Music Is The Answer by Joshua

Music Is The Answer by Joshua - January 2014 Scholarship Essay

It has been a couple year's since I have studied for anything other than how to properly bake a cake, I studied the back of that carton for a good hour before I attempted to make it and even then, I put my iPod on and listened to some rock and roll while I did it. I'm not sure if it helps me become a genius on remembering everything I study/read over, but I do know that it helps me to calm down and remember key words or phrases, just like the chorus of a song.

Whenever I would study for the dreaded chemistry or college algebra tests my junior year in high school, I would sit in my room the night before, put my iPod on, and jam out to good ole 80's rock. After a song or two, I would finally open up which ever book I needed to study and get to it, since I grew up on that kind of music, the beats were burned into my mind, so with every chorus part or guitar riff that I liked, I studied the main points of whatever I had to know. It worked 70% of the time. It isn't 100%, but a few lucky guesses kept my grades where they needed to be.

I don't think I study "traditionally" like most people would. For example some people would sit in a quiet room and read the same paragraph over and over, 3 or 4 times to make sure it stuck with them. I used to do the same thing, but repeating something so many times can stick with you in the wrong way, you might be interested in that one paragraph more than another, and when it comes time for the test all you can do is come back to that specific paragraph when it has nothing to do with the current question you're on. That's probably why I have changed from that to music. Music soothes your soul and mood, depending on the actual song.

Every now and again it does mess me up, because when one of my absolute favorite song starts playing, I start singing that more than studying, usually what I will do when that happens is I sit back, let the song play, and in the back of my mind I would bring up what I had been studying to make sure that I knew what was going on. If it didn't sound right, I would pause my song, sit back up, and go over that part that confused me. After making sure I was correct and able to move on, I would turn my song back on and finish up. It isn't a foolproof way of studying, but it is different, and if you would like to switch up the way you study give it a try. It isn't for everyone, but for me, music is the answer.