Effective Alternatives to Some of the Worst Study Strategies
Think about the difference between doing a single squat with poor form versus doing a single squat with perfect form. You may actually feel sore from the perfect form squat because it is engaging your muscles in a deeper, more meaningful way. When it comes to studying, the same logic applies.
To maximize how much information you can learn and do so in the most efficient manner, you want to make sure you are using study strategies that position you to engage with the material as much as possible and avoid relying on the strategies that don’t actually help you understand the material. In other words, you want to use active learning strategies as opposed to passive learning techniques.
Active learning takes place when you are fully engaging your brain by engaging with the material. Active learning typically takes place when you transform information beyond the reading materials you are assigned so you can absorb and learn more of it efficiently. On the other hand, passive learning is reviewing information but not engaging with the material. Passive learning does not promote long-term memory and that is why only using passive study strategies is not helpful and wastes precious study time to imprint information into your long-term memory for your exams, future courses, or general knowledge.
If you ever want to check if a strategy is passive or active, think about how much brain power it takes to complete the task and how much you are really engaging with the material you are trying to learn. If you feel you are just looking at the material repeatedly, the strategy you are using is likely a passive one.
In this post, I explain passive learning techniques that students routinely use but should wholeheartedly avoid when studying. In their place, I propose much more effective active learning strategies students should use instead.
1) Avoid Highlighting. Instead, Simplify the Material
Have you ever looked back at a textbook page and almost the entire page is highlighted - so basically you just colored the page yellow? Or have you ever read a textbook, highlighted almost the whole page, and then afterwards not be able to say or remember a single sentence about what you read? This is why highlighting alone is not effective - you don’t necessarily understand or remember something in order to highlight it.
Highlighting often makes us feel like we are engaging with the material because a highlighter is being used while reading. However, highlighting actually doesn’t meaningfully engage our brain to understand and learn information. While highlighting can be a good technique to find the specific information you might need to reference later, for learning and understanding information for an exam, I suggest that you put the reading material into your own words - maybe a sentence or two.
If you are reading material that is very complex, write a sentence or bullet point after each paragraph in your own words. This strategy works because rather than merely labeling information that is important with a highlighter, you are thinking about how to manipulate the information into a different form. In other words, you are actively engaging with the material.
Then, at the end of the chapter, reading, or section, write a summary of what you learned. This encourages you to synthesize the information to find the most important pieces as well as review your own understanding of the content itself. You can also use your summaries to review before class and edit after class to be more complete.
I also suggest trying the SQ3R reading technique or using Cornell Note Taking method as you read your book.
What is SQ3R?
SQ3R is an abbreviation for: Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review. Basically, you first review the chapter by reading the introduction, reading the headings of the subsections, looking at the bolded vocabular words and reading the conclusion of the chapter. Then based on this quick overview you write down questions about the topics and information you just read that you think will be answered in the chapter. Then as you read the chapter thoroughly, you respond and edit the questions you made. After reading the chapter, recite the important information so that you are providing the answers to those questions that you just wrote down. I tell students to answer the questions as if they are trying to teach a friend that has not read the information before. Finally, review the notes you took and the text, filling in additional information, editing your notes, and practice recalling the information you just read.
What is Cornell Note Taking?
Using a piece of paper, divide the first third of the page on the left-hand side to write questions, on the right side of the piece write your notes. By doing this, you create what is effectively a giant flashcard with multiple questions and answers on one sheet of paper.
Feel free to download my worksheet to write your Cornell notes.
2) Avoid Re-writing Every Single Word. Instead, Be Innovative with Flashcards.
Re-writing every word from the assigned readings is another strategy that is not very active. The practice does not use much brain power, and therefore the information will not be effectively retained in your long-term memory. Re-writing every word is also incredibly time-consuming.
An alternative strategy is to write down major terms on flashcards and put the definitions on the back. Once you have mastered the information on the back of each card, shuffle and divide your cards into two stacks. Then try to link the top cards on the two piles. Are they similar? Are they different? Is one card topic a subcategory of another? You can also throw all your flashcards on the floor (or a table) and create a mind map with the terms.
To create a mind map, write your central idea in the middle of a piece of paper (or lay your flashcard in the middle of the paper). Then connect the next layer of most relevant to this middle idea. Then add sub-branches to this secondary layer and continue until all flashcards or topics are used. By using your flashcards to connect ideas, you are engaging more of your brain so the information will be remembered longer.
If you do not like flashcards, you can write a list of all the terms from the course to form a word bank list. Then create your mind map on a wipe board and take a picture of it when you are done. I think using a wipe board is best because handwriting is more active than typing for long-term memory and you can easily erase things (or connect things from across the board if needed).
3) Avoid Re-Reading. Instead, Expand Your Notes
Again, on its own, re-reading your notes (or textbook) is not a strong strategy because it is not an active learning strategy. Think about re-watching a movie, after the second or third time it is just boring and predictable and you don’t really pay attention. The same problem applies when you re-read your notes. Re-reading doesn’t engage your brain and results in an ineffective passive learning experience.
I also am not a fan of re-reading because if you didn’t understand the textbook the first time, how is re-reading the material going to change anything? Is anything different now? Maybe but also maybe not. Re-reading is also time-consuming and there are better ways to go about absorbing this content.
After class, instead of just re-reading your lecture notes, use the time as an opportunity to complete your notes. Expand upon examples from class, write questions you still have in the margins, and create your own summary of the content reviewed in class that day. Instead of just re-reading on its own, try to define and provide examples of the terms without looking at your textbook. I often tell my students to pretend they are teaching a friend, roommate, significant other, or even a stuffed animal that has no idea what the subject matter is. This practice of active recall is a form of self-testing that can provide you with the necessary feedback to understand whether you actually know the content or if you need to go back and review the material and to what extent. Or, if your textbook has practice problems- do them without looking at the steps or solutions until you are sure you are stuck. Recalling how to complete a problem, even if you are unable to do it, is a form of active learning and will help you learn and remember the material in the future.
So even if you are a student that uses the above strategies to study for exams, there are better methods to make them more active.
Image Credit: Victor Freitas via Pexels.