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I love this article on going back to school and how it affects everything in your life and how to deal with those changes.

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The Decision to Return to School - YouCanDealWithIt

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The decision to return to school is never easy, especially if you've been out of the classroom for a while. Not sure you can do it? Many others are taking the first step... enrollment of nontraditional students is up 30% to 40% in recent years.

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This article is a great read for someone who is trying to balance school life as a new primary.

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In order to optimize functioning, it is necessary to find a balance between the various roles one plays. A student often wears many different hats: partner, worker, friend, classmate, etc. Often times these roles are in conflict, and a student must be adept at attending to a variety of factors and assessing priorities.

How does it impact academics?

School-life balance is important for optimal academic functioning. Students often prioritize academics at the expense of personal factors, including relationships and exercise. This can lead to a decline in academic performance, as general health and well-being are critical to optimal academic functioning.

How does it impact relationships?

The quality of your relationships can determine the health of your school/life balance. A large focus on academics can cause strife in personal relationships, minimizing your sense of support. Similarly, a preoccupation with relationship issues at the expense of academics or work issues can be detrimental to performance, which can put further strain on the individual and the relationship. Finding ways to integrate school and personal life is essential.

How does it impact the workplace?

Students juggling work in addition to competing obligations from school and home may experience greater challenges in striking a balance. In these cases, it is even more crucial that you are adept at attending to different roles and setting priorities.

Succeeding as a Graduate or Medical School Student

Succeeding in graduate or medical school means more than simply doing well in your coursework. In fact, much of what you will learn during your graduate school years will not come from classes but rather through activities such as research, clinical work, internships, attending conferences, serving on departmental and university committees, preparing papers for publication, and joining professional organizations.

Self-motivation, self-discipline, time management, and the ability to prioritize are all essential ingredients to graduate or medical school success. The following tips can help you develop what you will need to succeed in graduate or medical school and beyond.

Manage your time

Time Management is a key component to academic and professional success. It is an essential skill that will help you concentrate your efforts on what is most important.

Plan your schedule

Make a weekly to-do list

Prioritize your work

Break large tasks into their smaller components

Set goals and deadlines for projects

Avoid perfectionism

Honestly assess the amount of time you waste

Beware of too much stress

Stress keeps us focused and aware of all the things that need to be done. It can motivate you to study harder and complete assignments and projects on time. But when your stress level becomes more than a motivating tool, or when pressures are too intense or last too long, you may be in stress overload.

Signs of Stress Overload

Anxiety or panic attacks

A feeling of being constantly pressured, hassled, and hurried

Irritability and moodiness

Physical symptoms such as stomach problems, headaches, or even chest pain

Allergic reactions, such as eczema or asthma

Problems sleeping

Drinking too much, smoking, overeating, or using drugs

Sadness or depression

Ways to Relieve Stress

Exercise. Regular exercise is one of the best ways to keep stress levels under control.

Learn ways to relax your body through meditation, massage, and breathing exercises.

Increase your Vitamin D. Take short walks in the sun. Studies show that Vitamin D increases a positive and focused mood.

Laugh.

Practice positive self-talk.

Adopt a mantra such as "this too shall pass" or "I can handle this."

Create an assets column that includes all of the things that bring you joy.

Talk to a friend or loved one.

Make the best out of stressful circumstances - be optimistic - your outlook, attitude, and thoughts influence the way you see things.

Ask for help. People who have a strong network of family and friends manage stress better.

Strive to be a high achiever not a perfectionist

Perfectionism refers to a set of self-defeating thoughts and behaviors aimed at reaching unrealistically high goals. It is based on perceived standards of excellence and often fueled by the need for others' approval.

Contrary to the perfectionist's belief that it is only through giving 100% to every project, assignment, or cause that they will find success, studies have shown that perfectionist attitudes actually interfere with success by leading to:

Low self-esteem

Anxiety

Depression

Guilt

Rigidity

Lack of motivation

Procrastination

Obsessive/compulsive behaviors

Eating disorders

Relationship problems

There's nothing wrong with striving to do the best you can; the key is in knowing your limitations. You can be a high achiever without being a perfectionist through practicing the following behaviors:

Set standards that are high but achievable.

