Cartoon by Karen Agbuya

Cartoon by Karen Agbuya

“I’m a horrible test taker.”
“I study and study but once I sit down to take the test my mind goes blank.”
“No matter how hard I try I just don’t get the material.”
These mantras of despair have been echoed by centuries of students at countless academic institutions throughout time. Academics, young and old, have wallowed in self-doubt and testophobia.
Some believe that academic the problems facing these fearful folk are caused by an innate inability to learn. Many simply give up. People are the way they are so why even try to change them?
But that is wrong. The issue is not learning, it is forgetting.
Psychologists define forgetting as the deterioration of a learned behavior following a period without practice. More specific to students is “retroactive interference,” forgetting caused by learning that occurred subsequent to the behavior in question, and “cue-dependent forgetting,” memory lapses that result from the absence of cues during training.
Simply put, every action an individual takes following a study session has the possibility of scrambling the information s/he has learned. While students often concern themselves with where and when they study, what they should be truly concerned about is where and when they test.
Minimize the amount of information to retain more
If a test is going to cover 50 pages of text, then an individual needs to condense those 50 pages into as few pages of comprehensive notes as possible. They should limit themselves to core concepts and brief explanations. Students should then take those pages of notes and condense them even further by removing as many words as possible while still retaining understanding. No one has to be able to make sense of these notes besides those who made them.
For example, the text reads “Coleman wrote ‘Lonely Woman,’ his best-known and most frequently performed piece, in 1954, inspired by a painting he saw in a gallery.” The initial notes read “Coleman. Best known for ‘Lonely Woman,’ in 1954. Inspired by painting.” Which is condensed down to “Coleman – Lonely Woman. 54. Painting.”
Now when students go back to study for the test all they have to review are these condensed notes instead of rereading the text in its entirety.
Minimize the monotony
When students review their notes they should read them in different ways. Not just front
to back, but back to front, and not only from left to right, but right to left. In rereading and rewriting the same concepts different ways they reaffirm their understanding and increase the chances of it staying in their long-term memories.
Individuals should also switch up when they go over their notes. Any time students have a few minutes available they should look them over. No need to overexert. Just glances at each item is enough to keep the information fresh. The variation will keep their minds alert.
Minimize the amount of novel stimulation between learning and testing
Novel stimulation is anything that competes for room in long-term memory. Watching television, checking Facebook, talking on the phone or listening to music can push away new information. Even the smallest distractions can disrupt memory, so avoiding them after studying is best. Study before sleeping and study immediately before taking a test.
Minimize the differences between the study environment and test environment
This simple trick works wonders. Consider where students study. Late at night, in bed with music playing in the background or at the kitchen table with their family watching TV in the other room. Now picture where and when they test. Early in the morning, sitting at a desk in a room silent except for the sounds of pen on paper and the breathing of students. A notable disparity.
Athletes and thespians understand the need for practice conditions reflecting testing
conditions. Scrimmages or dress rehearsals normally occur toward the end of a practice cycle because they are usually a good measure of how prepared the group is. The same should be done with tester takers.
Students should take the condensed notes to the testing site and review the information in the seat they will be taking the test in. Reviewing the notes in the testing environment will help prevent test anxiety.
Finally students just need to make sure their notes are securely put away before the test begins. After all it would be a shame to have done all that work and then be accused of cheating. But it is not cheating. It is minimizing.