by Judi Kesselman-Turkel and Franklynn Peterson
Effective study and test preparation guarantees good grades in school. Educators know that certain methods of study work best. But few schools teach students these best ways to read, listen and learn.
Take studying. A lot of research has proven that it's not how much time spent studying that counts, but what methods are used. In one important survey, students who studied more than 35 hours a week came out with poorer grades than those who studied less. The difference: the second group knew how to study.
Here are just seven easy ways to help your child – of any age – get more out of studying. (They're excerpted from Study Smarts (University of Wisconsin Press), a paperback that's already helped over 85,000 students of all ages in the U.S. and around the world.)
1. Take advantage of good old behavior modification. To make it work, ask junior to study the same subject at the same time in the same place each day. After a short while, just putting himself or herself in that time and place puts him or her automatically in the right subject groove.
Once the brain is trained to think French at a time-and-place cue, it no longer takes ten minutes a day to get in the mood for French. Your youngster saves time. He’ll no longer need emotional energy to psych himself up to the subject. And the experts say he'll also remember more of what he’s studying!
2. Allow your student to spend no more than an hour at a time on one subject. In fact, if it’s straight memorizing, she should stop studying after twenty or thirty minutes.
Here's why. First, when you give someone a time restriction, she uses the time better. (Did you ever notice how much studying you used to manage to cram in during the 24 hours before a big exam? That's why it's called cramming.)
Second, psychologists say a person learns best in short takes. In fact, studies show that youngsters learn as much in four one-hour sessions distributed over four days as in one marathon six-hour session. That's because between study times, as a person sleeps or eats or plays a video game, the subconscious mind works on absorbing what’s been learned. So that time counts as study time, too.
3. Give the kid frequent rest breaks. Bring in some cookies and milk. Let him pick up that comic once in a while. Many specialists say that ten-minute breaks between subjects keep a youngster alert and his mind in top working order.
Dr. Walter Pauk, who was for many years director of the Reading and Study Center at Cornell University, advises his students to take a brief break whenever they feel you need one, instead of at set time intervals, so that they don't end up clock-watching. Relax and give your kid those breaks she wants, too.
4. If your youngster’s mind tends to wander from her studies, help her begin with the most boring subject -- or the hardest one. Studying, like housework, is less of a chore if you work your way toward the easiest task or the one you like best.
5. Advise your youngster to keep space between study periods for courses with similar subject matter. Brain waves are like radio waves. If there isn't enough space between inputs, there’s interference--static. The closer the subjects are in similarity, the more interference. More learning gets through if an hour of math is followed with an hour of Spanish or history studying, not with physics.
6. Learn your youngster’s sleepy times and keep him from studying during those times. Research shows that everyone has a certain time of day for getting sleepy, a time when attention lapses despite our best efforts.
But warn the student not to take a snooze if it's not bedtime. It rarely makes students feel better. Instead, suggest running or playing ball or doing something else that’s active and can start the blood flowing again to the brain. If he’s faced with a pile of schoolwork and there’s no time for a run, it’s almost as helpful to take ten minutes out to sort notes or neaten a desk.
7. Most important, teach your youngster to study according to the type of course. If it's a lecture course, studying is most effective if it’s done soon after class. The best way: by reviewing, revising and organizing class and reading notes.
If it's a course where students are called on to recite or answer questions, studying’s best done before class, by memorizing and brushing up on the facts. Want to actively help the student? Prepare some questions as if you were the teacher and listen to the answers, even if you haven’t read the book. It’s a great way to help the material sink in. It pinpoints areas in which more work is needed. And it’s a fine, loving way in which to spend quality time with your youngster.
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Most of the preceding tips were excerpted from the book Study Smarts by Judi Kesselman-Turkel and Franklynn Peterson, which is used in schools and colleges through the U.S. and Europe. Published by the University of Wisconsin Press, it is sold through bookstores at $6.95. It is part of an eight-book series that includes Test-Taking Strategies, Note-Taking Made Easy, Research Shortcuts, Spelling Simplified, The Grammar Crammer, The Vocabulary Builder and Secrets to Writing Great Papers.