SCIENTIFICALLY STUDYING BETTER

BY IRENE CHO | PHOTOS BY LAUREN SONG

It’s a hard fact that IB requires students to study for passing grades. And if there’s one thing that I learned in my four years at SFHS, it’s that studying for long periods of time is not equivalent to a better grade. As many people say, “work smarter, not harder”. Thus, here are a couple of scientifically proven study methods and my honest two cents that may allow you to be more productive during your study sessions.

This is a fairly common study method where you study for 30-minute intervals and take a 10-minute break in between. Studies say that this is a great way for students to feel less overwhelmed with the amount of work that they need to complete as they can memorize new content in chunks rather than all at once. Personally, I can’t study like this. One needs an immense amount of self-control to pull this off. During the 10-minute break, once I’m on my phone, scrolling through Instagram, I will spend the next 20 minutes glued to my phone. But for people with better self-control, interval studying may be fit for you!

This study method is a fight against procrastination. Instead of pushing off studying a week or even days before your test, you might find it less stressful to cover the reviewed content a couple of times after you initially learned it to ensure that you thoroughly understand the concept. A 2014 study conducted by Allison Preston states that this study method may allow you to become better at remembering the content because reinforcing the memories makes them stronger. It also helps understanding future content to become easier as well. I tend to use this study method for biology while doing my mandatory Kognity textbook reading and have found this habit effective for memorizing chapters of information as it creates a sturdy base for future content.

I don’t exercise at home, so I have no prior experience to give my opinion on this study method. However, multiple studies have suggested that exercising even 20 minutes before your study session may improve concentration, energy, mood, and memory from the increased blood flow to the brain and increased production of endorphins and proteins. If you find it difficult to concentrate while you study, this habit may be something you should try out!

This habit is a give or take. I use it to study psychology and biology because physically re-drawing pictures by hand helps me memorize diagrams. When planning out SAQs and ERQs in psychology, or essay questions in biology, I always make sure to write down the content on either a notebook or iPad to test my memory and to figure out what key information I am missing. For more problem-solving-based courses like physics and math, I find that rather than rewriting notes, it’s better to solve multiple problems to understand how to use and apply concepts. Nevertheless, if you are forgetting key rules and formulas, it may help to rewrite them by hand as studies suggest that retrieving the information from your long-term to short-term memory through rewriting allows you to memorize such content easier.

Science suggests that the way you read text on paper is different from reading words on a screen. In fact, some even say that using screens requires more repetition to remember the information you just read. This may be your sign to grab those heavy IB textbooks and use them when you study. Admittedly, I do not use these textbooks myself. Nonetheless, when I study, I make sure to print out my notes so that I can annotate and revise them. I can reaffirm that based on my experience, reading on paper does seem more effective than reviewing my notes on the ipad. For those who use electronics to study, why not give this a try?