Psychologically Proven Ways to Ace Your Exams

There is actually a right way to study for exams and the methods take their foundations from scientific memory and learning research.

We all have struggles when it comes to studying for exams. Often, we spend hours taking notes, making summaries, reading the same material over and over again and it turns out to be a waste of time. We end up trying to remember that one fact in the exam as we stare at our paper, feeling stressed out as the clock is ticking. If you are also having these struggles, here is some good news! There is actually a right way to study for exams, and the methods that will be mentioned take their foundations from scientific memory and learning research. So, without further do, let’s learn how to learn!

One of the most common study methods that students follow is to restudy the material or rewrite notes as a summary. However, it is proven that testing and self-generating the knowledge from memory supports long term retention much better than restudying does (Pyc and Rowson, 2010; Metcalf and Kornell, 2007). A study that looked into recall rates for different study methods found that only studying elicits short-term benefits whereas testing the knowledge multiple times leads to the best long-term retention (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006). The short-term benefits of restudying may trick students into thinking that it is an effective study method, however it is clear that testing improves long-term retention of the knowledge, which is crucial for a better performance in exams and overall learning.

Another effective way to study is to engage in the material by making links with already known material or personal knowledge. One of the well-established models of memory, the spreading activation model, suggests that when a certain piece of information is encountered and processed by the brain, it activates the memory of linked concepts, as all knowledge we have exists as complex networks in the brain (Collins and Loftus, 1975). From this viewpoint, it makes sense that associating information with existing knowledge and integrating it with existing concepts increases the chances that the information will be remembered. This principle was demonstrated by a study that investigated recall patterns for complicated and foreign folk tales that were told to a group of participants (Bartlett, 1932).

It was found that participants mostly remembered the parts of the tales that somehow related to their own beliefs and culture, in other words their personal memories. Another interesting example is provided by a study on the BBC’s radio frequency change campaign (Bekerian and Baddeley, 1980).

The new wavelengths for the radio channel were advertised around ten times and hour, which makes up a very large amount of repetitions per day.

It was found in the study that although the wavelengths were repetitively advertised, most people did not remember the frequencies. However, most of those who used a written version of the frequencies and others who associated the numbers with a mnemonic or personal knowledge were able to remember the exact wavelengths. These examples demonstrate how important it is to engage with the study material and find where it fits with your existing knowledge.

Mnemonics can also be useful for remembering large amounts of information. Our memory is limited not by the amount but by the number of chunks of information, so instead of trying to memorise every piece of information individually, organising them into chunks can help a lot (Miller, 1956). By using abbreviations and mnemonic sentences, we can use our capacity to our fullest as well as making studying a bit less dull and more creative.

Using time efficiently is always considered as a key skill for success, and it turns out time management does not only prevent you from missing deadlines but also works miracles with learning new material. The total time hypothesis proposed by Ebbinghaus suggests that, unsurprisingly, the more time is spent on learning, the greater the success in tests. However, what is more interesting is that when the study time is distributed, the total time required for learning decreases (Ebbinghaus, 1885). This finding is supported by other research, and it is suggested that the time between studying and testing should be increased over time to aid long-term learning (Landauer and Bjork, 1977).

Last but not least, it is crucial to try to learn from any feedback and mistakes that we make, as they are the best teachers. The mediator effectiveness hypothesis suggests that long-term retention of information depends on encoding effective cues that can activate memory traces (Pyc and Rowson, 2010). By testing the material that we have learnt, we get the opportunity to find more cues, key words and question types that can activate those memory traces and eliminate the less effective cues by making mistakes. Feedback was also found to benefit long-term learning, even when it is not immediate (Pashler et al., 2007). The delay between testing and feedback can even be advantageous for learning (Pashler et al., 2007). Instead of seeing our mistakes as failures, reminding ourselves of how important they are for learning will put us in the right mindset to reach to our best potential.

Changing study habits might be hard, but when you give new strategies a chance, you might realise that they make your life much easier and your learning more efficient. Trust your mind’s working mechanisms and find the best method for yourself by evaluating your experiences, and there is no doubt you will ace those exams!

References

Bartlett, F. C. (1932). Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge University Press.

Bekerian, D., & Baddeley, A. (1980). Saturation advertising and the repetition effect. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 19(1), 17–25.

Collins, A. M., & Loftus, E. F. (1975). A spreading-activation theory of semantic processing. Psychological Review, 82(6), 407–428.

Ebbinghaus, H. (1885). Über das Gedächtnis. Leipzig: Dunker.

Landauer, T. & Bjork, Robert. (1977). Optimum rehearsal patterns and name learning. Practical aspects of memory. 1.

Metcalfe, J., & Kornell, N. (2007). Principles of cognitive science in education: The effects of generation, errors, and feedback. Psychonomic Bulletin &
Review, 14(2), 225–229.

Meyer, D., & Schvaneveldt, R. (1976). Meaning, memory structure, and mental processes. Science, 192(4234), 27–33.

Miller, G. A. (1956). The magical number seven, plus or minus two: some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychological Review,
63(2), 81–97.

Pashler, H., Rohrer, D., Cepeda, N. J., & Carpenter, S. K. (2007). Enhancing learning and retarding forgetting: Choices and consequences. Psychonomic
Bulletin & Review, 14(2), 187–193.

Pyc, M. A., & Rawson, K. A. (2010). Why Testing Improves Memory: Mediator Effectiveness Hypothesis. Science, 330(6002), 335–335.

Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-Enhanced Learning. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255.