Enjoy the process, not just the outcome.

Monitor your positive and negative thoughts.

View mistakes as opportunities for growth and learning.

React positively to constructive feedback.

Maintain a healthy lifestyle

Your physical and emotional well-being plays a major role in your academic, professional, and personal success. Take time to establish and maintain an active and informed wellness plan.

Exercise and sleep regularly.

Eat healthfully.

Make time for yourself.

Enjoy and spend time with friends and family.

Managing the conflicting demands of school, work, and family

Managing the multiple demands of your career, school, and personal life can be challenging, but you can be successful if you keep a few tips in mind:

Be where you are. Don't worry about what you aren't doing. Stay focused on the task at hand-don't worry about work when you're in class or studying, and don't let work or school interfere with spending quality time with family and friends.

Set a schedule for the week and get organized. Plan segments of time for study, family, exercise, and other tasks that need to get done. Experiment with the best times for you to study and how frequently you need breaks. Also, figure out the best place to study where all of your materials are accessible and you can truly focus.

Reward yourself. You should plan a reward for sticking to your schedule or completing your work before a deadline.

Remember that you are only human. Nothing will get done well if you are emotionally or physically drained. Plan exercise and creative activities into your week to help keep you energized.

Use your support system. Discuss your expectations for school with your family and friends. Inform them about your schedule so that they know when you can't be disturbed and when they can expect your full attention. Negotiate household duties based on your schedule.

Don't focus on getting straight A's. Since you have already been accepted into graduate school, your focus should be on the learning, not getting 100% on every exam or ranking #1 in your class.

Have some fun. Make time to enjoy friends and family; watch a movie; or read non-academic books.

Learn to say 'no.' This is not the time to volunteer to run new initiatives at work or assume new family responsibilities if you don't have to. Just meeting your responsibilities at work, school, and home will be enough of a challenge for now. Remember it is only temporary.

Know when you need help.

JHSAP can help students cultivate time management, priority-setting, and organizational skills through individual sessions and/or group workshops and presentations.

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In order to optimize functioning, it is necessary to find a balance between the various roles one plays. A student often wears many different hats: partner, worker, friend, classmate, etc. Often times these roles are in conflict, and a student must be adept at attending to a variety of factors and assessing priorities.

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This is a great website that helps you identify what is causing stress and different ways to relieve it.

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Techniques and strategies for dealing with stress

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These five tips to help manage stress are easy to intertwine into your life if you make it happen for yourself.

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Five healthy techniques that psychological research has shown to help reduce stress in the short- and long-term.

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The Relationship between Academics and Time Management

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The Relationship between Academics and Time Management

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Although this article was written after the study of only male students, I found their points of results and arguments to be highly appropriate as a student regardless of gender.

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These 7 tips are easily infiltrated into every day life and can make a great impact.

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With exams approaching, you should be thinking about how to get better at time management and organize your days so you can strike the right balance between home, work and university life. You should also try and eat some brain food - and no, we don't mean crisps and energy drinks!

By taking the time to arrange your priorities, you can give yourself the best chance of staying on track and organized during the exam period, which in turn can help reduce stress levels, something that can be the difference between success and failure at university.

Take a look at our top seven time management tips, so that you can do your best at university and also find moments to relax and even earn some money on the side.

1) What do you have to do?

The first stage of improving your time management is to list absolutely everything that you have to do. This may sound obvious, but speaking from experience, most students tend to leave important tasks until the last minute, which can impact on the quality of their work and their overall grade.

Include any university deadlines as well as any shifts you work on the list, and make a note of how much time each priority will take out of your schedule.

2) Create a life schedule

Whether it's a pin-up planner, a timetable or a calendar on your phone, find an organizing tool that works well for you and add your list of priorities to it. There are many time management apps that can help with this. Also, think about when you are most alert, so that you can plan your study periods around these times.

Find time for socializing, but also make sure that you get enough sleep. Most people need between 7 to 8 hours sleep every night to remain focused and alert during study periods.

3) Be flexible but realistic

Typically, allow around 8-10 hours a day for working, studying, socializing and anything else practical you need to do.

