The second semester of any grade is rife with deadlines; be they assignments, the mocks or the IB final exams, students are pushed to cover a vast range of subjects in limited time. Here at AISJ, students employ a variety of study habits to carry them through the semester: some study late into the night, while others make use of external study resources or create their own extensive review notes. But what exactly is the science behind productive studying, and which study habits are the most effective? 

What Constitutes Studying?

A guide to studying by the Learning Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill defines studying as “actively engaging in the material”. They argue that re-reading old notes or assigned texts is not studying at all. Instead, they define active engagement as the ways in which students process and make connections with the information and texts they receive in class. Through this definition, even continuous memorization–though effective in keeping one engaged in studying–is not considered an effective study habit on its own. To engage in active studying, students are encouraged to create more personalized study habits, which will encourage them to create their own unique connections to the syllabus.

The Study Cycle

One accessible way to incorporate such “active studying” habits is through the “study cycle” model. Coined by Frank Christ, the Study Cycle consists of five steps: preview, attend, review, study and assess. “Preview” allows students to set a goal for themselves for a given class or course beforehand to encourage more focused learning. After students “attend” and engage in class, the “review” stage requires students to read over their notes and fill in any missing information. With these notes, they can then engage in “studying”, which includes organizing, reviewing, summarizing and mapping out key information from their notes and resources from class. Finally, “assess” allows students not just to repeat information,, but to evaluate it: a guide by Furman University encourages students to ask themselves questions that reflect on their learning process during this stage, such as “is the information I’m studying making sense?” In this manner, students are not only able to remember information, but also critically evaluate their process of learning to ensure that they actually understand the material. 

Some Effective and “Active” Study Habits

With this structure in mind, students can then engage with active studying habits that fit their needs. Most importantly, however, the common theme active studying habits share is that they rely on students to create connections to the learning they understand, not simply ones widely accepted as the most common way to remember a given concept or a subject. These methods can include, but are not limited to: 

• Creating study guides

• Forming personalized examples of theoretical concepts: e.g. stories from your own life, a recent memory or a mnemonic in your mother tongue

• Grouping information into greater categories or “big ideas” to help you argue a certain point in exams or essays: e.g. group causes of war by economic and political in history, or group literary texts by themes and character types in english

• Choosing short, intensive study sessions over drawn-out ones 

• Choosing to tackle one subject at a time over multitasking

• Knowing which spaces and noise levels you work best in

Ultimately, no one end-all study habit will promise the best results for every student. Knowing your best study habits for a variety of situations and circumstances–e.g. under pressure versus with a lot of time, or for an assessment versus an oral presentation–is just as important in setting yourself up for success. This semester is going to be a hard-earned one for many of us; why not take some time to re-evaluate how we approach our studying?