In the month of December, our kids’ scholastic focus turns to final papers and exams.
My girls help each other when it comes to crunch time for studying. Leslie, by agreement, changes Samantha’s Facebook password, thereby rendering Samantha unable to check on the all-important status of her 1,211 friends. Although somewhat drastic, Samantha’s actions remove the temptation of sneaking a quick peek when she should be totally focused on finals. Leslie leaves her laptop at home, opting instead to study from her textbooks and whatever she has printed off the Web.
Project Information Literacy, a national research study group out of the University of Washington, analyzed challenges students face because the devices they depend on can also cause a huge distraction and concluded: “Figuring out how to balance productivity and social diversion despite the temptations of their technology is one of the most significant challenges of being a student in the digital age.”
The findings suggested that students are indeed able to meet this challenge in that they “get down to the nitty gritty demands of preparing assignments and studying for classes and exams while in the campus library, which they feel is a safe harbor from everyday distraction.”
The students believed the atmosphere in the library made them feel more studious and afforded a quiet place to concentrate while still providing access to necessary technology, including printers and scholarly research databases. It also inspired the pared-down use of personal technology.
Research on the best study techniques has corroborated that a reduction in distractions caused by music, texting, and TV will improve the ability to remember material. Some students believe (like my eldest who prefers the “background noise” in Starbucks) that they are studying with full concentration and aren’t being distracted by the sounds of a noisy cafe.
To the contrary, research by Nicole Dudukovic, assistant professor at Trinity College, concluded that while “the sounds may make them feel more relaxed, they won’t help them ace the test.”
Another effective study technique is to test yourself repeatedly so the brain will retrieve and apply knowledge from memory. According to Jeffrey Karpicke, assistant professor at Purdue University, understanding broader concepts is more effective than re-reading notes or memorizing facts out of a textbook.
He states that “if you are facing a test on the digestive system, practice explaining how it works from start to finish rather than studying a list of its parts.”
All-nighters have been proven to lower grades and impair reasoning and memory for several days after. Alternatively, Dan Taylor, director of a sleep-health research lab at the University of North Texas, suggests reviewing the toughest material right before sleep so it is easier to recall, and to avoid waking up early to study as that could interfere with REM sleep that aids memory.
Mom’s Rx (with help from my favorite students):
