I would like to introduce you to the Study Cycle.
Information on the study cycle is available in bits and pieces online, frequently in articles by colleges that discuss the steps of Preview, Attend Class, Review, Study, and Check, or some variation on that theme. For example, LSU provides this page: https://www.lsu.edu/cas/studycycle.php The particular method of the study cycle that I will discuss comes from Gretchen Wegner gretchen@gretchenwegner.com. She is an Academic Coach for children in K -12th grades and has found that her students grasp the concepts and improve their study skills and reading comprehension when they follow these particular steps. Gretchen focuses on the public school student. Her explanation of the study cycle works for any student. The study cycle considers how the brain works, not how old a student is. If you do not want to read those references because you don’t have the time, let me give you a short explanation while you are on my page. That’s fair, I think!
The study cycle is not only for young people.
I have noticed that this is an effective way for adults to learn new material as well.
This method works because this is related to how the brain processes and stores information. If you want me to be fancy, I can say this process is based on neuroscience.
What we have here is a representation of a human brain and a basket. Consider that the basket is going to be filled with information that you want to learn. The key is how to get that information from the basket into your brain, right?
Here, what you normally do is probably some form of reading, listening, or doing. While you read, you should be thinking about the material, not what you will do AFTER you study, right? In other words, you study time should not be spent thinking about what you will prepare for dinner, or how to do a project at work. You will be focusing completely on your academics. Right? 😉 Thinking about the material is referred to as encoding. Let’s say you read some material and then you repeat it and you hope it sticks in your brain.
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If you read something once, does it really stick with you?? The study cycle helps with that.
After you read the material, or have a brief (10 – 15 minutes) study session, close your book. Do not look at the book; quiz yourself to see how much you solidly remember. If you do not remember much, then you need to return to the basket and reread the material.
Most of you probably do something like this. What many of you also do is repeat the exact process you used the first time. If this process was not successful the first time, why do you do the same thing again? If you really want to learn the material, the second time you review the material, you will encode it differently. Perhaps, this time, you will write notes.
What happened after you quizzed yourself this second time? If you were really concentrating and wanting to learn the material, I suspect you remembered more. What you know, you know. If you did not learn everything you wanted to learn, repeat the study cycle process, this time encoding in another different way. This time, you will want to encode the material you did not remember. Let’s say this time you put your notes into an outline.
Again, quiz yourself. See what you learned. You should be understanding more of the material and remembering it more easily.
I can hear the comments already. “This takes so much time!!”
Yes, it does, but think about how you used your study time. If you read the material once and nothing stuck in your head, wasn’t that a waste of your time? Why take the time to read something if you do not remember or understand what you read? That gets depressing and you wonder if you are stupid, right? You are not stupid; you just were not taught HOW to learn.
Quizzing yourself is crucial to learning.
Remember when I mentioned encoding? If you want to really remember something, as in long enough to do well in class discussions and on tests, you will need to quiz yourself several times. How often depends on the material and how interested you are in that material. The important part here is that you are repeating the information. This means you are encoding again and again. The repetition is what “digs a ditch”, if you will, in your memory.
Another way to think about this is to think of creating a path through some grass. If you walk from point A to Point B once or twice, the grass responds and few people can tell that anyone walked your path. If you walk that path a LOT, you would finally kill the grass and create a dirt path, right? That dirt path reflects a well-used path. To get a well-used set of neurons clicking in your brain at test – time, you need established neural connections and one of the best ways to do that is to quiz and review.
Some of you respond that you must reread the material multiple times.
That, most likely, is because you did not encode the material into your brain during the first reading. You used word recognition and saw the words but did not think about what the words meant. You will read and reread and reread and reread and reread until something “sticks” or you get depressed and quit. Does that scenario fit? How much time does a person waste by rereading something if the person does not understand what was read? Would you not prefer to end your study session by understanding at least some of what you read rather than almost none of it?
During your next study session, you can reuse the Study Cycle and gain more information. True, you may not get all the information before you take a test or quiz, but which process will likely earn you a higher score? I would think you would do better if you understood some of the material. You are also in a better position to make educated guesses, rather than random guesses, at the questions since you now understand some of the material.
As an added bonus to make the study cycle more appealing …
You may learn what you can do so that you do not have to repeat the process. In this example, you might find that writing your notes in outline form works very well for you. The next time you study, outline your notes from the very beginning of your study session. You might discover that you only have to repeat the study cycle twice. In time, you will learn what method of encoding works best for you. Wouldn’t that be nice information to have?
Try the study cycle and let me know how it works for you!
If you found this helpful, please share it with someone you think would also find it useful. I would appreciate it. Your friend might appreciate it too.
Have you ever lost points on an assignment because you forgot to do something? My assignment checklist can help you remember the details. Check it out! It is FREE!!!!
If you have any questions or comments, please leave me a note.
Valerie
updated 8 November 2022