Bishop McNamara Catholic High School

The Best Ways to Study

A team of education and psychology professors reviewed more than 700 scientific articles on 10 commonly used techniques.* Here is what they found:

Gold medal Practices:

• Self-Testing – practice tests outside of class ; short, frequent tests work best

1.  Flash cards

2.  Cornell note-taking system – take notes in columns with key terms on one side and definitions/details on the other. Cover one column to quiz yourself.

• Distributed practice – spread your study over time
  
  1. Don't cram! Review notes every day or every other day.
  2. 30-days between sessions has been to improve memory better one day.
  3. To remember something for five years, review every 6 to 12 months.

Runners-Up

• Question and elaborate

1.  Questions yourself: Who did what and when? Why is this true? Why does this make sense?

2. Good for remembering facts, ie., details from a short story or novel; historical events

• Self-Explanation

1. another form of self-questioning
2. What new information does this give me? How does this relate to what I already know?

• Interleaved practice – for math

1. after learning how to solve a new type of problem, practice solving different types of problem in one study session.

*from Dunlosky, John, et al. "What works, what doesn't."  Scientific American Mind : behavior, brain science, insights Sept/Oct 2013 : 47-53. Print.