Most students in college don’t really study – they cram.
They don’t study for 5 weeks, they cram 5 hours before the test.
I definitely had my fair share of cram sessions.
I remember back when I was in college I crammed all night for a test and didn’t want anyone to talk to me the next morning because I was afraid everything I learned would spill out.
And what happened when I sat for the exam? It was all gone.
There’s a big difference between cramming to forget and studying to remember.
So what’s the one simple thing you can do to rapidly increase your memory when studying for the CSCS exam?
TAKE BREAKS
Here’s why. One major principle of recall is first and last.
The technical name is primacy and recency.
Primacy means you remember something prime or right upfront and recency means you remember something at the end.
So let’s say I give you a list of 20 words. You’re more likely to remember the 1st word and the last word I give you.
If you go to an event and you meet 20 strangers, you’re more likely to remember the names of the first person you met and the last person you met.
The reason you should take breaks when studying for the CSCS Exam is because if you study 4 hours straight without taking a break your retention will be highest at the beginning point and end point, but low in the middle (think U-Shape).
You lose all that retention in the middle of the U-Shape.
The reason you take periodic breaks is so that you create more primacy and recency, which means you’ll pick up more information and retain it.
So if you plan to study for 4 hours you may want to set the timer for 50 minutes of studying followed by a 10 minute break, 50 minutes of studying followed by a 10 minute break and so on.
Also, during these breaks you consolidate information.
There you have it. Stop studying straight through and start incorporating more breaks.
You’ll remember a lot more!
