Distributed Practice Can Save the Day!

One study strategy – Distributed Practice – can make a big difference in your learning and grades by the end of the semester.  Distributed Practice means that you spread out your studying and do a little each day.  PLEASE NOTE – the initial learning of your lecture notes and the initial reading of your textbooks is not part of this!  Once the initial learning has happened, Distributed Practice means that you review the material 20 minutes almost every day.  Here are some ideas:

1. Put the information you need to learn on index cards and carry them with you.  Every day go through the pack, and then do it again tomorrow.

2. Put the information into a review chart and then use recitation (restate in your own words from memory) to quiz yourself from the chart.

3. Over Thanksgiving Break, spend 20 minutes every day reviewing your class notes.

4. For math, put some problems on the front of index cards and the solution on the back.  Then, every day, pick a few cards, do the problems and check yourself.  If you start to remember them, make new ones!

5. Make some practice tests, set them aside, and test yourself a few days later.  If you have friends in the same class you could take each other’s practice tests and then explain why each answer is right or wrong.

This is a great strategy if there is a class that you are completely uninterested in.  Twenty minutes goes by in no time!

Another helpful idea is to set the timer on your phone for twenty minutes.  That way you are not concentrating on the time, but on the material to be learned.

What is important is the constant repetition spaced out over time.    You will be amazed at how much you can remember!

First Semester Success: Study Strategies and Motivation for Your First Semester (of Any Semester) of College, by Arden B. Hamer, is now available at wordassociation.com and amazon.com.