Need to learn a lot of material fast and perform well when it counts? Two new studies suggest easy ways to speed up learning and ease anxiety before a test.

A simple recall drill may be the best way to solidify new information in your memory, according to a study pub­lished online January 20 in Science. Many teachers encourage students to use elaborate conceptual methods to learn complicated material, but psychologists at Purdue University found that practice at retrieving facts works better. College students who read short science texts and then spent 20 minutes recalling as much as possible by writing down what they had read performed about 50 percent better on tests the next week than did students who drew complex maps depicting relations between concepts. The authors say that the act of re­constructing knowledge enhances learning and strengthens memories. Put simply, practice makes perfect.

But sometimes all that studying is for naught when a test or a big performance rolls around and you choke. It turns out that focusing on your worries by writing about them before a test can boost your scores, according to a different paper pub­lished in January in Science. Psy­chologists at the University of Chicago found that college students who first wrote about their thoughts and feel­ings about an upcoming math exam for 10 minutes solved more arithmetic problems than did students who sat quietly. And the writing task improved the scores of highly anxious ninth graders so much that they per­formed as well as students with low anxiety on a biology final exam. The authors say that the technique may be most useful for habitual worriers in high-pressure situations.

3 Comments

1. 1. staudenmaier 01:22 PM 6/21/11

   This is an interesting article but I would challenge their choice of experimental control. Sitting "quietly" for 10 minutes is about the most anxiety CREATING activity I can think of.
   
   Secondly, I might say that the students who wrote about their thoughts and feelings built up a kind of "momentum" which launched them into the following exam. While writing, they had little time for "anxious" thoughts so any task assigned to them for the ten minute duration could have been helpful.
   

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2. 2. nezmani 01:32 AM 6/23/11

   What about dependance on type of exam paper?!
   "recall drill" for essay type,"elaborate concepts" for problem solving & MCQ type...
   Is there some updated study about flexibility of studying habits related to dealing with exam papers?
   

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3. 3. SFMalerich 09:46 AM 6/23/11

   These tips, though perhaps valuable for passing exams, need to be taken with caution.
   
   I work in a profession that requires a long series of examinations beyond a college education. Many in my profession look back on those exams as an exercise in memorization, and sometimes comment on how little of it seems relevant anymore.
   
   When I talk to people now going through the exams, my advice is always—learn the material; seek understanding. I readily admit that this may not be the most efficient way to pass the exam, but I assert that it is effective and it is of great help in applying the knowledge for years to come.
   
   The teachers' advice, "to use elaborate conceptual methods to learn complicated material", may not be the fastest way to pass a test, but it may be essential to the development of understanding that can later be applied to diverse situations.
   
   I'd like to see a follow-up to the Purdue study—maybe have those students, a year or two later, write an essay about what they learned in some course or exercise. Then we can see who really learned something.

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