Studying isn’t what you think it should be. So, what does studying actually look like? Today we explain the do’s and don’ts of studying as well as ways in which to transform the “don’ts” into positive, helpful strategies. These thoughts and tips are applicable to students of all ages. Let’s first address the purpose of studying. The purpose of studying is to be able to recall information on demand, in a classroom setting. The reason why we word it this way is to really give students the context of why studying is important.
As adults, we do not sit down to study. This is because we are usually seeking information for pleasure. Students on the the other hand, sit down to study because they have a goal. This is something to be mindful of when thinking about studying. Students are studying with the intention of earning a grade. It should also be noted that it is a non-preferred task for students. Students might have to seek information on a topic that is not particularly interesting to them, whereas adults tend to seek information when they are interested. Throughout this episode we are going to refer to the do’s and don’ts of studying as active and passive studying, respectively.
During active studying, the student is seeking out information and doing something with it. During passive studying the student is really just having the information come to them. Passive studying is more “traditional” side and is actually what most students tend to do. It is definitely what you “think studying should look like”.
We are going to address six inherently passive studying tips and explain how they can be turned into active studying exercises.
Study Do’s and Don’ts:
1.Highlighting:
What are the challenges with highlighting? For starters, most students don’t know how to highlight correctly. Often times students will highlight entire paragraphs or even pages. This does nothing to help them. Essentially, the only thing they really did is color the page. So, how can highlighting be used as an active studying tactic? The main goal when highlighting should be to shorten, chunk, and summarize the information the student is trying to learn. This means identifying the key points and not just identifying vocabulary words (that are usually in bold print anyways). If a student does highlight an entire page, they should go back through and identify the four W’s: who, what, where, and when. This is fact seeking in its most literal form. Once this is done, the student should address why they think this information is important. This is what creates an active studying technique. As the student answers these questions they are taking information in and processing it. This form of mental engagement will allow the student to remember the information more easily.
Students might think that if they are re-reading material they are freshening their mind on what they already read. The problem with this technique is that it tricks their brain into thinking they know the information because they have seen it before and they then tend to skip over information. This is when the four W’s exercise becomes meaningful once more. Ultimately, students need to be doing something with the information they read in order for them to remember it. In other words, there needs to be an action step.
Think about a time when you have experienced a major event in your life and you’ve had to write hundreds of thank you notes. The one thing you probably don’t remember is the little details of who got you what. This is because this is an entirely passive exercise. All you are doing is rewriting the same sentences on every note with minor changes such as the name of the person and what they got you. Rewriting is not active. However, you can make it active by categorizing, summarizing, or rewriting the notes from memory and then going back to see if you were correct.