Tag: college

Posted on

What a Cue Can Do For You

By David Peoples and Madeline Voelker 

Welcome to your first year of college. If you are like me, you are probably wondering how in the world you are going to remember everything you need to know for exams, quizzes, and assignments. Well, the first thing you should know is that remembering is actually a complicated process of re-accessing information that has been stored in your brain. (1) When your brain recalls information it is reconstructing the event by drawing various elements together from different parts of your brain to effectively re-experience the neural activity generated in response to the situation you experienced. (1) Thus, in a sense, your brain is neurally reliving the experience. (1) This probably sounds very technical and complicated. But that is where cued recall comes in to save the day. Cued recall is exactly what the name implies: recollection that is cued. But what does that mean? Put simply, a cue is something that both triggers and assists in the recollection of a memory. (1) But what constitutes a cue? And how can they help in college? Well, anything can be a cue, but we are focusing on those that are directly applicable to your college experience. Therefore, the cues we are focusing on are: taste, location, sound, and written. Continue reading “What a Cue Can Do For You”

Posted on

Go Test Yourself – Serial Position and Testing Effect

By Jeileen Belen and Veronica Rzepniewski

College is a difficult time for people; you’re adjusting to a new environment, taking difficult classes, and surrounding yourself with people that you don’t know yet. Though it may seem stressful, college is a great time as long as you find your balance.

If I could go back in time, I would have listened to older college students who told me that the techniques used for studying in high school is not an effective way to study in college. To all of the first-year college students, the best way to study for a test is to ACTUALLY STUDY; studying the day before or the day of is a sure way to fail a college test. There are expectations of college students to have a fun and active social life while maintaining a good academic standing, and these expectations can be overwhelming. It is important to enjoy your college years, but it is more important to understand your boundaries and find a good social and academic balance. Sources say that having good study skills improves academic self-efficacy and achievement motivation which are the two constructs that best influence GPA (1). College is a whole new ball park, so developing great study habits from the bat will help you succeed. Continue reading “Go Test Yourself – Serial Position and Testing Effect”

Posted on

Why You Should Forget Everything You Learned About Studying

By Henry Schimmel and Brennan McGuire

Deep-rooted high school study habits tend to die hard in college if they are not swiftly corrected. One of the greatest challenges new college students face is abandoning their traditional methods of rereading and memorizing class material when preparing for an exam. While these study techniques may have yielded positive results in the high school classroom, they simply won’t suffice in the rigorous domain of higher education. However, it is never too late to change your study habits. You might be pleasantly surprised by the extent to which changing your study routine can improve your academic performance and overall retention of information. While it can be a daunting and arduous task to modify your existing study paradigm, by utilizing the simple method of retrieval practice, you can significantly improve long-term understanding and performance.

Continue reading “Why You Should Forget Everything You Learned About Studying”

Posted on

Professors Hate This Study Method: How Wearing a Zumba Suit and Binging On Kahlúa Improved Exam Scores

By Christopher Forte and Shantell Brusse

So your class has just taken a difficult calculus exam. Amongst the crowd of people leaving the classroom are expressions of relief, profound joy and confidence. There is a light at the end of everyone’s tunnel, except for you. You stagger outside the classroom in complete astonishment, run into Walgreens to buy a pint of Ben & Jerry’s half-baked cookie dough paradise and proceed to crawl in bed to withdraw from such a cruel world.

The following week is spent in wallowing as the inevitable test grade is posted onto D2L and your dreams of leading an armada of food trucks are foolishly, however temporarily, put into question. Assuming that there are no perfect people on Earth, such a failure may lead to a short-lived, higher ingestion of alcohol. More days pass and you break out of your drunken spree only to realize that it is the day of the next calculus exam. A short review of the notes and you find yourself sitting in the same classroom where the exam review took place several days before. Still slightly inebriated, the exam is completed and turned back to the TA. The surprise of your life is posted on D2L as you score higher than you ever have before in the class.

Continue reading “Professors Hate This Study Method: How Wearing a Zumba Suit and Binging On Kahlúa Improved Exam Scores”

Posted on

Say No to Maintenance, Say Yes to Elaborative!

By Angelica Otto and Fatema Atshan

“Sorry, I can’t go out. I have a HUGE cognition exam, and I haven’t even started studying.”

“Well, when is it?”

“TOMORROW”

I can imagine that we all have had this conversation at least once, maybe in high school or college. Maybe it was for a different subject, but the need to cram is the same. We have busy lives as future and current undergraduates.

Continue reading “Say No to Maintenance, Say Yes to Elaborative!”

Posted on

Maximizing Study Results with Transfer-Appropriate Processing

By Ellie Marston and Emily Topp

Studying can be overwhelming, but sometimes notecards can be useful, depending on the processing your exam requires.

ATTENTION COLLEGE STUDENTS, would you like to get more ‘bang’ for your studying ‘buck?’ Picture this: you’re sitting in an exam and can’t remember the answer to a question you know you studied the night before. What if you could improve your ability to retrieve information you studied the night before? We have the answer, and it just requires that you focus on the way you process information while studying. The best part is: it doesn’t even require that you study longer, just smarter.

Continue reading “Maximizing Study Results with Transfer-Appropriate Processing”

Posted on

Slow and Steady Wins the Race—Distributed vs. Massed Practice

By Keely Smith and Melanie Hernandez

Picture this. It is late August. Tomorrow is the day that you leave your hometown to move into your college dorm. You cannot contain your excitement. You are going to your dream school. This is the moment you have waited for all summer. But, you realize that you are a little worried. Numerous questions run through your head. What if college is much harder than high school? What if you do not get the same good grades that you always used to? What if you do not maintain the GPA you need in order to keep your scholarship? What if you disappoint your parents? If this sounds like you, then you have found your way to the right blog—we are here to offer you Cognitive Psychology’s best advice for successful learning and studying in college.

Continue reading “Slow and Steady Wins the Race—Distributed vs. Massed Practice”