What Is a Common Mistake Students Make While Reading Textbooks

Last exams can have a major impact on students' overall grades!

It's not uncommon for a final exam to be worth 25 or even xxx% of students' overall grade for a course. This one examination can take as much of an bear on on students' grades as ALL of the homework assignments they have completed throughout the entire semester…combined!

Unfortunately, most students have never learned how to report effectively for exams.  Studies suggest that most college students accept a poor understanding of which study tactics are virtually effective, and routinely prepare for tests using inefficient learning strategies. Then even when students think they're studying effectively, the methods they're using are actually not as useful every bit they believe.

Here are 10 common mistakes students brand when studying for exams:

1. Not knowing the grades yous're aiming for

If your student doesn't know what score they demand to earn on each of their final exams in order to go the grades they want in their classes, how tin can they know which exams are most important to report for? Yes, in an ideal globe, they would study everything for every course, and go 100%'southward on all of their exams. But in reality, they have a limited amount of time to work with, so information technology makes sense to spend more time studying for the classes in which their grade on the exam is more of import — either because it is worth more of their overall grade, or because they need a good score on the exam in order to pull upwardly their average to the grade yous want.

ii. Relying on their teachers to prepare them

Many students assume that they will be prepared for the test as long every bit they nourish class, attend the teachers' exam review sessions, and expect over the written report guides teachers take provided. The materials their teacher provides are a swell clue virtually what they think is of import to know for the exam, and then they can be a great starting identify, but only being present for the review sessions and looking over the report guide is not enough to guarantee that a pupil will do well on the exam. If they really want to practice well, your teen needs to accept responsibility for ensuring that they truly understand the textile.

3. Not starting early plenty

While many students intend to begin studying for concluding exams a couple of weeks beforehand, that timeline oft slips every bit exams approach. After several days of convincing themselves "information technology will be okay to skip this one mean solar day and get started tomorrow," suddenly what was supposed to be a calendar week of studying turns into i or two frantic nights of cramming. Studying for exams frequently takes more time than your educatee might conceptualize, so they should become started early.

4. Studying in chronological (rather than priority) order

One mutual arroyo to studying for exams is to sit downwardly and look through all of the notes from course in chronological order. In addition to being a very passive study strategy (more on this beneath), it also puts students at risk of running out of time to review the material they learned most recently, which is often emphasized more than heavily on the final exam and tin as well be some of the nearly difficult concepts to chief – especially for classes like math and languages that increment in difficulty throughout the semester. Instead of studying in chronological order, students should attempt studying in priority club, spending the bulk of their time on the data that will be most of import for them to know for the test.

5. Using passive study strategies

The well-nigh common written report method most students employ is reading over their notes from form. Unfortunately, this approach to studying is not very effective, in big part because information technology is extremely passive. I've found that students who employ this approach volition readily admit that they can read over a folio of notes and not retrieve what they have simply read! If they don't remember information technology right after they've read information technology, how could they maybe hope to answer questions about it on the test? Choosing more than active study strategies that crave them to appoint with the material will enable them to learn the material more effectively and efficiently.

vi. Non testing themselves on the fabric

Practice testing (what researchers phone call "active recall") is the most effective way for students to prepare for tests. Numerous studies have shown that students who examination themselves on the cloth are learning and remembering the information better than students who practice not take practice tests. Practice testing too helps students avoid "illusions of competence": situations in which they call up they know the data better than they exercise. Unfortunately, many students spend much more time reviewing their notes than they exercise taking practice tests. I strongly recommend students examination themselves on the data they're studying as oft as possible, both to enhance their retention and to confirm that they have actually learned it.

vii. Practicing in the wrong format(not how they'll be tested)

I oft find that students will study the aforementioned way for all of their exams, regardless of the format. For example, they might study for history by making flashcards for all the key terms in their notes. This might exist a corking strategy for a test that is mostly multiple selection and matching questions…but information technology could get them intro trouble if their test is more often than not short answer and essay questions that require them to respond "why" and "how" questions about the bigger-picture concepts from the class. If students want to exist prepared for their exams, they need to make certain that the way they're studying for their test is similar to the fashion they will actually be tested on the cloth.

8, Reviewing information they already know

Even when students are testing themselves and using active study strategies, they often spend the majority of their time on topics they already know. Doing bug they're familiar with and know how to solve is more comfortable, and gives students a squeamish boost in their cocky-confidence. The issue with this arroyo is that they oftentimes end upwardly running out of fourth dimension to piece of work through the challenging problems that they don't know how to solve…and those are the ones that they end up missing on the exam. Once they've confirmed that they empathize and can answer questions virtually a certain concept, your pupil should check it off their list and motility on to something more than challenging.

9. Memorizing, rather than understanding

I often see students who take been studying past trying to memorize all of the facts from a class, rather than truly understanding the underlying concepts. Memorizing tin can work well in some classes, specially in elementary and middle school, simply information technology often backfires in more avant-garde classes. If they've memorized a definition but don't really understand what information technology ways, then as presently every bit the information is presented in a slightly different format, or they;re asked to utilise it to a new blazon of problem, they will have no thought how to proceed. Rather than memorizing the information from their classes, your educatee should study strategies that encourage them to understand it. Explaining ideas out loud in their own words, or teaching them to someone else, are groovy examples of report strategies that promote understanding.

10. Not having a Programme!

One of the biggest mistakes I encounter students make is that they'll oftentimes sit down down and start "studying" without really knowing what their priorities are, what they demand to focus on in that study session, or which written report strategies they're going to use to primary the cloth. This might be the biggest mistake of all, because it affects all of the others! If they don't know what grades they need to earn, what fabric is most important for them to learn, or how to written report it effectively so the data sticks in their encephalon, chances are good that your educatee will spend a lot of time spinning their wheels (or getting distracted), and end up going into the exam far less prepared than they could have been.

Which of these mistakes practise y'all recall making when you lot were a student? If your teen could work on improving in one of these areas, which one exercise you think would have the biggest impact for them?

Citations:

McCabe, J. (2011). Metacognitive sensation of learning strategies in undergraduates.Memory & Cognition,39(3), 462-476.

Karpicke, J. D., & Edgeless, J. R. (2011). Retrieval practice produces more learning than elaborative studying with concept mapping.Scientific discipline,331(6018), 772-775.

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