Studying

Studying is important, especially for areas in which the student is struggling, but too much studying is a bad thing.  Cramming, for example, is one of the most inefficient and unproductive study methods around, and it creates a great deal of stress in your child that can cause them to perform poorly at school, especially during tests and exams.  Teach your child to spend 30-60 minutes a day reviewing materials from the previous weeks and months; by doing this, your child will develop efficient study habits and avoid last-minute preparations, like cramming for tests.

The process to cement information into your brain is simple!

1.       Maintain a positive attitude no matter how challenging it seems to be.  NEVER say destructive things like “It’s too difficult!”, “I can’t understand this!” or “I’m not smart enough!”  Expressions of frustration have a nasty way of becoming hindrances to learning, so keep it constructive (“With time and effort, I will succeed!”)

2.       Immediately review what you learned.  This sends a signal to your brain saying “This is important!”

3.       Rewrite it.  This is very effective because it stimulates different parts of the brain than reading and listening, and makes it “personal”.

4.       It is best if your child reviews materials learned after 1-2 days, again after a week, and once more after a month.  Infrequent reviews after that can’t hurt.

5.       Creative memorization techniques can be used to make memorizing interesting and easier, and most schools don’t teach this. Here are some tips on that: http://www.wikihow.com/Memorize or search www.TED.com or YouTube for “Memory Masters” videos so you can learn more.

It is not how much time they spend on this that is important – it is the refreshing of the memories of what they’ve learned and most especially what they’re struggling with that does the trick.  If your child develops the habit of a small amount of review each day, s/he will be able to cope with the increasing demands of school as s/he gets older.  Read more details here: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newISS_05.htm

The same rule applies to long-term projects.  Often, large projects (or so they seem!) appear very daunting to children and they will put them off as long as they possibly can because they cannot process the scope of it or how to accomplish it.  Teach them how to analyze and identify the discrete tasks of the project so that the mountainous task becomes a series of little ones, and then show them how to prioritize and schedule everything over the time they have.  They should be given a goal of a certain amount of time spent each day on the project, a date by which the first draft of the project will be finished, followed by a period of editing and improvement before handing it in.  As they get older, they should be encouraged to set their own goals for studying and projects so that they can learn to accurately gauge their needs.  Goal-setting, deconstructing large tasks into a series of smaller ones, and scheduling are critical skills that every child must learn in order to be effective in school and life.

Another important aspect of studying is to take breaks so that your brain gets time to relax and process what you learned.  Feeling tired, dizzy or having a headache are indications that you’ve added a lot of information and also used up a lot energy and nutrients in the process of increasing your knowledge and expanding your neural network.  Take a 5-10 minute break, have a snack to give yourself energy and relax your mind, then get back to it.  It is probably best for a child to have a break every 30 minutes and a teen or adult every hour.  However, if you feel excited about what you’re learning and/or are “in the zone/flow”, it’s okay if you wait a bit longer to take a break.  Sometimes however, because of excitement or flow the learner will completely lose track of time, so you’ll need to tell your child to stop if it’s been a long time, or they’re clearly struggling.

In addition, it is critical that your child is never forced to stay up late to complete work or study.  If they didn’t finish, they need to finish it in the morning before they leave (without getting up early or skipping breakfast) or at school.  If that is not possible, they will simply have to accept the consequences; but, remember, you are the parent and you are also responsible.  In addition, forcing your child can result in undue stress, which has a deleterious effect on both the body and the brain.  Studying all night for a test is not only a bad habit to develop, it can lead to poor results and problems in the future.