Pushing Through the Exam Period
Pushing Through the Exam Period: 5 Unpopular Psychology-Based Tips to Study Smarter, Not Harder!
During this UK Mental Health Awareness Week, many students are feeling the stress of exam season. As s current Psychology undergraduate at UCL who is also pushing through exams, I wanted to share some less talked about strategies to help you manage exam stress – by improving your revision!
These are not your typical tips – they are based on psychological research I have come across in my lectures and have personally found useful for making my revision more efficient.
Read on to discover five tips that will give you a new perspective on studying and help you cope with stress more effectively!
Studying Under Same Conditions – context-dependant memory
Psychological research shows we recall information more accurately when we study in an environment similar to the one where we’ll be tested. This is because similar cues existing during both encoding and recalling processes enhance recall!
Given that you will probably be taking your exams in an exam hall, you can start by setting up a similar revision environment for yourself:
- Use bright lightning.
- Study on a desk - not your bed.
- Keep your workspace clear and tidy.
Counter Advice:
Sticking to one space might demotivate you. Mental flexibility is just as important for efficient revision. You can try:
- Rotating between your university’s different libraries
- Visiting the library
- Studying at a local study café.
- Studying with friends if you need a boost – especially for subjects that feel draining
Use Colour to Cue Your Recall – context-dependant memory
Colour-coding is a science-backed method of boosting memory! Assigning a colour to each of your modules will act as an external cue to enhance your recall:
- Assign a specific colour to each module (e.g., red = Organic Chemistry, green = Thermodynamics).
- Use this colour for headings, highlights, and folders.
- Think of the colour you used for that module during the exam to recall more information.
You can even apply this logic to other areas. You may wear the same clothes you were wearing when you were studying for a lecture on the day of the exam to enhance your information retrieval.
Ditch Passive Learning
Highlighting and rereading may feel productive but they don’t activate your brain deeply due to small cognitive effort.
As a result, encoding of information is shallower, and is less likely to stay in your long-term memory. Instead you can:
- Create your own notes using your lecture slides and lecture recordings.
- Make flashcards with a key word that will help you remember a key study and write a brief explanation of it.
- Act like a YouTuber! This sounds crazy at first but explaining your notes out loud as if you are teaching the subject will help you do acoustic (sound-related) rehearsal.
- You can even teach the subject to your friends who are interested!
Challenge Negative Thinking with Therapy Techniques
One of the methods used in cognitive-behavioural therapy is to keep a journal of your feelings and thoughts. Doing this will help you notice which dysfunctional thoughts and behaviour are preventing you from improving so that you can target and challenge them!
You can tailor this according to your own time:
- Instead of journalling, you can try to write down a short paragraph or few sentences about how you feel.
One example:
“Today I studied for my Developmental Psychology exam but I am not sure if I studied enough. The slides did not include enough explanation therefore I am not sure whether I learnt everything in sufficient detail.”
- Measure how long you studied. If you spent few hours revising, this means you did what you needed to do and it is probably enough!
- If the problem stems from lecture slides, you may want to research the studies mentioned online and provide more details on your own notes.
The aim here is to identify the problems and find solutions to achieve inner peace. Once you challenge your negative thoughts and behaviours, procrastination will decrease.
Repetition is Key – maintenance rehearsal
Memory strengthens with spaced repetition and multi-modal encoding. Repeating the information you are revising with spaced revisions will help you transfer information from your short-term memory to long-term memory. As a result, you are less likely to forget the pieces of information you are learning.
Incorporating both meaning-related (semantic) and sound-related (acoustic) memory systems will enhance your recall:
- First make notes using your lecture slides.
- Then put your notes away and explain the topic aloud from memory – as if you are the professor.
- Repeat the same process a few times until you can provide more details with more accuracy.
- Spread your revision across several days to allow for spaced revision.
Last but not least, please do not forget – your health will always be more important than your grades, even if it does not feel that way right now.
In fact, did you know that prolonged stress can affect how well our brains function and how we feel overall? But anyway, that’s a topic for another day!
Good luck to us all!
