--Original published at Psychology 105

There are many different techniques people use to study. As a verbal learner, I tend to prefer using written and verbal resources to study for exams. Usually, this begins with how I organize the materials from lecture. For this class, I write the lecture notes in an outline format which help me generalize overall concepts and break them down into more specific facts. Before the exam, I retyped all the notes on the computer so that I could review all the information I had and see if anything was missing that was outlined in the study guide. For certain things, like definitions, I made note cards which is a quick and easy way to see if I’m able to recall information. I also did review problems to see what specific areas needed to be worked on prior to the exam. I think these are some of the more beneficial techniques I use to study. However, some of my methods are not super effective. We were told that a portion of the exam would just be material from the textbook, but the only thing I did to prepare that material was reading the text itself. This led to an overload of information that I didn’t really study in any other way, so it was hard to remember certain concepts. I also didn’t really space out my studying that much and motly crammed the couple days leading up to the exam. This is the number one thing I would change for the next upcoming exam. I’ve already starting taking from the book, which are in the same hierarchical format as my lecture notes, which hopefully helps me memorize that information better.

--Original published at Garrettscollegeblog

The idea of great or poor study habits differs from person to person as well as from high school to college. What someone views as good, such as taking long breaks between short increments of studying completely contradicts another’s view of long, focused studying sessions. Also what a student could get away with in high school, like not studying at all, would easily prove a poor decision in college. I personally have adapted a very laid-back style towards studying in an attempt to avoid major stress before even receiving the exam. Although I surround myself with a quiet environment, I lack intense studying habits. My preference leans towards short reviews of material with multiple breaks after a feeling of efficient understanding. The in-depth studying lies in the textbook sections not covered in class.

I feel my approach to studying suits me the best because of how I react to stress. The laid-back style allows for all the unnecessary stress nights or even weeks in advance to be avoided. However, this approach also allows for distractions to really become prevalent. I allow myself to keep my phone by me that, although I do not receive many notifications, acts as a major distraction when I lack interest in the subject at hand. Along with the distractions, I fail to prevent the small breaks from transforming into large breaks on occasion. As for the first exam in this class I did allow distractions into my study environment. After a respectable score on the practice exam I found myself more relaxed than normal, which in turn prevented me from in-depth review. For the next exam I plan to remove many, if not all distractions from my study environment as well as direct more attention to the text sections not covered in class.

--Original published at Tyler's Ideas

My study habits are most definitely not the best or most effective. Typically, in high school, I would not study ever, and I knew from the beginning, that would need to change in college. For the first exam in this class I used note cards. My first big issue was I waited absolutely too long to even start to prepare to study. I didn’t start making note cards until the day before which unquestionably hurt me. For the second exam, I will make note cards following the lesson that day on key terms and important information. Then, when the study guide comes out I will review whether or not my note cards capture everything on it. If not, I will make more. I will do this all prior to the day before the exam. The next big issue was due to the fact that I waited too long to make my note cards. Because of this, I did not start studying until late Sunday night. Which then caused me to stay up way too late to study, which is something professor MacFarlane specifically said not to do. For the next exam, I will start studying a week prior, taking it section by section. This will lead up to Sunday where I will take the practice exam. After taking the practice exam I will grade it and determine what final concepts I need to work on. While studying for my first exam, this habit of going over what I did wrong is most likely the only thing I will replicate come the second exam. I was able to get a better grasp on the information that I did not know and although it may not have been perfect, I know my exam score benefited from this practice.

--Original published at AlyssaM

In high school, I had really bad study habits and never studied – except for Precalculus  and History. I carried my methods for those classes over into College. I make flash cards and review them over and over coming up with little tricks to remember each one. I used to wait to the very last day, or even morning of to study, but changed that coming into college not knowing what to expect. It could still use plenty of improvement as for the first exam I did end up waiting until three days before the first exam. I created note cards, but I decided to color code them for once to correspond with the highlighting in my notebook, as I am usually a visual learner. People and dates in History were always the hardest for me to memorize and learning the psychologists were no different. I went through the stack several times and still couldn’t get it down of who was who. Then I formed a way I thought could help me, by using what I enjoy the most. I wrote a short story with all the psychologists as “characters” at a dinner party. I had them bicker over whose methods in psychology were better and anything else that was key to who they were. I set it down and the next day when I went over the note cards, I knew nearly all of the people, so the story worked. For my second exam, I decided I am going to start as soon as I can and as I have been reading, I have been making the note cards. I also will try to prepare more days in advance and come up with other fun methods, so the material sticks.

--Original published at Manami PSY105blog

There are two types of memory which are easy to forget like daily memories and is retained in your mind strongly. I chose Option 2 which is about the memory people can recall almost perfectly. When I chose this topic, I came up with almost all memories with what I felt at that time when the Tohoku earthquake (3.11 earthquake) happened in Japan 7 years ago. Do you remember this huge earthquake? Japan lost many people’s life even though people are trained how to evacuate to the nearest designated place since we are children, and Japan has a high technology to predict earthquake from past earthquake experiences. Because this was the first time that people are realized the danger of Tsunami. People in other countries may not remember about it while it was broadcasted in the world. I was so surprised and could not recognize that it’s happening in reality when I was watching TV news at home after school. It was when I was in middle school.

