Week 4: How Do I Prepare for Exams?

Yesterday, I received an email from a young woman who was struggling in Chemistry when I met her a year ago. She had high academic and professional aspirations but was a little discouraged about her grades. I sent her a draft of my book, Working Smarter, Not Just Harder, and I especially encouraged her to read the chapter on how to study for exams, which I’ve excerpted below. Yesterday’s email made my day. She made the equivalent of the Dean’s list, and she was beaming with confidence and swagger.

The steps that I’m about to share work. To butcher a tag line from a famous commercial, “You’re gonna like the way you feel. I guarantee it.”

Preparing for Exams

Back in an earlier post, I wrote about how I discovered the Deep Dive Learning process in my freshman year in college. This post summarizes a step-by-step approach to preparing for exams and some of the rationale behind it as well. Please note that this is longer than my previous posts because I realize students are entering exam season and splitting this up across several posts may not be timely enough for those who’re in the mix right NOW.
While this approach will mostly benefit those taking quantitative courses, the principles also apply to less computational exams, for example those in English, History, or Sociology. The key here is to “eat the meat and spit out the bones.” In other words, try this process, but ultimately you need to discover an approach that works for you and your learning style. Here we go.

Gather Your Study Aids
Prior to going to your study location, two (or more) days before the exam, gather all of the materials you’ll need to study—textbooks, notebooks, graded assignments, online websites, problem sets and exams from previous years that you can get your hands on. Bring a separate notebook or mobile device to capture your notes before each exam that you’ll ultimately reference for the final exam. Even if you have a laptop or a tablet, bring pens, pencils with enough ink to get you through the study period. Until all your tests are given digitally, you’ll need to get comfortable with the old school writing instruments—pens, pencils and paper. You should have everything you need so you won’t have an excuse to bail out.

Find a Location to Go Deep
It’s important to find a location that you’ll use for studying going forward. This should be a quiet place where you can concentrate, one to which you can return throughout the semester, and indeed throughout your college career. Eric Jenson in his book Teaching with the Brain in Mind says that our physical settings influence what and how we hear, feel, and see, and these senses in turn influence our thinking and emotional performance. If you’re an athlete, you know how pumped you get when you enter the gym or smell the chlorine from the pool. A place that’s dedicated for studying becomes familiar to you and signals “study time” when you walk in. You won’t have to amp yourself up to study if your mind and body know the dedicated purpose of the place.

I found a 24 hour library that became my deep dive learning center. For you, it might also be a library or a reading room. You might choose an empty classroom. Try not to use a place that has another purpose, such as your dorm room or a dining hall where there will be distractions or may condition you with the wrong response, like sleep!
Now that you know the importance to find your spot, let me turn to how to study for exams.

What to Do Two Days Before the Exam?

Two (or more) days before your exam should be dedicated to understanding the concepts, theories, ideas and procedures that will be tested. Set aside enough time to review all of the readings, online lectures and lecture notes. Giving yourself at least two days leaves time to internalize the material, enabling your brain to migrate information to long-term memory. It also avoids cramming which has a dampening effect on learning. Cramming triggers stress and lends less time to synthesize the material, leading to very short term retention that’s here today, but often gone when you need to recall it.

Actively reviewing the reading and notes may take four to six hours, or more, depending on how much you’ll have to cover, and how fast you read. For me, I was (and still am) a line-by-line reader, and so I would plan for four to six hours to comb through the materials. If I started after dinner, say at 6pm, I’d wrap up about midnight with two breaks. If that seems intense to you, it is. If you’re unaccustomed to this level of focus, start an hour at a time and work your way up to studying for two hour blocks.

Comb Through Your Readings and Notes
Actively review all of the readings by writing as you go. You’ll remember more if you use more parts of your brain. By reading, seeking to understand, and writing you’re multiplying neural connections – the key to memory formation — than if you just read (or browse).

As you read, write down key definitions, concepts, ideas and procedures in your dedicated notebook (or mobile device, using a freehand app like Noteshelf). Jot down theories and definitions that are hard to understand. Note questions in the margin that you’ll ask your TA or classmate the next day. Work the problems as they appear in the text, once again, in your notebook (or equivalent device). Try working them on your own before referencing the steps and solutions that are in the text. If you get stuck, consult the text for the next steps, then try to continue on your own. Jot down the explanations as well, in your own words. Here, you’re attempting to understand the Why, not just to memorize the What. A good professor will test you on your understanding of the Why by giving you problems on the exam that that’ll look completely unfamiliar to you, but that forces you to apply the concepts you’ve learned (or not), rather than just have you regurgitate the procedures from memory.

