Study = Learning + Review

I was talking with my grandson who is finishing seventh grade about what it means to “study.”   He had “looked over” his science notes, but was that really studying?  My reply was that what he did was “review” and he had yet to fully “study.”

So what is the difference? 

There are two parts to studying:

1. Learning – this is your initial and ongoing work with the information and is quite in depth.   You can use a variety of strategies to learn the material.  These include:

• Reading and note-taking
• Rereading
• Making Study Guides such as concept maps, charts, study cards, questions and answers
• Recitation – restating in your own words from memory
• Rewriting
• Working through practice problems

2. Reviewing – this is what you do to keep the information fresh in your memory after you have learned it.  Strategies to do this include:

• Recitation using the study guide you made during the learning stage
• Distributed practice – review the information for short periods spread out over time
• Rereading notes and/or study guides
• Practice problems
• Taking any practice quizzes or tests available through the textbook or your professor

You can see that this is quite time consuming, but learning does not happen quickly.  It takes time and effort.

Keep up the hard work!