With finals just around the corner, students are dreading the endless long hours that they will have to spend spend reviewing material, rereading chapters and probably crying. Luckily, there are some psychological hacks that can help make your studying more effective and slightly less painful.
1. Chunks and mnemonic devices are your friends.
Naturally, your brain gets overwhelmed by lots of scattered and disorganized information. However, it is very efficient at remembering grouped information. Therefore, creating “chunks,” or small units of letters to organize your information is a great way to ensure that your brain will remember it. For example, if you have to remember a definition, you can pick a few keywords from the definition and create a small word chunk out of it. Mnemonic devices work in a similar way and are great for remembering longer sections of information. Also, according to a concept called semantic distinctiveness, you are more likely to remember items that stand out in a series. This means that the more strange and unique you make your mnemonics, the better!
2. Put the more difficult information at the beginning and end of your study guide.
According to the primacy and recency effect, you are more likely to remember information that comes at the beginning and end of the series and are more likely to forget information in the middle. This means that if you put information that is more difficult to remember at the beginning and end of your study guide, you will be much more likely to recall it for your exam!
3. Make the information personally meaningful.
If you make information personally meaningful and connect it to aspects of your personal life, you are much more likely to remember it. A trick that is used by many memory geniuses in memory competitions is visualizing walking through your house with items that represent the information you are studying dispersed throughout it. For example, if you need to remember the different steps of communication and the first one is listening, you could imagine a giant ear at the foot of your doorstep after you walk into your house. This tactic has proven to be very effective, and hopefully it can help you too!
4. Do not cram!
Although procrastination is incredibly tempting when it comes to studying, it is never a good idea since you have to review a very large amount of information. According to the spacing effect in psychology, we retain information when we rehearse it over a long period of time. This means that the earlier you start studying, the better. It is also key to remember that it is better to study in smaller increments and take frequent breaks so that your brain can process the information you just studied as opposed to studying for hours on end. Fortunately, this method is also much less miserable.
5. At the exam, try to sit in the same seat as you do in class.
According to a psychological concept called context-dependent retrieval, it is easier to retrieve memories when you are in the same context that the memories were formed. So, if you are sitting in the same seat or general area as you do when you originally learn the information, you theoretically should be able to remember it better. Another similar tip is to chew the same flavor gum when studying as when you take the exam. Having the same taste in your mouth coupled with the repeated muscle memory can help you recall the information that you studied.
This technique is incredibly helpful for ensuring that you will be in a stable mental state during your test and for improving your confidence. Right before you go to sleep on the night before your test, visualize yourself taking the test in a calm and even happy manner. Picture yourself flipping through questions confidently and if you don’t get one, skipping it and coming back to it later. The more specific you are with your visualization (exact clothing you will be wearing, where you will be sitting), the more effective it will be.