Sydney Life

For our last Psych lecture in the cognitive processes stream, our lovely lecturer Caleb gave us some study tips that actually fit in with what we were learning. So I’ve decided to pass them on. And writing this is actually studying for me! Yay!

- Information is easier to remember if it’s been pictured, or linked with something that can be visualised. That’s why diagrams are always fun, and so is context: if you study in several different locations for different topics (contingent on the fact that you don’t get distracted in those places), cues from the different environments will actually help you remember things in the exam!

In fact, since it has been shown that recall is better in similar environments (a study by Godden & Baddley in 1975 involving learning and recalling words underwater or on land!), Caleb informed us that he took nerdiness to the extreme in uni by finding out where his exam would be held and studying there! I’m not sure if I recommend this though, since he didn’t.

- A keen student will study more effectively. deep processing is the key: ask yourself questions about the material, relate it to your own life, deconstruct it, learn about functions of things rather than just long lists. Someone who can’t be bothered with a subject, and plans to just rote learn a whole bunch of stuff will end up taking longer to study - thinking about what you’re studying is the key to saving time. *

- Some things about multiple choice: distractor responses are often chosen from the same page in the textbook that you’ll find the correct answer, so the cues may be priming the wrong information! Examiners can coat the distractor responses in all the right terminology while the correct answer may sound plain and potentially wrong. How do you combat all this?!?! Simple: COVER THE RESPONSES while you read the question, and try and figure out what your answer would be... even write it down because when you look at the answers your brain can trick you into thinking you had chosen a different one! That's why Multiple Choice can be a lot trickier than short answer... I only got 50% as a raw mark in the final psych exam (It was 100 MC questions)! And that may sound pathetic but I still ended up with a credit.

- An American schema of ‘old people’ is that they are slow, forgetful, and frail, while a Chinese schema places them in the slightly nicer light of friendly, kind and wise. Elderly Chinese people went better in a memory task than their American counterparts. Also, elderly people went worse in a task labelled “memory” compared with others doing the exact same task, when it was named “trivia”. What’s the moral? Change your attitude! Especially about your least favourite subject. Constant “I can do it!”s will get you right on through! (Disclaimer: You may also need to study a bit)

- The general tips are, avoid distractions (I spent a very long time convincing myself that The Mole in the background helped me study) because they will take up valuable space in your memory without you even realising it. And finally, be stressed, but not too stressed!

I hope these helped, and good luck!

* Or, write a blog on it! I’m totally set for this topic now. Stay tuned for “integral calculus and modelling 101”…only joking, I wouldn’t put you through that.