blog by zahra

Hope your first few days at UBC were amazing!  Whether you’re a new student or a returning one, we all need to get accustomed to our new profs and learn about the different grading schemes.  I know I’ve had a fantastic week!

But now that all the profs are done lecturing us on the logistics of their courses, it’s time to get to the meat of the subject.  In the next 14 weeks, you’ll receive a boatload of information, whether it be about the brain, the current state of the oceans, or the way people think.  You’ll be expected to know all this and much more (i.e. a big chunk of the (most-likely) accompanying textbook).  How should we deal with it?

One of my high school teachers once suggested that if we reviewed our notes on a particular subject the same day we learnt about it, we would have a greater familiarity with the material come exam time.  After blundering through first term last year, I started employing this strategy in second term – it works!  Reviewing your notes doesn’t take very long, and the process allows you to tweak your notes (because we all miss some important points during lecture!)

What else works, you ask?  Jumble up your study routine.  From a psychological standpoint, studies have found that introducing obstacles or difficulties into our study routine improves retention of the information we are learning.  To do this, interleave the subjects for which you are doing pre-readings.  Don’t read all 5 sections of your biology textbook in one sitting.  Read a couple, then switch to reading your earth and ocean science notes.  Once again, I’ve done this and it works!

Also try studying in different environments.  Don’t always lock yourself up in your dorm.  Try finding a spot in the Irving Learning Centre one week.  Test out the seats at Koerner Library after that.  Or if you commute by bus/train, try reviewing your lecture notes on the go!  Psychological studies have found that students who are tested in the same room in which they learnt the course material do better on the exams than students who are tested at a different location.  However, the head of the chemistry department isn’t going to let me write my exam on the 2nd level of Koerner Library in the far corner because that’s where I’ve been studying the whole term.  By diversifying your study environment, the brain assimilates the material in a way which leads to greater recall when writing the exam for that course.

If you’re interested in reading more about psychology, memory, and study methods, leave me your email address and I’ll forward it to you! 🙂

Happy Studying!