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2 Important Strategies for Effective Studying
Every college student and high school student believes he or she has honed
a set of highly ef f ective, usef ul study skills. I used re-reading, lots of
summarizing, note-taking (and outlining), and taking the little tests you would
of ten f ind at the end of a chapter to help me remember the material I just
read.
Nobody taught me how to study this way. It was just something I did through
trial and error in trying and discarding multiple techniques. For instance, I tried
highlighting, but it did little f or me.
Of course, psychologists and other scientists have been testing ef f ective
study techniques now f or decades. Being f ar more clever than I, they’ve
actually run such techniques through the research ringer, and have come out
with some ef f ective study strategies.
Just last month, another group of researchers decided to take a look at all
of that research, and boil down what we know about the most ef f ective
methods f or studying. Here’s what they f ound.
Researchers led by John Dunlosky (et al. 2013) f rom Kent State University decided to take a critical look at the
10 most common learning techniques available to students and see whether they had strong or little backing in
the research literature. T he study methods examined were:
1. Elaborative interrogation — Generating an explanation f or why an explicitly stated f act or concept is
true
2. Self-explanation — Explaining how new inf ormation is related to known inf ormation, or explaining
steps taken during problem solving
3. Summarization — Writing summaries of to-be-learned texts
4. Highlighting/underlining — Marking potentially important portions of to-be-learned materials while
reading
5. Keyword mnemonic — Using keywords and mental imagery to associate verbal materials
6. Imagery for text — Attempting to f orm mental images of text materials while reading or listening
7. Rereading — Restudying text material again af ter an initial reading
8. Practice testing – Self -testing or taking practice tests over to-be-learned material
9. Distributed practice – Implementing a schedule of practice that spreads out study activities over time
10. Interleaved practice — Implementing a schedule of practice that mixes dif f erent kinds of problems, or
a schedule of study that mixes dif f erent kinds of material, within a single study session.
So unbeknownst to me at the time, I was engaging in a combination of the above learning techniques while in
school — summarization, rereading, and practice testing. I also tried to distribute my studying over time, and
not try and cram right bef ore a test (although I probably was only marginally successf ul in adhering to that
desire).
At least one of my techniques was deemed ef f ective by the researchers — practice testing. T he other
technique that received across-the-board high grades was distributed practice.
According to the researchers, both techniques have been shown to boost students’ performance
across many different kinds of tests, and their effectiveness has been repeatedly demonstrated for
students of all ages.
Some common study techniques used by most students didn’t receive such high marks f or ef f ectiveness:
In contrast, five of the techniques received a low rating from the researchers. Interestingly, these
techniques are some of the most common learning strategies used by students. Such ineffective
strategies include: summarization, highlighting and underlining, and rereading.
“I was shocked that some strategies that students use a lot — such as rereading and highlighting —
seem to provide minimal benefits to their learning and performance,” Dunlosky said. “By just
replacing rereading with delayed retrieval practice, students would benefit.”
Indeed, students probably relay on tasks like highlighting and rereading because they are the easiest to do
while actively studying. It’s so easy to whip out a highlighter and believe that by actively marking a passage, it’s
somehow seeping into your brain cavities like syrup does into those little waf f le compartments.
Sadly, that’s not the case. You might as well just snif f the highlighter f or all the good highlighting does in
helping you study.
Other techniques that got mixed but generally positive reviews include interleaved practice, self -explanation
and elaborative interrogation. Mnemonics are likely helpf ul f or some key concepts (you can’t get through
medical school without them), but not as a general study technique.
And rereading (which 65 percent of college students admit to using) can’t hurt you if the material is dense and
dif f icult and you didn’t quite get it the f irst time around. But don’t kid yourself into believing that rereading is as
good as taking a practice test or spreading studying over time. (And generally, you only need to re-read a text
passage once; multiple rereading ef f orts don’t usually help with comprehension.)
So there you have it — f ocus on practice testing and studying evenly over the course of the entire
semester. T hose techniques are going to be the most time-ef f ective and the best use of your brain cells.
Read the f ull article: What Study Strategies Make the Grade?
Reference
Dunlosky, J. Rawson, K.A., Marsh, E.J., Nathan, M.J. & Willingham, D.T. (2013). Improving Students’ Learning With
Ef f ective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions From Cognitive and Educational Psychology. Psychological
Science in the Public Interest, 14, 4-58.
Footnotes:
Dr. John Grohol is the f ounder & CEO of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and
expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and
psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since
1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and
Social Networking and is a f ounding board member and treasurer of the Society f or
Participatory Medicine.
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 8 Feb 2013
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APA Reference
Grohol, J. (2013). 2 Important Strategies f or Ef f ective Studying. Psych Central. Retrieved on January 10, 2014,
f rom http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/02/08/2-important-strategies-f or-ef f ective-studying/