What is the best way of learning? This is a question that preoccupies not only learners but also researchers from a wide variety of disciplines. We present nine tips about how, where, when, and with whom – while dispelling the odd misconception along the way.
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Everyone is wired a little differently, and that also applies to learning. Accordingly, there are neither classical “learning types” nor a single effective way of learning. Factors such as prior knowledge, interest, and an individual’s ability to concentrate vary too widely. How a person is feeling on a given day and the material being studied also play a role. Instead of rigidly following set learning and work patterns or simply copying the strategies of a successful peer, students should learn what kind of studying works best for them and continually readjust their approach.
Expert Sarah Hofer recommends that students ask themselves: What do I want or need to know in the end? Is it about understanding a concept? In that case, practical applications, visualizations, and explaining things in your own words are effective methods. Or do I just have to learn something by heart? Then the name of the game is repetition and continually recalling the information to reinforce the memories. Good old-fashioned mnemonic tricks can help here.
Sarah Hofer, Professor of Teaching and Learning Research at the Chair of Education and Educational Psychology
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When our workload is high, we can easily forget to take breaks. But sitting in front of books for hours on end without standing up is counterproductive. Researchers have demonstrated that active movement breaks increase mental performance. There are presumably two main reasons for this: Firstly, physical activity gets our circulation going, and that improves blood flow and metabolic processes in the brain. Secondly, the mentally demanding activity ceases for a while during our breaks, which gives the brain some time to rest.
And so an active break can help us return to our work refreshed and able to concentrate better. A short walk can do wonders, for example, especially in the fresh air. Ideally, the walk takes us out into nature, which relaxes us even more. And people who like doing sport in the evening should not abandon this habit completely despite the exam stress, but rather reap the associated positive effects on body, mind, and learning motivation. Moreover, sufficient movement is simply part of a healthy lifestyle with a fit body – and mind.
Professor Konstantinos Dimitriadis, Head of the Neurocritical Care Unit and Director of Clinical Education in Neurology at LMU University Hospital
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Switch on the music and hit the books? For many students, headphones are a fixture of their everyday studying practice. But might the brain not work much better in a mostly silent learning environment without musical accompaniment? Scientists are far from providing a definitive answer to this question.
On the plus side, we can certainly say that music we like puts us in a good mood for studying. Seemingly it can also help us break internal thought loops and thus put the brain in a state of concentration. This makes it easier to get into the flow of learning. The flipside is that music can also distract us and place an additional strain on our brain. To avoid this, music educator Andreas Truong recommends filling the study playlist with familiar songs, and particularly when reading texts or doing linguistic tasks, to stay clear of songs with lyrics. It stands to reason that new songs with interesting lyrics will tempt us to listen more closely and draw our focus away from what we are studying. Naturally, everything should be within our own musical taste, as the feel-good factor is presumably the key ingredient when listening to music while studying.
Andreas Truong, Music Education, Department of the Arts
People are often better motivated when they study with others. Moreover, students can help and support each other, and different perspectives on a topic are rarely a disadvantage. Academic studies confirm that people who learn with others do better on average than people who learn alone. The same applies to independent studying as to course and class groups: “the more the merrier” is not the right principle, as studies show that study groups of up to around four people are particularly effective.
That being said, you should not rely on group sessions alone: collective studying is productive only when you have prepared well in advance and actively participate. Ideally, everybody studies a topic on their own first and then they meet up. In studies, this strategy beats both studying everything alone and going through everything together. Setting certain topics or exercises for each session is also more effective than “just sitting down together and taking it from there.” Having a plan also helps the group to stay focused and not waste time on chitchat.
Professor Frank Fischer, Chair of Education and Educational Psychology
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Learning in one’s sleep? This does not work if you take it too literally. Using a reference work as a pillow or blasting your ears with vocabulary in bed is therefore rather pointless and even stands in the way of proper sleep. And it is precisely good sleep that is important if we are to embed what we learned during the day in our memory, as the brain transfers information into our long-term memory while we sleep. And occasionally the trash gets taken out – in the sense that molecular waste products are cleared away. Researchers have established that even a short nap such as a siesta can perform this function. Particularly in phases of intensive learning or intellectual work, such rest can boost people’s ability to absorb information and concentrate again.