Take Regular Breaks
Give yourself breaks every 90 minutes to two hours. Short breaks will help you stay sharp during those periods of focused review.

The Day Before the Exam

Make sure you get your questions answered that arose during your review the day or evening before. Seek out your TA or an informed classmate to discuss matters. Since most material builds on previous knowledge, a gap in your understanding may inhibit your understanding of more complex content. It’s therefore important to get all your questions answered—leave no knowledge behind!

Attend an exam review if one is scheduled. Because of your disciplined approach the night before, you’ll get the most out of the review; you’re not going in with an empty container waiting to be filled. Rather, you’ll have questions and a deeper knowledge base to draw from.

If you’re taking a non-quantitative course, then you may use this night to meet with your study group and quiz each other on potential questions, arguments, or essay questions that may be posed. Having done the conceptual review the night before, you’re not coming in empty handed. Test your and your study group’s knowledge to solidify your understanding by teaching those who may have gaps in theirs.

Gather Your Study Aids
Get ready to study by gathering all of the materials you had the night before—your notebook in which you’ve summarized your lecture notes and text review, your textbook, problem sets, solution sets, old exams, pens, and highlighters, etc. While the previous day was dedicated to understanding concepts, this day is dedicated to problem solving. Therefore, in addition to the other material, pull together as much scrap paper as possible to work problems, and mechanical pencils so you don’t have to constantly get up to sharpen them. It is said that prior planning prevents poor performance. The more you plan, the better your performance and, in this case, the less likely you’ll have to interrupt your study to go back to your dorm to get something. You want to give yourself no excuses.

Location, Location, Location Revisited
Return to your Deep Dive study location. Try to secure one of the same spots you’ve previously used so you don’t have to spend any time getting used to it, figuring out where the plugs or the bathrooms are, etc. It should be a familiar place that will spur you on to get right to work.

Review Notes from the First Night of Study then Work Problems
Begin by reviewing the material you recorded the night before in your dedicated notebook. Review the sample problems; make sure you understand the Whys, and not just the What.

After your review, work problems. Using your scrap paper and mechanical pencils (or freehand writing app), redo the problems in the textbook or other online and lecture materials. See if you can do them on your own. If not, then reference your text only when you get stuck. Understand what the next steps are, then turn over your notes and continue working the problem. Similar to practicing your lines in a play, by focusing on the areas you have difficulty mastering—that is, the parts on which you’re getting stuck—you’ll eventually master that section. When you’re done, work the problem again.

Once you’ve finished the problems in your notebook from the text reading the night before, then work the problems from your lecture notes, problem sets, and old exams. Follow the same approach. Try working the problems on your own. Keep a running dialogue in your head. “How did she do that?” “Why did he go to this step?” Reference the notes only if you get stuck, and then rework the problem without an aid.

As you begin to work the volumes of problems I am suggesting, you’ll notice that you’ll be developing a problem-solving rhythm. Every problem has a rhythm, an approach, and you’re learning how to tap into that rhythm. I remember how I’d begin to approach every problem a similar way, and with growing confidence. I’d begin by writing down all that was known or “given.”

Review with your Study Group
Having studied individually, now would be a good time to get with your study group. This gathering would have been scheduled with a defined start and end time. Two hours is reasonable to get together to test each other, like the students did in the Uri Treisman study. The length of time, though, would depend on the course and the amount of material that is to be covered.

Get Enough Sleep
The night before the exam, make sure you schedule at least 7 hours of sleep. As I’ve mentioned, you need at least this amount of time for ideas to be consolidated in and by your brain, transferring from short-term to long-term memory, and ensuring more lasting neural connections that facilitate recall and understanding. Sleep deprivation puts at risk your ability to remember the material and think creatively, both of which are critical on exams.

Working Smarter Takeaways-The Behavioral Shift
Studying for Exams
• Schedule your study group
• Find a location where you can study uninterrupted
• Two (or more) days before the exam, understand the concepts
• One (or more) days before the exam, focus on problem-solving
• Get sufficient sleep

Can You Learn While Multitasking? The Answer May Surprise You!

