A Handout for Students on How to Study

Adapted from How to Study by Ronald C. Blue

How to get started:

Survey:

Before you start your learning task, read over the major headings and summaries of the chapters in the textbook. This gives you a feeling for the whole picture and to what material you should pay attention to while reading the chapters. Research shows that students who do this make higher grades, and this simple step is the most powerful thing you can do.

Reading, underlining, and taking notes:

As you read the material, you must take written notes and underline. Use only the left half of the page. Transfer to the right side of the paper comments your teacher made about the material during lecture. You must always be ahead of your teacher in your reading.

Research shows that the more different ways you present information to the brain the easier it is to learn. In other words hear it, see it, say it, write it, practice it, highlight it, quiz it, etc. Underlining is a skill that must be developed. The tools of underlining should vary based on your preference. Use highlighters or colored pens. I recommend red and blue Flair pens. If you use these, you need a plastic ruler for underlining. Use a drafting plastic triangle and have it cut off at the three ends about one inch each.

Now spray paint the underlining ruler with flat black paint. This reduces or eliminates glare from light when reading and underlining. At first you should underline approximately 85 percent of material. Later on as your skill increases, you should reduce the material underlined.

Use red and blue Flair pens for underlining important material as you read. Use red for extremely important material or to offset important material, and blue for moderately important material. You should use a pink and yellow highlighter when reading the material the second time. The process of reading and deciding if the material is important enough to be underlined increases memory for that material. It is the decision and thinking that creates the memory. It is best to over predict your instructors at first. It is easier to cut back on the material to be learned than to increase the amount to be learned. Use stars to arrange the material in hierarchies of importance. Three stars (would be more important than two stars.

The 3"x5" card system.

Using the colors of red and blue, now make 3"x5" cards, putting the vocabulary of the course, long lists of items, experiments, and lecture on the cards. Key words should be written in red. If you have to be different, go with 1"x3" instead of 4"x6". One theory, concept, or vocabulary word per card. The biggest problem with textbooks and lecture notes is that we cannot separate the material that we know from the material that we do not know. Because of this, we waste hours studying what we already know, rather than concentrating our valuable time on what we do not know. The red tells your mind that this is extremely important material. Writing the material stores the information in the brain in a way that is not normally used. On the back of the cards is definition about the material on the front. After numbering the cards so you can put them back in order later on, you should start studying the cards until you feel you know the material.

Now then turn the cards over and try and answer your fill in the blanks orally. If you get the questions right, place the material into a "I know this material" stack. Now continue working on the material that you don't know until you can answer the questions on all the cards.

Review:

Now reread the material that you underlined in the book. Note that you do not read the material you did not underline. This is why over prediction is important.

As you reread the chapter, bracket and star the material you believe is extremely important. Sometimes use a yellow highlighter for critical information.

Now reread the material you have bracketed or stored and high speed review the material on the 3"x5" cards.

Audio option:

The more different ways that the material to be learned can be experienced the easier it is to remember the material. If you have time, read the material that you have underlined to a tape recorder. Then play back and listen to the material. Some people are so good at learning by listening that this is the only way they have to study.

Overlearning:

The more you overlearn the material the easier it is to take a test with confidence and in a relaxed manner. In addition, the more you overlearn something, the longer you will remember it.

Special problems:

Some people have reading difficulties. Current research suggests that blue or gray sunglasses may help dyslexic people process and learn to read. Self typing of the material is another way shown to have positive benefits for dyslexics. The key concept is that learning requires work. Good nutrition helps learning. Research suggest that zinc and B vitamins are essential for learning.