Study Desk

Have you ever had the feeling that something was on the tip of your tongue, but couldn’t quite manage to remember it properly? Especially during an exam?

For most of us, it’s true to say that there is nothing wrong with our memory. I’ll bet you have no problem remembering your phone number, or your address, right? So the mechanics are there. And there’s plenty of room for more information.

The problem usually lies with the actual attention to and absorption of the information, rather than the recall. If you find you can’t remember a detail, or finish a math problem, or experience a ‘blank’ in an exam even though you ‘thought you knew it’, then what has probably happened is that you may have understood the gist of the topic, and felt comfortable with it as you read it or listened to it during a lesson, but you never properly challenged yourself to reproduce it on your own with no help. Or possibly, you heard the beginning and the end, but daydreamed away the middle.

So you need to improve on two things – your attention, and your absorption of the new knowledge. Both these can be improved by adopting a more active rather than a passive approach to your lectures and study material.

It won’t be easy at first – passively reading or lazily listening are much easier – but the return you’ll get will be worth it. With time and effort not to slip back into old habits it will also become second nature to you and you will get the results you want in less time.

The best way you can make your study more active is to continually test yourself on what you’ve heard. Summarise it. Question it. Ask yourself how much is already familiar and how much is new. If you are reading, check again to remind yourself of the parts you can’t remember or reread the parts you don’t understand. If it’s a lecture make quick notes to either ask about it or research it later.

Being actively involved will improve your attention, draw your attention to whether you have absorbed the details or not and allow you to rectify it and, as a bonus, I guarantee it will make your study more interesting and rewarding!

Now, I know you might be thinking that this is nothing new and that you’ve heard it all before, but this is the point that separates the successful students from the mediocre.

Successful students will be grateful for the reminder, and decide to re-apply themselves to this way of studying if they have slipped out of the habit.

Others will complain that this is not new and go look for some other ‘secret’ to success in their studies. They have heard it all before, but have never really and honestly tried it properly – because if they had, they would be in the first category! They would have realised the value of it and have benefited from it already. They would have experienced some of the success they seek already.

If you try it, you will see!

So make a commitment to yourself to start today, with your next study session. Don’t just read through the material passively. Stop at regular intervals and test yourself on what you’ve learned. Do it for a couple of weeks to change your habits and you will see the difference.

By: Steve Bracken