5 Effective Studying Techniques

Hello colleagues, I'm currently teaching a bridge class which is preparing learners to enter a CNA training soon. The CNA training requires students to pass several exams. Plus, they will also take a CNA licensing test after completing the course. In order to pass these exams, using effective study techniques is clearly important!

I will be sharing Edward Kang's blog post, "5 Effective Studying Techniques," with the learners in my class tomorrow. In this article, Kang compares effective and ineffective ways to study. More and more we are learning that multi-tasking is not an effective way to get things done, including studying!

Kang highlights five research-based study techniques which I know will benefit my students.

Have you used any of these study techniques yourself? Have you encouraged learners to use any of them? Which of these strategies most stands out to you? Does anything surprise you in this blog post?

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, Teaching & Learning CoP

Comments

Hello colleagues, I shared Edward Kang's 5 effective study techniques with my class yesterday. One of the research-based study habits Kang describes is spaced practice. Research has shown that studying for shorter increments over time is more effective for retaining information than cramming, which is probably no surprise!

Kang offers an example of how to space out one's studying when using flashcards. Since we use flashcards regularly in my class, I was pleased to share this technique for how to use flashcards most effectively. 

Kang explains that students should plan to make 3 piles when they study their flashcards.

  1. The first pile is for cards they know immediately. These cards should be reviewed in 3 days.
  2. The second pile is for cards they have some trouble with. These cards should be reviewed in 2 days.
  3. The third pile is for cards they don't know at all. These cards should be reviewed the next day.

So instead of just making two piles of known and unknown cards and only rarely, if ever, reviewing cards that are known, this technique keeps recycling the cards to space out practice and keep the information fresh.

In my class we use 3 x 5 cards cut in half for flashcards. I give the learners a baggy to keep their cards, but now I'm giving them 3 baggies each so they can easily organize their cards into these 3 categories and space out their study. Rubber bands would work just as well!

Are you using flashcards as part of your practice? How are they working for the learners? I'd love to hear what other teachers think about how to encourage learners to space out their study, as well as  members' thoughts on Kang's other study techniques. 

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, Teaching & Learning CoP

 

Hi Susan - I have encouraged a couple of these study techniques with students. The two I found most useful, and yet the least familiar to students, are developing and answering their own test questions and paraphrasing/reflecting. Getting students to think about potential test questions puts them in a more active frame of mind than just reviewing notes or re-reading, which are passive forms of learning. I find that even when students don't write particularly strong or creative questions, just the act of thinking, "What might the teacher ask me?" is a useful approach and gets their brains thinking more deeply about the topic. 

And the reason I like the paraphrasing technique is the reason we have all heard many times - that we learn best when we teach a concept or skill to someone else. I encourage students to think of paraphrasing as writing an explanation to someone who isn't in this class but needs to understand the concept. Writing about what we've learned is a great skill for comprehension, so this technique is of double value to students, in my mind. 

Thanks for kicking off the discussion, Susan!