These Are Not The Best Study Strategies.

 Yesterday, I looked at the best study strategies but there are two that should be thrown out completely and they are ones that I grew up with and I'm sure many of you did too.

First is rereading the material.  This is a very popular strategy with 84% of surveyed students using it but it does not enhance student learning because this method does not transfer the information into long term memory. 

This is one of those techniques, I learned when I was in high school but a lot of research has happened since I graduated and its one I tend to use when I'm making my own notes so I restudy the information.

Next is the use of highlighters to illuminate important passages.  This does absolutely nothing and according to one study, students who did this, performed worse on tests that required people to make inferences.  It is thought that when they highlight something they are not making connections with other parts of the text. 

I admit, this was a technique I never did because I hated messing up the perfectly white page with yellow.  The other thing is that if you ever bought used textbooks in college, they were often highlighted and the material highlighted was never what I thought important.  I'm sure many of you felt the same.

Summarizing the main ideas of the text appears to work if students are taught how to effectively paraphrase the ideas.  The key here is that students need to be coached in this strategy.  The training begins with students learning to summarize short paragraphs, before moving on to longer sections, eventually learning to do complete chapters.  The amount of training needed may make this strategy one that is not taught immediately.

This was never considered a study strategy when I was in school because its something you did in your English class, never when preparing for a test.  So its not one I ever learned.

Another technique requires students to visualize the content of the material they are studying.  Linking a visual with the content can help retain the material a bit longer but it only works with text that is too complex.  Unfortunately, it only appears to work for a short time after reading the material and the benefits do not last.  It is also harder for younger children to do because they often have trouble coming up with images for certain things.

The final technique is called keyword mnemonic where people link images together for words or idea. This often works well when taking a foreign language or working on vocabulary.  Otherwise, it doesn't help students for more than a short time.

I hope you learned something new in this today.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear. Have a great day.