One Effective Study Strategy - Study Cards

Students in my classes are preparing for mid-term exams.  I asked them exactly what they did when they sat down to study and all I saw were blank stares.  A few students volunteered that they read the textbook and reread their notes, but that was it. 

When you study you need to use a variety of active strategies.  Just reading and rereading is not enough!  One strategy that is perfect is flash cards or study cards.  There are multiple reasons why they are so effective:

·         You rethink the material as you are making them.

·         They involve actually writing the material again.

·         If you like color you can color-code the cards.

·         You can be creative.  One student in an Art History class pasted pictures of the artwork on the front of the card and the information she needed to know on the back.

·         You can mix them up to be sure you are learning the information in different orders.  This is important as the exam questions may not be in the same order as the lecture notes.

·         You use movement by manipulating them, shuffling them, reordering them, etc.

·         They are portable, you can study them when you have a few extra minutes where ever you are.

·         You use the cards to test yourself and practice remembering the information.   This is critical – this is when the actual learning happens.  

When studying from the cards, don’t just read the front and read the back.  Use them as a self-test. Read the front, think about the answer and then check yourself.  Put the ones you know in one pile and the ones you do not know in another.  Keep going through the ones you don’t know until you can get them all.  Then, tomorrow, do it again.

You can also try Quizlet, an app that lets you make cards on your smart phone.  The program will shuffle the cards for you to vary the order and make various quizzes to test your learning.

The next two blogs will have more information about studying and learning.  Next week will be other strategies you can use when studying and the following one will be about the importance of repetition and spacing your studying over time.

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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.