Overstudying

For any given assignment or exam, you should know more than the professor asks. If you have taken copious notes—from lectures, discussion, labs, and readings—you will have a starting point for overstudying.

One professor suggests that you study as much as you need to for the test and then study more (a lot more). Another idea is to study harder than you did for the previous exam. My advice is to study both extensively and effectively. Because I was in college more or less continually from 1987 to 2003, I took a lot (a lot!) of exams, and I discovered that effective studying ensured success.

I have found that one of the best ways to study effectively for exams is to take several practice tests as a way to discover what I can recall and what I cannot recall. Tests, unfortunately, do not always measure what you know but what you can remember. The following steps may help you study more effectively to improve what you can recall at the time of the exam:

If your professor gives you a study guide, use that as a basis for your self-tests.

 First, before beginning to study notes and readings, sit down and “take” the study guide as if it were an exam.

 For the terms and concepts that you get right immediately, remove them from subsequent tests so that you do not spend your time studying things you already know and can recall.

 Next, study your notes and review your readings. Then, take your self-test again.

Continue this process until you have eliminated all the terms on the study guide. It is also a good idea to let an entire day pass and then take one last self-test to make sure that what you have learned is stored and can be easily recalled even after you have stopped studying.

 If your professor does not provide a study guide, you can make one yourself and then follow this procedure. Once you know everything on your “self-exam,” you will “know too much” and have successfully overstudied!