More summaries from the channel Samford University
How to Get the Most Out of Studying: Part 5 of 5, "I Blew the Exam, Now What?"
🎥 This video is the last in a series on how to study effectively in college, presented by Dr. Stephen Chew, a professor of psychology at Samford University. 🤯 The video addresses the situation many students face of performing poorly on an exam, often the lowest grade they've ever received. 🚫 The two worst things a student can do in this situation are to panic or go into denial. Dr. Chew explains that it's not unusual for a quarter to a third of his general psychology class to initially make D's and F's on the first exam, but there are ways to raise that low score. ✅ The key is to take positive steps right away, including: 1. 🤔 Honestly evaluate your exam preparation - Did you commit enough time for study and review? Did you attend class and do the assigned work? 2. 📝 Review the exam to identify what went wrong - Were mistakes spread across topics or focused on one area? Did you misinterpret the questions? 3. 💬 Discuss your exam performance and preparation strategies with the professor. Faculty want to see students taking steps to improve. 4. 🔍 Examine your study strategies - Are you using effective, deep processing techniques or relying on ineffective, superficial methods? 5. 📚 Develop a plan for better preparation, including committing the necessary time and effort, minimizing distractions, attending class, setting realistic goals, and avoiding the temptation to let other classes/assignments slide. ❌ Things NOT to do include: continuing the same ineffective study habits, waiting until the end of the semester to seek help, skipping classes or assignments, cramming at the last minute, and giving up. 🎯 The key is to diagnose the problem, create a workable plan, and set realistic goals to improve your exam performance through sustained effort and development of effective study strategies.
How to Get the Most Out of Studying: Part 3 of 5, "Cognitive Principles for Optimizing Learning"
🎥 This video is the third in a series of five videos on how to study effectively in college, presented by Dr. Stephen Chew, a professor of psychology at Samford University. 🧠 Effective studying goes beyond just motivation and effort - students need to use effective learning strategies. Shallow strategies like memorization don't lead to deep learning, while deep processing strategies focused on meaning, comprehension, and visual imagery result in better learning. 🔑 The key principles of deep processing are: 1. Elaboration - Making meaningful associations between the concepts you're studying and your prior knowledge. 2. Distinctiveness - Clearly contrasting the concept you're studying with other related concepts to understand the key differences. 3. Appropriate retrieval and application - Practicing recalling and using the information in the way your teacher expects, not just rereading. 📚 Other important concepts are: - Automaticity - Developing study skills that become automatic through practice, overcoming old habits. - Overlearning - Studying material repeatedly until you can recall it quickly and easily, to prevent forgetting. 🔮 In the next video, these principles will be applied to specific study strategies like note-taking and textbook reading. Overall, the video emphasizes that effective studying requires using deep processing techniques, not just time and effort. Developing the right study habits takes conscious practice over time, but pays off in better learning.
How to Get the Most Out of Studying: Part 2 of 5, "What Students Should Know About How People Learn"
🎥 This video is part of a series on effective study strategies for college students, presented by Dr. Stephen Chew, a professor of psychology at Samford University. 🧠 The video discusses the importance of *depth of processing* as the key factor in successful learning, based on a classic psychology experiment by Hyde and Jenkins in 1969. 🔍 The experiment looked at two variables: 1) whether participants knew they would have to recall the words later (intentional vs. incidental learning), and 2) the level of processing used (shallow - checking for the letter 'e', vs. deep - rating word pleasantness). 📊 The results showed that *depth of processing* mattered much more than *intent to learn*. Participants who used deep processing (rating pleasantness) recalled significantly more words than those who used shallow processing (checking for 'e'), regardless of whether they expected a recall test. 🤔 This demonstrates that *deep processing*, such as relating information to prior knowledge and personal experiences, is crucial for effective learning, even if you don't intend to learn the material. 📚 In contrast, strategies like mindless re-reading or memorization (shallow processing) are not effective, even if you have the intention to learn. 🧠 The video explains the concept of "levels of processing" - a continuum from shallow to deep processing, where deeper levels involve more meaningful engagement with the material. 🔑 The key takeaway is that *depth of processing* is the most important factor for successful learning, more so than factors like attention, learning styles, or time spent studying. 🎯 The next videos in the series will focus on specific strategies for developing deeper levels of processing and building a connected understanding of course material.
How to Get the Most Out of Studying: Part 1 of 5, "Beliefs That Make You Fail... Or Succeed"
# 📚 How to Study Effectively in College - Dr. Stephen Chew ## Introduction - Dr. Stephen Chew is a professor of psychology at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama - This is the first video in a series about effective college studying - As a cognitive psychologist, Dr. Chew studies how people learn and think - The video aims to help students transition to college-level coursework - There are no "quick fixes" or "magic products" - effective learning requires proper strategies ## 🚫 "Beliefs That Make You Stupid" Dr. Chew identifies several misconceptions that undermine learning: 1. **Underestimating study time** ⏰ - First-year students often misjudge how long assignments take - Reading without review leads to minimal learning - Plan for assignments to take longer than expected - Complete reading well before exams to allow multiple days for review 2. **Memorizing isolated facts** 📝 - Struggling students often focus on memorizing definitions - Textbooks can encourage this with bold terms and margin definitions - Good professors test for comprehension, not just memorization 3. **Believing in natural ability** 🧠 - Many students think people are naturally "good" or "bad" at subjects - Academic success is more about hard work than inborn talent - Time constraints can limit success, but effort matters 4. **Multitasking myth** 📱 - Students believe they can effectively study while texting, checking social media, etc. - Research shows multitasking significantly reduces learning efficiency - Each distraction reduces learning, increases study time, and raises the chance of poor grades ## 🔍 Metacognition: The Key Difference - Metacognition = awareness of how well you truly understand concepts - Weaker students are often overconfident about their understanding - This leads to insufficient studying and shock at poor exam results ## 📊 Research Example - Dr. Chew had students estimate their exam performance percentage - Results showed: - Most students were overconfident (scored below diagonal on graph) - Top-performing students had accurate metacognition (clustered near diagonal) - Weakest students were most overconfident (far below diagonal) - College freshmen must develop more accurate metacognition when transitioning from high school ## Conclusion - Poor metacognition often indicates poor study strategies - Ineffective study methods build overconfidence without increasing learning - Improving study skills (topic of the next video) is essential for academic success