{"id":4855,"date":"2014-08-03T14:14:19","date_gmt":"2014-08-03T11:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/?p=4855"},"modified":"2014-09-22T15:43:37","modified_gmt":"2014-09-22T12:43:37","slug":"ten-rules-of-bad-studying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/ten-rules-of-bad-studying\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Rules of Bad Studying"},"content":{"rendered":"

1. Passive rereading<\/strong>\u2014<\/p>\n

\"unhappy-student\"<\/p>\n

sitting passively and running your eyes back over a page.\u00a0<\/strong>Unless you can\u00a0prove<\/em>\u00a0that the material is moving into your brain by recalling the main ideas without looking at the page, rereading is a waste of time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Letting highlights overwhelm you.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"barr3\"<\/p>\n

Highlighting your text can fool your mind into thinking you are putting something in your brain, when all you\u2019re really doing is moving your hand. A little highlighting here and there is okay\u2014sometimes it can be helpful in flagging important points. But if you are using highlighting as a memory tool, make sure that what you mark is also going into your brain.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. Merely glancing at a problem\u2019s solution and thinking you know how to do it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is one of the worst errors students make while studying. You need to be able to\u00a0solve<\/em>\u00a0a problem step-by-step, without looking at the solution.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

4. Waiting until the last minute to study.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Would you cram at the last minute if you were practicing for a track meet? Your brain is like a muscle\u2014it can handle only a limited amount of exercise on one subject at a time.<\/p>\n

\"deadlines\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

5. Repeatedly solving problems of the same type that you already know how to solve.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you just sit around solving similar problems during your practice, you\u2019re not actually preparing for a test\u2014it\u2019s like preparing for a big basketball game by just practicing your dribbling.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

6. Letting study sessions with friends turn into chat sessions.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"txt-and-hw\"<\/p>\n

Checking your problem solving with friends, and quizzing one another on what you know, can make learning more enjoyable, expose flaws in your thinking, and deepen your learning. But if your joint study sessions turn to fun before the work is done, you\u2019re wasting your time and should find another study group.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

7. Neglecting to read the textbook before you start working problems.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"books\"<\/p>\n

Would you dive into a pool before you knew how to swim? The textbook is your swimming instructor\u2014it guides you toward the answers. You will flounder and waste your time if you don\u2019t bother to read it. Before you begin to read, however, take a quick glance over the chapter or section to get a sense of what it\u2019s about.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

8. Not checking with your instructors or classmates to clear up points of confusion.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"090617-N-9610C-029\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Professors are used to lost students coming in for guidance\u2014it\u2019s our job to help you. The students we worry about are the ones who don\u2019t come in. Don\u2019t be one of those students.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

9. Thinking you can learn deeply when you are being constantly distracted.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every tiny pull toward an instant message or conversation means you have less brain power to devote to learning. Every tug of interrupted attention pulls out tiny neural roots before they can grow.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

10. Not getting enough sleep.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Insomnia\"
\nYour brain pieces together problem-solving techniques when you sleep, and it also practices and repeats whatever you put in mind before you go to sleep. Prolonged fatigue allows toxins to build up in the brain that disrupt the neural connections you need to think quickly and well. If you don\u2019t get a good sleep before a test, NOTHING ELSE YOU HAVE DONE WILL MATTER.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1. Passive rereading\u2014 sitting passively and running your eyes back over a page.\u00a0Unless you can\u00a0prove\u00a0that the material is moving into your brain by recalling the main ideas without looking at the page, rereading is a waste of time.   2.\u00a0Letting highlights overwhelm you.\u00a0 Highlighting your text can fool your mind into thinking you are putting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4851,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[427,444],"tags":[737,1410,788,1408,1409,140,1406,1407],"class_list":["post-4855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-427","category-444","tag-bad","tag-chatting","tag-habits","tag-passive","tag-rereading","tag-study","tag-studying","tag-unfocused","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4855"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4953,"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4855\/revisions\/4953"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seragpsych.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}