How Effective Are My Memory and Study Strategies?

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Teachers who themselves practice using good memory and study strategies are more likely to model and communicate these to their students than teachers who don't use such strategies. Candidly respond to these items about your own memory and study strategies. Rate yourself on this scale: 1 never, 2 some, 3 moderate, 4 almost always, or 5 always. Then total your points.

1. I'm a good time manager and planner.  
2. I'm good at focusing my attention and minimizing distractions.  
3. I try to understand material rather than rotely memorizing it.  
4. I ask myself questions about what I have read or about class activities.  
5. I take good notes in class and from textbooks.  
6. I regularly review my notes.  
7. I use mnemonic strategies.  
8. I'm very organized in the way I encode information.  
9. I spread out my studying to consolidate my learning.  
10. I use good retrieval cues.  
11. I use the PQ4R method or a similar study method.  

 

Scoring and Interpretation
If you scored 50-55 total points, you likely use good memory and study strategies. If you scored 45-49 points, you likely have some reasonably good memory and study strategies. If you scored below 45, spend some time working on improving your memory and study strategies.

If you would like to learn more about effective memory and study strategies, one resource is a book I have co-authored called Your Guide to College Success (Santrock & Halonen, 2002). Also, to gain more experience in developing good memory and study strategies, contact the study skills center at your college or university; specialists there likely will be able to help you.