The Psychology of Studying

Being a GCSE, A-Level or university student is stressful, draining, exhausting… the list is endless. When you have multiple exams to prepare for, you feel as though you have so much information to memorise that it’s almost impossible. There are however ways to make this period a little easier.
When teachers are trained, many of these psychological points are embedded in what they are taught. For instance, they may include a video in the lecture, or get you to role play as a form of multi-modal learning. Below are just 5 of hundreds of points that are derived from psychological studies and theories that can help you learn and revise information more effectively.

Appropriate Surroundings – It’s best to revise in a clean space. It sounds silly but it’s almost as if the mess that is around me is cluttering my mind too, which means I struggle to concentrate. It can also lead to procrastination - my desk is used for studying and doing my makeup so if all of my products are spread all over the table, half way through an essay I will literally find myself applying a lipstick (true story haha). Also, Neverrrrrr revise lying in your bed because it’s psychologically associated with sleep, so it will become difficult to concentrate here. If you do end up revising in bed, it may then become difficult to sleep which will have a knock-on effect on your studying and defeats the point of you doing the work in the first place. If you can’t study at home, opt for comfortable surroundings that are associated with studying – basically a library or a cushty office. In the summer it’s nice to revise outside in the sunshine, and coffee shops are also nice and chilled, with most having free wi-fi.

Compress Information – Try and minimise the amount of information you are trying to learn by breaking it down into key points. Believe me when I say I know this is easier said than done. A good starting point is to use acronyms, make little songs or rhymes etc. I also find it so useful to draw a picture to represent the information i’m trying to learn as this makes it easier to recall when it comes to it. I have a little rose gold notebook where I draw (awfully) a visual representation of all of my topics. Mind maps and diagrams can also be useful for a combination of text and images, whilst the information can still flow in some sort of order. I like to use a cue card per topic as it’s so small it literally restricts the amount of information you can write. If you’re writing in a notebook, nothings stopping you from just carrying on writing. Not all of these methods of compression will work for everyone as we all learn in different ways, but by using at least one can make a huge difference.

Connect Your Knowledge – Every new piece of information you learn you should try and link with information that already exists in your memory. For example, when I studied self-fulfilling prophecies, I tried to apply this to kids in my secondary school who were labelled as trouble makers. By contextualising information, it contributes to existing schema (a mental framework), and it’s more likely to be remembered. I can’t really explain any further than this otherwise it becomes too scientific and complex, but basically it’s worth going past surface-level when it comes to learning information. Think of examples where this can be applied. These examples can also be useful in the exam as well, so it really does pay to apply.

Multi-modal Learning – This involves exploring concepts that you learn using different platforms. So, you could read, write, watch a Youtube video, listen to a podcast etc. when studying the Holocaust (for example). This will allow the information to be processed in multiple brain areas which means it is more likely to be remembered. This is a pretty standard method but it really does help solidify information in your long-term memory and it’s often taken for granted.

Environment – Research has demonstrated that your immediate environment can impact memory. When I was in school I read something that said ‘’if you use the same pen in the exam that you used to study with, you are more likely to remember the material.’’ I am still not sure if that is just straight up BS, but I do know that by remembering what you wore when you learnt something will act as a cue for that information. The more that you apply knowledge to your immediate environment, the better students are said to perform. There is an actual phenomena known as context-dependent forgetting which claims that if we learn information in one space (the classroom) and recall it in another (the exam hall), we are more likely to experience retrieval failure (basically forget things) because of the mismatched environments. Now this i’m pretty sure is not BS. The same can also be said about scents (smelling strawberry whilst learning and taking the exam) and taste (chewing gum for example). If you think of innovative ways to use context effects, it can make your revision more interesting and effective. You can also use it in more simplistic ways such as spraying the same perfume on yourself whilst in class and on the day of the exam.

I hope that these 5 tips help you to maximise your revision, considering exams are fast approaching. There are so many more tips and tricks for revision that are derived from psychology and a second post will be on its way. All of these I genuinely use to help me study more effectively so I have no doubt that they will work for anyone out there struggling, whether it be to concentrate, remember or learn.