As a full-time student, you're expected to dedicate 35 hours a week to university studies, including the time you spend in seminars and lectures. If you only spend 15 hours a week attending tutor-led learning, you should use the extra 20 hours for independent study.

It's also important to remember that things often take longer than expected. So, allow a little extra time in case you spend longer on a task than you thought you would.

4) Allow time for planning to avoid repetition

Taking the time to research, plan and think about your work is crucial for good time management. Allow yourself the time to process new information and plan how you are going to use it, as this can help you to avoid having to re-read and repeat any research.

One way of effectively planning before researching is to make a list of everything you want to find out, so that you can make notes below each subheading as you go.

5) Avoid procrastination and distraction

One way to avoid procrastination is to think about the different places you have been when studying - where were you the most focused? Where were you most distracted? Is there anything you can do to make studying actually somewhat enjoyable?

Remember, what works for one person might not necessarily work for you. For some, studying with friends can limit their productivity. But for others, studying in groups can help to increase motivation and avoid procrastination.

6) Exercise to clear your head in between study sessions

Believe it or not, exercise works in the same way sleep does. It can focus your state of mind, helping you to clear your head and boost your brain power in between study sessions. If you're new to exercise, aim to fit in a 10-minute run here and there, steadily increasing the amount you do as you go on.

7) Has your organization been effective?

Constantly reviewing and reassessing your schedule can help you to recognize whether you need to make any changes in order to help you complete any university tasks and also have time to relax and spend time with friends and family.
Rachel Campbell is a creative content writer for Pure Student Living(Lead image: David Vega (Flickr)) , a provider of high quality student accommodation situated in a number of locations throughout London.
Want more content like this? Register for free site membership to get regular updates and your own personal content feed.

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With exams approaching, you should be thinking about how to get better at time management and organize your days so you can strike the right balance between home, work and university life. You should also try and eat some brain food - and no, we don't mean crisps and energy drinks!

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This article goes into detail about what are healthy study habits, how to study material, and the importance of note taking. My favorite section is the difference between recognition and knowledge and what not to do to gain the knowledge of the material.

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Teaching Tips

Regan A. R. Gurung and Lee I. McCann

It has happened to all of us in some form or another. A student comes to our office (or emails, calls, or texts) and says "I studied so hard for your exam and I still only got a __ (insert low grade here). What should I do?"
Study Behaviors: An Overview and Brief Measurement History
How should you respond? Is this the time to reveal all those secret, super-successful study techniques that you have kept carefully hidden from your students all these years? Well, most of us have no collection of such hidden gems, so we recite the litany of things we have heard work well. Even textbooks provide general prescriptions on how to study, and there are also a number of student study guides (e.g., Fry, 2004; Tamblin & Ward, 2006). But what really works best and, as important, what does not work well (even though you think it should)? We will try to answer these questions and more, providing a brief review of resources on studying techniques with recommendations you can pass on to students.

A large body of research has attempted to classify study techniques and to identify the techniques that are optimal (e.g., see Crede & Kuncel, 2008; Entwistle & McCune, 2004; Gurung & Schwartz, 2009; Hattie, 2009, for reviews). The good news is the reviews cited all show that study attitudes/habits/behaviors are related to academic performance. The bad news is that it is hard to pinpoint which specific strategy is the best. The short answer is "It depends."

Measures of study behaviors, also called study skills, strategies, or techniques, can serve as diagnostic tools to help instructors identify students in need of additional help and can also provide a better awareness of a student's strengths and weaknesses and, correspondingly, ways to optimize his or her learning. Study behaviors can be broadly defined as behaviors functioning to acquire, organize, synthesize, evaluate, remember, and use information (Crede & Kuncel, 2008; Gettinger & Seibert, 2002). Such behaviors include time management; goal setting; selecting what, how, and where to study; taking good notes; reading; and self-testing. Researchers have divided the many specific study behaviors into four main categories: repetition-based (e.g., flashcards), cognitive-based (e.g., studying with a friend), procedural (e.g., time management), and metacognitive (e.g., taking quizzes to test self-knowledge; for more details see Gettinger & Seibert, 2002; Tamblin & Ward, 2006).
Teaching Tips
Given the obvious link between studying and learning (as established by high exam scores and course grades), a large "self-help" market caters to students looking for tips. The style and empirical basis of the available material varies greatly. Many of the guides include discussions of topics such as multiple intelligences, learning styles, and time management, while providing step-by-step strategies on how to read better, take good notes, and remember and test better. Whereas some guides include some empirical evidence to support recommendations (e.g., Pauk & Owens, 2007; Tamblin & Ward, 2006), most do not. For example, Newport (2007) features tips based on interviews with students who achieved high grades in college. Many guides are targeted at the high school or first year college student (Fry, 2004).

