Study Smart
Strategies for Success
Academic Success
Amy Tucker, Director of Academic Success
tuckera@uiu.edu
Learning is Misunderstood
• Assumptions
• Should be fast and simple
• Being good at something takes talent
• A person can be good at multitasking when studying or in class
• Fluency and familiarity are equivalent to mastery and long-term retention
• Failure is bad
Learning is Misunderstood
• Instead:
• There are illusions of knowing
• Over-confidence: Self-awareness and self-regulation is often less than realized
• Students might be aware of, but do not understand, how cognitive processes work
together for information retention
Use Your Time Wisely
• Schedule time in your planner to study
• 30-60 minutes each day per class
• Longer periods of time a few nights before big exams
• Stick to that schedule
• Turn off phone
• Close personal websites
• Identify specific goals before that time
• Review notes
• Study vocab flashcards
Take Purposeful Notes
• Be conscious of your note-taking
• It’s easy to write things down without processing
• Make your notes complete so when you return to them you don’t have questions
• Don’t just rely on PowerPoint slides
• Avoid highlighting
• TAKE NOTES IN YOUR OWN WORDS!
• Write down thoughts you have while reading or listening to lecture
• Write down questions you have and listen for the answers or ask
Take advantage of your resources
• Instructors
• Visit their office hours
• Discuss the material with them
• Tutor Center & Writing Center
• Other students in your course may
be able to help explain something
in another way
Be Realistic
• Recognize optimal study times
• Don’t schedule 5 continuous hours
of study time
• Review daily to avoid all-nighters
• Give yourself breaks during long
periods
• 5-10 minutes for every 20-30 minutes
Choose a Good Location
• Distraction-free
• Close personal websites
• Turn off your phone or leave it in another room
• Turn off the TV, etc.
• Adequate space
• Desk or table where you can spread out all necessary materials
Retrieval Practice and Forced Recall
• Practice remembering what you are trying to learn in multiple ways
• Pull the information from memory in your own words
• The more times you practice from memory, the longer you will
retain the information
• Can take many forms
Prepare a Study Guide – Test Yourself
• Write questions based on lecture and your notes
• Write a question on one side of the page or flashcard and the
answer on the other side
• Break complex topics into simple questions
• Cover the answer and try to answer from memory
• Quiz yourself a few times a week
Keep Your Notes/Flashcards with You
• Take advantage of free time
• Time between classes
• If class gets out early or is cancelled
• If you’re waiting for the doctor, an oil
change, etc.
Group Study Sessions
• Each person identifies main points and create a study guide pre-meeting
• Discuss main points as a group and identify common points
• Compile one study guide
• Take turns quizzing each other – answer in your own words, force recall
• Explain topics to each other when one person doesn’t know the answer
Beware of familiarity
• Something might look familiar, so you stop practicing recall for
the topic
• Familiarity is often mistaken for recall.
• Example of this when studying flashcards you look at the answer
and tell yourself “Oh yeah, I knew that.”
• You definitely didn’t know it.
Spacing while studying
• This is why cramming doesn’t work
• Allows for consolidation
• Happens during sleep
• Allows for forgetting – which is good, because you get to
practice recall again!
Interleaving and difficulty
• Mixing up topics as a form of spacing
• Practicing different skills for a topic in shorter segments can help
you discriminate problem solving techniques later
• All of these practices come together in a desirably difficult way
• When studying requires a considerable amount of effort, you will
improve long-term performance
Reward Yourself
• Give yourself an appropriate award
• After you complete studying, watch a favorite show,
take a bubble bath, play a game, etc.
• If you get an A on an exam, get your nails done, go
to a movie, go to a sporting event etc.
• Retrieval Practice/Forced Recall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjrqc6UMDKM
• Effective Flashcards
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzCEJVtED0U
