Introduction
It is widely known that teachers encourage students to regularly revise for a test however, students often choose to study the day before the test and cram in all the information. But which studying technique gets better results? This research aimed to determine the independent relationship between when you study before a test and your test results. For a period of a week, a group of Year 8 students participated in this experiment. This experiment is worth investigating because it can help students discover the best way to revise for tests without wasting time and effort. This study can also help teachers teach more effectively.
Aim
The aim of this experiment is to discover how when you study before a test (a week before or right before) affects your test marks.
Background Info
Studying and revising materials learnt at school has always been considered a tedious task by students. They complain about wasting so much time on studying yet they don 't get the marks that they hope for. But have the students ever thought about when to study and how to study more effectively to get better results? The idea for this experiment occurred to me because I was interested in the effects of different studying techniques on your long-term and short-term memory.
There has already been many existing experiments orchestrated within the field of study regarding exams, studying and revising. Rick Nauert, an associate professor for Rocky Mountain University of Health Professionals, has conducted research that shows that taking breaks between concentrating on something will improve attention and help you learn better. He also discovered that stimulating your brain accelerates your learning of tasks.
Similarly, John M. Grohol is an expe...
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Acknowledgements:
I would like to express my very great appreciation to Emily Liao, Michelle Miao, Jenny Wu, Sherone Soodin, Michelle Tat, Michelle Jiang, Jasmine Cai, Clare Chen, Alana Zhang, Ananya Deshpande, Garvi Poudyal, Tess Tsoi, Jessica Zheng and Moniq Wever for agreeing to give up their time to participate in my experiment.
Advice given by Alana Zhang and Garvi Poudyal has been a great help in my experiment.
I wish to acknowledge the help provided by Michelle Tat.
I am particularly grateful for the assistance given by Ms Pan.
I would like to thank the following sources for their assistance with the collection of my data:
Wikipedia, Psych Central and Mail Online.
I would also like to acknowledge my contributions to this research project, particularly in the writing of the study notes, the test and the answers.
The results of this experiment are shown in the compiled student data in Table 1 below.
In the experimental group the middle four average scores were not significantly different (M = 0.70, SD = 0.04) from the last four average scores (M = 0.50, SD = 0.00), t(4) = 2.06, p < ns . In the control group, the middle four average scores were also not significantly different (M = 0.68, SD = 0.02) from the last four average scores (M = 0.56 , SD = 0.00), t(4) = 1.89, p < ns.The serial position curve of recall of the warned group and the control group showed a similar pattern as to the one found in previous studies on the same topic. Both groups were able to recall about 90% of the words in the beginning of the list and the end of the list (See Figure 1). The warned group had slightly more false memories, but the difference was not at all significant (see Figure 2). The control group recalled more critical and studied words than the warned group (see Table
Another confound that may impact the results of this study could be the testing effect. Repeated testing may lead to better or worse performance. Changes in performance on the test may be due to prior experience with the test and not to the independent variable. In addition, repeated testing fatigues the subjects, and their performance declines as a result (Jackson, 2012). Because the professor is interested in determining if the implementation of weekly quizzes would improve test scores, an experimenter and/or an instrumentation effect may also affect results.
In response to the question set, I will go into detail of the study, consisting of the background, main hypotheses, as well the aims, procedure and results gathered from the study; explaining the four research methods chosen to investigate, furthering into the three methods actually tested.
[Note: Please note that this assignment was written in March/April 2014, and so the content was current or recent at the time.]
This scenario is very common in the lives of most college students. For most students, caffeine dependency has become more important than sleep. Caffeine seems to be the boost that students need before tests. “Unfortunately, I have no data associating sales trends to midterms and finals, but I think it's safe to assume that sales of caffeinated beverages increase around exam times," claims Buzz Hofford, the general manager of Bon Appetite, a restaurant in the University of Seattle. Since students rely heavily on caffeine, they need to know if caffeine does actually kindle their memory. I believe that caffeine does stimulate the memory process and help boost alertness when used in moderation because of the different types of research that supports caffeine stimulation.
Altogether this study has helped us learn more about the brain and memory. Learning is measured thorough when a student can reiterate the right answer to a question. In this study, students in one conditions learned forging language vocabulary words in standard example of recurrent study exam trials. In three other conditions, once a student had correctly formed the language item, it was constantly studied but dropped from further testing. Repeatedly tested but dropped from the further study or just dropped from both the study and also the test. The results reveal the critical part of retrieval practice in combining education and shows that even college students seem naive of the fact.
This paper attempts to analyze some aspects of learning and memory as studied by researchers and understand these concepts via are own minor experimental research.
I will high light key phrases or things that I know that is important to remember. I will go through my notes, my text book, lectures from class ect., and I will take pieces of information from different topics. These pieces of information are usually important to me, because they will remind me of other material that I just can not get stored into my memory, and fills in the blanks for me. Chunking works for me when I have so much material to try to remember that seems impossible to obtain it all, just chuck the info and viola, you will be prepared for the test, or to have the knowledge you
First, it is important to look at the amount of time each habit takes on average. Looking in a long-term viewpoint, studying periodically takes much more time than cramming. Although it may seem as if the opposite is true, cramming is fairly speedy. Before a test, a student may spend two or three hours studying for a history exam. A student who decides to study periodically may study for thirty minutes each night starting two weeks before the exam takes place. That adds up to seven hours, more than double the time it takes to cram for the test! One may argue that by studying a little bit each night, you could study ten or even five minutes a day, but that’s not particularly effective. In a mere ten minutes, it is nearly impossible to cover the needed information. By cramming, one is able to effectively fit two weeks of information in a shorter amount of time. If you participate in several extracurricular activities and/or have a job, it may be very difficult for you to make room for studying and homework each night. By cramming, you are limiting this time to one day rather than eve...
Technical 23- (use as needed) I agree with this completely. I typically find I work better with writing down things. The best way I study for tests or memorizing things is to repeatedly write it down. For, example I had to study a book to take a test. I went through that book and copied it word for word two or three times. This is just how studying works for me.
The test taking lessons have helped me learn more about having good strategies for a test. I feel that with these lessons learned I can have more confidence to take a test and pass it. In this report I want to show why test taking is an important skill to learn. I also wanted to describe how I have prepared for test in the past. I also wanted to discuss three strategies I have learned from the computer tutorial in class and how I have changed my study habits so I can do better on test.
Motivation to undertake in such a study can be said to expand on the existing knowledge as well as to close any gaps due to lack of insight and testing in specific areas – short-term memory and recall performance. Another reason as to why this topic is being researched is to further my own interest within this specialised area of memory as well as cognitive neuroscience in psychology.
An important question to address when attempting to identify effective study strategies and their relationship with academic performance is, “What are study skills?” The term “study skills” can be defined as proficiency in identifying, organizing, memorizing, and using information in order to succeed academically (Proctor, Prevatt, Adams, Hurst, & Petscher, 2006). Activities identified as study skills include “time management, setting appropriate goals, selecting an appropriate study environment, employing appropriate note-taking strategies, concentrating, selecting main ideas, self-testing, organization, and managing anxiety,” (Proctor et al., 2006). When studying, college students employ a variety of these study strategies that they believe
I will produce a report of the findings including the details of my Methodology, findings and URLs of websites used in the bibliography.