When surveying you want to study
everything except the actual meat of the material
Question: Ask yourself questions about each one
• Thinking of questions keeps you focused.
Read: Read straight through everything without taking notes
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Make sure to read through the graphs, chapters summaries
You probably want to avoid underlining as you read through
the first time
Use a Study System
Recite: To ask and answer questions about the information. Go through the
chapter
• Reciting step by step through the chapter will give you a very accurate
picture of how well you know the material. Experts recommend you
spend at least half of your time reciting
Review: The review consists of reciting your way through the material again
• The more times you can review before your exam, spaced out over hours
or days if possible, the better you will likely remember the material
***Can be used for English, History, Science, Math, and related subjects
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Using the SQ3R method takes a bit of extra time, but will you save time.