How To Study

In the videos by Dr. Chew, I learned that many of my previously held beliefs and study habits are disastrously incorrect. Getting good grades in high school was usually fairly easy for me, and I thought that I had a good understanding the material presented in my classes. I never had to study in depth, because by attending class and completing assignments I was able to get good grades. I believed that learning was fast, and it didn’t take a lot of effort from me outside of class. When I did have to study, I would study only main points. Right now, my study habits consist mainly of shallow processing and memorization rather than deep processing. Sometimes I will related material to me personally, but usually I was focusing only on remembering the concepts themselves. From what was said in the videos, I have a lot that I need to change in the way I view studying and my study habits. When studying, I need to increase my focus and get rid of as many distractions as possible. I found it interesting that learning styles don’t seem to have any correlation with increasing comprehension, but instead Dr. Chew encourages students to be able to learn using all the different learning styles. I think by being able to learn in a variety of ways will help me learn how to use deep processing when I study. Deep processing is all about gaining an understanding of how key concepts relate to each other and the general subject material. Dr. Chew gave several different tips to effectively use deep processing while reading the material. He tells students that they need to use elaboration, distinctiveness, personalization, and appropriate retrieval and application. Elaboration is about relating concepts, while distinctiveness is about recognizing their differences. Personalization helps relate the concept to the student, and appropriate retrieval and application is about understanding it in the way the teacher expects.