Weird (but effective) study habits

The HSC does strange things to us. Exam season comes around and suddenly you find yourself sleeping with a recorded version of your essay on repeat because you read somewhere that your brain absorbs information in your sleep. We’re all guilty of trying unconventional study methods at one stage or another. After all, desperate times call for desperate measures.

At Atomi, we’re no strangers to unusual study habits, so to figure out the ones that are actually effective, I talked to our own Lily Dalton (99.85) about her experiences.

Here’s what she had to say:

A lot of study methods focus on completely immersing yourself in the content, living and breathing the HSC. Does stuff like this actually work or does it just send you insane?

I was a massive fiend for these sorts of study methods. I did a lot of evidence based subjects like Religion, English and History which meant a lot of memorising. For a solid 3 weeks I had my English creative on the bathroom mirror and would read over it every time I cleaned my teeth. I ended up remembering my story word for word and I also got into the habit of cleaning my teeth for longer than 30 seconds, so it was a win win.

I think the most helpful thing I did was for Modern History: I had a massive timeline for the Vietnam war above my desk. This way whenever I was writing about any event, I’d be able to look up and see where it fits in the bigger picture. Particularly with subjects like History, looking at everything in chronological order helped me to actually understand the content rather than just trying to rote learn it.

These sorts of tactics can be really good for people studying languages. I have a mate who labelled every item in his house with its French word to remember vocab. It probably drove his family insane, but I’m sure they forgave him when he ended up with a state rank.

You mentioned you did a lot of evidence based subjects. What were some of the weird things you did to remember quotes?

I went to some pretty extreme measures to remember my quotes. In Ancient, I found it really confusing to remember which historian said what quote. So I ended up reciting my quotes out loud but using a different accent for each historian, for example I read all my Tacitus quotes in a Severus Snape voice and my Herodotus quotes in a Russian accent. This was super weird, but I’m fairly sure nobody ever heard me, so all good.

Another thing I did was that I stuck all my Religion quotes on the ceiling above my bed to read over before going to sleep. Unfortunately I’m pretty short sighted so this didn’t actually work, but I can definitely see the benefits.

Overall, remembering quotes is all about repetition so the best methods are always going to be the ones that force you to go over the quotes again and again.

There’s a lot of talk surrounding studying with music. Many ‘scientific’ sources say that certain music boosts productivity and memory. Myth busted or myth confirmed?

This is a tricky one, personally I found music was absolutely essential when studying. It calmed me down, helped me focus for longer and retain information faster. But the thing to remember is not all playlists are created equal. If you blast the Hot40 you’ll end up remembering the lyrics to ‘Love Yourself’ instead of the quotes in your English essay. We’ve all heard about the benefits of classical music, but the truth is it just isn’t that accessible– I certainly couldn’t bring myself to sit through 3 hours of Mozart.

When choosing music, it should be instrumental so you’re not distracted by lyrics, uplifting to help your mood and motivation, and repetitive so you have distinct pattern to associate information with.

The only downside is that you can potentially ruin your favourite music by associating it with study. In year 12 I listened to this one mix so often, that even now two years later I still start remembering the words to my English creative when I hear it! With that said this one is 100% myth confirmed.

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever done to study?

I’ve already put my reputation on the line enough, so I may as well give full disclosure here. When leading up to the actual HSC, whenever I did a practice paper in exam conditions, I took ‘exam conditions’ very literally. I wore my school uniform (even though it was holidays), I put a timer on a screen in front of me, printed out real Board of Studies writing books and made my mum pretend to be an ‘exam supervisor’.

I don’t think it gets much weirder than that. I’m not going to recommend doing that but there were a few good things that came out of it. Firstly, it forced me to actually get through entire practice papers without breaks or checking my notes. Also, having a dress rehearsal (literally) helped me get used to exam conditions so I wasn’t anxious when it was time for the real thing.

Lily’s study habits might be a little out of your comfort zone but there’s a few lessons we can take away:

1. Immersing yourself in the content might have you on the edge of insanity, but it works.
2. When it comes to memorising, reading over the same quotes for the thousandth time is not just insufferably boring, but frankly ineffective. Mix it up and have fun while learning the quotes, if you’ve ever wanted to brush up on your accents now might just be the time.
3. Music can be great for memory, mood and focus but make sure it’s the right kind. At the end of the day, if you don’t enjoy instrumental music then it’s not worth suffering through it just because you think it’ll help.
4. Do as much practice in exam conditions as you possibly can. Before the HSC make sure to attempt practices closed book and in timed conditions (school uniform optional).

So next time you hear that guy in your class going on about some article he read with ‘the top 6 weird study habits’ don’t be afraid to jump on the bandwagon. Sometimes weird works!