Research based ways on how to study effectively

How To Study Effectively

How to study effectively is working smarter and not harder. It is not time intensive. Effective study is spaced out over a period of time. Researched-based strategies such as pre-testing, spaced practice, limiting distractions, and retrieval practice are but a few we will cover here.

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I remember sitting down with a parent during parent-teacher conferences. The parent asked how her student could improve her grade. This particular student was bombing each and every test they had taken thus far. My simple, uninformed answer at the time was to have the student study effectively before a test. Then came the question that changed everything for me and my students. “How does it look to study effectively?”

Seriously, though. How does it look to study effectively? Are we born with an innate instinct to know how to study effectively? Does this mean hours and hours of sitting at the table reading and re-reading a textbook? Does it mean reading over notes at least 10 times? Wait. Maybe 12 times is the magic number. Does it mean highlighting said notes in 5 different colors? Or maybe it means studying one concept until it is mastered and then moving on to another concept.

One thing was clear to me after that meeting. I needed to learn how to study effectively before I could teach it. If I wanted to empower my students with effective study skills, which I did, I needed to come up with some tips and advice on how to study effectively. I needed research-based strategies that were proven to work.

When learning how to study effectively, teachers can help!

In my quest to learn how to study effectively, I realized that effective study is not time intensive. In fact, learning how to study effectively in less time was proving to more simple than I thought. Effective study is spaced out over time. Effective study is focused and distraction-free.

When students are learning how to study effectively and remember, here are 4 simple ways a teacher can help:

Give pre-tests. Even if students answer the questions wrong (which the majority will), give them the test anyway. Follow up this pre-test with instruction and feedback (deliver your lesson). Research shows that students who have a pre-test, followed up by instruction and feedback have a greater recall. This is known as the testing effect. You can read more about this here.
Incorporate spaced learning into your everyday teaching routine. Meaning, before you dive into the day’s lesson, stop and reflect. Say, “Before we start today, I want to review what we learned last week”. This is known as spaced practice or retrieval practice. It is bringing information that a student has learned previously to the forefront of their brain. By simply modeling this strategy in class, students will have an example to follow at home when studying for an exam. You can read more about this here.
Assign homework on topics that were previously covered. This way, you are incorporating a natural spiral review into your curriculum. This spiral review is also a form of retrieval practice.
Dig deeper. As students work in teams encourage them to ask questions such as:

“WHY did this chemical reaction happen?”
“HOW did it happen?”
“WHAT were the variables leading up to it?”
“WHAT were the results? “
How can two different concepts be connected? How do these two concepts build upon each other? How are they different from each other?

The critical piece to diving in deeper is that students then go back to their notes and textbooks. They will naturally want to ensure that they are making the proper connections. By doing so, they are remembering and retrieving the material correctly.

How to Study Effectively in Less Time, aka the Study Guide

As students are learning how to study effectively, we have a responsibility to provide scaffolding to our students as they learn. One simple way to do that is to provide a study guide. The study guide does not need to be elaborate. As a matter of fact, simple and consistent is better.

In answer to this parent’s question, “How does it look to study effectively?” I developed a study guide. It was simple with actionable items to hit each of the learning modalities.

Once I started using this study guide in class, I noticed students coming in on test day more confident. I saw an increased effort in their science journals. They were beginning to figure out that the effort they put into their journals helped them later on. I had parents tell me that when asking their students if they needed help studying, their students’ reply was, “No, I’ve got this. I have my strategies.”

Here are some things to consider as you plan your study guide:

Allow time for students to space their studying out over a period of time. Consider providing a study guide several weeks prior to a test. I simply posted the study guide to my Canvas page. That way, students had access to it whenever they wanted it.
Ensure that the material in your study guide has been covered in class. This is not a time to introduce new concepts. Whether you use interactive notebooks or simply have students take notes, make sure what information is in your study guide can be found somewhere within their notes.
Break up the study guide into chunks. A comprehensive study guide can be a daunting thing for a student to look at, much less knowing how to start. For example, assign them to have section a-b completed by Wednesday.

Here are 7 ways to spice up your study guide:

- Provide visuals such as infographics, models, charts, graphs, cartoons, and diagrams. Students then explain this visual, in their own words, to their pet rock, stuffed animal, etc. This process reinforces the concept in their brain through two different paths, thus making it easier to remember.
- Include links to pertinent videos that can help them review a topic/concept. Students then organize their learning by filling in a graphic organizer.
- Have students act out how a chemical reaction may look like, or model rotation and revolution with their body as they describe it to a sibling or adult.
- Include models/diagrams that students can annotate with the information they know (or information they look up in their notes).
- Make flashcards for topics F-J. Provide ways to actually use the flashcards. For example, divided flashcards into 3 groups. Pile 1: cards were answered correctly. Revisit this pile in 3 days. Pile 2: cards were answered with some difficulty. Revisit this pile in 2 days. Pile 3: cards answered incorrectly. Revisit this pile the next day. This is a form of retrieval practice. Another method to use flashcards is to answer the question on the front of all the flashcards. Then, go back through and read the answer for each question on the back of the flashcards. A final way to use flashcards is to incorporate “action cards” in the mix. These actions could be “pick two cards and tell how they are similar” or “pick two cards and tell how they are different”.
- Provide a time frame to accomplish a given task. For example, “Watch this 5-minute video and draw a concept map of what it talked about”. This method helps students to stay focused on the task at hand.
- Include a ”you are the teacher’ section. After studying a concept, or reading a paragraph in a textbook, students will then re-teach it. This can be as simple as re-teaching the concept to a sibling or a stuffed animal. Another way of reteaching is to have students write down a few sentences about what they just learned and how they made a connection to it. How does this new concept relate to what they already know?

How to Study Effectively Without Distraction

As you talk with students about how to study effectively without distraction at home, here are some points you may want to discuss:

Silence isn’t always golden. Find what works best for you. Soft classical music? Instrumental music?
Leave your phone in another room.
Avoid multitasking. It makes your brain stop and then forces it to refocus over and over again. Study for less time, but have it be more focused. Instead of studying for 2 hours with distractions, study for 30 minutes with no distractions.
Don’t open new tabs on your computer.
Set a timer to get a certain amount of studying done in the time specified.
Give yourself breaks.
Clean up your work area.
Hungry? Eat before you start studying.

In Summary…

When teaching students how to study effectively, space it out over time. Teachers can give pre-tests and incorporate spaced learning into their everyday routines. Teachers can also include a spiral review in their homework practice. Teach students how to dig a little deeper in their team discussions. Teachers can provide a scaffolded study guide to students well in advance of the test date. Included were 7 different ways to spice up your study guide. Finally, we discussed 8 different ways a student can study distraction-free. Here is a FREE guide with several free platforms you could use to help you create those awesome study guides we’ve talked about.

Happy studies!