Work Smarter, Not Harder: study tips psychology taught me
study in shorter intervals and take breaks (ie, 40 minutes studying and 20 minutes break)
during your break don’t watch tv or surf the internet. get outside if you can and go for a walk. or at least listen to some instrumental music and walk around your hall. or meditate or do some art. anything that doesn’t require super directed attention. this allows your attention to be replenished. it’s like a muscle and you gotta give it time to rest. tv doesn’t allow for that.
relate the information to yourself and your life. creating visual images will improve your memory.
when studying, take notes by hand and put them in your own words. generating material yourself will encode the material better in your brain, and you’ll remember it better
don’t just reread, rehearse! quiz yourself on the materials. if you use a visual image “memory palace” technique, walk yourself through it. you’re likely to remember information you’ve tested yourself on better.
organizing information into groups that make sense create more connections in your brain and allow you to remember things better. the more meaningful connections you make, the better.
make sure the last thing you do before bed is study. no phone, no netflix. your brain will process what you’ve just done while you sleep and this improve recall.
(feel free to add any!)
• video game music helps. its designed to keep you engaged on the task at hand or dubstep. if you’re someone really into games, like me, the music will distract you. i listen to “ambient bass for studying” on google play that helps to keep me focused for a full hour. •when summarizing your notes from a text book, it should fit onto a sticky note. if it can’t, make it shorter and THEN put it onto lined paper and make it pretty whatever helps you to remember. same with lecture notes, summarize each chunk into a few sentences and then make it pretty on another paper.