In contrast to non-empirical, "self-help" style student guides to studying, a wealth of empirical research suggests that good study behaviors predict academic success (Crede & Kuncel, 2008; Hattie, 2009; Prevatt, Petscher, Proctor, Hurst, & Adams, 2006). But what exactly are "good study behaviors"? Early attempts to assess "good" study behaviors go back to Wrenn's (1933) Study-Habits Inventory, the Student Skills Inventory (Locke, 1940), and the Survey of Study Habits and Attitudes (Brown & Holtzman, 1955). More recently, researchers have commonly used the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (Weinstein & Palmer, 2002), the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST, http://www.etl.tla.ed.ac.uk/questionnaires/ASSIST.pdf), or created their own scales (Gurung, Weidert, & Jeske, 2010). Unfortunately, many of these scales are long, extremely general, and furthermore do not afford clear prescriptions on how to advise students to study. Similarly, although large meta-analytical studies (Crede & Kuncel, 2008; Hattie, 2009) clearly establish the link between study behaviors and performance, they do not provide specific prescriptions of how exactly students should study. That said, the breadth of research provides some key suggestions that faculty can use to help students improve their study techniques.

1. Find Out How the Student Has Been Studying.Possible questions include:

Did you read the assigned chapters before the test? Did you read them before you came to class, after, or just before the exam? How much time did you devote to studying for the test? Did you read these chapters once, or more than once? (This question provides a chance to review the old Law of Frequency, and to describe how repetition influences memory formation and recall.)

2. Check Attendance and Note Taking Practices. Assuming that the student attends class regularly, you might ask the following: Do you take good notes? Do you review your notes after class to correct obvious errors? Do you compare your notes with those of other students? Where do you sit in the classroom? You may also want to look at the quality of the student's notes and suggest changes (e.g., leaving more space, use of topic headings, writing down of examples used by the instructor).

3. Suggest Healthy Behaviors. Ask how much sleep the student gets, how much they got the night before the exam, and if they are getting any exercise and eating properly. (This might provide an opportunity to review the effects of sleep on memory formation.)

4. Recommend Tutoring. If tutors are available, encourage their use. If not, ask if the student has tried studying with other students.

5. Discuss Recognition Versus Knowing. Describe the difference between going over material enough that one can "recognize" the material as very familiar and prematurely conclude that it is known and understood, and really knowing and understanding it. (You might even mention Ebbinghaus and the benefits of overlearning, or work on the "curse of knowledge" showing that students often think they know the material if the material is right there in front of them.)

6. Urge Self-Assessment. One easy strategy is to give your students access to an established and free study behavior measure (e.g., ASSIST) and have them use it to get a sense of what they are not doing (Entwistle, 2009). The ASSIST provides a profile of scores on strategies and alerts students to possible problems in their existing ways of studying (available at http://www.etl.tla.ed.ac.uk/publications.html).

7. Discuss Winning Strategies. Hattie (2009) synthesized research from over 800 meta-analyses relating to educational achievement. He then derived the effect sizes for different interventions. Intervening to improve study behaviors was a significant factor with an effect size of .59. This meta-analysis and other works on study techniques (Gurung, 2004, 2005) show that the following specific strategies are empirically proven to work and hence useful to pass on to students:

Schedule daily studying and homework time

Make lists of things to accomplish during studying

Put off pleasurable events until work is completed

Review the class textbook/assignments before going to class

Create mnemonics and vivid mental images to aid learning

Memorize the material through repetition

Generate examples to apply the material

Record information relating to study tasks (e.g., keeping a study log)

