“Actively self-reflecting on the approaches that you are taking fosters a strategic stance that is really important in life,”

<ul><li>Across two studies, students receiving the intervention performed significantly better than those in the control group on the same exam; on average, their grades increased by one-third of a letter grade.</li><li>Students also reported higher levels of empowerment and control after the intervention, as well as more positive feelings about future exams in the class.</li></ul>

The Results

“It’s not merely about using a greater number of resources for studying. The important point here is using resources more effectively,”

Although many schools attempt to shower students with more money and information to improve performance, the authors argue that too many resources can actually be a hindrance to intentional studying and strong performances.

Information is the Problem

They divided the students into two groups: the experimental and control.

Experimental and Control Groups

Stanford researchers asked students to reflect on specific strategies to improve their performance and investigated the direct causal effect of this self-reflection.

How They Did It

What they had to do:<ul><li>They had to explain what they thought would be on the exam and which resources they thought were most useful to help them study for the expected questions.</li><li>They were also asked how they planned to use these resources to prepare and why they thought their plan would be effective.</li></ul>

Experimental Group

They only received a standard exam reminder.

Control Group

In a recent study released in Psychological Science, Stanford researchers concluded that the key to better exam performance is not to work harder…

PATRICIA CHEN

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