How to Study

As a podiatrist working at one of our illustrious podiatric medical colleges, I spend a reasonable amount of my administrative time dealing with student academics. I also have the sad duty of being the chair of our Student Performance Committee. This means that students who get into academic or professional trouble have to meet with my committee, and we have to recommend to our dean what steps should be taken to help the student. Unfortunately, sometimes our recommendations must include expulsion. All of us currently in practice understand the rigors of completing a podiatric medical degree and have some sympathy for those long, grueling hours of study in order to pass the exams and move on to residency.

Since I deal with this aspect of education with my students – whether it is on our academic committee or as a mentor to our undergraduates – I'm always looking for good evidence on how to make the job of studying more efficient and effective. In my experience, the one commonality of students that get into academic difficulties is not that they aren't smart enough or not working hard enough. It's simply that they're studying the wrong way.

Tonight's Premier Lecture is
Regenerative Medicine -
Stem Cell Therapy
Steven A. Bernstein, DPM

I've spent a bit of time looking at the educational literature on successful study methods, but none of the sources have been as thought-provoking or informative as a recent book called Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Brown, Roediger, and McDaniel. These authors, two of whom are active psychological researchers, discuss in a quite accessible manner the evidence behind various recommendations on study techniques. For those of you interested in finding out the details, I highly suggest reading the book. For those of you who like the Cliffs Notes version, read below for a basic summary of how to study for improved overall and long-term retention.

Effort – learning is deeper and more enduring if effortful, and we are poor judges of when we are learning.
Rereading and massed practice (i.e. cramming) are the least productive study methods. Rereading creates a false sense of familiarity with the material that does not necessarily translate to long-term retention.
Retrieval practice – recalling from memory (AKA “testing”) is more effective than rereading. This does 2 things: 1 It tells you what you don't know, and 2 It strengthens mental connections, when the brain must reconsolidate material forgotten in the intervening time between sessions.
Spaced practice - (repeatedly coming back to the studied material with time in between) and interleaving (studying alternating different topics) are more effective than massed practice, but seem harder. Research has shown that allowing for some time between study sessions causes us to forget a portion of what we previously studied, forcing us to work harder to recall the forgotten material. This embeds the material more effectively in our long-term memory.
Trying to solve a problem before being taught the solution leads to better learning. Active learning always trumps passive learning.
Studying by “learning style” - (example - visual versus auditory learner types) is not supported by the literature. Instead, we should draw on all learning styles.
Extract the underlying principles that differentiate types of problems. This allows us to better choose an answer when confronted with a conceptual problem. Put new knowledge into the larger context.
Elaboration or expressing the information in your own words and connecting it with what you already know, is highly effective.

These concepts may be helpful not only for the struggling student but also the resident studying for board qualification and active practitioners preparing for certification. Sometimes you have to do things the hard way, and apparently studying is one of them. Good luck !

Best wishes,

Jarrod Shapiro, DPM
PRESENT Practice Perfect Editor
[email protected]