How To Build Effective Study Routines That Actually Stick In High School
Many high school students sit down to study and immediately feel overwhelmed. Homework piles up. Tests come up suddenly. Last-minute cramming becomes a default. A consistent study routine changes that pattern. Small habits repeated each week improve memory and reduce stress. Research on learning strategies shows that spacing study sessions and practicing recall strengthens long-term learning. Students who build simple routines often find schoolwork easier to manage. A few focused habits can turn studying into a predictable part of the day. Start With a Consistent Study Routine A strong routine begins with regular study time. Consistency trains the brain to expect focused work at a specific time of day. Educational experts recommend studying in shorter sessions throughout the week instead of long cram sessions. Many high school students benefit from 50 to 75 minutes of daily study time outside of class following a simple routine: Studying at the same time…
What Makes a Great Learner?
Whether you’re studying a tough subject, learning a new skill, or preparing for an important exam, you probably feel, at one time or another, that everything would be easier if only you were smarter. Yet, while traits like high working memory and processing speed may be significantly influenced by genetics, most qualities associated with high IQ individuals can be adopted by anyone. Here are seven of the most important ones: 1. INTELLECTUAL HUMILITY 2. CURIOSITY 3. COACHABILITY 4. PUNCTUALITY 5. RESPONSIVENESS 6. CRITICISM 7. PERSISTENCE INTELLECTUAL HUMILITY The journey to becoming smarter often begins and ends with the same realization: you’re not as smart as you think. Receptivity to learning admits that there is at least a little and probably a lot to learn. Once you resist the false confidence of the Dunning–Kruger Effect–that cognitive bias wherein the less people know, the less likely they are to recognize their ignorance…
The Feynman Technique: A Simple and Fast Way to Learn
Sometimes–or maybe often–learning doesn’t lead to knowing. In some instances, we learn in a shallow sense, unable to connect new ideas with previous ones and thus likely to lose the lesson entirely. Other times, we learn the words and can even regurgitate them, undigested as it were, but have no insight into what those words even mean. So, clearly, a vast chasm separates learning and really learning, which impacts anyone who actually needs to understand and recall what he or she learns. Is there a simple way to really learn what we need? Well, if you’re looking for someone to offer a simple answer to a complex question, ask a physicist. One particular physicist, Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman, modeled a method of inquiry and exploration that isolates easy steps to learning even difficult concepts. What is now called the Feynman Technique sounds quite elementary on its face: 1. CHOOSE…
7 Strong Reasons Why Remote Tutoring is Better
I am what they call an old-school educator, and not just because I went to school so long ago that I learned cursive in 2nd grade. I believe firmly in fundamentals of learning like reading on paper instead of screens and writing notes by hand. That conviction about the classic ways being best explains why I kept the Chariot Learning offices open all through the pandemic even though we were working with students exclusively through online channels. I firmly expected to return to the same bustling learning environment we enjoyed before 2020. But a funny thing happened… The students that could come back to the office chose not to. Engagement in our in-person activities waned while remote programs grew rapidly. Finally, the SAT went digital in a big way. So, with equal parts regret and relief, we closed our physical offices and went 99% remote. What changed? COVID was hardly…
Don’t Always Study in the Same Space
One of the quiet pleasures of life is to find your perfect study environment. Who doesn’t want a space with just the right levels of comfort, light, and ambient sound–ideally close to tasty snacks and fun distractors for breaks. Kudos to all the learners out there who have created or located those places in which their learning powers reach their pinnacle. Now go study somewhere else! Retention of knowledge depends on many factors, such as how you accessed information the first time and how often you undertake retrieval practice. Some elements of independent study, however, seem marginal even though they may exert massive influence on the ability to apply learning in the moment: How you study Where you study When you study With whom you study Committing to the same study routine can produce the appearance of large gains in knowledge but lead to struggles with retrieval when you need…
Teach It to Learn It
Imagine if the only way you were allowed to learn something was to first hear it in a lecture and then study it on your own. Sounds restrictive, doesn’t it? Obviously, lectures prove perfect for certain educational endeavors, but then again, so do lab work, flipped classrooms, independent research, and a host of other multimodal approaches. And yet, no matter how a student is initially taught something, he’s expected to master that information alone, usually by sitting at a desk for hours reviewing notes. Here’s a revelation: maybe self-study isn’t the best path to content mastery for every student… maybe even not for you! One surprisingly effective strategy to learning is devilishly simple: teach it. The infamous Learning Pyramid, based loosely on the work of educator Edgar Dale, touts teaching as the most effective route to knowledge retention. More recent research helps provide the evidence this idea has needed. For…