However, that should not be a substitute for a good night’s sleep, ideally every night, as studies have shown that even individual sleepless nights subsequently had negative effects on the results of memory tests – even when people had good nights of sleep again in the meantime. So when preparing for exams in particular, it is worth prioritizing sound sleep. Expert Nicolas Lutz also heartily endorses the strategy of studying or revising content shortly before you go to sleep, which has been shown to improve the consolidation of this material in memory.
Dr. Nicolas Lutz, Institute of Medical Psychology, Besedovsky Lab
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A busy brain wants one thing above all: to be well supplied. In addition to oxygen and enough fluids, this means energy – and lots of it. During a physically undemanding intellectual activity such as studying, the brain alone accounts for about a fifth of total energy consumption - impressive for an organ that makes up roughly two percent of our body weight.
So we should fill up on three solid meals a day during exam preparations? Clinical nutritionist Berthold Koletzko begs to differ, just as he advises against consuming dextrose or energy drinks for fast energy, with the attendant blood sugar rollercoaster ride. In fact, the brain performs best when its energy supply is kept more or less constant.
This works best when we eat several light meals or snacks consisting of whole foods during the day. If we want to keep our brains healthy in the long run, moreover, maintaining a healthy and balanced diet is the best medicine. Just like the rest of our body, our brain wants to be adequately supplied with all important nutrients to be able to give its best.
Professor Berthold Koletzko, Dr. von Hauner Children’s Hospital, Division of Metabolic and Nutritional Medicine
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Because we usually learn not only for the sake of knowledge but also for exams and qualifications, worries and even anxiety are quite common companions when studying – especially when faced with tricky material – and during exam situations. However, they are not helpful ones: Many studies have shown that anxiety impairs working memory and attention and, even before that, the cognitive processes that transfer what has been learned into memory. In other words, all the things that are meant to work well.
Negative stress and fear of failure, of appearing incompetent or worse than others, can therefore be pretty counterproductive. But this does not have to remain the case. To cope better with such feelings, psychologist Anne Frenzel advises students to consciously channel their own tension – as a drive and concentration booster. And if things still go wrong sometimes? This just means that the question you were asked is not yet part of your knowledge set. And at least this tells you a lot about how things could go better the next time.
Professor Anne Frenzel, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences
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Without drive, nothing gets done – in learning as in life. So if you notice your motivation has gone, you should actively seek to recover it. The sources of motivation are varied, such as enjoyment in learning itself, interest in the topic at hand, or acquiring important fundamentals for your future dream career. Researchers have found that such intrinsic interest and the personal importance one attaches to a goal are correlated with better learning outcomes. People who know why they do what they do have fewer problems sticking to the task.
And how does one find the missing spark of motivation amid the everyday stresses of university life? Psychologist Martin Daumiller advises students to remind themselves before studying why the subject matter is important and what they should understand better by the end. In the often unpopular subject of statistics, for example, this might be the desire to better understand academic papers or the need to master statistical methods in order to properly evaluate data in one’s own seminar projects and final dissertations. Research shows that goals aimed at understanding and personal development lead to greater enjoyment in learning and less boredom.
Martin Daumiller, former LMU Professor of Educational Psychology, now a researcher at the University of Freiburg
The brain loves structure. This applies to learning itself – to-do lists and time management are useful here – but also to the subject matter. During learning and memory formation, new information is most easily integrated into existing knowledge, and the brain prefers making connections. This also goes for vocabulary: words stick better in the mind when we learn them in the context of short sentences, phrases, or idioms.
Language expert Saskia Kersten additionally recommends this strategy to learners because formulaic expressions are an important part of language use. This means that certain words often go together with certain others. In German, for example, the phrase is “to make a photo” (ein Foto machen) while in English it is “to take a photo.” If you just learn individual words, you lack this important information and this can cause errors – like the classic mistake when German speakers say “I become a baby” in English instead of “I’m having a baby” or “I’m pregnant.” Equally, language learners often have to grapple with several meanings for a single word, such as the English word “date”: it is the context that reveals whether people are talking about a specific day in the calendar, an appointment, or the fruit. Students who learn words in context will therefore also find it easier later to understand and use them correctly.
Saskia Kersten, Professor of English Media Didactics and Applied Linguistics at the Department of English and American Studies; Director of the LMU Language Center
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