Dr. Stowell's Study Tips

To do well in any course, I recommend the following study strategies:

• Use a cumulative study approach that is divided across frequent, but brief, study sessions.
  • First, you should read the portion of the textbook that will be covered in the upcoming class period. Usually this is somewhere between 4-8 pages of reading material. If you have questions while reading, write them down so you can ask your instructor later.
  • After the first lecture on a topic, review your notes within 1 hour of the class and make sure that you fully understand what you have written. If not, look it up in the textbook or ask the instructor for help. This should take no more than about 10-15 minutes. Do this several more times before the next class period.
  • After the 2nd class period (and within an hour after class), review your notes from both the 1st and 2nd lecture together. Do this several more times before the next class period.
  • With each new lecture, continue to study the older material. When the time comes for an exam, you will be familiar with the older material and will only need to study what you have just learned, or other topics that you feel that you have not yet mastered. This approach to studying should lower your overall stress levels, enhance memory consolidation, and lead to improved test scores.
• Teach what to you know to someone else. If they can't understand it, you don't know it well enough.
• Don't study on your bed. This can also lead to insomnia.
• Use all the study aids from the instructor and from the publisher of the textbook.
• Think of real life examples of what you are learning.
• If you don't understand something, ask for help!

View EIU Student Success Center's test taking tips at: http://www.eiu.edu/~success/testtaking.php