About 6 years ago, while briefly watching my high school-age daughter work on an assignment, I observed in real time the assault of technology on learning for the millennial generation. As she wrote her paper, she frequently interrupted her writing to read and respond to text messages on her phone. When she received an alert—which seemed to come every two or three minutes—she’d stop writing her paper, respond to the text, and then resume her work. Rather than scold or admonish her to put the phone away, I wondered if this distracted approach was the new way to work—the new learning norm. After all, she was a straight “A” student at her selective high school at the time. I figured that somehow, as human beings adapted to new media (writing, the printing press, typewriters, word processors, and now smart phones and tablets), perhaps our brains could somehow adapt as well to absorb multiple simultaneous streams of information.

Later, while reading Norman Doidges’, The Brain that Changes Itself, I discovered the concept of neuroplasticity—the notion that the structure and function of our brains can change by forging new neural connections in response to novel experiences, environmental changes or new thoughts. As a believer in Carol Dweck’s “Growth Mindset,” I know that we can make our brains smarter by exposing our minds to increasingly rigorous work. Neuroplasticity challenged the prevailing beliefs of most of the 20th century that our intelligence was fixed in early childhood. Now, thanks to this new line of study, researchers have discovered that our brains remain “plastic” well into adulthood. New ideas, thoughts, volumes of information and memories are formed because our brain cells –neurons—are making new connections.

Could it be possible, then, that our brains could adapt to multitask more efficiently, thereby enabling us to perhaps learn twice the information in the same amount of time? In other words, by overloading ourselves with information, can humans actually evolve to learn calculus and analyze Chaucer simultaneously? The answer is a resounding NO.

A recent study published in the May issue of Computers in Human Behavior by Larry Rosen, a California State University professor of psychology, documented what 263 middle, high school and college students were doing over a 15 minute period as they completed their homework, worked on projects, studied for exams, and read books. The students were also allowed to respond to texts, use email, talk on the phone, and/or watch their Facebook and Twitter feeds while being directed to “study something important.” Two findings stuck out for me.

First, as early as two minutes into the exercise, students began to decline in “on-task behavior.” In other words, it took just two minutes before these middle, high school and college students started to engage with their other devices and activities, drawing their attention away from their schoolwork. Two minute attention spans! Even more troubling was that these subjects were told that they were being observed! (This contrived self-awareness makes me wonder what the true attention span is for students who aren’t being watched.)

More importantly, to my original question about learning, the researchers found that over a 15 minute period, the students only spent 65 percent of the time actually working on their schoolwork.

When we multitask while doing our work, our learning is shallow, spotty, and we make more mistakes because our brains, though an incredibly efficient organ, can only handle one activity requiring higher-order thinking at a time, particularly if both activities are related. Yes, to Dr. Doidge’s argument, we can become smarter, but not while being distracted.

More critically, though, media multitasking inhibits developing deeper understanding that precludes us from applying what we’ve learned to new contexts. After all, we’re not going to school or taking classes to score well on tests. Exams are just a means to an end. The ultimate purpose of learning is to become proficient and transfer what we’ve learned to new and novel contexts. It’s impossible to remember something if we’ve never really learned it. It could explain why Richard Arum and his colleagues tragically found that nearly half of college sophomores showed no gains in their critical thinking, analytical reasoning, problem solving and writing skills after the first two years of college (see Academically Adrift).

In the Rosen study, for every 15 minutes, only two-thirds or about 10 minutes was spent on study. The rest of the time was wasted. My guess is that had the observations been extended to an hour or two, the ratio of homework to wasted time would be worse. (One large survey found that 80 percent of college students admitted to texting during class.) Still, even if the ratio held firm, the Rosen finding suggests that students can buy back as much as a third of their study time by resisting the temptation to check up on friends or respond to alerts while studying. Similar studies suggest that resistors will gain deeper content knowledge and earn better grades. One study in particular found that students who texted and followed Facebook the most also had the lowest college GPA!

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) made popular the phrase, “Don’t Drink and Drive.” Oprah Winfrey has scores of us signing a “No Phone Zone” pledge. Perhaps we need to start a “You Can’t Text and Learn” campaign!

My daughter went on to become a magna cum laude college graduate. At times, she learned to go “off the grid” so she could focus on her schoolwork by suspending her Facebook account for weeks at a time. Perhaps we can take a lesson from her and others who’ve “learned how to learn” by unplugging during a period when focus is necessary. Our “friends” will still be there, chatting and posting away when we reconnect. And when we do, chances are, we may be able to teach them a thing or two.

 

For more information on the Rosen study, go to http://hechingerreport.org/content/the-new-marshmallow-test-resisting-the-temptations-of-the-web_11941/.