Self-verbalize the steps to complete a given task

Use chapter review questions to self test

Review the items missed on the exam, including items guessed at

Make an outline before writing a paper

Check work before handing in an assignment

8. Advise Students on what NOT to do. Previous research suggests that students take some "dangerous detours": study techniques that may not be beneficial involving more study time at the expense of other techniques (Gurung, 2004, p. 164). Sadly, such detours could represent behaviors used by academically weaker students. Whereas the academically stronger students may not take time on behaviors such as going over chapters right after a lecture in lieu of doing so right before an exam, the weaker students may go over the chapters at both times. In support of this point, Landrum, Turrisi, and Brandel (2006) found that A and B students tended to increase their frequency of studying as the semester progressed, but they decreased the actual time spent studying per study event (p. 681). (Another testimony to the benefits of distributed vs. massed practice.) Students who are doing poorly may try to improve by doing more of the unsuccessful types of studying they have been doing, rather than trying other techniques. Key behaviors students should avoid are:

Spending too much time on key terms or summaries to the extent of paying less attention to other pedagogical aids (e.g., review questions)

Highlighting too much text (i.e., not knowing what the important information really is), thus increasing study load

Using chapter review questions (and their answers) as more content to study versus using them to test their own knowledge

"Studying with a friend" where this does not involve testing each other, taking review questions, creating examples, or reviewing notes

Listening to music, watching television, text messaging, or surfing the Internet while studying

9. Assess Your Own Students' Study Behaviors. Correlate the behaviors with exam scores and identify what behaviors are associated with better scores. Share this with the students to help them modify their study behavior. For example the first author created a 35-item Study Behavior Checklist based on previous research and student interviews (Gurung et al., in press). The items assessed students' organizational behaviors (e.g., writing down when exams, assignments, and quizzes are due, setting up a study schedule), application behaviors (e.g., creating questions about the material), elaboration behaviors (e.g., paraphrasing the material, explaining it to another person), metacognitive behaviors (e.g., using the book and/or Web site for quizzes), and resource use behaviors (e.g., asking a fellow classmate to explain the material) on a scale ranging from 1 ( Not at all like me) to 5 ( Exactly like me). Higher exam scores were associated with:
References
10. Do not expect a silver bullet. It is important to bear in mind that there are no strategies that work all of the time, for all students, in all classes. Different exams call for different strategies. It is possible that introductory psychology multiple choice exams require only basic study behaviors, whereas an upper-level essay exam will need different behaviors.

In general, instructors need to be cognizant of how much of the advice they give to students is empirically proven to work in an actual classroom rather than a controlled cognitive psychology laboratory study. Asking students to complete a study skill inventory after the first exam may provide instructors with a starting point to discussing study behaviors with students. Taking some class time to discuss the variety of study techniques, and then detailing what exactly is involved in each method, may be critical to helping students do better. We hope these suggestions prove helpful when the next student asks you how to study for your exams and that their performance improves as a result of your advice.

Brown, W. F., & Holtzman, W. H. (1955). A study-attitudes questionnaire for predicting academic success.

Journal of Educational Psychology, 46, 75-84.

Crede, M., & Kuncel, N. R. (2008). Study habits, skills, and attitudes: The third pillar supporting collegiate

academic performance. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3, 425-454.

Entwistle, N. (2009). Teaching for understanding at university: Deep approaches and distinctive ways of thinking.

London, England: Palgrave Macmillan.

Entwistle, N., & McCune, V. (2004). The conceptual bases of study strategy inventories. Educational

Fry, R. (2004). How to study (6th ed.). Clifton Park, NY: Thompson Delmar Learning.

Gettinger, M., & Seibert, J. K. (2002). Contributions of study techniques to academic competence. School

Gurung, R. A. R. (2004). Pedagogical aids: Learning enhancers or dangerous detours? Teaching of Psychology,

Gurung, R. A. R. (2005). How do students really study (and does it matter)? Teaching of Psychology, 32,

Gurung, R. A. R., & Schwartz, E. (2009). Optimizing teaching and learning: Pedagogical research in practice.

Malden, MA:Blackwell.

Gurung, R. A. R., Weidert, J., & Jeske, A. S. (2010). A closer look at how students study (and if it matters).

Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 10, 28-33.

