Effective Physics Study Habits

Dr. Nouredine ZettiliDepartment of Physical & Earth Sciences

Jacksonville State University

Summer Professional InstituteIMPACTSEED IX

Snead State Community CollegeBoaz, June 06—17, 2011

Abstract We discuss the methods of efficient study habits and how they can be used by

students to help them improve learning physics. In particular, we deal with ideas pertaining to the most effective techniques needed to help students improve their physics study skills. These ideas were developed as part of Project IMPACTSEED (IMproving Physics And Chemistry Teaching in SEcondary Education), an outreach grant funded by the Alabama Commission on Higher Education. In the presentation, focus on topics such as the skills of how to develop long term memory, how to improve concentration power, how to take class notes, how to prepare for and take exams, how to study scientific subjects such as physics. We argue that the student who conscientiously uses the methods of efficient study habits will be able to achieve higher results than the student who does not; moreover, a student equipped with the proper study skills will spend much less time to learn a subject than a student who has no good study habits. The underlying issue here is not the quantity of time allocated to the study efforts by the student, but the

efficiency and quality of actions.

Why Study Skills are needed?• The student who conscientiously uses the

proper techniques of efficient study habits will be able to achieve higher results than the student who does not.

• A student equipped with the proper study skills will spend much less time to learn a subject than a student who processes no effective study habits.

Absence of Study Skills from k-12!• In most K-12 schools, the teaching of

study skills is non-existent or, at best, minimal/unplanned!

• Thus, many students complete high school and enter college without disciplined and systematic study habits.

• Instruction in effective study skills should be introduced in the early grades and continued throughout high school and college.

Study Skills for College Students• University students can improve their study

effectiveness provided they strictly follow certain field-tested techniques.

• The underlying issue here is not the quantity of time allocated to the study efforts by the student, but the efficiency and quality of actions.

• Important Note: Effective study skills are not meant for the underachieving students only; successful students need them too.

What Students don’t do they should be doing?

• Clearly some students focus just on passing their exams! Hence obtaining “empty” academic degrees!

What students should do they should not been doing?• They should make a paradigm shift: instead of focusing on

just passing an exam or a course, the students should focus on acquiring a solid and long lasting education.

• Hence, they should review/study their class material more frequently.

• They should focus on understanding, not memorizing, the underlying foundations of the subject -- physics -- and reinforcing that with problem solving (practice! solving numerous problems).

• Students who do that will invariably achieve a double aim: (a) reaping good grades as well as (b) obtaining a sound and long-lasting education.

What Students do they should not be doing?

• Students do not review/study their class material until couple of days before the exam. Then they wake up!

• Then, they go into seclusion trying in vain to cram in one or two days what their instructors have covered in several weeks!

• Predictable result in most cases: miserable failure!

• Who to blame for this?• Of course they have one: us -- the instructors!

List of Essential

Study Skills

Essential Study Skills needed to be a successful

student• How to improve long-term memory; • Concentration skills; • Nutritional requirements. • How to take notes in class; • How to prepare for and take exams; • How to study scientific subjects such as physics;

In short, we focus on the skills needed by the student to function at peak efficiency.

How to Improve Long-Term Memory?

The Forgetting Rate After learning a material, if certain actions

are not undertaken, then forgetting gets unleashed!

Research evidence shows that: after learning something and if no review sessions are carried out, we will lose about:

•80% after one week, and about•98% after four weeks.

Doesn’t the following statement sound

Familiar?!

Right before a major exam a student would come to his instructor during office hours and say:

I don’t remember a thing from you have taught us during the last month!!!

Question: How to Slow down your student’s forgetting rate?

Answer: Repeated Review Sessions When repeated review sessions are carried

out frequently at the right time intervals, they would substantially slow down and reduce the forgetting rate.

Repeated Well Timed Recall Sessions

Once you've learned and memorized something, set a time table to recall it (and the associations you've made with it).

• First RS (Recall Session): make sure to recall what you have learned one hour later. Research shows that one hour after learning something is the time when the memory is most vulnerable to forgetting, misinterpreting or degrading the contents in some way.

• 2nd RS: Repeat the review again after 24 hours, • 3rd RS: Then repeat the recall again after one week, and finally • 4th RS: Repeat the recall after a month. • The idea is to recall the information just as you are about to forget

it, in expanding increments of time; hence, it will stick in your long-term memory.

• Whatever is left after 30 days, you'll probably be able to hold onto.

Concentration Skills

Benefits of concentration• Concentration can improve or ruin the study

efforts of students. • A student who manages to focus his total

thinking on the task before her/him will certainly complete it more accurately and in less time than a student who dedicates only part of her/his attention to his task.

• Students who conscientiously and efficiently use concentration techniques will certainly achieve better academic results than those who do not.

How to achieve concentration?

• To be able to concentrate on a particular task, one has to avoid distractions.

• Distractions can be internal as well as external, and no productive degree of concentration is possible without eliminating both of them.

Eliminating Internal Distraction

Before sitting down to study, the student has to quell mind intruders such as:

• Indecision (what, when and where to study),

• Day-dreaming (e.g., thinking about pleasant things to escape from hard work),

• Personal problems that invade the student's thoughts while studying.

Eliminating External DistractionExternal distraction can be minimized by choosing the right place to study:

• Having a tidy desk in an adequately illuminated and quiet environment/room (free from voices, noise, music in the background, etc.).

• Student Housing, a curse! in most universities, student housing compounds are not conducive for concentration; they are plagued with a wide range of uncontrollable distractions: loud noises (voices, music, etc.) and undisciplined roommates.

• The situation is exacerbated in those dormitories where more than one student share a single room: roommate chatting is difficult to control.

• Concentration becomes thus unattainable. • Possible solution: the library! the student must find a quiet,

comfortable place to study outside the housing compound. A possible option is the university library. The student should carefully select a distraction-free spot inside the library where he can study for long periods without being found and interrupted by friends!

Another distraction: Boredom!A student who studies the same subject

nonstop for a long time will become bored and saturated quickly. Her/his learning efficiency would drop rapidly.

Solution: research studies recommend to

take two actions:1.Break the study sessions into shorter slots

of one hour each: 50 minutes to study and 10 for a break, and

2.Diversify the subjects to be studied.

Remarks:• The breaks must be planned beforehand

so that the curve rises near the end of each 50 minutes.

• Golden rule: mental fatigue does not result from studying hard, but from becoming bored and saturated with a subject (by studying it non-stop for too long): diversification.

Concluding Thoughts

Concluding Thoughts• When problems of poor concentration

team up with inefficiency of long-term memory, the learning efforts of the student become fruitless if not useless.

• Fortunately, the willing student has access to well established or tried-and-tested methods to improve her/his study skills.

• Acquiring the skills of effective study habits can make or break an academic career.

Effective Physics Study Habits

Dr. Nouredine ZettiliDepartment of Physical & Earth Sciences

Jacksonville State University

Summer Professional InstituteIMPACTSEED IX

Snead State Community CollegeBoaz, June 06—17, 2011