The Two Most Effective Study Strategies.

We all know a way to study, especially when tests are upon us.  When I was in college, we highlighted, we read and reread the books, we deciphered our notes, all the night before in the hopes we'd remember enough to pass the test.  Since then research has been done to determine which strategies are the best.

One of the best ways to improve student performance is to provide frequent tests/quizzes rather than one for the end of the unit.  Students who used this method to study for their major tests, discovered they'd perform better than their classmates who used more traditional ways of study.  With the internet, it is easy to find all sorts of practice tests, either paper or online, to try.  As teachers we shouldn't be afraid of interweaving short ungraded quizzes throughout the unit.

In addition, a quizzing oneself does not just use traditional quizzes or tests but can include where the student hides information and tries to recall it or creates 3 x 5 cards or digital cards with questions based on the material they can use to test themselves. They should continue using these flash cards until they can easily answer the questions. As a teacher we can encourage students to leave space in their notes either to the side or on the backside where they can try a practice test based on the notes.  The same can be said of notes.  If a student keeps testing themselves on their notes until they can recall the material, they stand a much better chance of recalling the information during a test.

Next is distributed practice which in math means instead of doing all the same type of problem at once before moving on, they work one problem, then the next type of problem, then another type of problem until they've worked their way through all the types of the problem before starting again.  This has a much better chance of having students really learn the material.

This can be applied to preparing for a test by reading and rereading notes over a period of several nights rather than cramming the material in over a span of several hours the night before the test.  Research has found that if students take the time they'd spend cramming and spreading it out over several nights, they will learn the material better.

Although students might disagree, feeling they know the material well using traditional methods, research indicates actual learning takes much longer and if a child struggles, they are learning the material better.  The cramming method just has them recognizing the material for the moment but they have not had the time to properly transfer the material into long term memory

If you take time to teach study skills in your math class, these are the two that should be taught first because research shows they are the most effective ones.  Tomorrow, I'll look at those strategies that are totally ineffective.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.