--Original published at Jenna'sPSY105blog

For this week’s first impression post, I decided to do option one about study habits. When assessing my study habits, I definitely excel in some areas, but there is also a lot of room for improvement.

I have a crazy good memory- I always have. Now I admit, it was a lot better when I was younger. As a child I had a photographic memory. I could look at something and take a mental picture of it and never forget it. As I got older, that ability kind of went away, but not completely. There are things about my childhood that I vividly remember, and a lot of times when looking back at past events, I can remember the super intricate details of it- down to what clothes people were wearing that day. This skill comes in handy when I study. For example, when I read through textbooks or take notes, if I eventually need to look back at a piece of information, a lot of times I can picture what the page I wrote/read it on looks like (what is around it, pictures, location on the page, etc.) so that it is easy for me to refer back to it. This is also useful for tests because if it sounds like something I read or wrote, a lot of times I can picture it in my head and I can remember it. The photographic memory, or just good memory in general, also translates when studying with flashcards, which is a method of studying I really like. It is easy for me to memorize what is on each flashcard, so I can retain information better when studying.

This skill, while proven to be very useful, sometimes does more harm than good. I can become too overly confident that I know enough of the information and I don’t need to study anymore. I get to the point where I have memorized what is on the back of each flashcard verbatim and I just associate the definition with the word so that three words in I know which answer it is. And for my notes, I read them over and over again until they have stuck in my brain. But when I get to the tests, the wording of the question isn’t always the same as my notes or the book, or it’s an application question, and I’m stuck not knowing the answer. This really hurt me freshman year when I was taking molecular biology because almost none of the test questions were knowledge-based.

These are the things that I did and the mistakes I made when studying for the first exam in this class. I read over my notes over and over again until I felt I knew all of the information, and I read over some Quizlets that I eventually had memorized all of the answers too. For the next exam, I would like to be better prepared and do some things differently. For starters, I need to take notes from the book too, because right now I’m just reading it and then watching the lectures and taking notes on them. Also, I would like to test myself more to really make sure I can answer questions. At the end of each chapter in the book, there are key concepts and a few sample questions that I can refer to that will maybe help. Hopefully these changes in my studying habits instead of just memorizing will benefit me and translate on the next exam!

--Original published at Loretta Gabrielle

For chapter 8 impression post I chose the first prompt relating to memory in study habits. Looking at my current study habits I have a large room for improvement as this class online differs from a regular class during the semester. Something I need to adjust for my study habits is prioritizing and becoming better at balancing my priorities. During the school year my main focus is school whereas now, this is one class while I work 10.5+ hours a day. Knowing I work most days for large parts of the day, organizing when and what work I am going to do will better the way I learn bit by bit each day.

When I take notes in the lecture or from the book I look for key parts in order to take good notes rather than looking to understand the material fully. This could be for several reasons but the point being is that it is unbeneficial. The way I studied for the first exam was through the worksheets presented and the study guide. Normally during the year I mainly use flashcards as my main studying technique as I take tests better when I am confident and have memorized the material. Although I know that memorization for a test isn’t beneficial, flash cards seem to be the most impactful in narrowing down and learning the information I need to understand. To improve my first exam for Monday, I plan on being proactive rather than reactive. I know there is an exam due and so from this part I restudy the points I missed by reviewing my notes from the first exam along with the notes from the current exam chapters. Rather than hoping to study the night before. Rather than this I will pace myself throughout the remainder of the week and weekend in order to accomplish these tasks which will build my confidence and prepare me for a better exam. Lastly, getting more sleep is a key factor in improving my study habits.

The most realistic goals to improve are:

1. More sleep

2. Flash Cards with useful skills (narrowing down the important parts in a clear way

3. Actively studying every day in order to use as building block and rather than to accomplish the task of that night.

Learning and memory for the most part go hand-in-hand. Learning is the skill and memory is demonstrating it with speed and confidence. There are three different types of memory which include sensory, working/short term, and long term memory. In order to have the best results on the test, studying the information for your short term memory does nothing benefical in the long run. It is vital to study a little but every day in order to build your learned skills and to become a strong memory.

--Original published at Kealey's PSY105 Blog

I must admit; my study habits could use some improvement. I have a very poor memory, so memorizing terms, dates, and people for tests has always been difficult for me. I often try to get the information to “sink in” by handwriting notes multiple times. First, I take detailed notes from lectures or book reading and closer to the test I’ll rewrite the most important information, organizing them from very general to more specific. Sometimes I include drawings and diagrams in my notes because I find using visuals helps me to remember information. I also use flashcards. I prefer to use quizlet.com over handwritten flashcards because I can practice anywhere on my phone in a variety of ways. However, it seems no matter how hard I study or how well I do on the test, my capacity for remembering information is almost strictly short-term, so studying for exams is almost like relearning everything I had up to that point.