Preparing For Finals: Stay Balanced

During the final push this semester, everything gets out of whack—you stop sleeping, you eat junk, you neglect relationships, your room is a mess, and your only exercise is walking to and from class. If it weren’t for your friends and classmates who act, feel and look like you, they’d probably want to drop a coin in your cup. It doesn’t have to be that way.

The problem with letting yourself go like this during finals time is that you abandon the practices and discipline that worked earlier for you. It’s like a ranked tennis player intentionally leaving her sneakers home prior to the match. She can still play the game, but she clearly won’t be at her best. Similarly, by abandoning your sleeping, eating, even washing your clothes disciplines, you’re not your best self either.

Here are some tips for staying in balance during the crunch time.

Prior Planning Prevents P___ Poor Performance

Plan your work before you pick up a single book. If you don’t already have one, buy a calendar or download one to your smartphone that will not only easily enable you to enter and track your appointments (classes, assignments due, exam dates, etc.) but just as important, you should be able to capture your “to do’s.” Your “to do’s” is a list of the tasks that indicate when you’ll do them (on what day) in order to keep up with your work. I use a “to do” list on my iPhone tied to Microsoft Outlook, the application I use for my calendar. You can use Google docs or any other app that has both a calendar and “to do list.”

When I was in college, absent of all of these high tech devices, I used a paper calendar and notebook paper to record my “to do’s.” Use your app to record your exam schedule, reviews, office hours, and anything else that’s relevant to your finals including sleep, meals, and exercise (more later). Now, jot down what you’re going to do and when on your to do list. For instance, if it’ll take 6 hours to prepare for each final, and you know you have four finals, then you have to block off 24 hours between now and the end of the semester.

Get Enough Sleep

You need 7-8 hours of sleep each night to operate at optimal mental capacity. We often skip or shortchange this by getting less sleep, then drinking coffee, espresso, Red Bull or some other stimulant just to stay awake. When you stay awake, you mortgage sleep from the next day, and you’ll need more stimulants to keep you awake. It’s a vicious cycle.

Researchers now know that your brain needs adequate sleep time to consolidate all of the information it processed during the day. The process of turning the electrical and chemical stimulation into memories is called encoding. Have you ever struggled with a problem, “slept on it” and, the next morning, the solution came to you? Your brain actually encodes these connections into the long-term memory while we sleep. In fact, the more complex the material you’re learning, the more useful sleep is at helping to solidify its understanding and ability to recall. That’s the power of the brain at work, or at rest. I tell students that getting a good night’s sleep before a significant exam is not only helpful for recall, but it will actually lower their anxiety levels as well, since the executive function of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, is most active at thinking and reasoning when you’re rested.

Eat Balanced Meals

There is a direct connection between your diet and your mental capacity and health. Most college students choose foods that are heavy in saturated fat, sugar and other carbohydrates without balancing it with foods that are known to improve brain function. Proteins such as those found in lean salmon, lean beef, eggs, and other nutrients found in most vegetables such as spinach have been found to boost recall and improve brain function.

Carbohydrate Overloads Makes You “loopy”

Don’t go overboard on carbohydrates (chips, pastries, cookies, candy, and soda). They may fill you up, and even give you a short-term energy boost, but the boost will be short-lived. In fact, soon after the boost, you’ll experience an energy crash that’ll bring your energy level down below where you started. Then you’re forced to go to sleep or to take a stimulant to keep you awake. Not good. My friend used to call that sluggish feeling, “loopiness.”

Go Easy on Caffeine and Other Stimulants

I didn’t start drinking coffee until my junior year in college. Prior to that, I seemed to get by without it. Once I started though, I couldn’t stop. Coffee and other caffeinated stimulants like Red Bull are addictive in a sinister way. By regularly consuming it, your body craves more. For instance, the more coffee you drink, the more difficult it will be to wake up in the morning, thereby making more coffee necessary.

If you don’t drink coffee or other stimulants, stay away from them. If you know what I’m saying because you drink a lot, then try to wean yourself off of it completely, or limit how much you drink.

Keep Your Room Organized

If you have a messy room, it’s harder to be efficient in your work. Too much of your time will be spent looking for items, rather than doing the work. I tell my freshmen advisees never to keep your room “more than 5 minutes messy.” Say you get a call that an unexpected visitor is coming by to see you. You should be able to straighten your room in five minutes. If it’ll take you more than that to clean up your papers, put dirty clothes in a laundry bag or basket, hang up or fold clean clothes, then you’re not optimizing your time because your room is messy. More troubling, if you can’t find something—an old problem set, the solutions to a problem set, your notes or a textbook, you’ll be tempted to slip the assignment or avoid reviewing that material. Take a pause to straighten and clean your room. You’ll earn whatever time you spend back, and then some, with increased productivity.

