Common Study Methods That Are Actually Ineffective
Have you ever tried to study only to realise highlighting or rereading the material was simply not effective? Here are some tips on how to make these studying methods more useful!
Highlighting
While it is simple and quick, studies have found that highlighting, underlining or circling the material being studied is ineffective, across topics and subjects. One study even found that underlining reduces one’s ability to draw inferences! This may be because highlighting draws attention to individual portions of the text rather than connections in the material.
Here’s what you can do:
Instead of merely highlighting the text, you can turn the highlighted information into flashcards, self-tests or summaries, to help you make your own inferences.
Instead of highlighting the whole sentence, highlight only key ideas.
Use different coloured highlighters for different categories of information (e.g one colour for new vocabulary / jargon, one for examples)
Only highlight after reading the whole paragraph or section. This helps you to stop and think about what you read first.
Rereading
While rereading does help to retain information, blindly memorising while rereading may not be the most effective form of studying your materials. Instead, it is good to have a purpose in mind while rereading, reviewing the material critically.
Here’s what you can do:
Have a purpose in mind and pick out the information that fits your aim. (e.g. a certain topic, finding examples, addressing a specific assessment task etc)
Pick out the portion that you found more complicated or difficult to understand, and read that instead of the whole text again.
Annotate your text. You may ask questions, draw connections from different portions of the text or even summarise portions of the text in your own words.
To find out more about how to read critically, check out How To Read Critically on our website!
Sources:
https://learningcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/using-highlighters/
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-works-what-doesn-t/
By: Shana Lam