AP Psychology: Forget What you know about studying?!

I really liked this article. I thought it was really interesting that so many psychologists had known all of this information about different study habits for so long, but we, as students and teachers, continue to use the same methods in terms of learning. I think our society is very much against change. Anything that is different seems to be looked upon as wrong and something that we should avoid. I really feel like a lot of these study habits would be helpful, especially for middle school aged children, when they have to prepare for tests. If we were taught these methods of studying when we were so young, I think high school is so stressful for so many people because most of us are not sure exactly how to study. I think the idea of studying alternating topics under an umbrella subject is really effective. When we just keep reading the same material over and over again, yes we may memorize, but that does not, necessarily, mean that we retain. One thing that really surprised me, however, was that changing the location in which you study can actually improve how much you retain! Effective studying, I think, is often times equated with a silent room or library, but this article taught me that quite the contrary is true.

I, actually, think our willingness to learn also affects how much we remember. When what we are learning is something that genuinely interests us, I think we are more inclined to retain information pertaining to that topic. I know from personal experience, when I study something to just get a good grade on the test, I do not actually remember that information past the test day. I think if certain teachers were able to teach more collaborative and interactive classes, their students would want to be more involved and, in turn, studying would not be as much of a chore for them.

Either my physics or pre-calc class could use some new study habits, in my opinion. I’m not much of a math person, and both subjects are, obviously, very heavily math based. I think if I were able to alternate some study habits, my overall feeling for the year and those classes would improve. This year is the first experience I’m going to have with both physics and pre-calc. I’m a little nervous about how I will do, but I think using the techniques this article presented could really improve how I perform in each class. English and lifestyles, in my opinion, would be difficult to change study habits for. I feel like english, and lifestyles, alike, are subjects that you need more expression rather than straight forward facts for; therefore, the type of studying suggested in the article I think would be difficult.