Studying: A Time to Organize

Once again, we find ourselves at that time of year, the time to study for exams. Many students believe that studying is merely about the retention of information. Of course, we need, as our ultimate goal to retain information, many other strategies are helpful to make this become possible.

First and foremost, time management is required. When you know that you have an exam on, for example, May 15th, you need to schedule extensive blocks of time to study. This studying should take place over many days and hours each week before the exam. Students should prepare themselves by blocking off time using an agenda or daytimer. The agenda/daytimer should make prepare the student for a considerable output of time over many days and weeks. You need to be prepared to fulfill your learning needs.

Why? When we learn, one of our aims should be to move information from short term to long term memory. This takes time. Information only moves into long term memory after repeated reviews of your study materials. Information in your long term memory will, of course, be more readily retained for your exams. Most students critically underestimate how much time is required to learn a subject throughly. The more complex and detailed a subject is, the more time should be spent reviewing and learning. Of course, if the student works in the field concerned, their familiarity with the information should assist them. Nevertheless, it never pays to cut corners.

Walker and Schonwetter quote McKeachie et. al as saying that studying is: "the active process that involves acquiring, organizing, and integrating information into memory." (Walker & Schonwetter, Success Secrets of University Students 156.) This organizing and acquired can be done in many ways. The text itself is organized in subtopics which can be helpful for the student as it illustrates how to divide the subject into subgroups and topics. For example, this might assist a student who is trying to write notes on a given subject.

Nonetheless,it is important to realize that students have many learning styles, not all of them related to writing outlines and notes. Some students learn better orally while others are highly verbal. Some students study best alone while others get a great deal out of working with groups. The important thing is to find a way to study that works best for you. If you work best with others, put together a study group. If you learn better orally, recite your note and listen to them on a recording. If you really like to prepare with outlines and like to organize your notes alone on paper or computer, you should prepare yourself to do just this. There is no correct answer here. The most important thing is to learn from experience and keep working on making a learning style that works for you.