Study Tips - A New Approach

My son who is in high school always studies in ways that everyone advises. He goes up to his room, does his homework, spends the right amount of time and gets everything done. In other words, he puts considerable effort into studying. Unfortunately, he often forgets much of what he has learned and must relearn it. Do you have any study tips for a conscientious student? -- Works Hard
Answer: Some of the advice on the best way to study is changing. Instead of staying in just one spot, it has been discovered that actually changing the study environment makes for more effective learning. So, your son might do well to start studying in his room and then move to another room or even outdoors. In this way, he would be forcing his brain to make multiple associations with the same material. It enriches the material and slows down forgetting. Research on college students who were preparing for a test by studying in two different rooms in the library showed that they did better than those who just stayed in one spot.
The age-old view on studying that spacing out study improves recall remains true. For example, in preparing for a test, your son might study an hour on Wednesday, another hour on the weekend and an hour the night before the test.
Another strong way to prepare for testing is to take practice tests and quizzes. It gives practice in retrieving material, which seems to make recalling it on actual tests easier. In fact, the harder the trial test material is to remember, the harder it is to forget later. This is a strong argument for always completing study guide questions and textbook questions in preparation for a test.
Since your son is already a conscientious student, he should see his grades improve by following the techniques of changing study environments, spacing out study time and self-testing.