Study Smarter for Improved Performance

GenEdWeb Program
Continuing Education, Regional Programs and Summer Session

Several years ago Paul Vermette, a professor of education, wrote his son who was a freshman at college, about study strategies for achieving high academic performance based on his years of university teaching. These methods with his helpful examples are applicable to anyone in school, including online students, nontraditional students, high ability high school students along with freshmen and others who want to deepen their learning experiences.

Four tips for improving understanding through effective studying include:

1. Distribute study, reading and writing time by organizing a schedule and acheiving a greater efficiency in your use of time. Smaller study periods are more effective than one long session.
2. Elaborate on lecture notes through the process of summarizing, identifying, chunking, comparing and restating ideas.
3. Interact with your textbooks by making notes in the margin and marking the text. This goes beyond highlighting text to actually responding to the author's presentation of the subject matter.
4. Explain ideas, information, concepts to another person, either in a study group or one-to-one (online chat, discussion forums, e-mail or even to your family at dinner). This exercise helps you practice what you've learned by talking about it to someone else.