The past two weeks in my Learning Strategies clasess we have been working on Memory and Learning Strategies. Here is the first part of the list. Check back next week for the rest.
Get enough sleep. We now know that getting adequate sleep is extremely important to all stages of learning - paying attention in class, studying and test-taking. The average young adult needs 7-9 hours of sleep a night. If you are not getting enough, consider going to bed earlier and keeping a regular sleep schedule.
Review and learn the information soon after you receive it. This is one mistake many of my students on academic probation made in the past. They did nothing with the lecture notes from their classes - not even reading them over - until the night before the exam. Learning requires repetition, so study your notes frequently as the semester moves along.
Recitation (restating in your own words from memory) - What you are really doing is practicing recalling the information as you will be asked to do on the exam. After you read a section of notes or your textbook, look away and try to restate what you just learned. Repeat until you can do it!
Chunking - Your working memory can only handle so much information at a time, so don't try to learn an entire chapter or 10 pages of notes at once. Break it down into logical, manageable parts and learn each one, then review the whole.
These four learning strategies will make a major change in your learning and, following that, in your grades. Try them this week and then we will add more next week.
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First Semester Success: Learning Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (or Any Semester) of College, by Dr. Arden B. Hamer, is available at amazon.com, wordassociation.com and barnesandnoble.com. Click on the upper right link.
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