Most students love to cram at the night before the exam. Actually, it is not a good way to learn, since the materials will not be not retained in your brain for a long time. It will simply be erased right after the exam. That is why I always feel like I forget everything about the subject that I have taken eventhough I get a good score on the exam.
Currently, I am taking an online course on "Learning How to Learn" provided by Dr. Barbara Oakley and Dr. Terrence Sejnowski from University of California, San Diego. The course really helps me in understanding a good learning process. Below are little advice quoted from the course that I want to share:
Practice and repetition are important in learning process. They enhance and strengthen neural structure in our brain so that we can retain the material for a long time. They convert it from working memory to long-term memory. This process can simply be illustrated using gym work-out analogy. To build strong muscles, we must exercise regularly and do repetition in certain body part. The same way also applies in learning. To build strong mastery in certain subject, we must practise regularly and do spaced repetition day by day.
Cramming is not a good way to learn. It may help you pass the exam, but you cannot keep the information you learned in a long period. You can easily forget it since the learning process has not built strong neural structure. Back to gym work-out analogy, it is impossible to build strong muscles just in one day exercise, right?
Procrastination is the root of cramming. Students tend to procrastinate a lot because there are many things they would rather do instead of studying. However, I have learned that the procrastination itself likely happens because we always focus on result, not the process. For example, the main focus of most students is passing the exam, it is the reason why they procrastinate and cram at the night before the exam. If we focus on process, we may eliminate procrastination by regularly scheduling learning season each day. By doing so, you are not only get good score and passing the exam. It may also make you get a better understanding and create a long-term memory of subject that you learned. In addition, always give yourself a reward after a short learning session. It may ease the pain and relax your mind. Then, the brain will slowly assume that learning is not that painful and reduce procrastination further.
Chunking can make your learning easier. Chunk is neuroscientifically described as pieces of information that bound together through use and often through meaning. For example, in learning foreign language, it will be easier if you learn the material based on specific context or use. Most of the material in a language textbook are grouped based on certain circumstances that enable you to create a chunk.
Beware of illusion of competence! Students often think that they already mastered the learning material when they actually didn't. Many things may lead you to have an illusion of competence, such as sneaking on the answer sheet and highlighting textbook. So, do not fool your mind! Always test yourself, no cheating. Avoid to many highlights in textbook, it will be confusing and creating a false assumption that you already learned the highlighted things. Instead, you may try to write down important things you already have in mind as a practice.
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