Studying – the other dreaded STD (and u, and y, and…ing, whatever). Whenever this word comes to mind so do visions of self-induced scoliosis and face-palming.
Most people treat studying like the Black Plague, locking themselves in a room for days on end, quarantined from the entire Universe. This study tactic, however, may be harming your chances of scoring an A (of scoring at all, really) rather than helping.
But before you stand on top of your mini-fridge and contemplate suicide via beer bong tubing, let us help you out. I wish you would step back from that keg, my friend, for alas, there is hope!
Feast your eyes on these unorthodox study tricks:
1. Listen to dub step
Okay, so there’s a theory out there that listening to dub step improves studying because of the frequency – yada, yada, yada. We haven’t been able to find any evidence supporting that theory, but we did find that listening to the Classical greats such as Mozart and Beethoven can increase one’s IQ if only for a short time span. If that time span includes finals week – who cares, right?
2. Study on your toilet
Studying in different environments helps your ability to remember what you learned by giving your memory a visual trigger. “I remember reading about cell division when I was doing my own cell division…on the toilet…”
Eww! But it works!
3. Read your study material to your cat.
Reading information out loud boosts our ability to retain that information greatly. So if you feel awkward reading out loud to yourself, read out loud to your cat and still feel awkward, or borrow someone else’s cat and feel even more awkward, or steal someone else’s cat and read out loud to Bubba in a Jail’s holding cell. Whichever route, read aloud!
4. Get on Twitter
Repeating key concepts you’ve learned helps those concepts stick inside your cranium, but let’s face it – you kinda wanna know what that girl who knows that chick who slept with that guy who ran next to you on the treadmill in the Campus gym had for lunch today, so get on your Twitter already!
Using social media to repeat something you learned helps you retain information, makes your friends think you know stuff, and annoys dumb people because dumb people can’t stand words other than “omg, smh, lol,” and, “totes!”
5. Douse yourself in Sex Panther Cologne
“…it’s made with bits of real panther, so you know it’s good.”
Memories can be triggered by smell. Apple pie reminds us of sweet ol’ gam gam just like musky t-shirts remind us of the time our 7th grade gym teacher cornered us in the shower and…
Another strange study trick is to wear a certain fragrance while studying, and then wear that same fragrance come test day.
So why not try some of these out? Talk to your cat while Tweeting from the toilet, and then after you’re done, Febreeze the stench of failure away, then on test day Febreeze the smell of success all over class – because who doesn’t enjoy the scent of Hawaiian Aloha? It’s Hawaii in a can.