Maximize Periods of Peak Efficiency

You’ve probably noticed that your body and your mind operate at peak efficiency during certain parts of the day. For me, it’s between 4 and 8pm and 4am and 8am in the morning. If I’m writing during this period, words just flow out of my mind onto paper with ease. Catch me between 1 and 3pm in the afternoon, however, and the opposite story emerges. I’m dragging, finding it hard to concentrate and stay focused.

Our brains cycles through periods of high and low energy called ultradian rhythms. These fluctuations last for 90 to 110 minutes. Do you know when it seems easiest for you to focus and learn, and when it’s the hardest?  Find the optimal times that work for you. Experiment with different times of day for various tasks. You’ll find your rhythm and then start taking advantage of it.

Godspeed as you make the final push. Like that tennis player, having the right equipment by staying in balance is the key to success. Now, go win!

Preparing for Exams

Preparing for Exams

Back in an earlier post, I wrote about how I discovered the Deep Dive Learning process in my freshman year in college. This post will summarize a step-by-step approach to preparing for exams and some of the rationale behind it as well. Please note that this is longer than my previous posts because I realize students are entering finals season and splitting this up across several posts may not be timely enough for those who’re in the mix right NOW.
While this approach will mostly benefit those taking quantitative courses, the principles also apply to less computational exams, for example those in English, History, or Sociology. The key here is to “eat the meat and spit out the bones.” In other words, try this process, but ultimately you need to discover an approach that works for you and your learning style. Here we go.

Gather Your Study Aids
Prior to going to your study location, two (or more) days before the exam, gather all of the materials you’ll need to study—textbooks, notebooks, graded assignments, online websites, problem sets and exams from previous years that you can get your hands on. Bring a separate notebook or mobile device to capture your notes before each exam that you’ll ultimately reference for the final exam. Even if you have a laptop or a tablet, bring pens, pencils with enough ink to get you through the study period. Until all your tests are given digitally, you’ll need to get comfortable with the old school writing instruments—pens, pencils and paper. You should have everything you need so you won’t have an excuse to bail out.

Find a Location to Go Deep
It’s important to find a location that you’ll use for studying going forward. This should be a quiet place where you can concentrate, one to which you can return throughout the semester, and indeed throughout your college career. Eric Jenson in his book Teaching with the Brain in Mind says that our physical settings influence what and how we hear, feel, and see, and these senses in turn influence our thinking and emotional performance. If you’re an athlete, you know how pumped you get when you enter the gym or smell the chlorine from the pool. A place that’s dedicated for studying becomes familiar to you and signals “study time” when you walk in. You won’t have to amp yourself up to study if your mind and body know the dedicated purpose of the place.

I found a 24 hour library that became my deep dive learning center. For you, it might also be a library or a reading room. You might choose an empty classroom. Try not to use a place that has another purpose, such as your dorm room or a dining hall where there will be distractions or may condition you with the wrong response, like sleep!
Now that you know the importance to find your spot, let me turn to how to study for exams.

What to Do Two Days Before the Exam?

Two (or more) days before your exam should be dedicated to understanding the concepts, theories, ideas and procedures that will be tested. Set aside enough time to review all of the readings and lecture notes. Giving yourself at least two days leaves time to internalize the material, enabling your brain to migrate information to long-term memory. It also avoids cramming which has a dampening effect on learning. Cramming triggers stress and lends less time to synthesize the material, leading to very short term retention that’s here today, but often gone when you need to recall it.

Actively reviewing the reading and notes may take four to six hours, or more, depending on how much you’ll have to cover, and how fast you read. For me, I was (and still am) a line-by-line reader, and so I would plan for four to six hours to comb through the materials. If I started after dinner, say at 6pm, I’d wrap up about midnight with two breaks. If that seems intense to you, it is. If you’re unaccustomed to this level of focus, start an hour at a time and work your way up to studying for two hour blocks.

Comb Through Your Readings and Notes
Actively review all of the readings by writing as you go. You’ll remember more if you use more parts of your brain. By reading, seeking to understand, and writing you’re multiplying neural connections – the key to memory formation — than if you just read (or browse).

