Simple studying tips

If it hasn't happened yet, just wait for it. Your student will call you, overwhelmed by the semester's courses, overloaded by a demanding social life, or over-amped on caffeine, and looking for a solution to an upcoming test. Should he pull an all-nighter to study the night before? Should he make flash cards to flip through on the way to class? Should he sleep with his notes under the pillow at night?

Before you offer your sage advice, consider these statistics: 9 out of 10 students study better listening to music, 4 out of 5 students are visual learners who need to draw out diagrams for their material, and 3 out of 3 facts like these have little evidence backing them up.

That's right. Psychologists recently published a review in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest that debunked many beliefs about learning styles and successful study habits. Most notably, they said the widely held "learning styles approach," which claims that some children are visual or auditory learners, or "left-brain" or "right-brain," has only "fragmentary and unconvincing pieces of evidence" to support it.
While many popular study skills and theories may not be as effective as once believed to be, there are tips you can tell your student to help him study successfully.

According to a recent article in the Denver Post, these simple techniques are proven to improve learning retention:

• Instead of studying in the same location consistently, your student should alternate his study environment.
• Instead of focusing on a single concept, your student should study the broader subject matter in the same sitting.

By adding these varieties to study sessions, cognitive scientists believe students can master their subject material, which will leave a deeper impression on their brains. Using these techniques, the mind picks up on patterns and absorbs the information in a larger context.

In addition to those techniques, remind your student of the following practices that will not only boost his grades, but also his health and energy:

• Study for classes consistently and gradually, not just before a test: an hour tonight, a couple of hours over the weekend, a review of material next week
• Get six-eight hours of sleep every night
• Start the day off with breakfast, whether there's a test that day or not
• Form study groups with classmates to discuss the material, rather than just memorizing it. This will help make studying more fun and help your student to know the material better, if he has to explain it to others
• Use the professor's visiting hours. Your student can receive extra help or information on the subject matter by talking to the professor or teacher's assistant