From the Principal

At this important time of year, I share a few study tips from Benedict Carey in his book, How We Learn.

• How much does it help to review notes from a class or lesson? Very little, he says. Looking over highlighted material is one of the least effective ways to study; the same goes for verbatim copying. That is because both are fairly passive and don’t engage the brain in the kind of work that will make learning sink in.
• Is there an optimal amount of time to study or practice? Ideally, break up study time into chunks over two or three days, each time reengaging with the material, retrieving it, and re-storing it in memory – “an active mental step that reliably improves memory.”
• How does sleep affect learning? The deep sleep that occurs in the first half of the night is most important for consolidating and retaining hard facts – names, dates, formulas, concepts. So if you need to remember that kind of information, Carey recommends going to bed at your regular time to maximize deep sleep.
• What does work? “Self-testing is one of the strongest study techniques there is,” says Carey. Testing yourself (or being tested) does two things: it forces you to retrieve information from memory, and it gives you immediate feedback if you couldn’t remember it so you know what you don’t know and need to work on some more. 

Far better to test yourself, space out the study, and find out what you actually don’t know. I wish all students every good fortune and remind them ‘the only time success comes before work is in the dictionary’.

Finally, I wish our eight World Expedition students, Ms Hodge and Ms Budenberg every success as they depart to Borneo for 27 days.  Go safely!

Dr Andrew Hirst