Studying by Hand by Taylor

Studying by Hand by Taylor - January 2014 Scholarship Essay

Studying is something that I have done my entire life. From the first time that a teacher told me that we had some type of quiz, even though I don’t know what I could have gotten quizzed on at a young age, I studied for it. Failing a test or even getting any grade less than a B was never something that I have been okay with. While other students chose not to study for a test they thought would be easy, I was sitting at my desk studying away. All of this studying has helped me try each studying technique and decide which technique is the most effective for me. Although tedious, I have found that copying information down, as in writing out all of the notes over again, is a great study method for me.

Copying down all of the notes while studying helps me to retain information better than just reading the material. When I read, sometimes I can read the same paragraph over and over again without remembering a single sentence. When I re-write the notes or the material that is going to be on the test, I am much better at remembering it because I had a physical interaction with it. In fact, I guess one could say that I am an active learner. I am a studio art major so, as some people might guess, I am much better at learning when I am interacting with the lesson. I can remember seeing pictures much better than remembering what I had read. Even if I might embarrass myself in class by saying the wrong answer, I will also participate in that way because it helps me to better remember the material. So, when I am actively writing down the information while I am studying, I can remember it easier. One of my sister’s professors does not post the notes online for that class because the professor believes that if the students write out the information, they will remember it better, and I can say that I fully agree with my sister’s professor.

One benefit of my most efficient study method is that I can easily write the correct answer on the test because my hand remembers copying that exact same sentence while I was studying. I guess that it is sort of similar to muscle memory. In a sport such as badminton, if an athlete does one arm motion for a particular shot repeatedly, the athlete’s arm will remember how to move when the athlete wants to make that same shot in a game. That is just how copying down the test material during studying works for me. Another benefit of my study technique is that I have learned to become a faster writer through studying in this manner. Sometimes a professor does not give the students enough time to finish a test before the class period is up. Because I write fast in order to study on a weekly basis, I can finish my tests early so that I have enough time to check it over after I finish.

Although I wish that I could simply read over the test material like other students because it would be less time consuming, my most effective study method is to re-write the notes for the upcoming test. This way, I am able to easily remember the material that I need to know and it also helps me to write faster when I need to such as on a test that is time restricting