For the last exam, I took extensive notes on the book and lectures and underlined important terms and psychologists. I reread the notes to prefer for the test, but I found I should have done more. The last few chapters I have been color coding information with highlighters and reviewing more extensively before quizzes. I also pay more attention to phrases like “This would be a good exam question.” Making these points in my notes more pronounced will help me prepare for the next exam as I review the most important information. I would like to learn more study techniques that would enhance my memory and help me retain information longer.

--Original published at CatherinesCollegeBlog

I chose the first option about study habits for this post. There are many different habits I have developed, some helpful and some not as much. One method I have found especially helpful is incorporating repetition into my studying. Being an International Business major, I have had my fair share of map quizzes during these past two years. I am not someone who can look at the map of a country or continent once and be able to label a blank version of the same area. What works best for me is printing out at least a dozen blank maps of the particular country or continent I am studying, and repeatedly labeling the different parts on all dozen or so copies. I used this repetition method for our first exam in this class, but in a slightly different way. I found that I needed more exposure to the questions the exam would be asking, so I took each “practice review problems quiz” for both chapters at least six times. The repeated exposure to similar questions regarding the topics was more beneficial to me than rereading the textbook or rewatching the lectures. In addition to this study habit, I also love to develop quirky phrases for certain things we learn that have an acronym to go along with the information. The word association with this helps me to remember the order of steps in a process or even the location of a country on a map. For example, I will never forget the order in which I must approach a math problem thanks to PEMDAS.

One study habit I would like to improve upon is making the different colors I write with actually mean something. Many times I find myself writing notes or flashcards with colored pencils, pens, and markers simply because it makes studying more fun. If I was able to establish a useful meaning for each color, perhaps by grouping certain terms or concepts together based on their color, this could possibly help with my memorization. Specifically for this exam, I should have made flash cards of the terms, the concepts, and especially the people we discussed because I was having a hard time recalling these quick bits of information. Flash cards would have played to the helpful habit of repetition I prefer, so for the next exam I will be trying this method. I also need to focus more on thoroughly reading the textbook chapters. I often find myself skimming instead of reading for comprehension, and I believe it is due to the world we live in. Things move too quickly and there is so much to get through, whether it is on social media or the news or in my email inbox. I need to recognize that the information in our textbook requires more time and attention to understand than a news headline or a tweet requires to get the point.

--Original published at Tiffany'sCollegeBlog

When it comes to studying, for me at least, it’s extremely different and sometimes difficult. It truly depends on the subject that I’m studying for. At school I have upwards of 14 classes while during the summer, I only have 2. Granted the two summer classes are way more than my actual classes at school, studying for them makes it way harder. At school, I have 13 classes this semester. While most majors include reading and wiring essays and books, my major involves clinical studies and practicing an exuberant amount every day. I have some classes that do require me to take notes and study like the “normal” student but most of them require me to practice in one way more than another. For my typical “normal” student classes, I take notes and use notecards like they are going out of style. On those, I typically put vocabulary that I need to know and dates for history or something. I also put my lecture notes in with my personal notes. Most of the time I have my class notes and then before the next class, I write in my lecture notes again. When I typically take lecture notes, I put them on a separate sheet of paper and then copy them in so that I’m seeing them twice. Typically, with repetition (hence the notecards) I can remember a lot more than not using them. With my other classes, I have to do a lot of practice, mentally and physically. I have classes like theory, aural skills, symphonic band, lessons and orchestra where I have to physically practice my oboe, bassoon, piano and guitar for a long period of the day. It is a requirement for the FAPA department for all music majors to practice their primary instrument for at least 1 1/2 hours a day and 30 minutes for each instrument beyond that that we play during the school year. Most of my practicing is done that way so for homework sometimes it can be very fun and other times it’s hard to get the whole time in. Our other homework has to do with multiple problems of theory and aural skills so sometimes we have multiple problems and other times we have to write music or listen to it and dictate it. So not all the time can I necessarily have any study habits because I don’t have to study much for my classes. Exams and quizzes and playing tests are definitely more different. We have to prepare by reviewing material, multiple practice problems etc. It’s all very different. There isn’t much reading and notes that we have to take besides maybe notes that could help us improve. 

