Five (5) Tips for Studying Smarter

If you, or your child, have an impression that studying should be intense and time consuming to be effective, guess again. Natalie Dean, of the Danville Walnut Creek Center, states that studies show that the most successful students don’t necessarily study harder, but smarter. Here are a few tips to make the very most of study sessions:

Plan ahead. Cramming is the enemy of the strong student. Repeated reviewing of material is more effective at helping students recall and remember information. Your child will be more successful if he or she studies once a day for seven days prior to a test as opposed to just one seven-hour study session the day before.

Read the right way. Your child can retain what he or she reads by practicing active reading, or reading with purpose. That means previewing a text for information, writing down any questions or ideas before diving in, identifying key terms or information while reading, recalling information and self-checking at natural stopping points along the way (such as the ends of sections or chapters), and reading summaries carefully at the end of each session.

Practice self-testing. Taking periodic quizzes and tests while studying new material helps students remember information, and particularly by continuing to test information after it has been learned. Children can jot down questions as they read their text or notes to assemble a self-test to take later. Encourage your child to always draw from information that the teacher has noted as important (rather than random or obscure passages in the textbook).

Don’t waste time on futile practices. Certain popular study techniques have actually been found by researchers to be largely ineffective. Highlighting is a tool that many students rely upon to identify important information, but if a student highlights too much or too little or focuses on the wrong information, it can be counterproductive. The use of keyword mnemonics to memorize information is another study trick that has been proven to be unproductive, especially for the level of effort required. Your child should embrace study practices that yield results and do away with those that do not.

When in doubt, turn to the teacher. Memorizing notes or chapter summaries is not the best way to learn information and certainly not the best way to review it either. If the teacher doesn’t initiate such a conversation in class, your child should arrange a time to talk with the teacher about what is most important to focus on while preparing for a test.

Studying does not come naturally to every student, and while your child might have good intentions, these strategies will help him or her prepare for tests more efficiently and more effectively. At Huntington, we teach the Note Taking, Organization skills, Outlining skills to our students because we truly believe that "Studying Smarter accelerates learning and retention" and is a life skills that every student must have to succeed for college and beyond.

Warmest regards,

Natalie Dean

Center Director