Scientifically proven ways to study better

STUDY WHEN YOU’RE TIRED, AND GET SOME REST!

While this might sound counterintuitive at first, there’s some science to this madness: studying when you’re most tired immediately before bed can actually help your brain to retain higher concentrations of new skills, such as speaking a foreign language or playing an instrument. There’s even a term for it: sleep-learning. As the memory-consolidation process does its best work during slow-wave sleep, your brain could be getting both the restoration and reactivation it needs during its time of rest at night. All of this means that reviewing study materials before bad can actually help you brain learn, even in your sleep.

STICK TO PRINT

Tablets and other mediums of e-learning are great for convenience and portability, but research proves that when it comes to how to study in college, traditional print materials still have the upper hand. While some researchers argue that adopting new habits like scrolling, clicking, and pointing when using an interactive digital interface enhances the academic experience, more than 90% of students polled said they prefer a hard copy or print over a digital device when it comes to studying and school work. Furthermore, a psychology lecturer at the University of Leicester in England found that students required more repetition to learn new material if they were reading on a computer screen versus reading printed material.

USE THE LEITNER SYSTEM

If flashcards are the most universally known example of the active recall method, the Leitner System is the Cadillac of flashcards when it comes to study tips. The system serves to ultimately force students to learn the material they know least well through repetition. The system involves moving the cards with correctly answered questions further down a line of boxes and moving incorrectly answered cards back to the first box; thus, the cards in the first box are studied most frequently and the interval becomes greater as you proceed down the line, forcing you to review the information you don’t know over and over until you learn it.

DON’T OVERLEARN

Once you’ve been able to cycle through all your flashcards without making a single mistake, you may feel a sense of satisfaction and call it a day. Or, you may feel a charge of adrenaline and be tempted to keep pushing the boundaries of all that your mighty brain can accomplish in one sitting. But when you come to such a fork in the road, continuing to study is known as “overlearning.” Traditional thinking held that if a little studying is good, a lot of studying must be even better, which doesn’t seem altogether wrong at first glance. With a limited amount of time to study each topic, you’re better served moving on to something else.

LISTEN TO MUSIC

While some experts argue that the ability to concentrate during silence or listening to music while studying is left up to personal preference, many agree that playing certain types of music, such as “obscure 18th century composers,” for example, can help students engage the parts of their brain that help them pay attention and make predictions. Not to mention, listening to music can improve your mood and change your whole outlook about studying in general.

STOP MULTITASKING

You may think you’re killing two birds with one stone by texting or instant messaging while studying, but really you’re just letting those distractions get the best of you with those poor study habits. Studies by comparable colleges and universities confirm that succumbing to multitasking while studying is merely a waste of time.

RELAX

As if you needed another reason not to wait until the last minute to study, research has found that stress actually hinders learning. Even stress lasting as briefly as a couple of hours can engage corticotropin-releasing hormones that disrupt the process of creating and storing memories. Taking study breaks to exercise or drawing a few deep breaths will help your studying if they lower your stress level.

FORGET ABOUT “LEARNING STYLES”

Not only is the idea of being loyal to one “learning style” limiting your own expectations for learning, it’s also a hotly contested point of discussion among academic researchers and learning experts, many of whom are not sure that learning styles even exist. Our conclusion is this: despite the “enormous” amount of work on the subject, scientists have found “virtually no evidence” to support the concept of learning styles, though they left the possibility open to further investigation in years to come. We recommend you don’t go out of your way to try to make your material fit a specific style because it’s not worth the time or effort.

EXERCISE FIRST

The benefits of exercise on the brain are many and well-documented among varied sources, spanning health, fitness, science and psychology. Studies show our brain power gets a boost immediately following even a short workout, pumping oxygen and nutrients to our brain for optimum studying abilities.