Hope everyone had a great mid-term exam period. This is my 6th semester, but I never get used to exams. I get nervous before them as I do “last minute rush” for most of my exams. Moreover, I always blame myself for having such a bad memory. Some, maybe few, of us may get frustrated by the fact that we do not remember what we have studied, even something that we have studied just before an hour. However, we should not be stressful since this is a very natural phenomenon according to the “Forgetting Curve of Ebbinghaus.” By using this curve, I’d like to suggest two simple study tips that could help you on the exams!
Tip one: Use the power of “spacing.” Rather than studying every day, increasing the interval between your reviews of studied materials actually resulted in better retention. In other words, reviewing your materials everyday could be less effective than reviewing in one day, three days, six days, and so on. To effectively retain new information, we need to spread review sessions out.
Tip two: Take chance of your last 20 minute. The technique, called “cramming” in fancy word, can be most effective when you do it for your last 20 minute before an exam. According to the curve, for newly acquired information, we already lose about 60% of them just after an hour of study. Do not waste your last minute by chit-chatting with your classmates, but go back to some important information that may show up on the exam.
Once again, acknowledging the fact that your brain is not perfect can increase the efficiency of your study and will make you less stressful. Share your secret study tips with us if you have one!
The power of spacing (see this Wikipedia article on spaced repetition) has been around for a while. Paul Pimsleur applied this idea to language learning more than forty years ago, and it's also the basis of the Praxis Ed (a.k.a. E-memory Plus) vocabulary study system.
ReplyDeleteOne thing worth emphasizing here is that it's really important to increase the intervals between studying so that some forgetting can take place. Both the Pimsleur and Praxis Ed systems do this automatically.