2 Important Strategies for Effective Studying

By JOHN M. GROHOL, PSYD Founder & Editor-in-Chief (Google+ Profile)

Every college student and high school student believes he or she has honed a set of highly effective, useful study skills. I used re-reading, lots of summarizing, note-taking (and outlining), and taking the little tests you would often find at the end of a chapter to help me remember the material I just read. Nobody taught me how to study this way. It was just something I did through trial and error in trying and discarding multiple techniques. For instance, I tried highlighting, but it did little for me. Of course, psychologists and other scientists have been testing effective study techniques now for decades. Being far more clever than I, theyve actually run such techniques through the research ringer, and have come out with some effective study strategies. Just last month, another group of researchers decided to take a look at all of that research, and boil down what we know about the most effective methods for studying. Heres what they found. Researchers led by John Dunlosky (et al. 2013) from Kent State University decided to take a critical look at the 10 most common learning techniques available to students and see whether they had strong or little backing in the research literature. The study methods examined were: 1. Elaborative interrogation Generating an explanation for why an explicitly stated fact or concept is true 2. Self-explanation Explaining how new information is related to known information, or explaining steps taken during problem solving 3. Summarization Writing summaries of to-be-learned texts

4. Highlighting/underlining Marking potentially important portions of to-belearned materials while reading 5. Keyword mnemonic Using keywords and mental imagery to associate verbal materials 6. Imagery for text Attempting to form mental images of text materials while reading or listening 7. Rereading Restudying text material again after an initial reading 8. Practice testing Self-testing or taking practice tests over to-be-learned material 9. Distributed practice Implementing a schedule of practice that spreads out study activities over time 10. Interleaved practice Implementing a schedule of practice that mixes different kinds of problems, or a schedule of study that mixes different kinds of material, within a single study session. So unbeknownst to me at the time, I was engaging in a combination of the above learning techniques while in school summarization, rereading, and practice testing. I also tried to distribute my studying over time, and not try and cram right before a test (although I probably was only marginally successful in adhering to that desire). 1 At least one of my techniques was deemed effective by the researchers practice testing. The other technique that received across-the-board high grades was distributed practice.
According to the researchers, both techniques have been shown to boost students performance across many different kinds of tests, and their effectiveness has been repeatedly demonstrated for students of all ages.

Some common study techniques used by most students didnt receive such high marks for effectiveness:
In contrast, five of the techniques received a low rating from the researchers. Interestingly, these techniques are some of the most common learning strategies used by students. Such ineffective strategies include: summarization, highlighting and underlining, and rereading. I was shocked that some strategies that students use a lot such as rereading and highlighting seem to provide minimal benefits to their learning and performance, Dunlosky said. By just replacing rereading with delayed retrieval practice, students would benefit.

Indeed, students probably relay on tasks like highlighting and rereading because they are the easiest to do while actively studying. Its so easy to whip out a highlighter and believe that by actively marking a passage, its somehow seeping into your brain cavities like syrup does into those little waffle compartments. Sadly, thats not the case. You might as well just sniff the highlighter for all the good highlighting does in helping you study. Other techniques that got mixed but generally positive reviews include interleaved practice, self-explanation and elaborative interrogation. Mnemonics are likely

helpful for some key concepts (you cant get through medical school without them), but not as a general study technique. And rereading (which 65 percent of college students admit to using) cant hurt you if the material is dense and difficult and you didnt quite get it the first time around. But dont kid yourself into believing that rereading is as good as taking a practice test or spreading studying over time. (And generally, you only need to reread a text passage once; multiple rereading efforts dont usually help with comprehension.) So there you have it focus on practice testing and studying evenly over the course of the entire semester. Those techniques are going to be the most timeeffective and the best use of your brain cells.

Read the full article: What Study Strategies Make the Grade?

What Study Strategies Make the Grade?

By JANICE WOOD Associate News Editor Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on January 12, 2013

Some of the most popular strategies used by students, including highlighting and rereading, dont show much promise for improving learning or grades, according to new research. Schools and parents spend a great deal of money on technology and programs to improve student achievement, even though evidence often isnt available to firmly establish that they work, said John Dunlosky, Ph.D., a researcher at Kent State University, who led a team of psychological scientists in a review of the 10 most common learning techniques used by students. We wanted to take a comprehensive look at promising strategies now, in order to direct teachers, students and parents to the strategies that are effective, yet underused. While the 10 techniques vary widely in effectiveness, two strategies practice testing and distributed practice made the grade, receiving the highest overall utility rating, according to the researchers. Practice testing involves using flash cards or answering questions at the end of a chapter. Distributed practice involves spreading out studying over time and having students quiz themselves on material before a big test.

According to the researchers, both techniques have been shown to boost students performance across many different kinds of tests, and their effectiveness has been repeatedly demonstrated for students of all ages. In contrast, five of the techniques received a low rating from the researchers. Interestingly, these techniques are some of the most common learning strategies used by students. Such ineffective strategies include: summarization, highlighting and underlining, and rereading. I was shocked that some strategies that students use a lot such as rereading and highlighting seem to provide minimal benefits to their learning and performance, Dunlosky said. By just replacing rereading with delayed retrieval practice, students would benefit. So why dont students and teachers use the strategies that have been shown to be the most effective and inexpensive? Dunlosky and his colleagues speculate that the answer may have to do with how future teachers are taught. These strategies are largely overlooked in the educational psychology textbooks that beginning teachers read, so they dont get a good introduction to them or how to use them while teaching, Dunlosky said. To help address this, the researchers organized their report in modules, so that teachers can decide which technique could potentially benefit their students. The learning techniques described in this monograph will not be a panacea for improving achievement for all students, and perhaps, obviously, they will benefit only students who are motivated and capable of using them, Dunlosky noted. Nevertheless, when used properly, we suspect that they will produce meaningful gains in performance in the classroom, on achievement tests, and on many tasks encountered across the life span.