Hattie, J. (2009). Visible learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement.

London, England: Routledge.

Landrum, R. E., Turrisi, R., & Brandel, J. M. (2006). College students' study time, course level, time of

semester, and grade earned. Psychological Reports, 98, 675-682.

Locke, N. M. (1940). The Student Skills Inventory: A study habits test. Journal of Applied Psychology, 24,

Newport, C. (2007). How to become a straight-A student: The unconventional strategies real college students

use to score high while studying less. New York: Broadway Books.

Pauk, W., & Owens, R. J. Q. (2007). How to study in college (9th ed.). San Francisco: Wadsworth.
Tamblin, L., & Ward, P. (2006). The smart study guide: Psychological techniques for student success. Malden, Weinstein, C. E., & Palmer, D. R. (2002). Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI): User's manual (2nd Wren, C. G. (1933). Study-habits inventory. Oxford, England: Stanford University Press.
Prevatt, F., Petscher, Y., Proctor, B. E., Hurst, A., & Adams, K. (2006). The revised Learning and Study

Strategies Inventory: An evaluation of competing models. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 66,

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How Should Students Study? Tips, Advice, and Pitfalls

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Regan A. R. Gurung and Lee I. McCann It has happened to all of us in some form or another. A student comes to our office (or emails, calls, or texts) and says "I studied so hard for your exam and I still only got a __ (insert low grade here).

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This article is a great way to help enhance or start a new way of studying. It beats down some of the myths of studying (such as each subject needs to be studied separately) and helps your studying take a great turn

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You probably think you know how to study.

After all, you've made it to graduate school. You've successfully turned in homework assignments and passed exams for at least 16 years. And there's a good chance that you have your study routine set, whether it's a cup of tea and your textbooks in bed, or a quiet library carrel you've claimed as your own.

But it may be that the study habits you've honed for a decade or two aren't serving you as well as you think they are.

Research has shown that some "common sense" study techniques - such as always reading in the same quiet location, or spending hours at a time concentrating on one subject - don't promote long-term learning. And some habits that you might suspect aren't so great, like last-minute cramming for exams, may be even worse than you thought.

We've rounded up three principles, drawn from decades of cognitive psychology research, to help you get the most out of your studying hours.

Space Your Study Sessions

As course reading piles up, it can be tempting to let yourself fall behind, all the while reassuring yourself that you'll spend two days cramming right before an exam. But while last-minute cramming may allow you to pass a test, you won't remember the material for long, according to Williams College psychologist Nate Kornell, PhD.

Decades of research have demonstrated that spacing out study sessions over a longer period of time improves long-term memory. In other words, if you have 12 hours to spend on a subject, it's better to study it for three hours each week for four weeks than to cram all 12 hours into week four.

And for the most part, the more time you take between study sessions, the better off you are - at least within the time limits of an academic semester.

"At some point, waiting too long [between sessions] could have a negative effect [on learning]," Kornell says. "However, most of us space far too little. Practically speaking, too much spacing is not really a danger anyone should worry about."

Researchers aren't exactly sure why spacing is so effective. However, one possible cause is that, over time, people forget what they learned in their initial study session. Then, when they come back to the material later, the new study session jogs their memory and they recall what they learned the first time around. That process - forgetting and retrieval - helps cement the new knowledge in place.

In one study, published in 2009 in Applied Cognitive Psychology, Kornell showed that the spacing effect works on a smaller time scale as well. He asked college students to study a "stack" of 20 digital vocabulary flashcards. The students all studied each word four times. But half of the students studied the words in one big stack - they went through all 20 words, then started over. The other half of the students studied the words in four smaller stacks of five cards each. So, the students who used the one big stack had a longer spacing time between each of the four times they saw a word.

On a test the next day, the students in the "big stack" group remembered significantly more of the words than the students in the "four small stacks" group - 49 percent as compared with 36 percent.

When it comes to spacing, students are often led astray by their own experiences, says Kent State University psychology professor Katherine Rawson, PhD, who also studies learning. "They cram right before an exam, and to be honest that's probably OK for doing fine on your exam," she says. "But the problem is that it's horrible for long-term retention. Students don't realize that they're really undercutting their own learning."

