Study Smarts: How to Learn More in Less Time

4. Roll with Your Alertness Cycles

Remembering Tips 51 REMEMBERING TIP 4 Roll with Your Alertness Cycles The amount of attention you give a subject is as important as the amount of time you spend. The more alert you are while studying, the more you'll learn. Since alertness diminishes from the time we begin a task to the time we end it, divide your study schedule so that you tackle hard or boring subjects while you're at your most alert. Save the easy and more entertaining study for later on, when your enthusiasm will keep you from falling asleep. We all go through two kinds of alertness cycles every day. The larger cycle determines whether we're "day" people or "night" people. Some of us take forever to get moving in the morning and get a good second wind after dinner that lasts long into the night. Most of the rest of us wake up early in the morning full of energy, but by nightfall we're not good for much brainwork. Knowing which type you are can help you decide when it's best for you to study. If you're a day person, you may get a lot more accomplished in a lot less time if you study before classes begin than if you try to concentrate in the evening. If you're a night person, evening study makes sense. In addition to this large wake-sleep cycle, we all have smaller swings from alertness to fatigue and back, all during the day. Some scientists say these swings occur every two or three hours. Sometimes they last for just a minute or two, sometimes for a half hour or more. In some of us these swings are more noticeable than in others. The important thing is to keep from trying to study right through these small fatigue periods. You'll probably remember very little afterward. But don't go to sleep either, unless you're the kind who wakes refreshed after a threeminute catnap. Instead, do something physical or inter- 52 STUDY SMARTS active. Jog around the block or strum your guitar or clean up your desk or talk to your roommate or sort your notes. If you regularly fade out from 4:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., you could schedule that time to study with a friend. There's another kind of alertness cycle that we ought to be aware of when we're trying to study. That's the cycle that makes us remember the beginning and end of any sustainedattention -span activity more than the part in the middle. When reviewing, mix up what you studied yesterday or last week so that the middle becomes the beginning or end. One way to enhance your memory of what's in the middle is to tell it to yourself out loud as you go along. Repeating anything just once in your own voice increases the amount you remember by between 25 percent and 100 percent. ...