Why “Studying Harder†Fails, and What Actually Works
by Jia J., a volunteer with the Edgemont Youth Press
For most students, academic struggles trigger a predictable response: studying more. When grades do not improve, the obvious conclusion is, “I didn’t put in enough effort.” However, this logic falls flat for many high-achieving students. Studying harder will not necessarily produce a better academic outcome, but rather may lead to feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, and utilizing methods of studying that are ineffective.
The issue is not with students’ efforts, but rather how those efforts are being utilized.
When students refer to studying harder, they typically mean they are putting in additional time, not necessarily improving strategy. Re-reading a textbook, re-writing notes, and highlighting a page may appear productive. Students often feel confident they understand this material due to how many times they have read or highlighted it.
However, simply re-reading material passively does not develop the necessary neural pathways, nor does it allow students to be in a position to recall what they know during an examination. Students may recognize the material when they take the examination, but that does not mean students have retained the information.
Likewise, recall is not sufficient in order to transfer what students have learned or studied into practical application.
Cramming for exams is revealing regarding how poor methods of studying are. Although a student may be able to complete a quiz using cram techniques, the information that was studied will be lost within days after the exam. This is primarily the result of the brain never having learned how to recall the information or how to apply it.
A psychological trap exists for students that tie effort to self-worth, while making studying harder an emotional response, instead of a thoughtful strategy. By working more hours, it creates a situation where students feel as if they earned their grade. However, science has proven that cognitive learning increases as a result of increased effective effort, not as a result of never ceasing to physically study an idea.
We need to learn strategies for studying material as effectively as possible.
First, we must engage in “active” recall, which means testing ourselves on the material prior to the actual test by creating brainstorm sheets, answering quiz questions without note access, and teaching the concept as if you were teaching someone else. Discomfort is what allows it to work.
Secondly, we must engage in spaced practice, which means re-studying a specific topic at intervals of several days or weeks rather than doing all the studying on one single day. Spaced practice creates a “desired difficulty” aspect in that it allows for easier long-term retention and application of the material.
Third, error analysis. When students finish a test, most will ignore mistakes. The quickest way to improve understanding is to analyse the reason for a chosen response. Was this due to a misunderstanding of content, misinterpreting the question, or an absent relationship between concepts? Correcting mistakes helps students to better understand the content.
Finally, students learn better when they connect related concepts. A focus on how concepts are related (their patterns, assumptions, and their underlying mechanisms), rather than just on memorizing material, encourages the student to reason rather than memorize.
Studying more will not help students succeed since the way they learn is not linear. The same input may produce different outcomes depending on how that input is used. Quality over quantity, strategies over endurance, and students can succeed with less work by learning the best ways for their brains to learn.
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