For summer classes however, it’s a lot different than at school. I’m reading way more than I normally do, I have a lot more notecards, and I have more lectures than I do at school. I have this class and then my history class for my other minor and that class isn’t too bad as much as this one, having to do all the readings and lectures etc. My history class I have multiple books to read and movies to watch for quizzes and discussion boards and even the midterm. I have more notes and more studying in order to keep up. A lot of times I’m up till 2 or 3 am and then I get up at 9am roughly and get started again. An issue or two that I do find with studying is that I get very distracted easily and part of that is probably ADD and then the other part of that is just excessive noise. I have some headphones that I wear and I listen to “classical for studying” on Pandora every once in a while to have some constant noise. I have figured out that in order to listen to music, I have to listen to music that isn’t my own. For example, sometimes I go to Panera to study or read and I am able to focus there because they have their own music playing on the speakers not my own like country/pop music in my ears. 

I think with my own study habits sometimes noise gets in the way, my phone also can be in the way and not having a time schedule or a plan of what I need to accomplish gets in the way. All of those can make it very difficult for me to divide an conquer what needs to be done in what order. I definitely know that my notecards work. One other thing that I do is put them on a ring so that I don’t lose any but it’s also easier to keep track of where you are. Another thing that doesn’t help with studying is my comprehension skill. Not all the time do I understand what I’m reading and understand it so sometimes I do have to re-read so that I get it. I also read slow so that doesn’t exactly help but when I do, I can understand what I’m doing. When I was studying for the first exam, I had my two sets of notecards and my notes from the chapters and the lectures. I went over them multiple times a few days before and then right before the test and I was able to do well besides the lack of time for the last few questions. For the next exam, I will have to start earlier reviewing the material so that I can do well and go over everything instead of missing some things. There are way more chapters and vocabulary that we need to know so reviewing multiple times will help and for a long period of time helps as well. I will also continue to have the notes that I take and the notes from the lectures. 

--Original published at KatieMillerPSY105

For this first impression post, I chose to discuss how all memories are not created equal. I can attest to this from personal experience. There are times where I can remember things from years past, but when it comes to things like what happened two or three weeks ago, it becomes difficult to recall events. The example used was that people remember exactly what they were doing on the day of 9/11. Since I was only one year old, I do not have a memory of the tragic events. One event that I remember distinctly was when Hurricane Arthur hit in 2014. My family and I were on vacation with three other families in the Outer Banks when the hurricane started. We had to be evacuated due to the extreme conditions. I will remember that event “like it was yesterday”.

I think that memories become stronger due to the personal connection we have to the event. The more emotions we have about the occasion, the more likely we are to have this strong memory. These emotions can be positive or negative as well, such as stressful, scary, happy, or surprising. To test this theory, we will pull out a certain event during the subject’s lifetime. Once asked about the event, we would determine how well they know the specifics of it. If they can describe very little details, we will do brain imaging to see what the emotions look like in their brain. If they remember many details of the event, we will also do brain imaging to see what emotional attachment there is to the occasion. Once we see the results, we can determine if emotion factors into how strongly we remember something.

--Original published at Kirsten's Kreations

My study habits are usually a little different. When I study, it is different based on which class I am studying for. I will use index cards for classes I have to memorize definitions or dates like a history class. For classes that have open note and book tests, I will spend time sticking post-it notes on pages I know I will need as well as reading over the material once or twice. Adapting my study habits to what the class requires of me to know for the test is one thing I tend to do well. The one thing I do that needs improvement is having noise when I study. I grew up in a house where quiet is nonexistent unless its nighttime and everyone is asleep but even then the cats bell on his collar jingles as he wanders around stiring up trouble. Because of this, I tend to listen to music or have a show I’ve seen a thousand times run on Netflix in the background because it is comforting. To fix the needing of noise so I don’t have Netflix playing, I should start to listen to classical music at a low volume when I study or to get myself used to silence because certain noises can be distracting now matter how often I have heard it.

When it came to studying for the first test I read the chapters and made my own notes on them. Then I listened to the lectures and wrote notes on them too. A day or two before the test I was reading over all my notes at work and home to make sure I understood everything. For the second test, I’m going to make a few changes. I am using the study guides to highlight the topics I need to keep in mind. I also am utilizing the lecture slides to make my notes on there rather than handwriting it all because handwriting everything is time consuming. I will continue to write my own notes with the reading as well as highlight the definitions I need to know.