As you read, write down key definitions, concepts, ideas and procedures in your dedicated notebook (or mobile device, using a freehand app like Noteshelf). Jot down theories and definitions that are hard to understand. Note questions in the margin that you’ll ask your TA or classmate the next day. Work the problems as they appear in the text, once again, in your notebook (or equivalent device). Try working them on your own before referencing the steps and solutions that are in the text. If you get stuck, consult the text for the next steps, then try to continue on your own. Jot down the explanations as well, in your own words. Here, you’re attempting to understand the Why, not just to memorize the What. A good professor will test you on your understanding of the Why by giving you problems on the exam that that’ll look completely unfamiliar to you, but that forces you to apply the concepts you’ve learned (or not), rather than just have you regurgitate the procedures from memory.

Take Regular Breaks
Give yourself breaks every 90 minutes to two hours. Short breaks will help you stay sharp during those periods of focused review.

The Day Before the Exam

Make sure you get your questions answered that arose during your review the day or evening before. Seek out your TA or an informed classmate to discuss matters. Since most material builds on previous knowledge, a gap in your understanding may inhibit your understanding of more complex content. It’s therefore important to get all your questions answered—leave no knowledge behind!

Attend an exam review if one is scheduled. Because of your disciplined approach the night before, you’ll get the most out of the review; you’re not going in with an empty container waiting to be filled. Rather, you’ll have questions and a deeper knowledge base to draw from.

If you’re taking a non-quantitative course, then you may use this night to meet with your study group and quiz each other on potential questions, arguments, or essay questions that may be posed. Having done the conceptual review the night before, you’re not coming in empty handed. Test your and your study group’s knowledge to solidify your understanding by teaching those who may have gaps in theirs.

Gather Your Study Aids
Get ready to study by gathering all of the materials you had the night before—your notebook in which you’ve summarized your lecture notes and text review, your textbook, problem sets, solution sets, old exams, pens, and highlighters, etc. While the previous day was dedicated to understanding concepts, this day is dedicated to problem solving. Therefore, in addition to the other material, pull together as much scrap paper as possible to work problems, and mechanical pencils so you don’t have to constantly get up to sharpen them. It is said that prior planning prevents poor performance. The more you plan, the better your performance and, in this case, the less likely you’ll have to interrupt your study to go back to your dorm to get something. You want to give yourself no excuses.

Location, Location, Location Revisited
Return to your Deep Dive study location. Try to secure one of the same spots you’ve previously used so you don’t have to spend any time getting used to it, figuring out where the plugs or the bathrooms are, etc. It should be a familiar place that will spur you on to get right to work.

Review Notes from the First Night of Study then Work Problems
Begin by reviewing the material you recorded the night before in your dedicated notebook. Review the sample problems; make sure you understand the Whys, and not just the What.

After your review, work problems. Using your scrap paper and mechanical pencils (or freehand writing app), redo the problems in the textbook or other online and lecture materials. See if you can do them on your own. If not, then reference your text only when you get stuck. Understand what the next steps are, then turn over your notes and continue working the problem. Similar to practicing your lines in a play, by focusing on the areas you have difficulty mastering—that is, the parts on which you’re getting stuck—you’ll eventually master that section. When you’re done, work the problem again.

Once you’ve finished the problems in your notebook from the text reading the night before, then work the problems from your lecture notes, problem sets, and old exams. Follow the same approach. Try working the problems on your own. Keep a running dialogue in your head. “How did she do that?” “Why did he go to this step?” Reference the notes only if you get stuck, and then rework the problem without an aid.

As you begin to work the volumes of problems I am suggesting, you’ll notice that you’ll be developing a problem-solving rhythm. Every problem has a rhythm, an approach, and you’re learning how to tap into that rhythm. I remember how I’d begin to approach every problem a similar way, and with growing confidence. I’d begin by writing down all that was known or “given.”

Review with your Study Group
Having studied individually, now would be a good time to get with your study group. This gathering would have been scheduled with a defined start and end time. Two hours is reasonable to get together to test each other, like the students did in the Uri Treisman study. The length of time, though, would depend on the course and the amount of material that is to be covered.

Get Enough Sleep
The night before the exam, make sure you schedule at least 7 hours of sleep. As I’ve mentioned, you need at least this amount of time for ideas to be consolidated in and by your brain, transferring from short-term to long-term memory, and ensuring more lasting neural connections that facilitate recall and understanding. Sleep deprivation puts at risk your ability to remember the material and think creatively, both of which are critical on exams.

Working Smarter Takeaways-The Behavioral Shift
Studying for Exams
• Schedule your study group
• Find a location where you can study uninterrupted
• Two (or more) days before the exam, understand the concepts
• One (or more) days before the exam, focus on problem-solving
• Get sufficient sleep