How do you study for exams? Are you using evidence-based strategies? Did you know there are ways to study that improve exam scores? Educational psychologists and others have researched study strategies extensively, and their findings show that some approaches consistently produce higher test exam scores.
Prior to a scheduled exam, student prepare a study game plan. They describe how they would normally study for an exam in this course. Then they select two research-based study strategies, not regularly used, and agree to try them out as they prepare for the
I used to question my students’ use of flash cards. Yes, I could see their value in language learning, but in a beginning communication course? In developmental English? My concerns did rest on a bit of academic elitism. I thought college students should be using
This summary highlights an article in which Kornell and Bjork, educational psychologists, review findings mostly from their own research. Their work explores “self-regulated study,” which involves “decisions students make while they study on their own away from a teacher’s guiding hand” (p. 219). It’s a
A number of resources that we’ve published address student study strategies, particularly the ones they don’t use that research says do connect to learning. (See the links at the end of the article.) In a nutshell, students gravitate toward passive study strategies, and those don’t
Most students arrive in our classrooms without particularly strong study skills. They procrastinate and overestimate what they know or can cram into their heads before the exam. If they read, they spend lots of time haphazardly highlighting long passages. And they equate memorization with understanding.
I’m on a quest for ways to get students using those study strategies that make them better learners. When the strategy goes by the label “test-enhanced learning” it isn’t an easy sell, and it’s even harder when students find out that means asking and answering
I recently reread an old post I wrote way back in 2011. The issue is still salient—how students intend to study for exams and how they actually do. Most students have good intentions regarding exam preparation. If asked, they will tell you they plan to
I’m sure you’ve noticed that student interest perks up whenever there’s a mention of potential test questions. I wonder if we could be taking more advantage of that interest. Truth be told, we should be as interested in these questions as students are. Studying by
Do these learning devices deserve a bigger space in our instructional tool boxes? They’re sort of taken-for-granted aspects of teaching and learning. We know where they belong: at the end or beginning of a session, a topic, a unit/module, a chapter, a set of related