Interweave Your Subjects

You might think that if you want to learn one thing well, the best thing to do would be to sit down and concentrate on it for as long as you can stand. But research shows that mixing tasks and topics is a better bet.

In one study, published in Psychological Science in 2008, Kornell and University of California, Los Angeles psychologist Robert Bjork, PhD, asked 120 participants to learn the painting styles of 12 artists by looking at six examples of each artist's work. For half of the artists, the participants saw all six paintings in a row. For the other half of the artists, they saw the paintings in a mixed-up order. At the end of the experiment, the participants did a distracting task (counting backward by threes from 547), and then had to identify which artist had painted a new painting. The participants were significantly better at identifying the artists' whose paintings they had studied in an "interwoven" style than the artists whose paintings they'd studied in blocks.

Why does mixing up subject matter help students learn? Again, as in spacing, the key may be in the learning, forgetting and relearning that helps the brain cement the new information for the long-term.

Another factor, Bjork says, could be that the mixing - he calls it "interleaving" - forces students to notice and process the similarities and differences among the things they're trying to learn, giving them a better, deeper understanding of the material.

Despite strong evidence that interleaving works, it can be tough for teachers to work the mixed-up style of teaching into their lectures, he says.

"People expect to be taught the way they're used to being taught," he says. "Most courses involve blocking by topic. If you start interleaving you're going to seem disorganized."

But, he adds, students can bring the method into their own study sessions.

Test Yourself

Testing gets a bad rap: Students don't enjoy taking quizzes, teachers don't like to grade them, and some people bemoan that too many exams can force teachers to "teach to the test" and squeeze creativity out of the classroom.

But done right, testing can be a useful tool to help students learn, researchers say. Decades of research has shown that making yourself recall information helps strengthen your long-term learning, says Henry Roediger, PhD, a psychologist at Washington University in St. Louis who has done some of the key research in the area. In other words, students might not enjoy taking a quiz at the end of every class or testing themselves every time they finish reading a chapter, but doing so would probably help them remember the material on the final exam - and even after the class ended.

University of Louisville psychologist Keith Lyle, PhD, used a captive audience - students in his undergraduate statistics classes - to prove the point. In one 75-person class, at the end of each class session he asked students to complete a four- to six-question short-answer quiz about material that had been presented during the lecture. Cumulatively, the quizzes counted for just 8 percent of the students' final grade.

Lyle taught a second class using the same syllabus, but didn't do the daily quizzes. At the end of the semester, he found that students in the quiz class significantly outscored students in the nonquiz class on all four midterm exams.

Roediger says that even though most professors won't use daily quizzes in their courses, students can - and should - test themselves by asking themselves questions during study sessions.

"The problem with repeated rereading, which is what most students do to study, is that it gives you a false sense of familiarity. You feel like you know the material, but you've never tried retrieving it," he says.

Taking the Hard Route

If decades of research have demonstrated that spacing, interweaving and testing help people to learn more effectively, then why don't more students and teachers use these strategies? Perhaps because they're difficult, say Kornell, Bjork and the other researchers.

It's hard to study a topic, then switch to a different subject and wait a week to come back to the first one. When you do, you might feel like you're relearning the material - and, in a sense, you are.

Learning researchers recognize that these strategies aren't easy or fun to put into practice. Bjork, in fact, has labeled the strategies "desirable difficulties." The strategies work because they are difficult - it's the process of learning, forgetting, retrieving and relearning that eventually registers the knowledge in our long-term memory.

"In the short term it's easier not to [use these strategies], but in the long term it pays off a thousand times over," says Kornell.

Putting in the extra work to learn material for the long haul is particularly important for graduate students, he says, because by the time you reach graduate school you're not just trying to pass a test - you're learning things you'll need to have a handle on for the rest of your working life.

"One of the most important transitions you make [at the beginning of graduate school] is realizing that you are really there to learn, not just get good grades," he says.

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You probably think you know how to study. After all, you've made it to graduate school. You've successfully turned in homework assignments and passed exams for at least 16 years. And there's a good chance that you have your study routine set, whether it's a cup of tea and your textbooks in bed, or a quiet library carrel you've claimed as your own.