Review season is upon us. With preparations for upcoming AP exams, finals, and other year-end assessments principals in cognitive science can help students study more efficiently and effectively. This post will explain some of these techniques and contrast them with less effective and more time-consuming approaches to studying that are often used by students.
Instead of using rote repetition in order to memorize terms and concepts, try to apply terms and concepts to their everyday lives. This provides for a deeper level of processing and will help students understand the application of concepts rather than just trying to remember a definition, which is easily forgotten. To do this, students can ask themselves what else they know about this concept, what it relates to or reminds them of, this will then give them more to retrieve when trying to bring back the information at a later time.
Instead of studying units in isolation, students should try to find connections between concepts and see how one term, theory, or concept builds upon or relates to other concepts. This process is known as interleaving and helps students to understand the broad connections between different areas of a discipline. Interleaving aids in retrieval and helps to understand the complexities of topics, as understanding the connections between topics also helps to better understand a discipline as a whole.
Instead of trying to remember long lists or step-by-step procedures, students should use a mnemonic device. Some straight memorization may be necessary for some courses, trying to remember a long list of words is often difficult, but can be made easier if utilizing a mnemonic (named after the Greek goddess of Mnemosyne). Students are likely familiar with some mnemonics already, such as HOMES to remember the names of the Great Lakes, or ROGIBIV to remember the colors of the rainbow. Not all mnemonics are acronyms. For example, when trying to remember that Broca’s area in the brain is for speech production, it may help to connect this to the word Bocca, which in Italian means mouth, which is also integral to the production of speech. For mnemonics to be most effective, students should use them from the beginning of the learning process.
Instead of reviewing material that students like best and have nearly mastered, they should try to identify those areas in which they have experienced the largest struggle because these areas will allow for the largest increase in learning. Study what was difficult because increasing understanding in this area will allow for the most growth. Students often have the impression that when learning is easy, it is best, but research demonstrates that a productive struggle results in the most learning.
Instead of reading a textbook or notes over and over again, it is better if students test themselves on what they know. The more the questions can mimic the exam they are preparing for, the better. The testing effect works for a number of reasons. First, it provides students with practice, and just like in a sport, practice helps improve performance when it matters. Whether it is a test or a competition, having more experience with what to expect should increase performance. The testing effect also helps students to identify the areas in which they need further practice.
The processes of elaborative rehearsal, interleaving, mnemonic devices, studying what is difficult, and the testing effect are all techniques that are backed by cognitive science. These are research-based techniques that provide the best outcomes.
Good luck to all students on their upcoming exams!