In contrast to non-empirical, “self-help” style student guides to
studying, a wealth of empirical research suggests that good study
behaviors predict academic success but they do not provide specific prescriptions of how exactly students
should study. That said, the breadth of research provides some key
suggestions that faculty can use to help students improve their study
techniques.
1. Find Out How the Student Has Been Studying.
Possible questions include:
- Did you read the assigned chapters before the test?
- Did you read them before you came to class, after, or just before the exam?
- How much time did you devote to studying for the test?
- Did you read these chapters once, or more than once?
2. Check Attendance and Note Taking Practices.
Assuming
that the student attends class regularly, you might ask the following:
Do you take good notes? Do you review your notes after class to correct
obvious errors? Do you compare your notes with those of other students?
Where do you sit in the classroom? You may also want to look at the
quality of the student’s notes and suggest changes (e.g., leaving more
space, use of topic headings, writing down of examples used by the
instructor).
3. Suggest Healthy Behaviors.
Ask how much sleep the
student gets, how much they got the night before the exam, and if they
are getting any exercise and eating properly. (This might provide an
opportunity to review the effects of sleep on memory formation.)
4. Recommend Tutoring.
If tutors are available, encourage their use. If not, ask if the student has tried studying with other students.
5. Discuss Recognition Versus Knowing.
Describe the
difference between going over material enough that one can “recognize”
the material as very familiar and prematurely conclude that it is known
and understood, and really knowing and understanding it. (You might even
mention Ebbinghaus and the benefits of over learning, or work on the
“curse of knowledge” showing that students often think they know the
material if the material is right there in front of them.)
6. Urge Self-Assessment.
One easy strategy is to
give your students access to an established and free study behavior
measure (e.g., ASSIST) and have them use it to get a sense of what they
are not doing (Entwistle, 2009).
7. Discuss Winning Strategies.
Hattie (2009)
synthesized research from over 800 meta-analyses relating to educational
achievement. He then derived the effect sizes for different
interventions. Intervening to improve study behaviors was a significant
factor with an effect size of .59. This meta-analysis and other works on
study techniques (Gurung, 2004, 2005) show that the following specific
strategies are empirically proven to work and hence useful to pass on to
students:
- Schedule daily studying and homework time
- Make lists of things to accomplish during studying
- Put off pleasurable events until work is completed
- Read the textbook (!!)
- Review the class textbook/assignments before going to class
- Create mnemonics and vivid mental images to aid learning
- Memorize the material through repetition
- Generate examples to apply the material
- Record information relating to study tasks (e.g., keeping a study log)
- Self-verbalize the steps to complete a given task
- Use chapter review questions to self test
- Use a study partner
- Review the items missed on the exam, including items guessed at
- Make an outline before writing a paper
- Check work before handing in an assignment
8. Advise Students on what NOT to do.
Previous
research suggests that students take some “dangerous detours”: study
techniques that may not be beneficial involving more study time at the
expense of other techniques (Gurung, 2004, p. 164). Sadly, such detours
could represent behaviors used by academically weaker students. Whereas
the academically stronger students may not take time on behaviors such
as going over chapters right after a lecture in lieu of doing so right
before an exam, the weaker students may go over the chapters at both
times.
In support of this point, Landrum, Turrisi, and Brandel (2006)
found that A and B students tended to increase their frequency of
studying as the semester progressed, but they decreased the actual time
spent studying per study event (p. 681). (Another testimony to the
benefits of distributed vs. massed practice.) Students who are doing
poorly may try to improve by doing more of the unsuccessful types of
studying they have been doing, rather than trying other techniques. Key
behaviors students should avoid are:
- Spending too much time on key terms or summaries to the extent of paying less attention to other pedagogical aids (e.g., review questions)
- Highlighting too much text (i.e., not knowing what the important information really is), thus increasing study load
- Using chapter review questions (and their answers) as more content to study versus using them to test their own knowledge
- “Studying with a friend” where this does not involve testing each other, taking review questions, creating examples, or reviewing notes
- Listening to music, watching television, text messaging, or surfing the Internet while studying
9. Assess Your Own Students’ Study Behaviors.
Correlate
the behaviors with exam scores and identify what behaviors are
associated with better scores. Share this with the students to help them
modify their study behavior. For example the first author created a
35-item Study Behavior Checklist based on previous research and student
interviews (Gurung et al., in press).
The items assessed students’ organizational behaviors (e.g., writing down when exams, assignments, and quizzes are due, setting up a study schedule), application behaviors (e.g., creating questions about the material), elaboration behaviors (e.g., paraphrasing the material, explaining it to another person), metacognitive behaviors (e.g., using the book and/or Web site for quizzes), and resource use behaviors (e.g., asking a fellow classmate to explain the material) on a scale ranging from 1 (Not at all like me) to 5 (Exactly like me).
10. Do not expect a silver bullet.
It is important
to bear in mind that there are no strategies that work all of the time,
for all students, in all classes. Different exams call for different
strategies. It is possible that introductory psychology multiple choice
exams require only basic study behaviors, whereas an upper-level essay
exam will need different behaviors.
In general, instructors need to be cognizant of how much of the
advice they give to students is empirically proven to work in an actual
classroom rather than a controlled cognitive psychology laboratory
study. Asking students to complete a study skill inventory after the
first exam may provide instructors with a starting point to discussing
study behaviors with students. Taking some class time to discuss the
variety of study techniques, and then detailing what exactly is involved in each method,
may be critical to helping students do better. We hope these
suggestions prove helpful when the next student asks you how to study
for your exams and that their performance improves as a result of your
advice.
