For many students, an important test or major assignment comes with a sense of looming dread, like storm clouds gathering in the distance—but that doesn’t have to be the case. We asked local education experts to share their study tips. Among their advice: Students need coaching when it comes to studying efficiently. Otherwise, they end up thinking you’re either smart or you’re not—and don’t realize they can master the material. “It’s a skill,” says Tim Curdt, who teaches English at St. Louis University High School and is a study skills instructor for the Upward Bound program. “You can practice it.” Here are some other expert tips. Take note.
Tip 1: Eliminate distractions.
For many millennials, cellphones and social media are attention magnets. Here’s some helpful advice: Put. The. Phone. Down. “It’s important to have a quiet and focused place and time to do work,” says Macon Finley, assistant head of school and director of academics at John Burroughs School. “In this day and age, that means being able to eliminate social distractions. That could mean your phone stays in the kitchen while you’re working in your bedroom.”
Tip 2: Read relentlessly—but avoid rereading.
Like many other skills, reading well takes practice. Jody Wood, assistant professor in Saint Louis University’s College of Education and Public Service, suggests that students read textbooks, novels, newspapers—anything to build their vocabularies. And when test time rolls around, it’s important to actively read by highlighting or by writing notes in the margins.
“It gets them so much further in solidifying their understanding,” says Wood, “and moving it to a longer-term space in their brain.”
At the same time, it’s important for students to avoid rereading material. Mark McDaniel—a psychology professor at Washington University and co-director for the Center for Integrative Research on Cognition, Learning, and Education—has conducted extensive research on memory and learning. “Often, when we reread, we get cues that this information is familiar,” he says. “Those cues tell our system that we know it—they’re misleading.” If students do this, they’re not necessarily acquiring a better understanding of the material. Instead, he suggests that students generate questions from the reading and test themselves.
Tip 3: Study out loud.
“Try to explain to a friend what you’ve been studying,” McDaniel suggests. Or, if that’s not possible, students can explain it to themselves aloud—even if it seems awkward at first. McDaniel recalls one student who didn’t have anyone with whom to share the information—so he told it to the wall. No matter whom (or what) you explain it to, applying the material is a way to practice retrieving it, similar to how students retrieve it for an exam.
Tip 4: Spread the studying over time.
It might be tough, but fight the temptation to cram. Instead, space out work, whether you’re studying for a test or penning a paper. “Write a draft and have time to revise,” Finley says. Or study a little one day, then the next, then the next… That way, you can avoid piling all of it in one mass study session. “If you’ve done that,” says Finley, “the night before the test is not a big deal.”
Tip 5: Know which strategies work for you.
“If I could give the best tip of all, it would be to not assume what works for somebody else is going to work exactly for you,” says Whitfield School assistant principal Sara Rodney. “It’s helpful for kids to have an understanding of the way they learn.” When this clicks, students can find joy in learning—and they might just find particular areas of interest, ones that could lead to eventual careers or hobbies. “Pay attention to what you’re interested in,” Finley says. “That’s motivating in the long term.”