I was scared and called my mother (she was working) because I tried to change channels, however, all TV stations broadcasted news about Tsunami. It is kind of weird that I remember almost everything what I saw, what I was doing, and what I felt even though I live in the place where is far from Tohoku area, and this earthquake does not relate to me directly.

In my opinion, the reason why some memories are so much stronger than others is a strong key event and its background such as emotions help each other to recall memories. For example, Tohoku earthquake which is a key event reminds me of my life at that time. And also, my feeling of fear and surprise help me to recall about earthquake clearly.

I would ask a few questions to participants to make sure the relations between a strong key event and its background. For instants, the questions required them to write the specific events with short words, and emotions. After that, I also ask how the emotions recall more information about their events.

#memory

--Original published at Marlee's Psych 105 Blog

I believe that everything can be improved upon, especially study habits. I think that I have made fairly good study techniques and habits, the thing I struggle with is finding the time to study. When studying I break everything down into three steps; writing in-depth notes, making real life connections and testing myself. When writing my notes I color code, use diagrams, and highlight. By color coding it helps me draw attention to important details and group certain information. I make diagrams to help visualize particular processes. Lastly, I use highlighter to point out things that are key points or that I need to go over.

After my note taking process is done, I begin making real life examples and connections. For example, in the past week we learned about classical conditioning. For this I would make up scenarios and identify the US, CS, UCR, CR. This allows me to identify examples that we are given on tests or quizzes. By making the real life connections it gives me a better understanding of the notes and able to apply them.

Finally, after I complete my notes and real life examples, I create test questions and enter them in to Quizlet. This allows me to gain a better understanding of what I already know and what I need to study more.

The negatives of my studying style would be that I normally do not leave enough time to go as in-depth into my notes or take as many practice tests as I would like. I believe that my strengths are that I take very good notes and apply real life examples. For the next, “Knowledge Celebration Day,” I will manage my time better a begin studying for the exam this week and try to study for 20 minutes everyday.

--Original published at Bailey PSY 105 Blog

I believe that memories are created more powerfully when they are associated with highly charged emotion. For example, when President Kennedy was assassinated, as well as when the 9/11 attacks occurred, Americans were shocked, upset, and scared. This blend of emotions resulted in memory that was more likely to imprint longterm on the human mind. Even on a smaller, more personal scale, events such as your first kiss or your wedding day are associated with emotions of love, happiness, and hope. This causes stronger memory cycles and allows association of the feelings with events, making them easier to recall.

I think one way to study the strength of memory would be to gather a test group of different ages and backgrounds, and ask each person to recall three different types of memory: one memory tied to a specific and impactful event (such as what they were doing during 9/11 or when the Sandy Hook shooting occurred), one tied to a memory that may have been attached to significant emotional stimulation, but not necessarily an event of national importance (such as ones wedding), and one completely random memory (like what a typical day in 5th grade looked like or your 9th birthday) and assign a one to ten scale of strength of detail recovery and the speed at which it is done.

--Original published at Taylor'sEtownCollegeBlog

For the exam that was just taken in psychology, I looked over my notes, reviewed some terms that I did not know the definition of on Quizlet and looked over some multiple choice problems. This did not work well for me. What I did well was reviewing the terms because I was not memorizing the location on the page where the word was. Often while studying I would get distracted by the music that I was listening to or if people were talking in the room or directly to me. I also did not do well at reviewing my notes after each class. I have instead after each class been reviewing my notes and rewording things that I find slightly confusing. I also found when I took notes on the PowerPoint, I was not absorbing as much information because I was not writing everything down. All the information was already copied down for me. I am instead now taking notes without the PowerPoints in front of me. This is helping me to imprint the information in my memory because writing things down helps me to remember things. I also need to improve the time in which I study for exams. This first exam, I studied the day before the exam and stayed up late. This has been shown to decrease the amount of information retained during the time of studying. Instead of staying up very late studying the night before, I will instead start studying a couple of days before the exam. Along with starting to study earlier in the week, I also will get a good night rest the night before the exam. The study habits I used for the first exam were not successful and therefore I must change my ways and by making these slight changes, I should be able to improve my exam skills.

~Taylor

--Original published at Carly's College Blog

Study habits. My study habits are not as strong as they could be. My high school was not very academically rigorous, so it did not require much studying to get an A.  Honestly, I would study the period before the test and get at least a 92. College has been a big wake up call that I need to adjust my study habits and better prepare myself. The exam for this class was my first exam I have taken here, and so far the only one. To prepare for this exam, I kept up with the readings and took additional notes from there. I read over my notes a few times thinking I had a general idea of the information and would be okay, that’s what I was used to. The night before the exam I timed myself and took the practice exam. I did well on the multiple choices and matching, but applying the information in the free response is where I got the most stuck. I wish I had taken the practice exam sooner in the week so that I could have had more time to prepare and review the stuff I didn’t fully understand. I also think that doing the practice quiz questions would have helped too, but I didn’t really look at those either.

For the future, I plan to start studying way sooner so that after taking the practice exam I will be able to go back and continue reviewing and reread the parts of the textbook on topics I had trouble with.